On the Fourth of July 1893, the Mount Lowe Railway made its first revenue run from a spot near Lake Street and Calaveras in Altadena. Traveling northwest and then back into Rubio Canyon, passengers transferred from street cars for the trip up Echo Mountain onto incline cars. Conceived by numerous notables of Pasadena, it was built by inventor and Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps, Thaddeus S. C. Lowe and Cornell-educated civil engineer David J. Macpherson.
The sights were amazing and over the years included four hotels, a dance hall, the World’s Largest Searchlight, a gold mine, a zoo, horseback riding and an observatory. The Alpine Division was to terminate at the peak of Oak Mountain (later named Mount Lowe) but stopped at Crystal Springs, several miles short of the mountain top, where Alpine Tavern was built.
Thaddeus Lowe lost control of the railway by 1894 and following several attempts to revive it, Henry Huntington was finally able to absorb it into the Pacific Electric Railway in 1902. Fire and flood would plague the property and by 1936 fire took the last of the hotels, Alpine Tavern. It was later abandoned and scrapped, never to be rebuilt, and the land reverted to the Forest Service. While there was little left, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, in time for a Centennial Celebration.
Since 2000, the nonprofit Mount Lowe Preservation Society had been determined to keep the memory of “Earth’s Grandest Mountain Railway” alive along with Southern California’s Transportation Evolution including trains, trolleys, busses, automobiles and the like. The archives now is home to more than 800,000 images, 150,000+ 3-D artifacts, an 8,000+ book research library, an indoor railroad signal garden and some antique cars.
Recently, the Society’s Founder, President, and Chairman of the Board, Michael Patris, reached out to Jericho Road Pasadena for guidance in designing its plans for fund development, communications, and a museum.
Fortunately, a volunteer with powerhouse credentials had recently joined JRP. John O’Malley is a principal of O’Malley International Associates, a Pasadena-based global communications agency specializing in consultative services including communication skills training, strategic planning and engagement, fund development, technical writing, and media and community relations.
“I wanted my first project to be a challenge that would leverage my skills and knowledge to make things happen,” says John. “Jericho Road delivered.”
John and Michael worked together to outline a fund development and communications plan that included strategies for engaging individual benefactors, corporations, philanthropic organizations, education organizations, government agencies, and the general public.
“We aimed to establish a logical and practical direction for the organization,” John says. “In the short term, the corporation is revamping and strengthening its board governance capabilities, enabling it to shape policies that will guide fund development and communications strategies. In the long term, we’ve designed a systematic approach to establishing a local museum that inspires and informs.”
Michael is enthusiastic about the outcome. “John developed a six-point plan for enhancing our fundraising plans, website and communications,” he says. “By implementing it, we believe we can achieve our goals for developing a strong board of directors, targeting new donors and sharing our nonprofit with the community—enhancing our place in transportation history.”
Photo credits: Michael Petris Collection
Thanks to volunteer Linda Taubenreuther for writing JRP social media posts!