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Originally published in the Pasadena Star-News, December 25, 1988, page B-1

Recalling a one-of-a-kind, Victorian-era Christmas

THE EARLY DAYS

By Harold N. Hubbard, Staff Writer

One hundred ten years ago, one Pasadena family had a Victorian Christmas than cannot be duplicated anywhere in the world today.

That was the Rhoades family of Pasadena, which built the Sierra Madre Villa Hotel, known in the 1870s and '80s for its famous guests. For its Victorian Christmas in 1878, wrote William Lauren Rhoades in an account now housed in the Pasadena Historical Society Library, the Chinese ranch hands and household servants were invited to join in the celebration.

They brought gifts, boxes of sweet lichi nuts, Chinese ginger and dainty cakes, all in fancy packages and spread out on the billiard table to eat and "looking very tempting," Rhoades wrote.

"The principal servants got presents but the big gift for the outside Chinese ranch hands was the big fat hog which made a real celebration.... It sure was an eye opener to all the Eastern visitors."

Later, all joined in singing Christmas carols, Rhoades wrote. After the servants left, "the stripping of the tree began and what a jolly time was had by all."

The day before Christmas was exciting, too, according to Rhoades. Corn was popped to make snowy strings for the 19-foot tree, which was also decorated with cornucopias, glass balls and an angel on top.

"I well recall Christmas 1878," Rhoades wrote. "I was taken to the front of the house and there stood my donkey, Jennie, hitched to a new two-wheeled cart made to order with a leather seat." The running gear was red and the body black, while the black harness had shining brass buckles.

"Christmas morning, the coach that ran to the San Gabriel Southern Pacific Railroad Station daily for the mail and passengers was ready to take anyone from the hotel to the Episcopal Church in San Gabriel, as was the custom on Sundays."

The evolution of the Sierra Madre Villa dates to 1874, when Rhoades' grandfather, William Cogswell, a portrait painter from the East, bought 500 acres of Pasadena land, including part of what is now Hastings Ranch. Shortly after, son-in-law William Porter Rhoades and his family, including 3-year-old William Lauren, arrived in Los Angeles.

The senior Rhoades had planned to open a store there, but abandoned the idea when he saw the rough nature of the town. He joined Cogswell in Pasadena, developing his ranch with citrus groves and vineyards.

Soon the family began to miss the social life of their former New York state home and they invited guests from the East to visit. They added rooms to their house until it was a 50-room hotel. News of its hospitality and its good food spread.

Many of the wealthy people who spent their summers at Newport, R.I., came to the Sierra Madre Villa in the winter, according to Rhoades. Among them were the leading financial men of New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Guests included Gen. Ulysses Grant and his family, and many leading European statesmen and members of the ruling families of foreign countries.

Helen Hunt Jackson spent time there while writing "Ramona." Others were C. P. Huntington, A.N. Town, the Crocker and the Mark Hopkins families of San Francisco, and Leland Stanford.

There were carriage rides through the valley and mountain trails for horses and hikers. There was hunting in the mountains for deer and bear. Nearby were rabbits, quail and doves and the guests fished in back of Mount Baldy. There were wildcats and, at night, the howls of coyotes and occasionally the screaming cry of a mountain lion. The guests joined ranchers in rabbit drives, killing hundreds.

But the hotel didn't last. Ten years to the day after they arrived, the Rhoadses returned East. New owners made a sanitarium out of the hotel. It was then sold again, and torn down in 1923.