Historic Pasadena (California)

HISTORIC
PASADENA
An Illustrated History
by Ann Scheid Lund
A PUBLICATION OF THE PASADENA HISTORICAL MUSEUM

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HISTORIC
PASADENA
An Illustrated History
by Ann Scheid Lund
Published for The Pasadena Historical Museum
Historical Publishing Network
A division of Lammert Publications, Inc.
San Antonio, Texas

PASADENA
HISTORICAL MUSEUM
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
1999
Margaret H. Allen
John Armagost
James C. Arnett
Jennifer Monroe Bode
Peter Boyle
Alice Butler
Donna Frost Cohen
Richard S. Cohen
Joy Colton
Karen Craig
Don Fedde
Cornelia Fuller
Bette Garren
Paul Gedigian
Dr. Judith Goodstein
Richard Hall
Samuel Hunt
John L. Hunter
Jennith Knox
William Kruse
Charles Livingstone
Richard Matlock
James R. Negele
Richard Nevins
Thomas W. Nugent
Dr. William Pickering
James R. Shoch, III
Hugh Smith
James R. Tams
John F. Watkins
Judith Wilson
Lawrence Wilson
Dr. Robert Winter
HONORARY TRUSTEES
Mrs. Y. A. Paloheimo
Peg Stewart
STAFF
Richard S. Cohen
Executive Director
Linda Koci
Administrative Director
Ardis Willwerth
Educator
Tania Rizzo
Archivist
Jaclyn Palmer
Executive Assistant
Pat Sims
Membership
Jane Auerbach
Former Executive Director
Hope Keimon
Former Administrative Director
✧
The Fenyes Mansion, Pasadena Historical Museum.
Dedicated to Alson Clark
whose knowledge has left us but whose inspiration lives on.
First Edition
Copyright © 1999 by Historical Publishing Network. Manuscript Copyright © 1999 Ann Scheid Lund.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to
Historical Publishing Network, 8491 Leslie Road, San Antonio, Texas, 78254. Phone (210) 688-9008.
ISBN: 1-893619-01-X
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-75385
Historic Pasadena: An Illustrated History
author: Ann Scheid Lund
Contributing writer for
“Sharing the Heritage: Sean Steele
Historical Publishing Network
publisher: Ron Lammert
designer: Charles A. Newton, III
vice president: Barry Black
“Sharing the Heritage” representatives: Bari Nessel
Ron Franke
graphic design & production John Barr
Colin Hart
administration: Angela Lake
Donna Mata
Dee Steidle
All photos are courtesy of the Pasadena Historical Museum unless otherwise noted.
PRINTED IN SINGAPORE
HISTORIC PASADENA
2

CONTENTS
5 FOREWORD
6 CHAPTER 1 mountains, valleys, springs & streams
16 CHAPTER 2 a barefoot country
30 CHAPTER 3 the flourishing resort
46 CHAPTER 4 the cream of American culture
58 CHAPTER 5 the city beautiful
72 CHAPTER 6 Croesus at home: Depression and World War
84 CHAPTER 7 postwar Pasadena: new directions
92 CHAPTER 8 the last quarter century
102 CHAPTER 9 Pasadena’s architecture
114 CHAPTER 10 Pasadena’s gardens and parks
126 SHARING THE HERITAGE
208 REFERENCES
209 INDEX
✧
Below: This 1888 landscape by John Harwick Lewis (1842-1927) is entitled Near Camp on the Switzer Trail, California.
COURTESY OF THE REDFERN GALLERY.
CHAPTER I
3

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Space does not permit me to acknowledge all of those who played important parts in producing the first
version of this book in 1986. Their names may be found there, and my gratitude to them remains boundless.
Like the first history, this second history was produced under similar constraints of limited length and limited
time. Minor revisions and corrections have been made to the original seven chapters. However, two new
chapters on architecture and gardens have been added, reflecting my personal interests and the wishes of others
expressed to me since the publication of the first book. A final chapter has been added to cover events
since 1980, where the first history concluded.
In addition, almost all of the photographs are new, and most are from the collections of the Pasadena
Historical Museum. I have tried to select unusual, previously unpublished images for this book.
Wherever possible, the book relies on primary sources, referring to earlier histories only when information
was unavailable elsewhere. Letters, diaries, oral histories, personal papers, and newspaper articles
were the principal source materials. Personal interest and the sources available determined many of the
themes presented: city government, civic beautification, arts and culture, scientific achievements, education,
minority histories, and architecture. The focus has been on those events, people, and achievements
that have made Pasadena well-known or have had a far-reaching influence.
Many people have helped me in producing this history. My thanks go especially to Lawrence Wilson,
my sympathetic editor, and to Robert Winter, who read the two chapters on architecture and gardens and
made many helpful suggestions. Once again, Margaret Meriwether has played a key role; her encouragement
and sharing of her personal library and notes were valuable contributions, to say nothing of her
research which she generously donated to the Pasadena Public Library and the Office of Historic
Preservation and Design at City Hall. Her work remains a basic resource for all future writers and
researchers interested in Pasadena’s history. Carson Anderson’s history of Pasadena’s minority communities,
completed since the publication of my first history, provided essential new information on the roles
of those neglected in earlier histories. I only regret that space limitations restricted the amount of his material
that I could use. My recent oral history interviews with Harriet Doerr and John Crowley have provided
a broader context for my writing. Their intimate knowledge of Pasadena and its people, as well as
their inimitable personal viewpoints, have enriched my life, both personally and professionally.
Carolyn Garner of the Pasadena Public Library deserves special thanks for taking the time in her busy
schedule to respond to my special requests and to make available pictures from the Library’s collection for
illustrations in the book. My thanks also go to members of the Library Committee of the Pasadena Historical
Museum, who have stood by me in times of crisis and who have lent their support to the book. Museum
Archivist Tania Rizzo has shared her enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the Museum’s treasure trove of photographs,
leading me to many images that I might otherwise not have found. She has also contributed many
helpful comments on the text. Library volunteers Lynne Emery and Corinne Bergmann helped with photographs.
Summer intern Tiffany Lee put in many hours retrieving photographs for me from the collection.
Others who have helped in assembling the illustrations are Kim Walters of the Southwest Museum,
Bonnie Ludt of the Institute Archives at Caltech, Tom Callas and Sarah Vure of the Orange County
Museum of Art, Holly and David Davis, James Crandall, John Ripley and Jae Carmichael. Nancy Mouré
shared her comprehensive knowledge of Pasadena artists and paintings, putting me on the track of appropriate
images. Patricia Trenton, with her special knowledge of women artists, was also extremely helpful.
In the end, the Pasadena Historical Museum and its excellent staff, especially Pat Sims, Jackie Palmer, and Ardis
Willwerth, have unstintingly supported this project. My special thanks go to Richard Cohen, the Museum’s executive
director, for his encouragement and support throughout. I would also like to thank Chuck Newton of Historical
Publishing Network for his many talents and his patience and understanding in the production of the book.
Ann Scheid Lund
Pasadena, California
July 1999
HISTORIC PASADENA
4

FOREWORD
Reading a draft copy of Ann Scheid Lund’s sweeping new history of Pasadena while, as it happened,
on vacation away from Pasadena, I was struck far from home by two simple and marvelous
things: how lucky Pasadenans are to live in a city with an important and dramatic past, and how
doubly lucky we are here on the verge of a new century to have a Pasadena historian of Lund’s
grace and knowledge to show us where we’ve been.
Pasadenans have always moved to the city for the usual reasons people come to Southern
California: the weather, the freedom, the distance from wherever they came. But with our intellectual,
scientific and artistic heritage, our racial diversity, our great wealth and great poverty, our
architecture, our Tournament of Roses and Rose Bowl and sporting heritage from early college football
to the Women’s World Cup, our urban wilderness and parkland that is the Arroyo Seco, our
neighborhoods and businesses and our generations of extraordinary people, when they come to
Pasadena they get Southern California and something else as well: a real place with a real past that
is known the world over for its culture of art and innovation.
For the Library Committee and the Board of Trustees of the Pasadena Historical Museum, we
are immensely proud to help bring Ann Scheid Lund’s new history of our community to you. One
warning: as an earlier, similar book by Lund, now long out of print, became scarce, two of my own
copies were permanently borrowed by friends. Hang on to this one with your life!
✧
Elmer Wachtel’s painting House in the
Foothills depicts a ranch house in the
foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Wachtel (1864-1929) lived in Linda Vista
in Pasadena with his wife, Marian
Kavanaugh Wachtel (1876-1954), who
was also a well-known artist.
COURTESY OF KELLEY GALLERY.
Lawrence Wilson
Editor, Pasadena Star-News
August 1999
CHAPTER I
5

