Image promoting youth and beauty at Inspiration Point, 1928, Pacific Electric Railroad brochure, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

The canyons and peaks of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains have attracted visitors for centuries. Native tribes gathered regularly at higher elevation forested camps and frequently traversed the mountain peaks from desert to sea.

In more modern times, over 3 million thrill seekers rode along the Mt. Lowe Railway (1893- 1938) to visit a wildly popular but remote tourist attraction in the same mountains. Visitors travelled through rural Altadena into a majestic, often snow-covered canyon to enjoy many alpine and…perhaps other delights.

A downtown Los Angeles trolley took passengers to Altadena Junction where the Tally-Ho Coach (later a single track trolley line known as the Mountain Division) would travel into Altadena’s Rubio Canyon amid fragrant citrus and olive groves, arriving at Rubio Pavilion and Incline Station (a dance and dining hall) at an elevation of approximately 2,000 feet. Guests could ascend an exciting funicular car for a daring half mile ride up to Echo Mountain via The Great Incline, an engineering splendor that carried the adventurous up a very steep grade and rewarded the brave with breathtaking panoramic views. Lodging and dining were offered at both Echo Mountain House and Echo Mountain Chalet.

The Great Incline, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Approaching Mt. Echo, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Incline Car arriving at Echo Mountain, 1920’s, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

View of The Echo Mountain House from the Echo Mtn. Observatory, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

There was plenty to do and see at Echo Mountain besides hiking (casino, zoo, tennis courts, observatory, dining and dance halls) and Mt. Lowe Railway travelers could continue almost four miles on an electric, narrow gauge rail (Alpine Line) to Ye Alpine Tavern. Ye Alpine Tavern resort (later known as Mount Lowe Tavern) included a collection of cottages and tent cabins and was nestled in a woodsy area high in the San Gabriel Mountains at Crystal Springs (elevation of approximately 5,000 feet). The resort was located at the foot of Mt. Lowe and offered many outdoor activities and hiking opportunities. And some visitors simply enjoyed the delightful mountain air, scenery and panoramic views.

Alpine Line Trolley Car and Ye Alpine Tavern

View of Ye Alpine Tavern, 1911, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Guests at Ye Alpine Tavern, 1915, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Guests at Ye Alpine Tavern, 1911, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

A smaller narrow-gauge rail line called the One Man and a Mule Railroad offered a 1.5 mile vista view ride from Inspiration Point which was a short half mile walk from Ye Alpine Tavern.

Image promoting youth and beauty at Inspiration Point, 1928, Pacific Electric Railroad brochure, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Imagine boarding a trolley in Downtown Los Angeles at 9:00 am and reaching the top of Echo Mountain in time for lunch or frolicking in the snow at Alpine Tavern that same afternoon – Mt. Lowe Railway was a seductive attraction indeed. The natural beauty, clean air and danger of the steep funicular and winding railway excited and aroused the senses – and more for some.

Young Winter Visitors frolic in the snow, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Advertisement for Mt. Lowe in the Tournament of Roses Program, 1928, Courtesy of Deirdre Del Re Collection

Couple on Echo Mountain year, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

While Mt. Lowe was primarily a family-oriented attraction, it also appealed to Los Angeles executives looking to arrange special excursions with their ‘secretaries’ for secretive trysts. Imagine the excitement of such a rendezvous – within 2 hours, one could leave the smog and city life behind (not to mention spouses) and enjoy a private getaway amid the aroma of orange trees, pine and sage.

Mt. Lowe Billboard, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Pacific Electric Ticket, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Brochure for Mt. Lowe, 1920’s, courtesy of Altadena Historical Society

Professor Thaddeus S. C. Lowe was the man who dreamed up and created the Mt. Lowe Railway and extended mountain resorts. Lowe was an exciting man who invented hydrogen gas-filled balloons and established the Union Army Balloon Corps at the request of President Lincoln during the Civil War. Aeronaut and father of 10 children and grandfather to aviatress Pancho Barnes (owner of the famous Happy Bottom Riding Club), one might imagine that such a zesty figure as Lowe might not have been surprised by the lengths industrious tryst-seekers went while enjoying his creation. Visitors sought to “gain health, vigor and buoyant exuberance,” according to the Mount Lowe Echo, but a few sought something more…

T. S. C. Lowe

Pancho Barnes

But how can we confirm the existence of such dalliances?

