This is an early 1920s shot of the Hill Street station for Pacific Electric, which was the railway company that ran the streetcars known as Red Cars. I’m not entirely sure, but I think this station was on the west side of Hill Street between 4th and 5th Streets in downtown Los Angeles. From this station you could take a Red Car out to the beaches or over to Hollywood, and out to Burbank and Glendale. And as we can see from the huge sign on the building next door, you could take a Red Car to Mt Lowe, a getaway resort in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Pasadena. Actually, you’d take the Red Car to the base of Mt Lowe, then a rather precarious railway up the mountain, and then a steep incline railway to get to the top.
** UPDATE ** – The station in this photo was torn down. About 1925, the Subway Terminal Building was built on this site and is still there. It is at 417 South Hill Street and has now been converted to condominiums.
Passengers then transferred to this steep incline railway:
And then on this cog railway to ascend to the top. It looks like this journey was not for the faint-of-heart!
Mt Lowe resort advertisements:
Hi Martin. The ascent was actually the other way around. The incline railway was first after getting off the Red Car from downtown. Then at the top of the incline where there was a hotel, you transferred to another car which was actually a cog railway to ascend to the Alpine Tavern which was a resort with another hotel and cabins. From there you could hike to Mt. Lowe. Unfortunately, this is all gone now, but you can hike the route today which I have done several times.
Ah! Thanks, Gordon. I’ll swap the photos around now. Since putting this post together, I’ve been wondering if there is now a hikeable trail up there these days.