HISTORIC PASADENA
6

MOUNTAINS, VALLEYS, SPRINGS & STREAMS
It was then the most picturesque spot of Southern California, with mountains, valleys, springs,
and running silvery streams. You would observe in riding over the [Santa Anita] rancho its having
more than its pro rata of towering and overspreading liveoak trees, manzanita, laurel, and other forest
in comparison with other ranchos.
—William Heath Davis, c. 1845
The Spanish rancheros called it “llave del valle” (key of the valley); later Midwestern settlers coined
the phrase “crown of the valley.” Both described the high land of the San Pasqual Ranch, bounded by
the bold face of the San Gabriel Mountains on the north, overlooking the broad San Gabriel Valley to
the east, and guarding the narrow Eagle Rock Pass to the west. When the settlers came to choose a
name for their village, they wanted “some long Indian word,” and sent a list of phrases—“crown of
the valley,” “peak of the valley,” “key of the valley,” and “hill of the valley”—to a Midwestern missionary
who had worked among the Chippewa in Wisconsin. His suggested phrases all proved too
long, and so the settlers decided on the last four syllables common to all four phrases: Pa/ sa/ de/ na,
meaning “the valley” or “of the valley” in a Chippewa dialect. Thus Pasadena took its name from the
topography of the region and the Midwestern origins of its first settlers.
William Heath Davis’ description of the landscape around the San Gabriel Mission prophesied the
agricultural development of the San Gabriel Valley, which, though as low in rainfall as the rest of
Southern California, had plenty of water. Father Antonio Cruzado, who in 1775 selected the present
site of the San Gabriel Mission near a dependable water supply, reported to his superior: “the soil is
not of the best quality…but with the irrigation ditch…the land will fructify.”
The future site of Pasadena enjoyed an especially abundant supply of water due to the geological
formations underlying it. Pasadena sits on an alluvial fan, deposited by stream systems that eroded
the bedrock of the mountains to the north. The primary stream carved out the great gorge, the Arroyo
Seco, near the western edge of the city. Recognizable bedrock outcroppings poking up above the alluvium
are the San Rafael and Linda Vista hills, Devil’s Gate in the Arroyo, Monk Hill in north Pasadena,
and Raymond Hill in South Pasadena.
Beneath the alluvium is the Raymond Basin, a vast underground reservoir of water held back by
the Raymond Dike. This dike, created by an earthquake fault, is an easily recognized feature: a series
of wooded hills and canyons stretching eastward from Raymond Hill. The Ritz-Carlton Huntington
Hotel, Oak Knoll, the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, and El Molino Viejo are all situated on or
near this wooded escarpment. Leaks in the dike are the sources for numerous springs along the scarp,
which fed Wilson Lake (now drained and the site of Lacy Park), and the lake on Lucky Baldwin’s
ranch (now the Los Angeles County Arboretum). North of the dike, wells fifty or sixty feet deep
would bring forth water, while south of it, a depth of 250 feet was required. This accessibility to water
in the form of wells, springs, and mountain streams made Pasadena a favorable place to settle and to
found an agricultural community.
Before the arrival of the Spanish and Americans in Southern California, earlier peoples had found
the Pasadena area a favorable location. The earliest inhabitants of the valley were the Gabrielino
Indians, so named because of their later attachment to the San Gabriel Mission. The Gabrielinos, also
known as the Tongva, lived throughout the Los Angeles Basin within a semicircle drawn roughly from
Topanga Canyon to San Bernardino to Aliso Creek near Laguna Beach, and including the islands of
Santa Catalina, San Clemente, Santa Barbara, and San Nicholas. They were a prosperous tribe, living
in one of the richest regions of Southern California. Of Shoshonean stock, they formed a wedge
between the Hokan tribes to the north and south, and their influence was felt as far east as the
Colorado River.
✧
Eucalyptus by Frances Gearhart (1869-
1958). Gearhart became well-known for
her woodblock prints. Her studio in
Pasadena was the scene of art exhibitions as
well as the meeting place of the Printmakers
Society of California, organized by
Benjamin Brown.
COURTESY OF HOLLY AND DAVID DAVIS
CHAPTER I
7

✧
Above: Whalebone club handle.
Catalina Island.
(Photographer: Mark R. Harrington)
COURTESY OF SOUTHWEST MUSEUM,
LOS ANGELES. #PO.1937.
Below: Gabrielino pictographs in Bear
Creek Canyon, San Gabriel Mountains.
(Photographer: Cornelius Smith)
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM,
LOS ANGELES. #N.37167.
Their language, of the Uto-Aztecan family,
relates them to the Hopi Indians of the
Southwest and to the Comanche Indians of
the Great Plains. Virtually the only traces of
the Gabrielinos remaining today are in the
place names ending in “-nga” so familiar in
Los Angeles County, though descendants of
the tribe are currently seeking formal recognition.
The ending denotes “place of” or
“place where,” and names such as Cahuenga
(“place of the mountain”) or Topanga (“place
where mountains run out into the sea”)
remind us of the original inhabitants of the
Los Angeles Basin.
Archaeological evidence of the Gabrielinos
is scanty. The primary source of information
has been the accounts of Europeans, who
viewed the Indians as an uncivilized race.
The first Spanish explorers of the Juan
Rodriguez Cabrillo expedition in 1542 were
struck by the nakedness of the Indians as well
as by their lack of embarrassment at their
primeval state. The men wore no clothing,
while the women wore short skirt-like garments
made of the inner bark of trees and of
plant fibers. Robes fashioned of animal skins
such as otter, deer, or rabbit offered protection
in cold or wet weather and at night, and
sandals of yucca fiber were used for walking
on rough terrain. Men wore their hair long,
often braided or caught back in a “horse-tail,”
while women wore their tresses long and
loose, usually with bangs. The hair was kept
clean and glossy by applying clay, which was
allowed to dry and then broken off. Short hair
denoted a state of mourning; the long locks
were singed off upon the death of a spouse or
other close relative.
The Spaniards were also struck by the fair
skin of the Gabrielinos, which gave rise to the
legend of a race of “white Indians.” The women
protected their skin from the sun and weather
by coloring themselves with red ochre paint;
younger women used the paint as a decorative
cosmetic. Part of the daily ritual of all the
Gabrielinos was the morning bath, after which
they dried off around the breakfast campfire.
Their principal food, the acorn, was gathered
in great quantities from the oak woodlands
that once covered large portions of the
Los Angeles area. The acorns were pounded
into a meal, which was then leached to make it
more palatable. Other plants and seeds also
formed part of their diet, especially tender
shoots of yucca. Small and large animals were
hunted by the men; deer, antelope, rabbits,
gophers, and rats were snared or hunted and
eaten. Insects such as grasshoppers and caterpillars
were also part of the diet.
Metates (flat grinding stones) and mortars
and pestles were used to prepare food. Pottery
was uncommon, as the Gabrielinos preferred
to use cooking utensils made from steatite
(soapstone), a valued commodity obtained
from Catalina Island. Soapstone was also used
HISTORIC PASADENA
8