As former Archivist at the Altadena Historical Society, I heard anecdotal references to the possibility of brothels at the resort and other canyon areas, as well as suggestions that it was an attractive destination for illicit tryst seekers. I researched the archives at the Altadena Historical Society via their website and located anecdotal evidence from Mt. Lowe Railway and Pacific Electric employees.

I reached out to local Trail Historian Paul Ayers who reminded me that nefarious and illegal activity historically occurred outside the arm of the law, or at least on county lines in the early years of the 20th Century. Nearby Arroyo Seco Canyon had its share of questionable activities. From 1913-1938, a road travelled north of Devil’s Gate Dam (and today’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory - JPL) up and into the upper Arroyo Seco towards Switzer’s Camp (before Angeles Crest Highway was completed) that provided auto and carriage access to many trail and tourist camps and resorts.

There were dozens of such resort and cabin outposts scattered in the foothills above Altadena and Pasadena from the Arroyo Seco Canyon on the west to Santa Anita Canyon on the east during the Great Hiking Era (1900-1935). Most were focused on family, sport and faith interests…most, but not all.

As the Los Angeles Times reported in January, 1924, arrests occurred due to “…house parties conducted in Arroyo Seco cabins every week-end.”…“wild parties in which liquor and women figured prominently were common in the [Arroyo Seco area] mountain resort.”
(Los Angeles Times; Jan. 29, 1924, p.12)

More hijinks were reported in March of that same year:

“A ‘spicy’ mountain party in the Arroyo Seco at which scantily-clad dancing girls and twenty-five gallons of high-grade whisky was nipped in the bud”

police declared, further describing the

“…wild mountain orgies in Arroyo Seco cabins with…prominent members of the motion-picture colony."

 The article continues,

“the asserted wild parties have been of common occurrence in the Arroyo, the police declare, but because the cabins are just outside the city limits they were powerless to act.”

(Los Angeles Times; March 9, 1924, p.12)

Yes, the Great Hiking Era exposed Los Angeles citizenry to the splendors of nature and…um…other things.

Altadena also offered a hidden speakeasy called the Marcell Inn which attracted celebrities, dark-corner seekers and anyone in search of a cool stiff drink during the prohibition years (1920-1933). Anecdotes include references to brothel activities at this isolated location since rooms were available for rent at the Inn.

Altadena, was (and still is) an unincorporated town which may have allowed its youth uninvited exposure to to salacious temptations:

“Being unincorporated…saloons, speakeasies and gambling resorts are on a rapid increase and are a menace to the moral and social development to the unusually fine type of youth in our community who deserve a high cultural level in their sports and their leisure time activities.”  

- Chairman of Altadena Recreation Building Committee of Altadena Community Council, Nov. 27, 1933

But can we find more evidence of similar salacious activity at any part of the Mt. Lowe Railway resort? I reached out to Dr. Stacey Camp, an associate anthropology professor at Michigan State University. Dr. Camp conducted an anthropological dig at Echo Mountain in the mid 2000’s in order to learn more about the workers connected to the Mt. Lowe Railway. Dr. Camp acknowledged that text or testimony supporting the tryst or brothel theories would be difficult to find but during her research she identified Pacific Electric Railway work orders at the Huntington Library that indicated a concern about controlling worker-tourist interactions. Interaction was controlled by organizing single male railway workers in quarters far from the Alpine Tavern. Concerns regarding single vs. married trainmen was also mentioned – ‘lonesome,’ ‘dissatisfied’ and ‘restless’ described the single male workers at Alpine Tavern. There were a number of workers’ cottages at both Echo Mountain and Alpine Tavern, but Echo employed more married railway men who kept their families onsite. Workers also included ‘gangs’ of more itinerant laborers who likely did not interact with visitors at all. Eventually, dormitories were built at Alpine Tavern.

But getting back to the attractiveness of Mt. Lowe…

Still from What The Doctor Ordered, 1912, photo courtesy of IMDB

Mabel Normand

Hollywood also travelled the Mt. Lowe Railway and visited the Altadena area. Doe-eyed silent-screen star and frequent Fatty Arbuckle collaborator, Mabel Normand appeared in the romantic silent movie, What The Doctor Ordered filmed atop Echo Mountain in 1912. Mabel Normand was reported to have battled a cocaine addiction at one of Altadena’s many sanatoriums for health.

Charles Seims’ monograph The World’s Wonder, Marvelous Mt. Lowe, courtesy of Charles Seims

Mt. Lowe Railway historian Charles Seims notes in his World’s Wonder, Marvelous Mount Lowe, Last Days of Mount Lowe that Alpine Tavern acquired a risque reputation among the Hollywood crowd.

