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Mount Wilson Toll Road Company Records: Finding Aid
mssMount Wilson Toll Road Co
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Title: Mount Wilson Toll Road Company Records
Dates (inclusive): 1903-1953
Collection Number: mssMount Wilson Toll Road Co
Creator:
Mount Wilson Toll Road
Company.
Extent:
206 items in 1 box and 10 volumes.
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
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.
Language:
English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services
Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to
quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such
activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is
one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Mount Wilson Toll Road Company Records, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of Jerome Schwimmer, July 16, 1968.
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.
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.
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.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Farmers and Merchants
National Bank of Los Angeles.
Mount Wilson Toll Road
Company -- Archives.
Southern California
Edison Company.
Hotels -- California -- Wilson, Mount
(Mountain) -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Liberty bonds.
Trails -- California -- Wilson, Mount
(Mountain) -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
San Gabriel Mountains (Calif.) --
History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Wilson, Mount (Calif. : Mountain) --
History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Business records -- California,
Southern -- 20th century.
Ledgers (account books) -- California,
Southern -- 20th century.
Letters (correspondence) --
California, Southern -- 20th century.
Mount Wilson Hotel.
Mount Wilson Trail.