Antique & Vintage Postcards

Perched among the ancient oaks and pines of the San Gabriel Mountains, Ye Alpine Tavern at Mt. Lowe beckons in this hand-colored white-border postcard — its distinctive red-roofed dormers and stone-terraced promenade still buzzing with Edwardian-era day-trippers who rode the famous Great Incline and electric railway to reach this remarkable mountain retreat. The tavern, opened in 1895 and later renamed Mt. Lowe Tavern, was the crown jewel of Thaddeus Lowe's visionary mountain tourism empire above Pasadena; here, visitors in summer whites stroll the shaded terrace framed by a dramatically leaning oak, wooden bench-lined pathways, and rustic rail fencing — a scene that feels simultaneously grand and wonderfully intimate. This particular card traveled in August 1922, mailed from the mountain to a woman named — addressed to a recipient in Washington, Pennsylvania, bearing a crisp 1¢ Washington stamp.