Los Angeles to Rubio Pavilion
Here is the Mount Lowe Railway Tally-Ho Coach close up. Thaddeus Lowe Junior, the middle of T.S.C. Lowe’s three sons, ran this business to bring people to Altadena Junction where they could ride up to the base of the incline. This image happens to be taken at Lowe’s home at 995 South Orange Grove Avenue [...]
The Chalet
The original name of this 12-room hotel was Echo Mountain House and as its larger sister building was completed the name change took place and the sign across the front moved. The cylindrical concrete pilings in the foreground, which were used as a base for a canvas tarp and shade, are still there today, as [...]
Echo Mountain House
Echo Mountain House, at nearly 3,500’, boasted being the only mountain hotel open year around. Completed in November of 1894, the room rates started at $15.00 a week and up. Although they claimed the rates were no more than down in the valley, the $63,000. price tag for construction and furnishings had to be weighing [...]
Incline Power House
The first “powerhouse” at the top of the incline was constructed of wood with the grip wheel and winding machinery housed in the concrete basement. Actually this was a winding station for the cable machinery. The real first powerhouse was constructed of rock and sat behind the zoo. When the winding house burnt down in [...]
The Zoo, Casino and Caretaker’s Quarters
The next stop on the virtual tour is the zoo, casino and caretaker’s quarters on Mount Lowe. In the foreground can be seen the zoo, cages where squirrels, bobcats, hawks, owls, foxes, and even a bear could be found. Directly behind it, the rock structure was the power plant where the electric motor and generating [...]
Lowe Observatory
The Lowe Astronomical Observatory was founded in 1894 not only to bring tourists to Echo Mountain, but for Thaddeus Lowe to make yet another name for himself. Lowe was an amateur astronomer with a four-story observatory at his home on Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena. He believed the western hemisphere could bring new astronomical discoveries [...]
Alpine Division
Next on our tour we visit the Alpine Division, which took visitors up to the Alpine Tavern for food and accommodations. The Alpine Division, according to the Pacific Electric Railway’s Employee’s Timetable, was 3.57 miles in length, and her longest stretch of straight track just 225’. High Bridge between Echo Mountain and the Cape of [...]
Alpine Tavern
Finally, visitors arrive at the Alpine Tavern, the end of their rail journey up Mount Lowe. This all too familiar scene is of the great fireplace inside Alpine Tavern. The quote on the beam above the fireplace has been attributed to Thaddeus Lowe, but as it turns out Lowe borrowed it from Ralph Waldo Emerson. [...]
Inspiration Point and Easter Rock
Beyond Alpine Tavern, there were a number of activities to participate in, on top of Mount Lowe. This great shot looking east shows the Inspiration Point Ramada on the right, the beginning of the One Man and a Mule Railway (O.M. & M.) in the middle, which began in 1917, and the flagpole from a [...]
Summit of Mount Lowe
We complete our virtual tour of the Mount Lowe Railway with a visit to the summit of the great Mount Lowe, high above Pasadena. Very near Inspiration Point began one of a few trails to the summit of Mount Lowe. Mount Lowe had been known as Oak Mountain until the time Thaddeus Lowe began building [...]