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This hotel intrigued me for a couple of reasons.
I ran across it when researching the California Arrow, a sorry excuse for a blimp that was trotted out to compete in the air races that were popular at events like the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Expo. But that's another topic.
Anyway, also in 1904, it landed at the Raymond Hotel in Pasadena. Pretty lucky their landscaping include a blimp landing area, eh?
While I have no problem believing this particular structure was constructed in the 1886 time frame, I suspect the site previously held remnants of another civilization.
For starters, they explain how the construction of the Raymond required them to extensively dynamite Bacon Hill when it was built.
More than 250 workers -- many of them Chinese -- spent three years constructing Raymond's hotel. In order to create suitable terrain for the hotel's 55-acre grounds, workers removed 34 feet from the top of Bacon Hill, blasting it with more than 1,000 kegs of black powder. Once the hill was sufficiently flattened, work began on the hotel structure itself. Four stories tall and designed in the Second Empire architectural style, the building featured 200 guest rooms, 43 bathrooms, 40 water closets, and a 104-foot-tall tower. The project became so expensive that Raymond ran out of funds and was forced to take on his father, a retired railroad baron, as a business partner.
This photo shows the land before construction. Of course it has a "vanilla sky" but I can still see some structures in the distance. Also that flat oval sandy area in the foreground looks like it was once cultivated but has been abandoned. Certainly can't see why they needed to blow 34 feet off the hill to get a flat space to build the resort.
But then I came across this interesting blurb about the underground subway/elevator system for moving the guests from the train to the hotel:
If you drive around Raymond Hill today you might not notice this broken bit of river rock wall lining several of the streets. The quiet stretch of stone is all that remains of the world famous Raymond Hotel. At the turn of the last century wealthy patrons were shuttled to their grand hilltop accommodations via an elaborate underground subway tunnel and elevator -- the only hotel entrance of its kind in America.
Turns out the subway tunnel entrance is still there. They "rediscovered" it in 1964 according to this article.
During the construction of an apartment complex in 1964, the entrance was rediscovered and reopened. Several residents who lived on Raymond Hill at the time walked inside the tunnel with flashlights and placed hand-written notes and flowers at the end (where the elevator once carried guests up to the main lobby). The tunnel opening was then resealed and buried inside an embankment on the apartment grounds.
Today, the tunnel remains buried with no evidence above ground it ever existed. Only a few people alive today have first-hand memories of walking inside South Pasadena’s historic portal to our past. The same walkway used by Andrew Carnegie, Charlie Chaplin, J. D. Rockefeller and his wife, Laura.
Certainly seems suspicious to me!
I ran across it when researching the California Arrow, a sorry excuse for a blimp that was trotted out to compete in the air races that were popular at events like the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Expo. But that's another topic.
Anyway, also in 1904, it landed at the Raymond Hotel in Pasadena. Pretty lucky their landscaping include a blimp landing area, eh?
While I have no problem believing this particular structure was constructed in the 1886 time frame, I suspect the site previously held remnants of another civilization.
More than 250 workers -- many of them Chinese -- spent three years constructing Raymond's hotel. In order to create suitable terrain for the hotel's 55-acre grounds, workers removed 34 feet from the top of Bacon Hill, blasting it with more than 1,000 kegs of black powder. Once the hill was sufficiently flattened, work began on the hotel structure itself. Four stories tall and designed in the Second Empire architectural style, the building featured 200 guest rooms, 43 bathrooms, 40 water closets, and a 104-foot-tall tower. The project became so expensive that Raymond ran out of funds and was forced to take on his father, a retired railroad baron, as a business partner.
This photo shows the land before construction. Of course it has a "vanilla sky" but I can still see some structures in the distance. Also that flat oval sandy area in the foreground looks like it was once cultivated but has been abandoned. Certainly can't see why they needed to blow 34 feet off the hill to get a flat space to build the resort.
But then I came across this interesting blurb about the underground subway/elevator system for moving the guests from the train to the hotel:
If you drive around Raymond Hill today you might not notice this broken bit of river rock wall lining several of the streets. The quiet stretch of stone is all that remains of the world famous Raymond Hotel. At the turn of the last century wealthy patrons were shuttled to their grand hilltop accommodations via an elaborate underground subway tunnel and elevator -- the only hotel entrance of its kind in America.
Turns out the subway tunnel entrance is still there. They "rediscovered" it in 1964 according to this article.
Today, the tunnel remains buried with no evidence above ground it ever existed. Only a few people alive today have first-hand memories of walking inside South Pasadena’s historic portal to our past. The same walkway used by Andrew Carnegie, Charlie Chaplin, J. D. Rockefeller and his wife, Laura.
Certainly seems suspicious to me!