for pipes and ceremonial carvings. Other
implements, such as saws, fishhooks, and needles,
were fashioned from animal bones, while
baskets were used for countless purposes and
reflected a high degree of artistry.
Early accounts describe circular domed
dwellings, framed in willow and thatched with
tule, a kind of reed grass, grouped together to
form villages which were concentrated along
streams or near springs. The Raymond dike,
with its oak-forested canyons, streams, and
springs, provided abundant food and water.
Settlements located along it were Aleupkingna,
near the lake on the Santa Anita Ranch;
Acurangna, near La Presa Street and
Huntington Drive; Sisitcanongna, in a wooded
area near the present San Gabriel Mission; and
Sonangna, on the present-day grounds of San
Marino High School.
In Pasadena itself, the banks of the Arroyo
Seco were favorable sites for Indian settlements.
Oak groves provided acorns, and the Indians
probably also harvested wild grains from the
flat plain east of the riverbank. Archaeological
remains have been found in Pasadena in areas
near the Arroyo. Indian artifacts, mostly stone
implements, have been turned up along the
Arroyo during excavations for the Orange
Grove Reservoir on North Orange Grove
Boulevard and for the Sheldon Reservoir on
North Arroyo Boulevard near La Cresta Drive.
Artifacts have also been uncovered on property
on La Cresta Drive, on the site of Linda Vista
School, and in the San Rafael area.
The Gabrielinos remain one of the least documented
of Southern California Indians,
because by the time systematic studies of the
region’s Indian culture had begun, most of the
Gabrielinos were extinct. During the 200 years
that passed between the first contact with the
Spaniards in 1542 and the colonization of
1769, the decimation of the people by diseases
to which they had no immunity had already
begun. The estimated population at the time of
the arrival of the Spaniards was a mere 5,000;
by 1900, the Gabrielinos had virtually disappeared
as a people, destroyed by disease,
dietary deficiencies, dispersal, and forced
reduction of their population.
Although Cabrillo first landed at Santa
Catalina Island in the sixteenth century, it was
not until 1771 that the Spanish established
themselves in the San Gabriel Valley with a mission
located near what is now Whittier
Narrows. Named by Father Junipero Serra as La
Misión del Santo Arcangel San Gabriel de Los
Temblores, the San Gabriel Mission was moved
to its present site in 1775 under the leadership
of the Franciscan priest, Antonio Cruzado, who
selected a site just south of the Raymond Dike,
where streams and springs were plentiful.
When the de Anza expedition passed
through in 1776, Father Pedro Font, who was
traveling with de Anza, reported that three
buildings “partly adobe, but chiefly logs and
tule” existed: one long shed housed the missionaries
and also contained a storehouse and
granary; a separate shed served as a chapel; and
a third shed as a guardhouse for the eight soldiers.
Five hundred Indians lived in traditional
tule huts, separated from the mission buildings
by an irrigation ditch. Father Font also reported
on the rich pasturelands and the fine herds:
“The cows which they have are very fat and
they give much and rich milk, with which they
make cheese and very good butter.” Sheep and
hogs were also raised, and traveller George
Yount reported that the pastureland was covered
with wild oats, which kept the animals fed
continuously, except for a month or two at the
end of the dry season. Wheat was the preferred
crop at the mission in the early years; corn,
beans, squash, and grapes were also raised,
with the Indians providing the labor.
Father Font described the conversion of the
Indians as voluntary but noted that if converted
they were obliged to live at the mission and
that they were chased and punished if they
attempted to leave. Occasionally the Indians
were allowed to leave to visit relatives or harvest
acorns, and they often returned with new
converts. Font related that the Indians liked the
Spanish pozole (porridge) better than their
native foods “and so these Indians are usually
caught by the mouth.”
As the mission expanded its agriculture and
land holdings, destroying the oak groves and
wild plants, diverting the water from its natural
courses, and introducing cattle and sheep,
it became more difficult for the Indians of
the valley to survive, dependent as they were
on acorns and other wild plants, and on game
✧
Top: Portrait of Mission Indian woman
at the San Gabriel Mission.
(Photographer: Catherine Soper)
COURTESY OF SOUTHWEST MUSEUM,
LOS ANGELES. #N.20056.
Portrait of Indian man, Rogerio Rocha,
at San Fernando Mission.
(Photographer: Charles F. Lummis)
COURTESY OF SOUTHWEST MUSEUM,
LOS ANGELES. #N.22262
CHAPTER I
9

✧
Before the arrival of Pasadena’s founders,
sheep and cattle grazed throughout
the San Gabriel Valley.
HISTORIC PASADENA
10
for food. The superior weapons of the
Spaniards ensured that they would control the
territory they chose, pushing the Indian population
onto less desirable lands or up into the
mountains and disrupting their trade routes.
Eventually most of the Indians were forced to
join the mission in order to survive, conversions
that could hardly be genuine.
Mission San Gabriel’s only Indian revolt
occurred in 1785. It was led by a young Indian
woman, Toypurina, said to be a witch and to
possess magical powers. She persuaded warriors
from surrounding villages to attack the
mission by night to rid the land of the invaders.
The Spaniards learned of the plot, however,
and the attack failed. Toypurina was exiled to
Mission San Carlos Borromeo; ironically, a few
years later she married a Spanish soldier, by
whom she had four children.
As time passed and the prosperity of the
mission increased, more buildings were added
to the mission compound. In 1795, the present
mission church was begun. It was the third
church building on the site, following the original
chapel of tule and a later adobe church.
The new church was considerably more ambitious,
for it was built of stone and mortar and
had a barrel-vaulted roof. Historians have
noted a resemblance to the cathedral in
Córdoba, one of the most monumental examples
of Moorish architecture in Spain. The
unusual pyramidal caps of the massive buttresses
supporting the church walls, as well as
the attempt at vaulting, imply some degree of
architectural sophistication in the builders.
As the church neared completion, cracks in
the vaulted ceiling appeared. These grew larger
after an earthquake in 1803, and so the impressive
vault was pulled down and replaced first
by a roof of bricks and mortar, later by a roof of
timbers and tiles. The flat ceiling in the present
church gives no indication of the former vaulted
heights of the first roof or the massive corbelled
cross-beams of the later roofs.
The most familiar feature of San Gabriel
Mission church is the campanario, or bell
tower, on the southwest corner of the building.
This picturesque “pierced-wall” bell tower with
five bells has been the subject of numerous
paintings and remains a favorite of photographers.
It has also inspired the design of a number
of later buildings, including the Mission
Playhouse just to the west (now San Gabriel
Civic Auditorium), and the initial design of
Pasadena City Hall. The curvilinear gable of the
campanario and the asymmetrical placement of
its bells lend it a naive rustic character. Yet the
earliest representation of the mission, a painting
by Ferdinand Deppe from 1832, shows a
symmetrical campanario of six bells. Deppe was
working from a sketch he made in 1828, and
he may have used artistic license to create a
design he found more appealing aesthetically.
Shortly after the blessing of the church in
1805, Father José María de Zalvidea took
charge of the mission, and it was during his

tenure (1806-1827) that the mission experienced
its greatest productivity and economic
growth. Father Zalvidea has been variously
characterized as “austere,” a man of “great managerial
ability,” “a severe and rigid disciplinarian,”
“harsh,” “cruel,” and a “man of iron.”
There is no doubt that Zalvidea resorted to the
whip whenever the Indians infringed on his
stringent regulations regarding work and
behavior. An ascetic himself, Zalvidea is reported
to have worn a belt of iron spikes next to his
skin and to have indulged in self-flagellation.
Despite the considerable human cost, Father
Zalvidea developed the already prosperous San
Gabriel Mission into one of the most productive
and richest missions in Alta California.
Wheat, corn, and barley were grown on
mission lands, and extensive vineyards were
planted. Fruits in the mission gardens included
oranges, citrons, limes, apples, peaches, pears,
pomegranates, and figs. At first, flour was
made by the Indian method of grinding with
metates, but in 1816 the first gristmill in
California was built at the mouth of a canyon
above the mission. The water supply proved
undependable and the inefficent design of the
millwheel and the dampness of the site forced
the workers to build a second mill, just south
of the mission church. That mill has since disappeared,
leaving The Old Mill (El Molino
Viejo) as a minor monument, now owned by
the City of San Marino and open as a museum.
Secularization of the missions occurred in
1833. The Mexican government issued a
decree transforming the missions into parish
churches but failing to specify the disposition
of church properties. Early settler Hugo Reid,
in writings based on the memory of his Indian
wife, Victoria, who had lived at the mission,
described the fate of the imposing and wealthy
institution. Timber roofs were dismantled and
became firewood, cattle were slaughtered,
goods were handed out to the Indians. Reid
wrote that “the vineyards were ordered to be
cut down, which, however, the Indians refused
to do. It did not require long to destroy what
years took to establish.” Local ranchers helped
themselves to cattle. Food supplies were scarce
for the Indians, who had become dependent on
the mission for their livelihood. According to
Reid, most of the Gabrielinos left their native
region and moved north, while other tribes
from the south moved into the San Gabriel
Valley, creating a glut of cheap labor. Old and
frail Indians were kept at the mission by the
padres, while others sought work on the ranchos
in the area.
After secularization, the Mexican government
carved up the mission lands into
ranches; portions of two of these ranches,
✧
Left: The rushing stream of the Arroyo Seco
was bordered by trees and water-loving plants.
Above: George Stoneman and his wife Mary,
shown here in 1864, were among those who
settled in Southern California after the Civil
War. His ranch, 400 acres purchased from
Benjamin Wilson, was known as “Los
Robles” (The Oaks). Stoneman served as
Governor of California from 1883-1887.
Below: This early photograph of the Old
Mill shows its condition around 1900, before
it was converted for use as a clubhouse for
the Pasadena Country Club. It was later
restored by Henry Huntington’s daughter-inlaw,
Leslie Green Huntington Brehm.
CHAPTER I
11

