King of the Hill: 1913

Look on the hillside behind and to the left of the searchlight and you can see where the narrower gauge trolley line went on up the hill. That was quite the resort in those days.

To the left rear of the Powerhouse, at the front of the line of extra trolley cars, is the tower car for repairing the overhead wire. It survived the fire and vandalism after the end of service, so that a souvenir collector could put it in his back yard. I wonder if it still exits today. In the background, you can trace a lot of the mountain trolley line, including the Circular Bridge.

It looks like the prototype for 'Taco Bell'.

My grandmother lived with her sister in Pasadena in the 1920s and told me about how that they used to sweep that light around at night. Sometimes down into Pasadena, much to the annoyance of the people who's houses were illuminated. Probably light like the night sun on a police helicopter sweeping across your house today. She was surprised when I moved out here in 1980 that the whole Mt Lowe was gone, it was a nice weekend day trip when she was young.

He must think he is steering a ship, some searchlight.

They were all the rage, at least in my corner of the world, after WWII. Maybe they were surplus and just plentiful. But every store having a big sale, every drive-in theater, and many auto dealers, used them routinely to attract customers.

I was forever in awe of the intense blue-white beam blazing up into the sky when Dad would drive us by one of them. At one point, being the guy who struck the arc and operated the gearshift levers was what I wanted to be when I grew up.

My grandparents, who lived in Hollywood during the 1930s, said that the beam of light from the Mt. Lowe searchlight could plainly be seen from their favorite vacation getaway Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, at least 20 miles out to sea. Several Richfield Oil Company service stations along the Pacific Coast Highway in Southern California also had big searchlights which served as navigational beacons for airplanes.

That's some searchlight on top of that station!