by Paul R. Spitzzeri
With a major expansion completed as well as some of the 500 acres that comprised the property sold, William Cogswell, owner of Sierra Madre Villa entered into a new phase of the operation of the hotel, which initially appealed to modest number of tourists but, as the 1880s progressed, also reached larger amounts of health-seekers, for whom greater Los Angeles and, especially, the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley (“the Valley” of the 19th century in our region) were attractive.
As 1884 dawned, an interesting meeting was held at the hotel, organized by such local luminaries as James F. Crank, Charles C. Hastings, Abbot Kinney, Alfred B. Chapman—all of whom were neighbors of Cogswell—and the Rev. John W. Ellis, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles and founder of Ellis Villa College.
The gathering was “to take into consideration the propriety of establishing an institution of learning of a high order, to be located somewhere in Los Angeles county.” This was four years after the Methodists established the University of Southern California and, in 1887, a Presbyterian institution, Occidental, opened just outside Los Angeles city limits in the Boyle Heights area.
With respect to those prominent folks sojourning for their health, Sidney Dillon, soon to complete a decade as president of the Union Pacific Railroad, which he helped form to construct the eastern portion of the transcontinental line (though not without significant corruption through the Crédit Mobilier scandal, which involved the project costing some $50 million but billings amounting to some $94 million—leaving Dillon and his cohorts immense deceptive profits), visited the hotel in early February. This is because the firm’s general manager, Silas H.H. Harrison, “spends a part of each winter at Sierra Madre Villa for the benefit of his health.”
Shortly afterward, however, a powerful storm system hit the region with a remarkable 38 inches of rain falling in Los Angeles throughout the entirety of the season, the likes of which had not been experienced in greater Los Angeles since “Noah’s Flood” of 1861-1862, when an estimated 50 inches cascaded on greater Los Angeles.
In fact, since official records began in 1877, the 1883-1884 season remains the wettest in local history, with 2004-2005 coming in second at above 37 inches. Of course, these totals are in the Angel City, but the foothills of the San Gabriel range would have been drenched with larger amounts amid widespread regional flooding.
The Los Angeles Herald of 20 February observed that, three days earlier, “the streams from the Precipice and other cañons in the Sierra Madre . . . came down swift and strong” and, if the name of Precipice Canyon is unfamiliar to us now, we know it as Eaton Canyon, just west of the Villa and from where the facility drew its copious water supply.
The paper noted that Chapman’s ranch, operated with his brother John, was hammered hard as was the Sunny Slope Ranch of neighbor Leonard J. Rose, while it was added that “the flume of the Sierra Madre Villa,” conducting that water from Eaton Canyon, “was destroyed by the storm so that the water supply was limited to the excellent reservoir which belongs to that establishment.”
Once, however, the area dried out and reconstruction of the flume took place, tourists soon made their way from the east. The 23 May issue of the Los Angeles Herald observed that the latest excursion organized by Walter Raymond of Boston made the rounds in the region, including some going to the Villa. Several days later, noted the paper, “the Cook excursionists,” brought by a British firm from England and Europe and numbering some fifty persons, traveled out to the hotel as part of the busy local itinerary.
From the heavy rains of winter to the dry Santa Ana winds of fall was a shorter transformation than might be generally supposed, but the Los Angeles Times of 8 November reported that, the prior evening, “a fire was observed, apparently on the summit of the Sierra Madre [San Gabriel range], above the Sierra Madre Villa” with flames so tall the scene reminded the writer of a volcano, though no damage was done below.
Another concern was a brief note by the Times that “the red scale,” an insect infestation, ” is reported to be ravaging the orange orchard” in the Villa’s groves, though it was added that “no precautions seem to be taken against its spread.” Infestations of various types were always a threat and local vineyards would soon be ravaged, but it had been previously asserted that the Villa was not only immune from frost because of its elevation, but that diseases were not known there.
Further signs of influence that Cogswell and the Villa had on others with these foothill regions appeared on consecutive days in November, when the Times of the 15th ran an advertisement from Charles H. Learned and his Belvedere Cottages in what is now Sierra Madre, a mile or so east of the Villa and which promoted much of the same benefit as its neighbor and competitor in terms of “fresh air and pure spring water” and a “locality peculiarly adapted for lung and asthmatic complaints.”
The next day’s Herald reported that William N. Monroe, who previously operated the Pacific Hotel next to the Southern Pacific Railroad depot north of downtown and then built railroads in México and Texas, bought 1,000 acres of foothill land on Rancho Santa Anita from “Lucky” Baldwin. Having built a house for his brother, Monroe was constructing a villa for his residence on a bluff or spur of the mountains and was clearing land for agriculture—thus joining the likes of Cogswell, the Woodbury brothers, William Allen, Kinney and Hastins, Nathaniel C. Carter and others in erecting fine residences in the foothills. Shortly, the town of Monrovia would be built by its namesake.
On New Year’s Day 1885, the Times provided a brief description of the Villa, remarking that “this favorite winter resort . . . is furnished with all modern conveniences, and the grounds were laid out with skill and taste by a landscape gardener of great experience.” In addition to the citrus groves, it was also mentioned that, a half-mile away, and as described in a prior post about the early days of the site, there was “a charming grotto with a waterfall.” Finally, it was remarked that “Sierra Madre Villa enjoys the patronage of the best class of tourists.”