✧
Above: “Don Benito” Wilson came to Los
Angeles in 1841. Later he settled on the Lake
Vineyard Ranch in the San Gabriel Valley.
After selling his interest in the San Pasqual
Ranch to Pasadena’s first settlers, he subdivided
part of Lake Vineyard, donating a large parcel
at Colorado and Fair Oaks for a school.
Above, right: Early visitors were drawn
to the natural wonders of the area, such
as Eaton Falls in Eaton Canyon, just east
of Pasadena.
(Photographer: Jarvis)
Below: Wilson’s Lake (named for Benjamin
D. Wilson) was also called Kewen’s Lake,
after the Kewen family that once lived in
the Old Mill. A natural lake formed in a
depression to the east of the mill on what is
now the site of Lacy Park in San Marino.
HISTORIC PASADENA
12
Rancho San Pasqual and Rancho Santa Anita,
make up part of present-day Pasadena. Rancho
San Pasqual, the westernmost part of the mission
lands, was deeded in 1835 to Juan
Mariné, husband of Eulalia Pérez de Guillen,
who claimed she had received the land for her
long service to the Indians at San Gabriel
Mission. Rancho San Rafael comprised that
part of present-day Pasadena west of the
Arroyo Seco, as well as Highland Park,
Glendale, and Burbank. San Rafael was given
to Jóse María Verdugo, a Spanish soldier, in
two Spanish land grants in 1784 and 1798.
Scotsman Hugo Reid gained possession of
Santa Anita Ranch through his wife, Victoria,
and received provisional title to it in 1841.
Reid and his family had lived in an imposing
two-story house in the settlement of San
Gabriel near the mission, but after acquiring
Santa Anita, they began spending more and
more time on the ranch. Their one story adobe
house was built at the edge of a lake and shaded
by tall trees (now part of the Los Angeles
County Arboretum). William Heath Davis,
who visited the Reids a number of times, wrote
glowingly of the comfort, hospitality, and fine
food that the Reids provided for their guests:
Reid was a cultivated and educated man, a
big-hearted man, a thorough accountant, and
bred as a merchant in his own country…. The
hospitality shown to McKinley and myself, not
only by Reid himself but by his Indian wife,
was sumptuous. A Castilian lady of standing
could not have bestowed on us any greater
attention or graciousness.
After several years of financial reverses and
mounting debts Reid was forced to sell his
ranch in 1847, and it eventually passed to
investors William Corbitt and Albert Dibblee in
1858. Dibblee, a New Yorker who had become
prominent in San Francisco business circles,
and Corbitt, a Los Angeles trader, sold the
ranch in two parts to William Wolfskill and
Leonard Rose in the 1860s. Wolfskill, a pioneer
trader and early citrus grower, had long had his
eye on Santa Anita. He bought the eastern portion
of the ranch (later owned by E.J. “Lucky”
Baldwin), now the site of the city of Arcadia.
Rose, a German immigrant, purchased about
1,300 acres of the western portion of Santa
Anita, in what is now east Pasadena. Calling his
new ranch “Sunny Slope,” Rose proceeded to
plant extensive vineyards and orchards.
According to Rose’s son, Leonard Jr., his
father chose to locate in the San Gabriel Valley
because of the accessibility of water, especially
the constant springs that rose from the formation
of the Raymond Dike, and the fact that
wells of only fifty to sixty feet deep would bring
forth plentiful water.

Rose was an energetic and ambitious man,
who created one of the most outstanding vineyards
in Southern California. His other great
passion was fine racehorses, which he stabled
and bred on the southern portion of his ranch.
Initially, Rose dared to plant his vines without
relying on irrigation, thus obtaining a sweeter
crop than that grown on irrigated lands,
although his yield was not so great. Although at
first he planted the common mission grape,
Rose soon imported cuttings from France and
Germany. There were about thirty-five distinct
varieties of grapes at Sunny Slope, and Rose
produced all types of wines, both red and
white as well as brandy, sherry, port, and other
dessert wines. In 1867, he began shipping to
New York, and shortly thereafter, Rose himself
began to make annual trips east to market his
wine. Rose’s brandy was very successful, and in
a time when brandy was believed to have
strong curative powers, druggists across the
country stocked Rose’s Sunny Slope Brandy.
Originally, Rose employed about a dozen
Indians from the ranchería, or Indian village,
called Acurangna near the south end of his
property. During the 1870s, however, Rose
expanded his operations greatly, and he began
using Chinese laborers. He purchased an additional
640 acres of the Santa Anita Ranch,
which he planted with more vines, as well as
200 acres of oranges and 100 of English walnuts
and fruit trees. Rose also expanded his
vineyard operation by offering cuttings for sale
and buying the grapes of other growers. Rose
supplied railroad magnate Leland Stanford
with a million cuttings for his 2,000-acre vineyard
near Sacramento. By 1880, his goal of
1,000 acres in vines was nearly reached and his
workers were kept busy with orange shipments
in the spring, preparations for the vintage during
the summer, and wine-making in the fall.
Perkins and Stern, Rose’s New York dealers,
took over the business side of Sunny Slope in
the mid-1870s and sent a German wine-maker
to the ranch to take charge of the wine-making.
In the late 1870s Rose built a new distillery and
steam crushers, making Sunny Slope the largest
winery in Southern California if not the state.
The original capacity had grown from 5,000
gallons annually to a daily capacity of 5,000 gallons.
All this was housed in an impressive complex
that included two brick buildings, two and
three stories in height. Several large frame warehouses,
some winemakers’ cottages, and a large
cooper shop completed the establishment.
During the 1870s, Sunny Slope became a
tourist attraction. Tourists came to view the
prize horses that Rose was raising, to pick
oranges at fifty cents a dozen, and to taste the
wines. Rose’s passion for racehorses was so
great, however, that he eventually decided to
✧
Above: Devil’s Gate, a narrow breach in the
bedrock of the Arroyo Seco, got its name
from the crags on the right where some saw
the outline of a profile of the Devil. This was
the area where Pasadena’s founders got
their initial water supply.
(Photographer: G. L. Rose)
Below: Sunny Slope ranch comprised almost
2,000 acres, much of it planted in
vineyards. Leonard Rose also raised and
sold cuttings of his 35 varieties of grapes,
providing the starter stock for many
California vineyards.
CHAPTER I
13

✧
Judge Benjamin Eaton and his wife hosted
Daniel Berry from Indianapolis at the Fair
Oaks ranch house in 1873. Berry’s restful
night in the clear air of the San Gabriel
foothills was decisive in his purchase of land
nearby and the founding of the city of
Pasadena. Here Eaton and his wife sit in
front of their later home, “Hillcrest.”
HISTORIC PASADENA
14
sell Sunny Slope in order to devote himself
completely to his horse ranch, called
“Rosemeade,” located on 500 acres he had purchased
near El Monte.
Shortly before selling Sunny Slope, Rose
subdivided a portion of the ranch, naming it
Lamanda Park, a combination of his wife’s first
name, Amanda, and his own first initial, “L.”
Lamanda Park remained a small village, a railroad
stop where tourists headed for the Sierra
Madre Villa Hotel alighted and growers
shipped their products to the East. Sunny
Slope was sold in 1887 for over a million dollars
to a British syndicate; at the time the ranch
employed over 150 workers—more than a
hundred Chinese, thirty Mexicans, and twenty
whites—and claimed a net profit of $275,000
annually from wine, grapes, and oranges.
As for Rancho San Pasqual, it was apparently
not especially desirable land, as its early
owners made little effort to use it for either
grazing or agriculture. The first grantee, Juan
Mariné, died before obtaining full title, and
despite his wife Eulalia’s claim that the land
was actually hers, Mariné’s son, Fruto, sold his
claim to José Pérez for the sum of six horses
and ten head of cattle. Pérez and a comrade,
Enriqué Sepúlveda, were granted the ranch in
1840, and they built two small houses near the
Arroyo Seco. Pérez died shortly thereafter, and
Sepúlveda abandoned the property, opening
the way for Manuel Garfias, a prominent Los
Angeles citizen, to obtain the land in 1843 by a
grant from Governor Manuel Micheltorena.
Garfias’ claim for 13,500 acres was confirmed
by the American government in 1854 and formally
granted in 1863.
Garfias built a large hacienda on the ranch,
which attracted much attention in the area for
its magnificence. Judge Benjamin S. Eaton visited
the ranch in 1858 and wrote: “It was a one
and a half story adobe building with walls two
feet thick, all nicely plastered inside and out,
and had an ample corridor [porch] extending
all around. It had board floors, and boasted of
green blinds [shutters]—a rare thing in those
days. This structure cost $5,000—in fact, it
cost Garfias his ranch, for he had to borrow
money to build it.”
Garfias had borrowed the money from Dr.
John S. Griffin, an army surgeon who had
come to California during the Mexican-
American War. In 1854 Griffin settled in Los
Angeles, where he started a medical practice.
He also invested in banking and water enterprises
as well as in large tracts of land. He had
many business dealings with Benjamin D.
Wilson, a former trader and trapper who had
come to Los Angeles in 1841 and who lived
near the San Pasqual Ranch. When Garfias forfeited
his ranch in 1858 to pay his debt, Griffin
acquired the land for the amount of the debt
and the accumulated interest, plus $2,000. In
1859, Wilson was named as the titleholder to
the land for the recorded sum of $1,800, probably
in settlement of a debt that Griffin owed
him. A year later Griffin gained back a one-half

