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Changing Face of Southern California

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Power Station, Pacific Electric Railway, Echo Mountain, California.

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Identifier	post_00173
Title	Power Station, Pacific Electric Railway, Echo Mountain, California.
Creator	unknown
Date Published	1906-1930
Subject (Topic)	Electric railroads--California--Los Angeles County; Mountains--California--Los Angeles County; Observatories--California--Los Angeles County; Searchlights--California--Los Angeles County;
Subject (Name)	Pacific Electric Railway Company; Mount Lowe Railway; Lowe Observatory (Los Angeles County, Calif.);
Subject (Place)	Echo Mountian (Los Angeles County, Calif.);
Type	image
Form/Genre	Postcards
Physical Description	1 postcard : Color ; 9 x 14 cm.
Institution	Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University Library.
Country of Creation	US
Copyright Status	public domain
Copyright Statement	http://library.lmu.edu/dlp/copyright.htm
Publisher	Edward H. Mitchell
Place of Publication	San Francisco
Language	eng
Description	A view of the power station on Echo Mountain, Los Angeles County. A man is standing on the front porch of the powerhouse. The cables are seen in the lower right portion of the image. On the top of the building a man is seen reaching up to the large searchlight. The Mt. Lowe astronomical observatory is seen in the distance behind the power station.
Historical Background	The development of Mt. Lowe in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles, California, was mostly undertaken by Thaddeus Lowe who retired to Los Angeles in the late 1880s. In 1893, he organized the construction of the Mount Lowe Railway, along with engineer David J. Macpherson. Unfortunately, the railway did not prove financially successful, and the tracks were constantly in need of expensive repairs. A series of disasters between 1900 and 1928, including fires, floods, and gale-force winds gradually destroyed the buildings on the summit, and visitors dwindled. Henry Huntington acquired the railway in 1902, and kept it in operation until 1938, when torrential rains washed away large portions of the track. The Power Station building was a fireproof structure that replaced a building that was burned in a fire in 1905. The building housed the controls for the winding cables that powered the Mt. Lowe incline railway. Mounted on top of the building was the a three million candlepower searchlight that Lowe had purchased in 1893 from the Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. The searchlight's reflecting mirror was 60 inches in diameter, and was manufactured by Mangin, in Paris, France. The beam from the light had a 35-mile projection, and was advertised as being able to illuminate the island of Catalina from its mountain perch. Residents announcing their birthdays could have the light shone on their homes in the evening. By the 1930s, however, the light was considered a public nuisance and was shut off permanently.
Publisher's Identifier	Series number: 1796
Metacollection Identifier	http://digitalcollections.lmu.edu
Source	Werner Von Boltenstern Postcard Collection