Echo Mountain

The Mount Lowe Railway was the third in a series of scenic mountain railroads in the United States created as a tourist attraction on Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, north of Los Angeles, California. The railway, originally incorporated by Thaddeus S. C. Lowe as the Pasadena and Mt. Wilson Railroad Co., existed from 1893 until its official abandonment in 1938, and was 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 scenic mountain railroad to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains. The Railway opened on July 4, 1893, and consisted of nearly seven miles (11 km) of track starting in Altadena, California, at a station called Mountain Junction. Atop Echo Mountain was a 70-room Victorian hotel, the Echo Mountain House. A short distance away stood the 40-room Echo Chalet, which was ready for opening day. Other buildings on Echo Mountain included an astronomical observatory, car barns, dormitories, repair facilities, a casino and dance hall, and a menagerie of local fauna.For the seven years during which Lowe owned and operated the railway, it was not financially successful, and was eventually sold. A series of natural disasters destroyed the facilities, the first of which was a kitchen fire that destroyed the Echo Mountain House in 1900. Further fires and floods eventually destroyed any remaining facilities, and the railway was officially abandoned in 1938 after a flood washed railway property off the mountain sides. The ruins of Mount Lowe Railway remain. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 6, 1993, a listing that was enlarged in January 2015.

The Sam Merrill Trail is a major hiking trail in the Las Flores Canyon of the San Gabriel Mountain Range north of Altadena, California, which leads to the top of Echo Mountain. It was built by Charles Warner and the Forest Conservation Club of Pasadena during the 1930s. After the deluge of 1938 most of the trails that accessed the mountain sides around Echo Mountain and the Mount Lowe Railway had been all but washed away. Sam Merrill found it important to maintain public hiking access to the railway ruins and other portions of the treacherous foothill. During the 1940s he overhauled and maintained the trail. As a young man Merrill had lived with John Muir for a summer, which inspired a lifetime commitment to the outdoors and the Sierra Club. Merrill, who served as Clerk of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, was an active volunteer in the Sierra Club, leading outings for almost twenty years, serving on the Executive Committee of the Angeles Chapter from 1926 to 1935 and on the National Board of Directors of the Sierra Club from 1936 to 1937. When Sam Merrill died in 1948 the Sierra Club named the Echo Mountain Trail after him. The trail originated at the old railway's right of way just above a point called Hygeia Station and climbed by switchback up the steep face of the Echo promontory. In the late 1960s a housing development was established over the trail, and the trailhead was moved to an access alongside the Cobb Estate gateway at the top of Lake Avenue. The portion of the trail which was maintained by Merrill leads an approximate 21⁄2-mile trip directly to Echo Mountain and the ruins of the White City of the Mount Lowe Railway. It is also sometimes referred to as Lower Sam Merrill Trail because a section of the Mount Lowe 8, an old mule trail from the days of the Mount Lowe Tavern, was reopened, giving a continued hike into Grand Canyon and the site of the Tavern, and is referred to as Upper Sam Merrill Trail. In 1996 the national USA Today newspaper published a list of "10 Great North American Hikes", which included the Sam Merrill Trail as one of them. The list had originally appeared in the October 1996 issue of Men's Fitness magazine.

Gen. Charles S. Farnsworth County Park, also known as Farnsworth Park, is a Los Angeles County park and National Register of Historic Places district (site #97000027) in Altadena, California. The land was purchased by Los Angeles County in 1921 for use as a nursery. When the County built new nurseries in the 1930s, a movement to turn the land into a county park was spearheaded by General Charles S. Farnsworth and William O. Davies. Farnsworth designed the park and supervised its grading and landscaping. Davies began planning for a community center. Funds for the construction of the community center came from grants from the Public Works Administration. The park was completed in 1934. The park was originally named Altadena Park. The park project included a two-story arts and crafts American craftsman style building that was later christened the William D. Davies Memorial Building. The park was renamed in honor of Farnsworth in 1939.It was placed on the Register in 1997 for its significance as a recreation and architecture site.

The Woodbury–Story House is a National Register of Historic Places structure (site #93001463) in Altadena, California. It was placed on the Register in 1993 for its significance as an example of Italianate and Colonial Revival architecture styles and its association with Capt. Frederick Woodbury, one of the founders of Altadena.

Christmas Tree Lane (Italian: Via dell'Albero di Natale) is a 0.7-mile (1.1 km) boulevard of deodar cedar trees in Altadena, California. The trees on the Lane, Santa Rosa Avenue, have been lighted annually as a Christmas Holiday display since 1920. The association that runs it claims it is "the oldest large-scale outdoor Christmas display in the world". Christmas Tree Lane was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1990, the same year it was also designated as California Historical Landmark No. 990.