interest in the San Pasqual Ranch for $4,000.
Because of this joint ownership by Griffin and
Wilson, Pasadena settlers were to have a difficult
time getting both partners to agree to sell
part of the San Pasqual Ranch in 1873.
While Griffin lived in Los Angeles, Wilson
lived on his Lake Vineyard Ranch, purchased
from Victoria Reid in the 1850s. A prominent
figure in early Los Angeles history, Wilson
served as the city’s second mayor and as a state
senator. Like Rose, Wilson developed his ranch
into vineyards and citrus trees, with smaller
acreages devoted to walnuts and olives. In
1874, a visitor to Lake Vineyard reported that
over a million oranges were expected to be
shipped that season from about 2,000 orange
trees on both Lake Vineyard and Mt. Vineyard
estates (the latter being the adjacent property
of James De Barth Shorb, Wilson’s son-in-law).
Wilson and Griffin built ditches from Devil’s
Gate in the Arroyo out onto the mesa of the San
Pasqual Ranch in what is now north Pasadena.
This was the first attempt to irrigate the high land
that lay north and east above the Raymond Dike
and the Arroyo Seco, the two principal sources of
water on the ranch. These ditches were an
important asset in the sale of part of the San
Pasqual to early Pasadena settlers; the existence
of the ditches reassured the settlers that irrigation
of this arid upland was indeed possible.
At various times, Wilson and Griffin did sell
off portions of the San Pasqual Ranch. One of
the earliest sales was to Mrs. Albert Sidney
Johnson, widow of a Civil War general. Mrs.
Johnson was also the sister of Dr. Griffin, and
she named her ranch after the old Griffin plantation
in Virginia, “Fair Oaks.” Mrs. Johnson
built a modest home there, but stayed only a
short while. In 1865, Judge Benjamin S. Eaton
took over her ranch, which comprised about
260 acres now in northeast Pasadena and
Altadena west of Eaton Canyon. The ranch
house, moved and remodeled, still stands in
Altadena. In 1868 or 1869 Wilson and Griffin
sold 5,000 acres to James Craig, who was acting
as agent for Alexander Grogan of San
Francisco. This Grogan Tract was bordered on
the east by Santa Anita Avenue (now Altadena
Drive), and originally extended west of Lake
Avenue, but a portion of that was repurchased
by Wilson later to make up his Lake Vineyard
Tract. Craig carved out for himself about 150
acres of the eastern portion of the land, naming
his ranch L’Hermitage. Craig built an adobe
farmhouse on the property; it still stands on
Monte Vista Street in east Pasadena and is the
oldest house standing within the city limits. In
1870, Wilson, at Griffin’s behest, sold a large
acreage in north Pasadena to Henry G. Monk of
Boston. This property included Redmont or
Prospect Mount, later known as Monk Hill, the
highest point in north Pasadena (now the site
of Washington School).
After the conclusion of the Mexican-
American War in 1848, when the United States
gained control of Alta California, more and
more Americans from the East and Midwest
migrated to Southern California, gradually
acquiring the former Spanish lands. The land
that had been so hospitable to the Indians, and
had proved adaptable to the grazing and agriculture
introduced by the Spanish missionaries
and ranchers, was further developed by the
newcomers. Hugo Reid, Leonard Rose, and
Benjamin Wilson planted extensive orchards
and vineyards, using the plentiful water supplies
to irrigate portions of their large acreages.
During the third quarter of the nineteenth century,
portions of the large ranches, Santa Anita
and San Pasqual, were sold off. The western
portion of Rancho San Pasqual, used only for
sheep grazing, remained untilled, but
promised to be as productive as the Reid, Rose,
and Wilson lands. It awaited only settlers to
develop its water supply, to till the land, and to
plant vines and citrus trees, in order to produce
a rich agricultural bounty.
✧
Above: Dr. John S. Griffin owned a halfinterest
in the San Pasqual Ranch. When
Berry wanted to buy the ranch, Griffin was
delighted, since he needed money. Wilson,
however, was less enthusuastic, and it took
several months to persuade Wilson to agree
to the sale.
Below: This early zanja, or water ditch,
shows how many of the early irrigation
ditches must have looked.
CHAPTER I
15

HISTORIC PASADENA
16

A BAREFOOT COUNTRY
California is a new unfinished country, and [doesn’t] have a Presbyterian Church on every corner
and a sidewalk and a sewing society in front of every house. All is new, romantic, rude, quaint,
peculiar. The wants of the people are fewer than in a rigorous climate and of course they live
with less attention to conveniences about the house than in the East. But what of that? If one waits
for Eastern improvements before coming, land will be so dear that few can buy it. So I am willing
to take the country barefooted and wait for shoes and stockings.
—Daniel M. Berry, 1874
In May 1873, following an especially harsh winter in the Midwest, a group of friends in
Indianapolis gathered to discuss the possibility of moving to a more favorable climate. According to
their leader, Dr. Thomas Balch Elliott, they considered Texas, Florida, and Louisiana but finally settled
on Southern California as “the spot uniting the blessings of the tropics without their heat, malaria
and enervating influences.” Calling themselves the California Colony of Indiana, the group advertised
for additional investors, and before long, Elliott wrote in his History of the San Gabriel Orange
Grove Association, “flocks of letters came snowing in” from hopeful immigrants all over the northern
states and even Canada. Over a hundred families eagerly joined the colony for a small sum, pledging
a larger investment once land was found.
Using some of the funds thus raised, the officers sent Elliott’s brother-in-law, Daniel Berry, a teacher
and journalist, and General Nathan Kimball to California to prospect for land. They were to look for
50,000 acres of level land (at five dollars an acre), suitable for growing fruit. Believing that California
was flat like the Midwestern prairie, the colonists stipulated that every acre should be alike, with
equal exposure and equal access to water. Berry and Kimball arrived in California in the summer of
1873 and began at once the search for suitable land. Every few days, Berry reported on his progress
by letter to Elliott, leaving a detailed record of his activities.
Much of Berry’s information about California came from a book by Charles Nordhoff titled
California for Health, Pleasure and Residence. In it Nordhoff described the successful colony at
Anaheim, which may have served as a model for the Indianans. Inspired by Nordhoff’s descriptions,
Berry went first to San Diego, where he looked at a number of ranches, but he left after a week,
declaring that San Diego land was overrated and overpriced.
Proceeding to Los Angeles where he settled down at the Pico House in the heart of the town, Berry
began to scout the surrounding region by horseback, stagecoach, and wagon. His first trip was to the
San Gabriel Valley, where Leonard Rose of Sunny Slope showed him the eastern portion of Santa Anita
Ranch, which was available for twenty dollars an acre. Berry was impressed: “It is the first thing we
have seen that has plenty of water in sight. Sunny Slope is more than Nordhoff said it was. It is a
kingly place,” Berry enthused. Rose’s orange trees would pay $2,000 an acre the following year, and
the railroad was expected to come through the valley soon, making the land even more valuable. But
unfortunately, Santa Anita was far too expensive for the Indianans.
Searching out the other places described by Nordhoff, Berry visited Anaheim, which was a disappointment—too
sandy and full of mosquitoes and “Dutchmen” (Germans). His report from San
Fernando was somewhat more favorable: 53,000 acres of good land at a reasonable price, but water was
not easily available. As for San Bernardino, the land was cheap at $2.50 an acre, but it was too hot: “Your
face and nose get scalped with the sunshine and you need new hide about twice a week on your countenance.”
Moreover, it was three days’ time for a loaded team to travel from Los Angeles, and after his
trip, Berry complained, “My back is broken with 120 miles of villainous stage riding, but I still live.”
Berry’s descriptions of the rigors of travel in Southern California form some of the most colorful
passages in his letters. After only ten days of scouting, Berry wrote: “You have no idea of the extent
✧
Top: Fair Oaks Avenue looking north from
Union Street in 1886. The large brick house
to the left was the Benjamin Ball residence,
Pasadena’s first brick house.
(Photographer: E. S. Frost & Son)
Bottom: This view of Colorado Street
looking west from Raymond Avenue was
taken in 1885 on the day the railroad came
to Pasadena. The land behind the hedge to
the left was the schoolhouse property, which
was sold at auction the following year.
(Photographer: E. S. Frost & Son)
CHAPTER II
17

