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Our Stories

Introduction

Barak Pierson went from carpenter and nurseryman to caretaker of Pasadena’s Lowe Mansion, one of the largest houses in the United States at the turn of the century. He and his wife Libbie lived in this 40-room house with their three children, and at times with both of their parents. The history of the Lowe Mansion overlaps with historical events such as a doomed-to-fail ambitious railroad project, and Professor Lowe’s financial ruin. It also overlaps with the rapid growth of the city of Pasadena. Our family played a part in these larger stories.

Barak and Libbie Pierson and their children left their farming life in Barclay, Kansas for Pasadena, California in 1887 looking for new opportunities (read more about the move in “A Clock Made with Love”). One family source suggests Barak moved to this recently-incorporated city to help his brother-in-law Delos Arnold build his house. Once in Pasadena, Barak worked primarily as a carpenter and gardener.

Barak, Libbie and their children first settled on Villa Avenue in North Pasadena, a semi-rural neighborhood where modest farms and orchards still dotted the landscape alongside emerging residential streets. They left in 1890 and attempted to run a farm while Barak also worked as a carpenter in the Antelope Valley, but they were back to give birth to Edith in Pasadena in 1893. By 1895 they lived in a house in North Pasadena at the southwest corner of Kirkwood and Kenyon (see timeline of Barak and family here).

The Piersons were part of a community of people who like them had moved from Iowa and Kansas, including members of the Quaker church within which they both were raised. Pasadena’s population exploded during these years. When they first arrived in 1887, 2,000 people lived in town. This grew to 12,000 in 1888, and fell back down to 4,882 in 1890. (City of Pasadena, page 472). By 1899, George and Ressie were attending Washington School when George was around 12 and Ressie around 15 years old. Edith would have been around 6.

Barak, Libbie and family lived in Pasadena during the same years that a Gilded-Age millionaire known as “Professor” Thaddeus Lowe had his own big dreams. By 1890, Lowe built and planned to retire to a 24,000 square-foot mansion at 955 South Orange Grove Avenue — a wide street known as “Millionaire’s Row.” Lowe grew restless and signed up for a new challenge: building a scenic railway up the steep San Gabriel Mountains above Pasadena. He spent over a year on this impossible-seeming task. The main incline section opened in 1893, and work continued on other sections with the final full resort opening at the base of Mount Lowe (renamed for Lowe) in 1895.

Lowe became financially over-extended with the railway (see details below to go deeper), and was ultimately evicted from the property by June 1899. We aren’t sure how it happened, but Barak was hired to become the caretaker of the mansion in 1899 or 1900. One family source suggested this was through E. H. Lockwood, a prominent realtor who worked with both Thaddeus Lowe and Charles Emery (who had bought the property from Lowe). The Pierson/Smith family also had a connection to Jared Sidney Torrance who became the receiver of the Lowe Railway (and for whom Torrance, California is named), so that’s a possible link.

Barak, Libbie and their children, plus at times Libbie’s father and Barak’s mother, lived at the house between 1900 and 1903. It appears they used just some of the 40 rooms in the house, and that the children enjoyed playing games in the empty rooms. In addition to looking after the house, Barak and Libbie tended the estate’s trees and plants.

By 1905, Barak Pierson was once again listed in a city directory as living at Kenyon and Kirkwood. Barak and Libbie would stay in North Pasadena until purchasing and moving to an 80-acre farm in Orosi in the Central Valley in 1910 where they grew figs, oranges, strawberries and more. They moved to nearby Tulare around 1925, where they lived for the rest of their lives.

The Lowe Mansion was eventually bought and became part of the Busch Gardens. This was subdivided in the late 1930s, and replaced with apartments in the late 40s and 50s. Strangely enough, Laura Atkins (researcher and writer of this story, and Barak and Libbie’s great-great granddaughter) was driving in May 2025 during a family reunion to try to find the location of the Lowe Mansion with her partner Mitch Varhula. When they finally found the place, it turned out that Mitch had lived in an apartment on this very site years before!

People & Places: Learn more about the ancestors mentioned in this story.

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Going Deeper

Pasadena became an incorporated city in 1886, just a year before the Piersons arrived, and the Pierson’s move there was made possible because the AT&SF Railway was completed in 1887, enabling the family to travel directly from Barclay to Pasadena. The city experienced big boom years from around 1885-1888, fueled by newly-completed cross-country railroad access to Los Angeles and competing low-cost fares that enticed people to the warm climate. All of this accompanied a real estate frenzy, with speculators buying and selling tracts of land for agriculture and housing. The population exploded, including many from midwest states like Indiana, Iowa and Kansas. There was also a strong Quaker presence, which appealed to the Pierson family who had moved from Springdale, Iowa to Barclay, Kansas — both Quaker communities — before moving to Pasadena, and in 1887, Pasadena had two monthly Quaker meetings.

1887 also saw the first annual Iowa picnic on New Year’s Day, a gathering of folks who had come from Iowa and who carried considerable political power, with around 400 people attending (this would grow as large as 100,000 in 1941). Mention of them attending the picnic and an overview of Barak and Libbie’s life and travels can be found in this 1942 article honoring Libbie.

Location of the school and their original house (upper left) related to the Lowe Mansion (bottom).

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