![]() |
Our Family History Home | What's New | Photos | Histories | Sources | Reports | Cemeteries | Headstones | Statistics | Surnames |
Name | Robert Edmund STRAHORN | |
Born | 15 May 1852 | Haines, Centre, Pennsylvania ![]() |
Gender | Male | |
Died | 31 Mar 1944 | San Francisco, San Francisco, California ![]() |
Buried | Riverview Cemetery, Spokane, Washington ![]() |
|
Person ID | I85878 | Zentmeyer Main Tree |
Last Modified | 19 Apr 2018 |
Notes |
|
Father | Thomas Foster STRAHORN, b. Abt 1824, West Buffalo, Union, Pennsylvania ![]() ![]() | |
Mother | Rebecca EMMERT, b. 1826, Bethel, Lebanon, Pennsylvania ![]() ![]() | |
Married | Abt 1848 | Centre, Pennsylvania ![]() |
Family ID | F23140 | Group Sheet |
Family 1 | Carrie Adell GREEN, b. 01 Jan 1854, Marengo, McHenry, Illinois ![]() ![]() | |
Married | 19 Sep 1877 | Marengo, McHenry, Illinois ![]() |
Family ID | F23223 | Group Sheet |
Family 2 | Ruby Shannon GARLAND, b. 25 Aug 1883, Waco, McLennan, Texas ![]() | |
Married | 05 Oct 1927 | St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, California ![]() |
Last Modified | 9 Feb 2016 | |
Family ID | F23272 | Group Sheet |
Photos | ![]() | Robert Edmund Strahorn |
![]() | Hailey Hot Springs Hotel, built by the two Robert Strahorns | |
![]() | Strahorn Pines - Spokane Constructed in 1887, this home was built and occupied by J.J. Browne, the developer of Browne's Addition, Spokane's premier neighborhood at the time. The home sat atop a bluff with panoramic views of the Spokane River. In 1900 the home was purchased by Robert and Carrie Strahorn. The three-story building was then completely remodeled by noted architect Kirtland Cutter into a twenty-room mansion with nine bathrooms and ten fireplaces. The first house in Spokane with steam heat, Strahorn Pines was also said to have featured a bowling alley. The house was purchased by the Eastern Washington Historical Society in 1970 and demolished in 1974 to make way for a new museum building. | |
![]() | Robert Strahorn - The Sphinx From the Zentmyer Collection. This cartoon depicts Robert as "The Sphinx," as he was known in the early 1900s. In his own hand, Robert (RES) describes, in the third person, how he got the moniker. The Harriman - Jim Hill fight refers to the struggle for control of the railroad business in the Pacific Northwest. $30mm in 1900 would be over $800mm today. | |
![]() | The Robert Strahorn Mystery
From the Technical World magazine, March 1909 | |
![]() | Robert Strahorn and North Coast Railroad's McKeen Car From the Zentmyer Collection. This self-propelled McKeen car was one of two purchased by the North Coast Railroad in 1910. Robert is circled in yellow. McKeen cars had the distinctive "wind-splitter" pointed aerodynamic front end and rounded tail. The porthole windows were also a McKeen trademark. But the McKeen car had no reverse gear, so backing up required the operator to reconfigure the camshaft to a set of reverse cams, then re-start the motor in the opposite direction. And this, from John W. Lundin: "When Harriman toured France by automobile in 1903, he wondered why a version could not be adapted to run on rails as a commuter car on lines lacking enough business to warrant full train service. Harriman asked William R. McKeen Jr., UP's chief mechanical officer, to work on the project. McKeen came up with the idea of a self-propelled vehicle powered by a gasoline engine that could do forty to sixty miles an hour on sustained runs at a lower cost than steam or electric-powered vehicles. It was tested in March 1905, and evolved over the next year into a model twice as long with sealed porthole windows that kept weather out and allowed stronger body construction. It was called a "submarine on wheels" and UP put them into use on regular routes throughout its system. They were used for over a decade but fell into disuse after WW II. They left a legacy, however. The McKeen car was an inspiration for the streamliners that Averell Harriman developed for UP during the 1930s." | |
![]() | Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage From the Zentmyer Collection. First published in 1911, Carrie's account of the Strahorn's adventures exploring the Western States was more readable that Robert's autobiography, Ninety Years of Boyhood, which never found a publisher. | |
![]() | Carrie's inscription to Mrs. Underwood 28 Jul 1914 at Old Faithful Inn From the Zentmyer Collection. This image is from our copy of Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage. The inscription was surely addressed to the newly-married Mary Elizabeth Smith, wife of architect Gilbert Stanly Underwood, who in addition designing many of the Grand Lodges of the National Parks, worked extensively with both the Union Pacific and the Oregon Short Line Railroads. | |
![]() | Union Station in Spokane From the Zentmyer Collection. Robert financed and built Union Station on a site between the Spokane River and Trent Ave., now called Spokane Falls Blvd., completing construction in 1914. When it was torn down to make way for the Spokane World's Fair in 1974, demolition crews got more than they bargained for. The building was constructed to last for centuries, requiring the contractor to repeatedly ask for more money. | |
![]() | Monroe St. Bridge Viaduct From the Zentmyer Collection. Robert built a railroad viaduct which crossed the Monroe St. Bridge and the Spokane River at the same place. This structure was completed in 1914, and was an engineering marvel to say the least. Robert was an early champion of the concept of grade separation, that is running railroad lines and automobile traffic at different elevations so as to avoid conflicts. | |
![]() | Brothers John C. and Robert E. Strahorn, Christmas 1924 From the Zentmyer Collection. Probably at the vacant lot in Highland Park, Los Angeles, where John's daughter Mary and her husband George Zentmyer would build a new house in 1925. | |
![]() | Robert Strahorn's Binoculars From the Zentmyer Collection. Personalized with the initials RES on the case. These were given to Gary Zentmyer in 1995 by Nellie Bryant, the widow of Thurlow Bryant, who according to Nellie was Robert's best friend at the time of his death, and who transported Robert's remains from San Francisco back to Spokane for burial. | |
![]() | Hotel Stewart in San Francisco This is where Robert lived out the final years of his life. The building is located at 353 Geary Street, San Francisco, and is now the Handlery Union Square Hotel. | |
![]() | Strahorn Mausoleum From the Zentmyer Collection. This mausoleum was built by Robert E. Strahorn and contains the remains of Robert and his two wives, Carrie Adell Green and Ruby Shannon Garland. It is located in Riverside Memorial Park on the western edge of Spokane. |