✧
Dr. Thomas Balch Elliott and his wife Helen
were the initial organizers of the California
Colony of Indiana in Indianapolis.
and labor of these trips. We have been on the
move vigorously all the time, and if it were not
for the charm of the climate I would be tired
out.” After a month of this, Berry had had
enough: “I wish you were here just to knock
around day and night for a week in canjons
[sic], cactus nettles, jungles, dry river bottoms,
etc. I have been at it 35 days and going again
Monday. It is no longer funny. I want to resign.”
As for the people, Berry found those in San
Bernardino likeable, but the people of the San
Gabriel Valley he described as a special “aristocracy
who work and raise fruit.” According to
Berry, the valley was peopled with Harvard
graduates, judges, lawyers, generals, and exsenators,
all running vineyards or herding
sheep in the healthful air. Chinese and Indians
lent an exotic aura—and did most of the work.
Impressed with Berry’s description of Santa
Anita, Elliott authorized an offer of fifteen dollars
an acre for the ranch. In the meantime,
however, Berry had returned once again to the
San Gabriel Valley and found another tract
which was cheaper and just as fine: “Found a
tract of 2,800 acres at $10 an acre about 4
miles from town, about 500 acres a wooded
and watered canyon, suitable for wood and cattle
grazing. The wood is plenty, the water delicious
and cool, leaping out of the rocks on the
side in little cascades.”
This idyllic place, Berry wrote, was
...right in line with all the best orange
orchards and vineyards here and just as
good, with more water…. I slept over there
last night in the clear transpicuous air and
awoke to the music of a thousand linnets and
blackbirds in the evergreen oaks. It was the
sweetest sleep of years. The land is not on the
market, but the brother-in-law of the owner
lives near and wants us over there…. I am
just agonizing to buy the whole thing, but
can’t do it.
That brother-in-law was Judge Benjamin
Eaton of Fair Oaks Ranch and agent for the sale
of Dr. Griffin’s portion of the San Pasqual
Ranch. Eaton was related to Griffin through his
first wife, sister of Dr. Griffin’s wife. Berry, who
suffered from asthma, had spent the night with
Eaton at Fair Oaks, and in the dry, warm air of
the foothills, high above the fog of Los Angeles,
he was able to sleep the whole night through.
That night’s sleep may have been the decisive
factor in Berry’s choice of San Pasqual. In any
case, Berry wrote glowing letters to Elliott
about the land, and no property that he saw
afterward compared to it.
Berry foresaw more than fruit-growing in
the future of the settlement. He wrote to Elliott:
✧
This composite map of early Pasadena shows the 1874
division of San Gabriel Orange Grove Association land to the
left. Note the parkway-like design of Orange Grove Avenue,
with landscaped medians and circles around native oak trees.
MAP COURTESY OF MRS. ROBERT H. PETERSON.
Send along…[an] enlightened man to build a
sanitarium next to the mountains. It would be
filled in a day and every visitor would be an
advertiser of our fruit to all sections of the
country.… Then we want a Polytechnic
School. The mountains form a natural observatory
in a clear air, and then for geology send
Dr. Fletcher.
HISTORIC PASADENA
18

In an uncanny way, Berry’s words prophesied
the future of Pasadena as a health resort, the
establishment of the California Institute of
Technology, the founding of Mt. Wilson
Observatory, and the role of Caltech as one of the
foremost geologic research centers in the world.
It was on September 12, 1873, that Berry
discovered the land he wanted, but on
September 18 a financial panic swept the
nation, and most of the potential colony
investors disappeared. Land values in
Indianapolis plummeted, and Berry’s comrades
could no longer come up with sufficient cash
for the purchase. Berry was deeply discouraged,
but instead of giving up, he opened an
office in Los Angeles and became an agent himself,
taking potential investors out to San
Pasqual or “Muscat” (named for the grapes the
colonists expected to grow), to convince them
to join in the undertaking. (Berry and Elliott
had devised a code for telegraphic messages,
referring to San Pasqual as “Muscat,” which
should be remembered as the first name for
Pasadena.) Despite the uncertainty of the financial
situation, Berry pushed ahead in negotiating
for Muscat, concealing from its owners the
dire straits of his Indiana backers. Berry
guessed rightly that the land could be easily
subdivided and sold, making a handsome profit
for all investors.
Berry’s first obstacle was dealing with the
two owners Wilson and Griffin, who had a
falling out over the sale of the land.
Boundaries were drawn and redrawn, water
rights were negotiated and renegotiated, all
with the help of Eaton and Shorb, who were
eager to facilitate an agreement. Griffin was
angry with Wilson for selling land along the
irrigation ditch to two settlers, but he ended
up paying Wilson an extra $1,000 to get the
settlers off the land. Wilson was reluctant to
give up any water rights, but Shorb worked
out a water plan with Berry and tried to bring
Wilson round to accepting it. Wilson also
insisted on keeping the north portion with his
ditch for himself.
Eaton was willing to go in with Berry and
Elliott to help close the deal and offered to provide
the colony his experience with waterlines
and irrigation systems. (Eaton had superintended
construction of water systems in Los
Angeles.) Thomas Croft, an investor with ready
cash, arrived from Indiana in October and was
delighted with the land Berry had chosen. John
Baker of Indiana was already in Los Angeles,
working as a blacksmith. Other investors that
Berry recruited in Los Angeles were William
Clapp, a businessman from Massachusetts,
A. W. Hutton, city attorney of Los Angeles, and
Albert O. Bristol of Chicago.
Gathering these and several others together,
Berry finally formed the San Gabriel Orange
Grove Association on November 11, 1873,
which was incorporated under the laws of the
state of California. The name was chosen,
according to Berry, because of the good reputation
of San Gabriel Valley oranges; Berry
thought it would help the settlers market their
fruit. Besides, Berry wrote, “the name Indiana
sounds too much like colds, coughs, chills, etc.
to suit us here.”
It took several weeks to get Wilson’s agreement
on the division of the land and the water,
but finally on December 18, Griffin and Wilson
signed the bargain. Croft wrote in his diary, “We
all feel good,” but Berry was overjoyed, for the
deal included almost 4,000 acres, stretching
northward to the base of the mountains. “That
is enough for our little $25,000 in the fairest
portion of California,” Berry exulted. The price
was only $6.31 an acre, close to the original $5
an acre that the colonists were willing to pay.
The only disadvantage was that the settlers
would have to bring in their own water from
Devil’s Gate, instead of using Wilson’s ditch.
After weeks of stalling, why did Wilson
finally agree to the bargain, even throwing in
✧
Above: Described as “a slender, pale,
weak-looking, round-shouldered man,
with a stove-pipe hat, and other
characteristic features that proclaimed
him a ‘tender-foot,’” Daniel M. Berry spent
months traveling the rough country of
Southern California searching for land to
buy for the Indiana Colony.
Below: The San Rafael Winery was started
by Prudent Beaudry in the 1870s. The
winery building, located on the edge of
Pasadena’s only natural lake, Johnston’s
Lake, was converted into a residence in the
1950s and still stands.
CHAPTER II
19

