390 HISTORY OF PASADENA, 



way. 3d, The chance, which was at that time deemed fairly good, of 

 finding coal in these hills. Only the first object was ever realized. This 

 tunnel is wide and high enough for a loaded hay wagon to pass through, 

 or a covered carriage without lowering the top. I examined it, and paced 

 its length, in 1885 — 160 paces, or about 480 feet. 



Columbia Hill. — When the colony lands were first subdivided, a con- 

 siderable body of hill-top land south of West Columbia street and west of 

 Sylvan Drive or Avenue was reserved "for church, school and reservoir 

 purposes." But all except a reservoir site was afterward sold to A. O. 

 Porter and others. [See "Annals of the Schools," and "vSierra Madre 

 College " for its later history.] It was called "Columbia Hill" from the 

 fact that West Columbia street ran from Orange Grove Avenue on a winding 

 grade down its north side to a junction with Arroyo Drive. The highest 

 part of the hill is now occupied by the fine residence of Chas. D. Daggett, 

 Esq. (the old school or college building made over), while other portions of 

 it are occupied by residences of John Wadsworth, Chas. R. Foote, and 

 others. 



Grace Hill. — The body of land now known by this name was in one 

 of the four fifteen-acre shares selected by Judge B. S. Eaton, when the orig- 

 inal colony lands were allotted by. free choice, January 27, 1874. Judge 

 Eaton sold it to a Mr. Chapman. In the winter of 1883-84 Charles Legge 

 bought from Chapman ten acres, which included the main hill or its highest 

 part, and in five weeks after its purchase he sold it for One Thousand Dol- 

 lars MORE than he paid for it. This was the first big gun of the "boom," 

 and for a while Charle}^ I^egge wore the champion belt as a real estate oper- 

 ator. The purchaser of this splendid building site was a Mr. Himebaugh, 

 who made some slight improvements in the way of landscape gardening, and 

 named it " Grace Hill," after his daughter Gracie. He next sold it to Geo. 

 W. Stimson, who made further and quite elaborate landscape improvements, 

 and put it into the real estate market for sale at $25,000. Here it hung un- 

 taken for three or four years, Mr. Stimson meanwhile keeping an expert 

 gardener, Alfred Ellis, in charge of it ; and it grew more beautiful every 

 year. Finally Wm. Stanton, from Pittsburg, Pa., bought it, and built the 

 noble dwelling which is now his family home on that eminence, from which 

 there is such a superb and far-reaching outlook in every direction. 



Raymond Hill. — This foothill peak formerly belonged to what was 

 known as the Marengo ranch, or Bacon's ranch. In 1883 Walter Raymond 

 examined sites for his contemplated great hotel project, at San Diego, San 

 Bernardino, and Riverside, but finally settled upon this Bacon hill at Pasa- 

 dena as coming the nearest to his ideal of anything he had seen ; and he 

 accordingly purchased it, with a tract comprising about fifty-five acres. The 

 hill was then much higher than now, as it had to be cut down thirty-four 



