Pacific Electric Railway Company Photographs, approximately 1870s-1950s, bulk 1910s-1940s

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Summary

Creators:
Pacific Electric Railway Company.
Abstract:
The collection consists of 3396 black and white photographs (many with corresponding original and copy negatives), 116 unprinted glass plate negatives, memos, correspondence, press releases, and notes related to the Pacific Electric Railway, ca. 1870s-1950s. The collection provides a comprehensive overview of the routes and areas served by the Railway during the years of its operation, and thus a picture of the growth of Southern California during the first half of the twentieth century.
Extent:
27 boxes (21.59 linear ft.)
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of 3396 black and white photographs (many with corresponding original and copy negatives), 116 unprinted glass plate negatives, memos, correspondence, press releases, and notes related to the Pacific Electric Railway, ca. 1870s-1950s. The collection provides a comprehensive overview of the routes and areas served by the Railway during the years of its operation, and thus a picture of the growth of Southern California during the first half of the twentieth century.

The images include views of landscape along, and towns served by, the Pacific Electric routes, including Central Los Angeles; Pacific Electric track and stations; Pacific Electric advertising, publicity, and public relations photographs; Los Angeles and surrounding area parks; Pacific Electric employees and employee activities; construction of Pacific Electric facilities, such as the Hollywood subway, the 6th and Main Street terminal, and the Subway Terminal Building; and Pacific Electric trolley cars and buses.

The views along the Pacific Electric routes include beach communities such as San Pedro, Long Beach, Newport Beach, Redondo Beach, Laguna Beach, Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica. These images include views of the coastline, the towns, and the amusement areas of Long Beach, Redondo Beach, Venice, and Ocean Park. Also included are many photographs of Mount Lowe—the cable incline railway, the trolley up to Ye Alpine Tavern, the Tavern itself, and the Mount Lowe Tavern. The Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange County views document the landscape and popular sites in and around the towns served by the Railway; these include the Glenwood Mission Inn and Rubidoux Drive summit. Also of note are the photographs documenting activities of Pacific Electric employees, including construction of and activities in the Pacific Electric Club and outings sponsored by the Railway; and the construction of the Pacific Electric and Subway Terminal Buildings.

Biographical / historical:

The Pacific Electric Railway was established by railroad and real estate tycoon Henry E. Huntington in 1901; it grew out of Huntington’s early ventures in both real estate and transportation in the Los Angeles area. In 1898, Huntington and a group of investors purchased the financially strapped Los Angeles and Pasadena Electric Railway; this company operated the first interurban rail line in Los Angeles, running between Central Los Angeles and Pasadena. Huntington, seeing an opportunity to invest in the still small public transportation market in Southern California, began buying land in growing areas not yet reached by existing public transportation. The Pacific Electric was designed to serve these areas.

Only a few years after the company’s formation, most of Pacific Electric’s stock was purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, of which Huntington’s uncle, Collis P. Huntington, was a founder. Henry Huntington had tried and failed to gain control of the Southern Pacific a decade earlier; in 1911, Southern Pacific bought him out completely and also purchased several other passenger railway operators in the Los Angeles area resulting in the “Great Merger” of 1911. Henry Huntington purchased the Los Angeles Railway (LARy), which provided local streetcar service to Los Angeles and nearby communities.

As a result of the Great Merger, the Pacific Electric became the nation’s largest interurban electric transport system with over 1000 miles of track. The first interurban line constructed by the Railway ran from Los Angeles to Long Beach, and opened July 4, 1902. By 1914, riders could go from downtown Los Angeles to San Bernardino, Santa Ana, San Pedro or San Fernando. Pacific Electric offered low cost trips to a variety of southern California destinations. One of the most popular was the Mount Lowe trolley trip, which included a narrow-gauge cable car ride to the top of Echo Mountain. The Pacific Electric also ran frequent freight trains under electric power throughout its service area, and was responsible for an innovation in grade crossing safety that was adopted by other railroads, a fully automatic electromechanical grade crossing signal nicknamed the “wigwag.”

In 1905, Huntington opened the Pacific Electric Building at 6th and Main Streets in Los Angeles. At the time, it was the largest building in the city. The Pacific Electric Building housed office and commercial space and served as the terminal for many of the interurban routes. Twenty years later, the Pacific Electric opened the Subway Terminal Building at 4th and Hill Streets, and completed a mile-long subway (the “Hollywood Subway”) as a means of avoiding the growing automobile congestion in downtown Los Angeles.

The 1920s witnessed the rise of automobiles, and ridership on the Pacific Electric’s lines was down. Tracks were being paved over and trains had to yield their high speed rights of way to traffic crossings. The onset of World War II, however, saw an increase in ridership, but by the 1950s it was clear that the automobile would become the primary means of transportation in the region. The last Pacific Electric line in operation, the Los Angeles to Long Beach trolley, ceased operation on April 8, 1961.

Acquisition information:
Donated to The Huntington Library by the Pacific Electric Company, April 1955.
Arrangement:

The collection remains in its numerical order and is described at the folder level. The first half of the collection is generally arranged by route; the remainder seems to be arranged by general subject. There is some chronological logic to the arrangement; photographs with later dates are placed later in the collection. Numbers 2559-2581 are open numbers with no photographs assigned. Some folders contain memos, correspondence, press releases, or notes; their presence is noted. Every attempt has been made to be as inclusive as possible in the description of the folder contents; some folders, labeled “Miscellaneous”, contain images that span two or more subjects.

The collection has also been intellectually described by subject matter in a "Subject List" in this finding aid. Entries are arranged alphabetically.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Amusement parks—California—Photographs.
Business districts—California—Los Angeles—Photographs.
Buses—Photographs.
Commercial buildings—California—Los Angeles—Photographs.
Electric railroads—California—Photographs.
Electric railroads—Cars—Photographs.
Electric railroads—Design and construction—Photographs.
Electric railroads—Maintenance and repair—Photographs.
Electric railroads—Substations—Photographs.
Hotels—California—Photographs.
Industries—California—Photographs.
Missions—California—Photographs.
Parks—California—Los Angeles—Photographs.
Railroad bridges—Los Angeles—Photographs.
Railroad repair shops—Photographs.
Railroad stations—California—Photographs.
Railroad terminals—Los Angeles—California—Photographs.
Railroads, Cable—Photographs.
Railroads—California—History—20th century—Photographs.
Railroads employees—Photographs.
Railroads—Buildings and structures—Photographs.
Railroads—Track—Photographs.
Resorts—California—Photographs.
Scenic railways—Photographs.
Street-railroads--California--Los Angeles--Photographs.
Soldiers' homes—Sawtelle—California—Photographs.
Strikes and lockouts—Railroads—Los Angeles—California—Photographs.
Subway tunnels—Los Angeles—California—Photographs.
Photographs.
Black-and-white negatives.
Correspondence.
Memorandums.
Notes.
Press releases.

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 Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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