✧
One of the original founders, Colonel Jabez
Banbury, came from Iowa in 1874. His
parcel of land was 60 acres running from
Fair Oaks to the Arroyo Seco between
Del Mar and Waverly, and his was the third
house built in the colony. By the 1880s,
however, he had built himself a mansion
in the foothills of Altadena, called
“Fairmont,” where he invested in 1000
acres with his fellow Iowans, the Woodburys.
HISTORIC PASADENA
20
an extra 1,100 acres (the wastelands of
Altadena)? Berry wrote: “Wilson assured me
today that he consented to our new lines giving
us 1,100 acres extra solely to get us there
to develop the land.” The clever Wilson knew
that his own land adjoining the association’s
would be worth far more once the new settlement
was established.
During the protracted negotiations for the
land, there were many times when it seemed
that the scheme would almost certainly fall
apart. Berry, however, kept working both sides,
bargaining with Wilson while trying to maintain
enthusiasm for the land in Elliott and the
Indianans. Letters between Wilson and Griffin
reveal how Griffin alternately cajoled and threatened
his partner, who resisted up to the end.
At one point, seven of the major Indiana
investors pulled out, believing that Berry was
trying to make a commission for himself on the
sale. This nearly killed the negotiations, and
Thomas Croft wrote despairingly in his diary:
“I can’t [expect] any help from them. I must
buy it myself or fail. Berry and Elliott will never
close any deal . . .” But Berry kept his own
counsel, continuing to deal with Wilson as
though nothing were amiss, and meanwhile
reassuring the Indianans of his honesty. In the
end, the deed for the land was finally made to
Thomas Croft on the day after Christmas,
1873, for $6,250 cash down, with $18,750 to
be paid within a year. Croft’s diary laconically
records the following days: “December 28:
Attended Church. December 29: Make deed
San Pascual Rancho to San Gabriel Orange
Grove Association. January 2: Got wagon at
$2.00.” The new settlement had begun.
Once the land had been purchased, the
next step was to divide it equitably among the
various investors. Calvin Fletcher, member of
the original California Colony of Indiana,
arrived from Indianapolis the day the land was
deeded to Croft and began at once to survey
and subdivide. Elliott credits Fletcher with
laying out the streets and lots as “a charming,
landscape garden with all the evergreen trees
reserved on the avenues and the roads and
parks diverted to save the live oaks.” Fletcher’s
drawing served as Pasadena’s first city plan.
The principal north-south street, named
Park Avenue (now Orange Grove Boulevard),
was laid out to save at least two large live oak
trees in the middle of the street. Fletcher’s plan
called for a series of parks down the middle of
the street, to be planted with orange trees. All
lots fronted on Park Avenue and ran east to Fair
Oaks or west to the Arroyo. At the foot of Park
at Columbia Street was the school site and farther
south at Mission Street was a park named
Sylvan Square. The live oaks to the southwest
along the banks of the Arroyo were set aside as
Live Oak Park, to be used by the community as
a whole. Land to the north in present-day
Altadena was also owned communally.
On January 27, 1874, those investors who
were in California gathered on the knoll southwest
of the present intersection of Walnut and
Orange Grove to choose their land. Other
investors, including Dr. Elliott, sent proxies. Two
years later Dr. Elliott wrote this account: “The
day was, as is usual in this climate, pleasant.
Good cheer, bread, cakes and meats were in full
force; so were the members of the Association
and their families, also some guests from the city
and the Fruit Belt.” The smallest shareholders
were given first choice, and as the land was spoken
for, an unusual harmony prevailed. All
seemed to be satisfied with their shares, making
an auspicious beginning to the new settlement.
Even before the division of the land had been
completed, work had begun on laying the water
system. In January, Berry, Fletcher, and two other

Indianans, A. O. Porter and Perry M. Green,
were planting grape cuttings and laying pipe.
Instead of relying on the more common ditch
irrigation system, the settlers decided to use pipe,
which would be much more reliable and save
water besides. This water system, supplied from
springs and mountain streams, was an important
factor in Pasadena’s early prosperity.
Thomas Croft is credited with having turned
the first furrow with his new plow, and houses
began to spring up almost immediately. Albert
O. Bristol’s house, a board and batten cottage at
the corner of Orange Grove and Lincoln Avenue,
was the first house completed. It was finished
within two weeks after the division of land. John
Baker’s house on Fair Oaks was completed within
a month and Colonel Jabez Banbury’s more
elaborate dwelling was finished in early March.
About this time the harmonious spirit of the settlement
was clouded by complaints about their
land from newly arrived Indiana investors
Vawter and Leavitt. Berry’s patience had worn
thin, for he wrote, “and now [they] want a new
deal after a month had passed, and three houses
are up and there is [sic] 100 acres plowed.” Both
investors soon sold their land at a good profit
(Mrs. Vawter’s was sold to Jeanne Carr) and were
apparently satisfied.
Berry and a number of the other landholders
subdivided and sold off considerable portions
of their holdings during that first year, in
part to meet the payments due to Griffin and
also to help pay for the water system, the cost
of which was assessed to property owners.
Building and planting also required capital,
and investments in fruit trees and grape cuttings
could not be expected to pay off for several
years. The settlers needed other sources of
income to live on until their orange trees and
grapevines began to bear.
By the close of 1875, less than two years
after the founding of the village, forty houses
were up and 10,000 young orange and lemon
trees had been planted. Several thousand
deciduous fruit trees had been set out, as well
as olive trees and 150,000 grapevines. The
roads were bordered by ornamental trees—
pepper trees, Monterey cypress, and eucalyptus—demonstrating
the villagers’ concern for
the beautification of their town.
In 1876, with only a few parcels of the San
Gabriel Orange Grove Association lands
remaining for sale, Benjamin Wilson subdivided
the Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company
Tract, a portion of his land east of the original
settlement. Wilson priced his land at $75 an
acre, more than ten times the price the San
Gabriel Association had paid. The land extended
east from Fair Oaks almost to present-day
Wilson Avenue, and was referred to by the settlers
as the “east side.” Water was brought in
from Wilson’s ditch to serve the new lands.
✧
The mountains behind Pasadena with
Kinneloa, the house of Abbot Kinney,
in the distance.
CHAPTER II
21

✧
Top: Dr. Orville H. Conger, physician from
New York state, persuaded Jeanne Carr
and her husband to move to Pasadena.
His home was on the south side of Colorado
Street just east of Orange Grove.
Above: After camping on the grounds of the
Sierra Madre Villa Hotel, Abbot Kinney
purchased a ranch nearby and established
his home, called Kinneloa.
HISTORIC PASADENA
22
Orange growing had been the dream of the
Indiana settlers, and it became the mainstay of
the new community. The San Gabriel Valley
was already known for producing premium
oranges that brought the highest prices at market.
The rich sandy loam retained moisture,
providing ideal growing conditions, and the
climate was dependably frost-free. The San
Gabriel Valley orange kept well when shipped
over long distances. Shorb boasted of oranges
he had sent to London in 1875 arriving in good
condition, and at about the same time, an article
in the New York Evening Post praised the
firmness and flavor of Sunny Slope oranges.
An orchard of only ten acres was considered
enough to provide a net income of about
$10,000 a year, after expenses. While seedlings
took ten to twelve years to mature, older trees
could be planted, shortening the time from
planting to harvest. The groves were cultivated
regularly during the summer months, and
plowed twice, in the spring and in the fall.
There was much controversy over irrigation
methods, but two methods seemed to be most
popular. The first was a type of drip irrigation,
which fed water slowly and evenly to each tree
through a small hole in the irrigation pipe. The
second required digging a basin around the
tree at the drip line and flooding the basin with
water at regular intervals. Pasadena’s pipe water
system was recognized as the most efficient in
the county, using the least amount of water to
achieve maximum growth and production.
While waiting for trees to mature and bear
fruit, the farmer could plant and harvest crops
such as corn, pumpkins, squash, or melons. Or
he could plant half of his land in orange trees,
using the other half to grow grain or other cash
crops. Insects, gophers, and rabbits were
threats to the young trees, and various sprays
made of tobacco, kerosene, or brine were used
to ward off the pests. A mixture of animal
blood and water applied to the base of the trees
was said to be offensive to rabbits, and gophers
were combated with traps and by flooding the
ground two or three times a year.
The small farmer could do most of the work
himself on his ten-acre plot, but for clearing
the land, and at picking time, laborers were
hired. Although soil and climate were eminently
well-suited to wine grapes, the early
Pasadenans planted mostly raisin grapes, probably
because they frowned on alcohol consumption.
Other fruits, such as apricots,
peaches, pears, figs, prunes, nectarines, plums,
and cherries were grown, as well as nuts, especially
walnuts and almonds. Barley grew as a
volunteer [self-seeding] crop, especially on the
San Rafael hills and north of the village on the
flat mesa land near Woodbury Road east of
Devil’s Gate.
Besides growing crops, many of the early
settlers planted magnificent gardens, beginning
a tradition that was to give Pasadena its reputation
as a “city of gardens.” One of the most
famous gardens in the early years was
Carmelita, which was planned and planted by
Jeanne Carr, horticulturist and leading cultural
figure in early Pasadena. A native of Vermont,
Mrs. Carr had moved to Oakland, California,
with her husband, Dr. Ezra Carr, a noted physician,
chemist, and geologist at the University of
Wisconsin, who accepted an appointment at
the University of California in 1869. Dr. Carr
became superintendent of Public Instruction
for the State of California in 1875, and shortly
thereafter, on a trip to Southern California, the
Carrs became enchanted with the new settlement
on the San Pasqual Ranch.
An old friend, Dr. Orville H. Conger, had
settled in Pasadena, and urged the Carrs to do
the same. Mrs. Carr had spied a forty-two-acre
plot, belonging to Mrs. Vawter, at the northeast
corner of Colorado and Orange Grove Avenue
and stretching east to Fair Oaks, which she
thought would make a fine homestead.
Convinced that the Carrs would be an important
asset to the village, Conger did all he could
to arrange the purchase of the land. In his letters
to Mrs. Carr, Conger called the community
“intelligent and enterprising” and relayed
offers by Los Angeles nurserymen to provide
fruit and other trees gratis to Mrs. Carr. He
offered the Carrs use of water from his own
reservoir and guaranteed to buy their land
from them at no loss, should they change their
minds. Conger completed the negotiations for
the sale in February 1877, but a stroke suffered
by Dr. Carr caused the Carrs to delay their
move to Pasadena.
As early as 1877, however, Jeanne Carr made
a complete map of Carmelita, determining

