Michael Patris – Part 2

Will you give us an introduction for our guests who aren’t familiar with you?

I’m a third-generation native of Southern California.

I grew up at the beach, fishing, surfing, and sailing.

I moved to the SGV in 1985, and I started hiking up Echo Mountain, and one of my hiking buddies is a former LAPD Motor Officer.

When we went on our first hike, he told me about the hotels and a zoo that used to be up here, and as a third-generation Californian, I couldn’t believe I didn’t know about any of this, and I went to my grandmother, and I asked her about this.

She told me how they went there in 1933, and I asked if she had taken any pictures. She looked at me like I had two heads. “We weren’t rich,” she said. “That’s why we split a sandwich and coke between four people on that trip.”

I then realized that when the Mount Lowe Railway was built in 1893, this was for the wealthy, not the average individual.

This really showed me how we have all these things in Southern California, but it’s only available for some.

 

What did it look like in 1933?

There were very few buildings. The first building was the Rubio Pavilion, a hotel built 60 feet above a stream bed.

Then they built the Chalet, a smaller hotel that housed the workers, and then they made the more grand Echo Mountain House.

After that, they built the Winding Station, which had a little gift store.

There was also a casino that was a dance hall and gathering place (not a place to gamble.)

It became its own little city. They started calling it The White City on the Mount because all the buildings were painted white, and you could see it during the summertime.

Interestingly, from 1893 to 1936, this place had over 3 million passengers visit the White City.
 

How did you come to acquire this wealth of knowledge?

Being an only child and being around many older people gave me an excellent opportunity to ask questions.

I asked my great-grandmother hundreds of questions. When she moved to California, they didn’t have a toilet in the house. It was pre-plumbing, pre-telephone, and pre-electricity, and having her tell me what things were like, was amazing. It was like a movie.

The huge blessing to me was being able to ask all those questions, and by being an only child, I wasn’t so anxious to go out to play when I could ask, “What was it like eating a jackrabbit? What was the war like?”

That’s how I started soaking up all the knowledge I could. I’m an avid reader, and I am always looking for new experiences.
 

What is your title?

That’s a really good question. I own a publishing company, Golden West Books, and we publish books on trains and railroads exclusively.

I started a non-profit in 2000 called the Mount Lowe Preservation Society. We preserve the history of the Mount Lowe Railway. We also began collecting things from the Pacific Electric Railway; then it was the Southern Pacific Railway.

Now we are an archive and museum of Southern California’s transportation evolution.

We have over 800,000 images, over 20,000 three-dimensional artifacts, and 8,000 plus research book library.
 

Can you tell us about the connection between the Chicago World Fair and the Mount Lowe Railway?

Thaddeus Lowe was awarded a medal from the Franklin Institute for his work on heating and illuminating gas. This brought him to the Chicago World Fair, where General Electric had a 15-foot tall, 3 million candlepower light, the largest searchlight ever built.

The light then went to San Francisco on the Bonet Tower, and after that, Thaddeus asked if he could have it so he could mount it at the top of Echo Mountain and shine it into the valley so people would be interested in coming up there.
 

What is your favorite era?

Oh boy, that’s like asking who your favorite child is.

It varies. I love everything. I’m really fascinated with Egyptology. I loved the Victorian Era and the beginning of automobiles. It’s all fascinating to me.
 

We ask each guest to bring an item of significance. What did you bring?

I brought what is called a Sam Hyde Harris Mockett. This is a study of what would eventually become a larger piece of art. It is of a mural that was painted on a five-story building near 4th and Broadway in downtown LA.

Sam Hyde Harris did many railroad murals, and I found this in Maine thirty years ago.
 

Did you know the Peak of Mount Lowe was named for Thaddeus Lowe by Rand Mcnally?

Formerly Mount Lowe was called Oak Mountain. Andy McNally initially suggested naming it Mount Lowe because of all he had done for the community.
 

Like you cards

Question 1: Which Skill Would You Like To Master?

Question 2: Would You Rather Stay Up All Night To Finish A Project, Or Wake Up Early To Complete It?

I am one to stay up all night to finish a project. I would sleep for thirty to sixty minutes while editing my manuscripts.

I also always want to try and master any skill that I have. If you’re not learning, you’re dying. I speak Spanish fluently, but there are a lot of words that I need to learn.
 

Can you share more about your museum?

Sure. We have a 14,000-square-foot building in East Pasadena. We are working on making this a functional museum.

We have our publishing company there and our collections. We hope to be open by late 2024 with space for conferences and fundraising dinners.
 

You said your name won’t be on the museum. Why is that?

Because it’s not about me, I don’t think I’ve done anything so significant that it deserves my name to be on a building.

I’m passionate about this, and I genuinely enjoy it.
 

How would you compare your museum to other museums in pasadena?

It’s hard to compare because we’re different and smaller.

We don’t have a live train to ride, and we can’t compete with the Huntington Library and its generous fund.

Opening this museum to the community to learn and enjoy a shared experience of public transportation is important, and it will be something that can benefit the community.
 

How can people get in touch with you?

The best way to reach us is through our website, www.mountlowe.org. We have a donation button on the website, and it shows a lot of the artifacts, and we’ll be adding updates about the museum.