BACKGROUND -- THE MT. WASHINGTON INN:
The elegant 3-story structure at the very crown of the hill, now the International Headquarters for The Self Realization Fellowship, was once the Mt. Washington Inn, a center for society and Hollywood stars.
In the late 1800s, a group of businessmen formed the Mt. Washington Development Company. On the choicest spot on the entire hill, they built the Mt. Washington Inn, and laid out the surrounding land as a subdivision.
By the time the 20th Century was under way, Mt. Washington Inn had become a favorite resort for the city below, population then 250,000.
Access to the inn was provided by the Los Angeles and Mt. Washington Railway Company, which built a little cog railway up the side of the hill from Marmion Way.
But by 1910, there were portents ominous to continued success. The automobile was coming within the financial scope of increasing numbers of people. Auto owners soon discovered the pleasure of traveling to more distant destinations.
Furthermore, Mt. Washington Drive was then nothing but a dirt road and it defied the capabilities of those early vehicles. Thus, by the second decade of the century, the development and railway companies gave up and declared bankruptcy.
The followers of Paramhansa Yogananda acquired the bankrupt property in 1925 to establish the World Headquarters of the Self Realization Fellowship.