Mount Lowe is a mountain on the southern fold of the San Gabriel Mountains. Originally named Oak Mountain, it was renamed for Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, who is credited for being the first person to set foot on and plant the American flag at its peak, and who built the Mount Lowe Railway to its foot in 1896. The record of the naming was made official by Andrew McNally, the famous Chicago map printer and summertime resident of Altadena, who promised to print "Mount Lowe" on all his maps. Mt. Lowe was established as an alternate route for the Mount Lowe Railway when attempts to procure rights of way to the more prominent Mount Wilson had failed. A number of trails stem from it due to the Mount Lowe Tavern which was built at Crystal Springs below the summit and operated from 1895 to 1936. One of the historic trails was the "Mount Lowe Eight" which was a mule ride attraction of the hotel that made a figure eight shaped route starting at the Tavern, ascending the summit of Mt. Lowe, returning to the Tavern, and crisscrossing to a trail that headed down Castle Canyon. From there the trail passed down to the Echo Mountain resort and ascended on the return to the Tavern. Mount Lowe was the upper terminus of the Alpine Division of the Mount Lowe Railway originally incorporated by Professor Lowe as the Pasadena and Mt. Wilson Railroad Co.Mt. Lowe is approachable from Echo Mountain or Chaney trail via a fire road which was graded over the old railway right-of-way.

Altadena (pronunciation) ("Alta", Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 miles (23 km) from the downtown Los Angeles Civic Center, and directly north of the city of Pasadena, California. The population was 42,777 at the 2010 census, up from 42,610 at the 2000 census.

The Andrew McNally House in Altadena, California was the home of Andrew McNally (1838–1904), co-founder and president of the Rand McNally publishing company. The Queen Anne Style house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. McNally was an Irish immigrant who worked as a printer. When he came to the United States, he first worked for the Chicago Tribune when he met William Rand. Together they formed the company that bears their names. In 1880, McNally took his fortune and family and moved west They lived for a time in Pasadena, California before building their mansion in Altadena in 1887. The mansion is located on East Mariposa Street at Santa Rosa Avenue. McNally was a booster of the life in Altadena, and he convinced his friends to move here as well. They also built mansions along Mariposa, which soon began to be known locally as "Millionaire's Row". McNally paid Pasadena architect Frederick Roehrig $15,000 to design the Victorian house. Facing south, away from the street, the house offered vistas of the Los Angeles Basin, the Pacific Ocean, and Santa Catalina Island. The house has a three-story rotunda that allows a view to the San Gabriel Mountains to the north. McNally also built a private rail spur from Altadena Junction to his property to store his private railroad car. The grounds were lavishly landscaped, with an aviary along Mariposa St. His gardener also looked after the deodar cedars that grew along Santa Rosa Avenue. These trees became Christmas Tree Lane, which is also listed in the National Register. In 1904, McNally caught pneumonia while en route to his Windemere Ranch in La Mirada, California. (The ranch headquarters is also listed in the National Register.) He died shortly afterward. The gardens and aviary were neglected, some of the birds escaped. The property was then subdivided.

The Altadena Library District is an independent special district that serves the residents of Altadena, California, an unincorporated community north of Pasadena in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County. The district was formed in December 1926 under the provision of Sections 19600-19734 of the California Education Code. The district is supported by property taxes and governed by a locally elected Board of Library Trustees. according to a May, 2005 California State Department of Finance estimate, the District provides library services to a population of approximately 54,876 people. The system includes the main branch located at 600 E. Mariposa St., and the Bob Lucas Memorial Branch Library and Literacy Center located at 2659 Lincoln Avenue. In addition to the board and the staff, the Altadena Library has an active Friends of the Library which conducts an annual book sale and has a permanent store inside the library. The library has many special programs including summer reading programs, adult book clubs, Wi-Fi, a career center, the literacy center and a community room.

Keyes Bungalow is a National Register of Historic Places structure in Altadena, California. It is also notable as being the home of Jackson Gregory an author of Westerns in the 1920s and 1930s. It remains a private home.The Keyes Bungalow's architecture is also known as "airplane" style for its wide, shallow roofline that resembles airplane wings. It was placed on the Register in 1978 for its significance as an example of a Craftsman style home.

Pacific Electric Railway Company Substation No. 8, also known as the Altadena Substation, is a former traction substation in Altadena, California. It operated under the Pacific Electric Railway and served as the substation for Pasadena area lines.

The Zane Grey Estate is a historic house in Altadena, California. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.The main house was built by Chicago business machine manufacturer Arthur Herbert Woodward. Designed by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, the 1907 Mediterranean Revival style house is acclaimed as the first fireproof home in Altadena, built entirely of reinforced concrete as prescribed by Woodward's wife, Edith Norton Woodward. Edith Woodward was a survivor of the Iroquois Theater Fire of 1903.In 1920, spurred by the memory of a visit to Altadena during their honeymoon, Zane Grey and his wife bought the home. After the Greys bought it they built an addition on the roof for a studio and library. After the Greys' death, their sons owned the property. The actual grounds were divided up and neighboring house were built on them. The house was sold by their son, Romer, in 1970.