Raymond Hotel

In 1883, Walter Raymond [Wikidata] had ventured west to the young community of Pasadena, California, described as a sleepy village of 1,500 people.

This piqued his interest in establishing one, thereby purchasing a hard granite hilltop called Bacon Hill as the site for his new Raymond Hotel.

Interested in at least surveying the site of the hotel, Emmons arrived in Pasadena during a downpour and sat under an oak tree listening to his son expound over the beauty of the Southern California area.

When the sun finally did break through the clouded sky it was a sight the old man had never experienced in his life and he agreed to finance the rest of Walter's construction.

On April 14, 1895, a spark from a chimney set the roof on fire and the hotel and all its contents burned to the ground in 40 minutes.

The registry was filled with names of moguls from the East: Pullman, Schwab, Harriman, Swift, Armour, Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie, and of course R. T. Crane who spent his remaining winters at the Raymond.

Fireplaces gave way to steam heating; the wood exterior was exchanged for concrete and stucco; the roof was tiled, not shingled, and electric lighting came with the plans.

Guests invariably arrived by train, the mainline Santa Fe which stopped at Raymond Station at the bottom of the hill.

A hotel of this size of course had several amenities and Raymond always set aside profits (or borrowed money) to add something he thought might be important for business.

The hotel had a large nursery operation with 500 American Beauty rose plants, 4 acres (16,000 m2) of carnations and a reported 3,000 pansies.