CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Disasters
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| The final years of the Mount Lowe Railway, though they were many, are most easily measured by the disasters that sought to tear it down, albeit not as quickly as it was built. The Echo Mountain house had already been lost to fire in 1900, but the fire in December of 1905 nearly finished Echo off (photo above) leaving only the observatory and the astronomer's cabin (the dark red roof in the center of the picture) standing. It was started when a gale force wind collapsed the newly built dance hall, or Casino as they called it, which was sitting in the bare spot right behind the gray power pole at the bottom center of the picture. The roof was blown directly across the tracks onto the generator house which caught fire. Altadenans below reported seeing the plume of fire which was quickly spread through the entire lower section of Echo. Losses mounted to $100,000: the chalet, the incline powerhouse, the workshops, car barn, casino, menagerie, two narrow-gauge cars, as well as damage to the incline cable and loss of the uppermost incline trestle. |
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Pacific Electric immediately made plans to rebuild Mt Echo. They even photographed all the elevations to establish new roof lines for the buildings. After all that they only replaced the Incline Powerhouse with the new, reinforced concrete one seen at the left. The searchlight survived the fire and was moved to the Echo Mountain House stairway (still in existence today) before installing it atop the new powerhouse. All electrical generation was moved to the Altadena Mountain Junction in a new facility that stands today as a historical memento to the Pacific Electric and Mount Lowe Railways. Travel to the Alpine Tavern was restored by January, 1906, but our chain of hotels, once four, is now reduced to two, the Tavern and the Rubio Pavilion... ...until 1909 when a late winter electrical storm created a landslide that rolled a huge boulder down into Rubio Canyon crushing the Pavilion. Unfortunately, the Fred Drew Family, the Pavilion caretakers, had come up from their Pasadena winter home a little too early and were trapped under the rubble of the Pavilion. Daughters Helen and Dorothy had escaped injury and were able to get the incline car up to Echo where they called for help. Rescuers from Echo and Pasadena found Mr. Drew pinned under some timbers and nearly drowning under the rising water. Three year old George Drew was found suffering from a concussion and a broken hip. Mrs. Drew was found twelve hours later dangling by her skirt from a pipe unconscious and unnoticed. Thayer Drew, their five-year-old boy, was not found until next morning. He had attempted to rescue his dog and cat, and that's where they found his body, buried in the wreckage with the two animals in his arms. Mrs. Drew was hospitalized in a coma for three months and wasn't released for a year. Fred Drew was hospitalized for two years. |
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What replaced the Pavilion was a simple shelter (right) with a car storage facility, ticket office, souvenir stand and a rest room. |
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Dr. Larkin the astronomer had made good friends with photographer Charles Lawrence who in times of emergency, like the 1905 fire, had helped Larkin pack the fine lenses and instruments of the observatory. Lawrence became a good student of astronomy under Larkin, and upon Larkin's sudden death in 1925 Lawrence took over hosting the observatory for visitors. In 1928, another wind of gale force literally blew off the roof and dome of the observatory. The tube of the telescope was bent in half like a plastic straw, but the lenses had already been packed away by Lawrence who had to run for his life from the ensuing wreckage. This leaves virtually nothing worthwhile on Mt. Echo save the powerhouse which operated the incline cars as a mere shuttle from down the hill to up and on the way to the Mount Lowe Tavern, as it is called by now. |