The Pinney House, as it is now known, was built as Hotel Sierra Madre, a 24-room “railroad” hotel in 1887. Designed by the well known and prolific West coast Victorian architects, Samuel and Joseph Cather Newsom, the Queen Anne style Pinney House is one of the last remaining local examples of the railroad hotels.
As the Pinney House predated the incorporation of the City of Sierra Madre, it was often the venue for meetings of the Board of Trade; forefathers to the City. Sierra Madre can trace its birth directly to the Pinney House. Indeed to this day, early Photos of The Pinney House greet visitors to City Hall.
Shortly after the Pinney House was completed, Harvard College established an astronomy observatory directly above the Pinney House in 1889 atop Mt. Wilson Trail. It is quite likely that the Pinney House benefited from the tourists, academic and construction people who had an interest in the Observatory, as it was one of the closest hotels to the trail head.
Through its 137 year life the house has accommodated a variety of uses, it was used as a sanitarium, the current dining room and an adjoining bedroom-bath measured once used as the Pinney House ballroom, also it was a popular filming venue for films “the Great Man’s Lady” and “The Seven Little Foys” in 1940s and 1950s.
Today’s Pinney house Much diminished from its original 35 acres, the house now sits on about ½ acre. Many of the original or at least vintage plantings are still alive, including towering cypress street trees, a magnificent pepper tree creating lacy shade in the side yard, a flowering shrub called” yesterday, today and tomorrow” plus many other /Victorian garden shrubs and trees. Since this is Victorian, of course there is a beautiful rose garden, though the roses do not date back a century. Today, the floor plan has been sensitively reconfigured into a magnificent estate home with eight, one and two bedroom suites, formal rooms with four fireplaces a library a screened conservatory, a main level apartment with kitchen bedroom and full bath, including a self-contained, 2500 squares for staff, home office or extended family accommodations on the top floor, an English garden and vintage paintings. This floorplan contains a total of 10 bedrooms and 10 1/2 baths open as hotels like it originally was.
The Pinney House is one project of the managing company Starry Star Hotel. Today it is available for media use, a beautiful backdrop for wedding photography, for tourists visiting and dining in the house, for historians and cultural enthusiasts, for architects, for seminars, and for delegates investors.
Welcome to The Pinney House. Feel the history, read the old pictures, enjoy the architecture, smell the rose, walk the garden and remember the pioneers!