Panoramic Photograph of Ye Alpine Inn on Mount Lowe Circa 1910 for sale
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Item ID: 390706
Item Description
This is a stunner. Showing the Inn at its height in the teens of the last century the size and detail of the image actually allows you to enter that time and that place. You see the visitors and the scenic railway with one of its cars arriving at the terminus, there on Mount Lowe 5000 feet above sea level, just outside Los Angeles. It slowly becomes clear as you look that every figure in the picture and on the tiny train has been posed (to allow for along exposure). In many ways, then, a frozen moment in Time. We encourage you to read an account of the whole enterprise we have appended here: it is a quintessential cautionary tale of the unique and active topography of the LA basin and range. By 1938 every trace of Prof. Lowe’s vision had vanished. Simply framed in a plain rustic style frame. A little deterioration at the seams on either wing of the image, some signs of damp. The bottom section of the solid oak frame has warped slightly with age, happily adding another element to the game of parallax perception in panoramic photography.
The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in America created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated by Professor Thaddeus S. C. Loweas the Pasadena & Mt. Wilson Railroad Co. existed from 1893 until its official abandonment in 1938, and had the distinction of being the only scenic mountain, electric traction (overhead electric trolley) railroad ever built in the United States. Lowe’s partner and engineer was David J. Macpherson, a civil engineer graduate of Cornell University. The Mount Lowe Railway was a fulfillment of 19th century Pasadenans’ desire to have a scenicmountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The Railway opened on 4 July 1893, and consisted of nearly seven miles (11.2 km) of track starting in Altadena, California at a station called Mountain Junction. The railway climbed the steep Lake Avenue and crossed the Poppyfields into the Rubio Canyon. This part of the trip was called the Mountain Division. At this juncture stood the Rubio Pavilion, a small 12-room hotel. From there the passengers transferred to a cable car funicular which climbed the Great Incline to the top of the Echo Mountain promontory.
Atop Echo stood the magnificent 70-room Victorian hotel, the Echo Mountain House. Only a few hundred feet away stood the 40-room Echo Chalet which was ready for opening day. The complement of buildings on Echo included an astronomical observatory, car barns, dormitories and repair facilities, a casino and dance hall, and a menagerie of local fauna. Passengers could then transfer to another trolley line, the Alpine Division, which would take them to the upper terminus at Crystal Springs and Ye Alpine Tavern, a 22-room Swiss Chalet hospice with a complement of amenities from tennis courts, to wading pools, to mule rides.
For the seven years during which Lowe owned and operated the railway, it constantly ran into hard times. For one, its location was off the beaten path of the common traveler with little means of transportation up to the Altadena hillside. For another, fares did not cover the cost of continuous construction done on money borrowed at 10½% interest, and the opening day fare of $5.00 would not remain attractive to the greater public. Lowe went into receivership one or two times before losing the railway to Jared S. Torrance in 1899.The tiny railway was purchased at auction by a Mr. Valentine Payton of Danville, Illinois who, after only 14 months, sold it to Henry Huntington of the Pacific Electric Railway in 1902. Huntington operated it as a fringe venture the rest of its days alongside his expansive Red Car system that covered the greater Los Angeles and Orange County areas.
A series of natural disasters ate away at the facilities, the first of which was a kitchen fire that destroyed the Echo Mountain House in 1900. A 1905 fire destroyed the rest of the Echo buildings except for the observatory and the astronomer’s cabin. In 1909 a flash flood tore out the Rubio Pavilion. In 1928 a gale force wind toppled the observatory.And in 1936 an electrical fire wiped out the Tavern.
The Mount Lowe Railway was officially abandoned in 1938 after a horrendous rain washed most everything off the mountain sides. Today, the ruins of Mount Lowe Railway remain as a monument to a once-ever experienced enterprise. It was placed on the National Register of Historical Places on January 6, 1993.
Item Details
Eras: 1900s - 1910s
Styles: Architectural, Arts & Crafts (1860-1910), Historical
Measurements: 50.8 x 152.4 x CM (H x W x D) Change Unit
Quantity: 1
Condition: Excellent Condition
Design History
Designer: Unknown designer
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Dealer |
Eric Berg's Early California Antiques Gallery
Address: 4361 Melrose Ave , 90029 East Hollywood CA , United States
Phone: +1 323-953-8330
Website: www.earlycaliforniaantiques.com
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 11AM - 7PM, Sun - 10AM-6PM
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SOLD
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