While we’ve noted excursions of tourists from the eastern states and Europe, there was a local company, owned since the prior September by realtor Frank H. Barclay, utilizing Herdic coaches for “cheap excursions to Pasadena, Sierra Madre Villa and San Gabriel.” The dollar trips, however, were to be such that “everything will be conducted in first-class style,” leading the Times of 6 January to advise readers that “such an enterprise certainly deserves the support of all who love a jaunt into the romantic San Gabriel Valley.”
A couple of weeks later, another distinguished guest visited, this being Charles Crocker, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad and one of the “Big Four,” along with Mark Hopkins, Collis P. Huntington and prior visitor Leland Stanford, who also, with their Central Pacific Railroad, built the western section of the transcontinental line. A special train conveyed the rail titan and guests to the area and it was especially noted that “Crocker’s health is not as good as he would like it,” so he planned a vacation extending some two months, including in México and New Orleans.
In April, another railroad figure of significance, Albert A. Robinson, general manager of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, visited the Villa as part of yet another special train car party including several company directors, as well as Robinson’s wife and child. There would soon be a critical link, literally, between the hotel and the railroad giant when, at the end of the year, the Santa Fe completed the first direct transcontinental rail line to greater Los Angeles at San Bernardino and then constructed a route west to the Angel City including through the northern San Gabriel Valley within a short distance of the Villa.
Some of this line would be absorbed by the Santa Fe from the remains of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad, which was formed in 1885 by the aforementioned Crank, who was deeply involved in transportation projects in the region. The Times of 13 September listed the officials of the new firm, including conductor William B. King, and added that “the road will have two divisions of fifteen miles each, Sierra Madre Villa being the dividing point.” At the end of October, the company began advertising for an “Every-Day Excursion to Sierra Madre Villa and Return” with the $2.75 fare including lunch at the hostelry.
By the first of December, two major changes were afoot for the Villa. First, Rhoades relinquished the management of the hotel to his brother-in-law and son of the owner, William G. Cogswell, whose operatic singing career recently ended, and new ads were issue. Then, another son-in-law, Samuel D. Hovey, mentioned in the last post as having purchased 100 acres of recently planted vineyard land from the elder Cogswell, put out advertisements seeking buyers for property with 90,000 French grapevines, while adding that “all trains of [the] San Gabriel Valley railroad stop in front of this property.”
Hovey also announced an auction, conducted by the well-known John C. Bell of Los Angeles, to be held on 19 January 1886, though there were two postponements, including one because of rain, before the event was held on the first of the following month. A special excursion for tourists, costing just half a dollar, was also offered for this enterprise. There were no located media reports of how the sales fared, though a sale was mentioned in real estate transactions listed in the Herald of 7 February.
Meanwhile, references to visitors continued, including one in March from the general manager, assistant manager and chief engineer of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, who, once again, arrived on a special train car and enjoyed the sights at the Villa. A few days later, a delegation of seven members of Congress attending the San Francisco funeral of a Senator took a special car south to sample and savor the sights of southern California.
After a welcome from many Angel City officials and luminaries and tours of the places of Charles Silent, Nancy Longstreet and the Wolfskill family, the group headed into the San Gabriel Valley including stops at the Villa, Sunny Slope and the newly completed South Pasadena hotel built by tourist excursion company head Walter Raymond.
In fact, it seems likely that the opening of the Raymond was a direct threat to the long-term viability of the Sierra Madre Villa, given that the former, which boasted 200 rooms on 55 acres, was not just of a vastly grander scale, but had the amenities and luxuries, as well as a pretty good view to boot, to draw well-heeled guests from older and smaller places like its near neighbor. With the great Boom of the Eighties underway, there was also increasing competition from seaside resorts at such places as Santa Monica, Redondo and others.
Still, the Villa continued to receive favorable comment during this period, including a brief description in a Southern Pacific Railroad publication apparently penned by Benjamin C. Truman, former proprietor of the Los Angeles Star and writer of the 1874 book, Semi-Tropical California, that was an important early booster for greater Los Angeles. The 12 December 1885 edition of the Herald quoted from the railroad company pamphlet which observed the “beautifully situated” hotel with its fine orchards, gardens, and vineyards, and phenomenal view—features routinely pointed out in print by visitors and locals.
Another mention of note came in the Times of 11 June, in which an American residing in Paris wrote for the benefit of the French and others in Europe that
In this region [the San Gabriel area], just at the foothills, and overlooking the valley, is the Sierra Madre Villa, a famous winter resort—a spot of glorious beauty, enriched with fig and orange and vine and all the attractions of this winterless land, although on the amesthystine tops of these exquisite mountains lies the snow [even toward the end of spring].
A late October 1886 ad by the younger Cogswell promoted the hostelry and its year-round service, adding that the Villa “is acknowledged by all to be the most charming resort of Southern California, and commanding the grandest view of the San Gabriel valley and Pacific ocean.” The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad passed within a mile-and-a-half of the hotel, with the Lamanda Park station the point of arrival and departure, a major change from earlier years when it was four miles from the Southern Pacific’s San Gabriel depot.
Moreover, the ad promoted the fact that there were “140 acres of oranges, lemons, limes, grapes, walnuts, peaches, apples and figs; a beautiful lawn, flowers, etc.” and asserted that “for comfort, good living, pure air and sparkling mountain water—which are so essential to health—it has no rival.”
We’ll return next with a continuation of some of the history of Sierra Madre Villa, so check back for that soon.
One thought