I love history sites and Mr. Altadena’s site is full-o-history on Altadena. The history includes information about the Mount Lowe Railway and there is an “Official Altadena Timeline” as well.

Of course I found the Chicago connection of millionaire businessmen like Andrew McNally, “the printing magnate from Chicago and his good friend Col. G. G. Greene” who built mansions on “what was to become Millionaire’s Row, Mariposa Street near Santa Rosa.” There were others like William Kellogg who built a home just east of Fair Oaks Avenue.

Particularly interesting was the L.A. Terminal Railway. Who knew? I didn’t. This was a steam engine line that serviced Altadena in the late 1880’s. The railway ran parallel to Fair Oaks Avenue, crossed Lincoln to the east and then again to the west, finally heading out toward the Arroyo Seco. It turned north to an area called Las Casitas (the little houses), swung wide to the east to an alignment with today’s Harriet Street and ran parallel between Mendocino and Calaveras to a terminus on Lake Avenue which today stands the Post Office. How fascinating.

Now if you really want to see something historically sweet, you must visit the Altadena Panorama. Sweet!!! There you will see everything Altadena back in the day.

Now, how did I stumble across this site? You don’t want to know. Well, perhaps I will say this, I have some strange feelings about Altadena and am looking for sites that tell a little bit about some paranormal activity here in these parts. There’s some interesting activity happening out here and I won’t tell you about the old man I saw that wasn’t. Creepy.

Creepiness aside, for all things regarding Altadena’s history, this is a must see site. It’s always good to know something about the history of where you live.

Okay, gotta get back to the site because I still have not seen everything.