Mount Lowe's Glamorous History Featured in Video Series

Those who use Mount Lowe as a place to hike in the Altadena and Pasadena area trek on a place where once thousands gathered to celebrate the opening of Mount Lowe Railway in 1893, a new AOL video in the historically-focused series “What Remains” shows.

The Mount Lowe Railway online video, which is almost four minutes long, juxtaposes an interview with Michael Patris, President and Founder of the Mount Lowe Preservation Society, with old and current images and new video from Mount Lowe to paint a picture of how the once gathering place for the wealthy eventually met its decline and is now just remnants of buildings.

Patris describes Railway creator Thaddeus Lowe as an “infinitely brilliant man, [but] horrible business man” in the video profile, noting that the railway was rarely ever profitable and Lowe eventually went bankrupt.

Fire and flooding destroyed other structures that the railway lead to on Echo Mountain and now the area is home to a hiking trail, crumbling buildings and a plaque recognizing Lowe’s railway.

“The [AOL] interview was interesting and the crew was great and enthusiastic,” Patris noted in an email. “They were even excited about the prospect of hiking six miles up and back to Echo Mountain (on their own) to shoot some ‘B roll’ footage. Steve Crise and I met at the Pasadena Museum of History and showed them our current display in the Stork Gallery which runs until January 13th.”

Crise and Patris wrote the book, which is the focus of a Pasadena Museum of History exhibit of the same name that is running through Jan. 13.

See the full AOL Mount Lowe video here.

Do you hike at Mount Lowe? What do you think of its history? Do you think the remaining Mount Lowe structures should be preserved or restored?