Mr. Seims cites actress Gloria Swanson as alluding to the “Mount Lowe Bunch” in interviews. This informal group of silent film personalities included William Desmond Taylor, who was murdered in his Alvarado Street apartment in 1922. Mabel Normand was one of 12 suspects accused in Taylor’s murder, which is still a cold case. Nonetheless, Taylor and the celebrity/starlet bunch regularly retreated from Hollywood’s raucous nightlife to Alpine Tavern or one of its many cottages to play cards – or just play raucously.

In case you were wondering, Alpine Tavern was not necessarily ‘dry’ during prohibition years. Mt. Lowe Railway Enthusiast, Historian and Preservationist Brian Marcroft told me that Ernie Hargrave, a welder for the Southern Pacific worked regularly at Mt. Lowe to care for the on-site still.

So, how did couples conduct illicit trysts during what we now view as a more sexually repressive time? Discretion was paramount: The Mount Lowe Echo and later the Mount Lowe Daily News published visitors’ names daily -- guests were handed slips of paper at Granite Gate en route to Alpine Tavern and asked to jot down their names and addresses for publication. Souvenir photos were available for every guest and arrival car at Echo Mountain. Thus, those seeking discretion did not announce their arrival at Granite Gate and turned away from the camera at Echo Mountain.

Discrete visitors not only avoided announcement of their arrival but also the possibility of being seen coming to and from the Mount Lowe line. Mark D. Sweringer, a motorman on the Mount Lowe Railway, recalled the following in an article he wrote for National Model Railroad Association Bulletin:

“Sometimes on Saturday evening trips to Rubio Pavilion…the motorman would be signaled by a cabbie. The train would then stop at the next grade crossing to pick up passengers who did not want to be seen boarding the Mount Lowe train in Los Angeles.”

According to Mr. Seims, a 1924 expansion added 32 new bedrooms at Alpine Tavern. And at that time, when adultery and sex in general was repressed, the Tavern offered a discreet and out-of-the-way setting to conduct a tryst. Long-time Pacific Electric Official Photographer Charles S. Lawrence stated in his later years that Alpine Tavern earned quite a reputation during those days:

“They should’ve turned the Tavern into a whorehouse, there was so much (censored) going on up there…”
- Charles S. Lawrence, Official Photographer, Mt. Lowe and Pacific Electric Railroad

Sadly, nature assaulted the Mount Lowe Railway with wind, flood, mudslides and fire throughout its lengthy operation and impacted facility offerings. Echo Mountain at one point offered 70+ rooms but devolved to nothing more than a transfer point with few amenities in its later years. The historic floods of 1938 washed out most railroad trestles and the rails themselves. Any remaining rail was ripped out and repurposed for the war effort in the 1940’s and the Forest Service delivered the final blows (literally) to all remaining structures in 1959-1962 via dynamite – in the interest of protecting us all.

Today, the trails of the railway and sites of the pavilion, hotel and lodge are enjoyed by many hikers and explorers. The area still attracts with its beauty and one may imagine the excitement and possibility of a tryst among the singing pines still…

Learn more about the fascinating history of the Mt. Lowe Railway and San Gabriel Mountains:

• Altadena Historical Society, 730 E Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001 (626) 797-8016
• Seims, Charles, Mount Lowe The Railway in the Clouds,  San Marino, Golden West Books, A division of Pacific Railroad Publications, Inc., 1976
• Seims, Charles, The World’s Wonder: Marvelous Mount Lowe – Last Days of Mount Lowe, Monogram #3, Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society
• Robinson, John W., The San Gabriels … Southern California Mountain Country, San Marino, Golden West Books, 1977
• Rippens, Paul H., Historic Mount Lowe: A Hiker’s Guide to the Mount Lowe Railway, Alhambra: Copy-Rite Press, 1998.
• Manning, Mike, Man, Mountain and Monument, Altadena: The PrintWorks, 2015.
• Peterson, Robert H., Altadena’s Golden Years: A Pictorial History of the Early Community, Altadena: Webster’s Neighborly Pharmacy, 1976.
• Camp, Stacey, “The Archaeology of Citizenship”, Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2013

Deirdre Del Re is a passionate amateur historian, and is the archivist owner of ArchivingOptions.com, where she helps people identify and contextualize the stuff that matters, and converts them into storytelling displays that reveal their own story.