Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Mount Wilson Toll Road Company.
- Abstract:
- This collection contains business records chiefly related to the finances of the Mount Wilson Toll Road Company, which built the Mount Wilson Toll Road, a ten-mile wagon road it completed in 1891 from the foothills above Pasadena, California, up to Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains. The records date from 1903 to 1953.
- Extent:
- 206 items in 1 box and 10 volumes.
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains business records chiefly related to the finances of the Mount Wilson Toll Road Company, which built the Mount Wilson Toll Road, a ten-mile wagon road it completed in 1891 from the foothills above Pasadena, California, up to Mount Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains. The records contain 12 folders in 1 box plus 10 volumes. The inclusive dates are 1903-1953. The two largest folders each have 36 items while the two smallest folders each have only 1 item. The folders include correspondence, insurance policies, lists of shareholders, tax documents, a description of the trip of Mt. Wilson, and other documents about the Mt. Wilson Toll Road Company and the Mount Wilson Hotel Company.
The correspondence deals chiefly with the company’s finances, and many, including letters from the Office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, are about tax issues. There are also 9 volumes of ledgers and journals, and 1 volume is a register book for the Mount Wilson Hotel. The volumes are arranged chronologically. The records provide a unique perspective to view corporate history in Southern California. In addition, pamphlets and newspaper clippings in Tax Documents (1919) show the company’s concern over the newly enforced income tax policies.
Subjects in the records include Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles, Liberty bonds, and Southern California Edison Company.
- Biographical / historical:
-
The Pasadena and Mount Wilson Toll Road Company, incorporated in 1889 by Judge Benjamin Eaton and others, was reorganized in 1890 with the purpose of building a ten mile wagon road from Eaton Canyon up the west flank of the San Gabriel Mountains to Mt. Wilson, above Pasadena, California. The road was completed and put into use in 1891, and the company gradually acquired control of the Mt. Wilson area. A syndicate took control in 1904, and the Mt. Wilson Hotel was built. The road was later improved for automobile traffic and continued in use until its closure in 1936. The Mount Wilson Toll Road Company then became the Mount Wilson Hotel Company.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Jerome Schwimmer, July 16, 1968.
- Arrangement:
-
The folders in box 1 are arranged in alphabetical order. The items in each folder, whenever possible, are arranged chronologically by the date that those items were signed or complied.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Hotels -- California -- Wilson, Mount
(Mountain) -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Liberty bonds.
Trails -- California -- Wilson, Mount (Mountain) -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Business records -- California, Southern -- 20th century.
Ledgers (account books) -- California, Southern -- 20th century.
Letters (correspondence) -- California, Southern -- 20th century.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
- Location of this collection:
-
1151 Oxford RoadSan Marino, CA 91108, US
- Contact:
- (626) 405-2191