Henry E. Huntington
Henry Edwards Huntington, railroad magnate and business leader. (b. Feb. 27, 1850, Oneonta, N. Y., d. May 23, 1927, San Marino, Ca.) He was the nephew of Collis P. Huntington, one of The Big Four, the men instrumental in the creation of the transcontinental railway. Huntington held several executive positions working along side his uncle with the in the Southern Pacific Railway.
His life in Southern California
When Collis died in 1900, Henry inherited much of his uncle's fortune. He also married Collis' widow Arabella Huntington. Shortly thereafter he moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a place he had visited only seven years prior. At that time he had exclaimed that one day someone was going to come to [Southern California] and make a fortune in real estate and transportation. Little did he know that he was foretelling his own future. He founded the Pacific Electric Railway, centered in Los Angeles, and developed a massive intercity transit system known colloquially as the Red Car Line. The main station was located at 6th and Main Streets. Trains ran laterally as far east as San Bernardino and as far west as San Fernando. They also ran from the beach cities around San Pedro and Santa Monica, and included the 1902 acquisition of the Mount Lowe Railway in the San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena, California.
In 1903, Huntington began collecting rare books and manuscripts. His collection grew into Huntington Library, which included an art collection and botanical gardens on his estate in San Marino, California. Today this estate is a most popular attraction for tourists, with daily tours being conducted of the library and its grounds. It is also an exclusive resource for researchers of local history.
In 1910 Huntington acquired the Wentworth Hotel in Pasadena to be renamed the Huntington Hotel. This hotel served as the grandest hotel in Pasadena until 1990 when it was discovered to be seismically inadequate. It would go down in history as the largest unreinforced concrete structure in Southern California. The facility was sold to new owners who had the hotel razed and properly rebuilt to be named the Huntington Ritz-Carlton.
Legacy
Huntington retired from active business in 1916. His legacy consists of several monuments to his name: Huntington Beach, Huntington Park, The Huntington Library, the Huntington Hotel (now the Huntington Ritz-Carlton, Huntington Hospital), and a grand boulevard which runs from Los Angeles to the San Gabriel River, Huntington Drive. The broad median of Huntington Drive was a main east-west artery of the Pacific Electric Railroad.
References
- The Huntington Library
- Encyclopedia Britannica
- Pasadena Historical Museum
- Altadena Historical Society