Henry E. Huntington

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Henry Edwards Huntington (February 27, 1850–May 23, 1927) was a railroad magnate and business leader. He was born in Oneonta, New York, USA and died in San Marino, California.

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 Southern Pacific Railway.

[edit] 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 here (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, Redlands, Riverside, and Corona; as far north as San Fernando and Chatsworth; from the coastal cities as far west as Santa Monica and as far south as Newport Beach; and included the 1902 acquisition of the Mount Lowe Railway in the San Gabriel Mountains above Altadena.

The Huntington Mansion, 1915; now the centerpiece of the The Huntington Library.

In 1903, Huntington began collecting rare books and manuscripts, many from prominent book dealer A.S.W Rosenbach. His collection grew into The 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.

[edit] Legacy

Huntington retired from active business in 1916. His legacy includes several monuments to his name: the cities of Huntington Beach and Huntington Park, the Huntington Library, the Huntington Memorial Library in Oneonta, NY,^[1] the Huntington Hotel (now the Huntington Ritz-Carlton), Huntington Hospital, Henry E. Huntington Middle School, and Huntington Drive, a grand boulevard whose median served as a main east-west artery of the Pacific Electric Railroad.