the location of roads, house, orchards, vineyard,
flower beds, hedges, and shade trees on the
weedy sheep pasture. The first house was built
in 1880, a four-room barn, but five years later
she was able to sell her Fair Oaks frontage for
$2,000 an acre, realizing enough to build a fine
house on the high ground at Orange Grove and
Colorado. Jeanne Carr was instrumental in convincing
Pasadenans to plant hedges instead of
fencing their property, and she herself had the
most interesting hedges in town. Along Orange
Grove Avenue she planted Mexican limes
behind the row of pepper trees lining the street,
and along Colorado Street roses and grapevines
climbed in profusion over a row of four-foot
Monterey cypress trees. The effect was to create,
in her words, “a touch of wildness, as well as to
secure plenteous bloom in spring and color for
autumn thoughts.”
Other notable early gardens were those of
Abbot Kinney at Kinneloa and Charles H.
Hastings at Hastings Ranch. Kinney, a tobacco
millionaire, came to California for his health in
1880 and purchased 500 acres of dry mesa
land near Eaton Canyon, naming the estate
“Kinneloa” (loa means “hill” in Polynesian).
Well-traveled, educated in the great European
universities, and well-connected in Eastern
political and social circles, Kinney proceeded
to create a country estate in the grand manner.
He tunneled into the mountainside to obtain
water, planted thousands of fruit trees and
grapevines, as well as exotic plants from all
over the world. He was especially fond of the
eucalyptus, experimenting with new varieties
and also writing a book about the species. He
attributed its introduction to California to his
friend Jeanne Carr. An ardent conservationist,
Kinney served as chairman of the State Board
of Forestry and of a state commission on
Yosemite Valley. In Southern California, Kinney
is best remembered as the visionary developer
of Venice.
Charles Hastings inherited Hastings Ranch
from his father, a department store magnate, in
1884. The younger Hastings, a graduate of
Cornell University in horticulture, turned the
ranch into a garden of rare plants, many
imported from India. Hastings was also a collector
of fine horses and dogs, which he kept
on the ranch.
Early social life in Pasadena centered
around the churches. The Presbyterians
founded the first church, constructing a
small frame building in 1876 near California
and Orange Grove, which was developing as
the center of the village. In 1877, the
Methodists finished their church just north
of the intersection. By the mid-1880s, most
of the major denominations were represented
in Pasadena; the Episcopalians, Society of
Friends, Baptists, Disciples of Christ,
Universalists, Congregationalists, Catholics,
and African Methodist Episcopalians all had
organized churches.
The first concern of the settlers, however,
was to establish a school. In the fall of 1874,
Jennie Clapp, the daughter of William Clapp,
began formal instruction at the Clapp home on
Orange Grove. A small one-room schoolhouse
on the Clapp property was finished in January
1875, and in 1876 it was moved to a new fiveacre
site at Colorado and Fair Oaks, donated by
Benjamin Wilson. The new location, however,
was deemed too far by those living on the
south end of town. The “southsiders” formed
their own school district, building a school on
Columbia Hill, which became the nucleus of
the new community of South Pasadena.
✧
The first Methodist church, the second
church to be built in Pasadena, stood on
the corner of Orange Grove and Palmetto.
Dedicated in 1877, the building was moved
to Colorado Street in 1883. When the
Methodists completed a new church
in 1887, this building was sold to the
Universalists.
CHAPTER II
23

Pasadenans were not long content with a
simple school, however. The steady growth of
the community led to the building of a twostory
school building with a bell and an
upstairs community meeting hall in 1878. In
1884, a group of residents, including Abbot
Kinney, Judge Eaton, and Charles Cook
Hastings, decided to establish Sierra Madre
College. The Columbia Hill School was offered
by the people of the school district as a location,
and the college operated there from 1885
to 1887 before failing due to financial difficulties.
Despite this failure, the founding of the
college had important historic consequences
for Pasadena. Professor Charles Holder, who
had come to Pasadena to be on the Sierra
Madre faculty, became a professor at Throop
University and later founded the Tournament
of Roses. Professor Millard M. Parker, another
faculty member, founded a college preparatory
academy that eventually merged with Throop,
the forerunner of Pasadena’s most renowned
educational institution, the California Institute
of Technology.
The relocation of the village school and the
settling of Wilson’s Lake Vineyard Tract moved
the center of the community from the intersection
of California and Orange Grove to
Colorado and Fair Oaks. This was further
reinforced by the establishment of L. D.
Hollingsworth’s general store near the northeast
corner of Fair Oaks and Colorado. An earlier
store on Colorado near Orange Grove had been
forced to close when its owner, Moritz
Rosenbaum, began selling liquor. Rosenbaum
then rented the empty building to Yuen Kee,
who operated a laundry there, the first Chineseowned
business to be founded in Pasadena.
Hollingsworth originally wanted to build
his store and post office on the high ground of
his property at Marengo and Colorado, but
pressure from those on the “west side” along
Orange Grove Avenue convinced him to move
it farther west, near the corner of Fair Oaks
and Colorado. The store and post office
opened in September 1876, with
Hollingsworth’s son, Henry, as postmaster. At
the same time, Benjamin Wilson made his gift
of five acres for a school across Colorado
Street, and the nucleus of Pasadena’s business
center was established. Named for the newest
state in the Union, Colorado Street was destined
to become the principal commercial
artery of town.
With the opening of the post office, the
name Pasadena was officially recorded. In April
1875, the name was voted on and accepted by
the members of the San Gabriel Orange Grove
Association. The name “Indiana Colony” persisted,
however, and Jennie Giddings claims in
her memoirs that at the time of the establishment
of the post office a petition was circulated,
again offering a choice of names for the village.
Pasadena was the choice of the majority
once more, and the issue was finally settled.
Abbot Kinney was the principal force behind
the organization in 1882 of the Pasadena Library
and Village Improvement Society, which was
formed to establish a library and to discuss such
questions as the planting of trees and construction
of walks and drives. Pasadena was not yet an
incorporated community, so public improvements
were achieved by persuasion and cooperation
among the villagers. The reasons given for
founding a library were outlined in an 1885
Citrus Fair pamphlet, and they testify to the values
and interests of the community. As few had
the resources to acquire large personal libraries,
the founding of a common library was deemed “a
good business move.” Periodicals and newspapers
would help the villagers keep up with the
world. The library would be a pleasant place for
women and children and for “those young men
who, having some leisure…too often drift into
resorts of pernicious influence morally and physically.”
For the tourists and invalids who were
already coming to Pasadena in significant numbers,
it would provide a pleasant place to visit,
and since they were important to Pasadena’s
prosperity, “anything that would attract and
retain them seemed a good business investment.”
Part of Wilson’s school lot was donated for
the two-story frame library building, erected in
1884. Money was raised from contributions
and from fund-raising events, such as the Art
Loan Exhibition, which featured local collections
and work by local artists. When the
library opened it had just over 300 volumes,
but by the time of the Second Citrus Fair of
1885, held to raise funds for the library, there
were 1,700 volumes, many of them donated by
members of the community.
HISTORIC PASADENA
24

The Literary Society, formed in 1875, provided
an outlet for reading and discussion in the
early days. It also spawned Pasadena’s first newspaper,
The Reservoir, a handwritten collection of
humorous tales based on events and people in
the village. The Pomological Society, a scientific
society of a sort, was organized in 1876 to
exchange information on the best methods of
orange culture and fruit growing. The first
paper, given by Perry M. Green, was on the topic
of irrigation, and later papers covered other subjects
of interest to growers.
This exchange of information was important,
for as Jeanne Carr noted about the settlers: “There
was not a professional, and hardly a practical,
horticulturist or farmer among them; but the spell
of the neighboring orchards and vineyards soon
transformed them into enthusiastic culturists of
the orange and the vine.” An early settler, Jennie
Collier, writing home to Iowa, reported, “Doctors,
lawyers, mechanics, Colonels and Majors are
plentiful, but they can all don blue overalls and
turn the soil for their fruit trees as if ‘to the manner
born.’” An Eastern visitor was heard to
remark: “What a highly educated lot of farmers
you have out here. Do they all talk so learnedly?”
Cultural life in the colony centered around
Carmelita, where Mrs. Carr received distinguished
guests and where she produced
numerous articles on a variety of subjects: horticulture,
conservation, botany, American
Indians, and history. After visiting Mrs. Carr
and his college-mate, Dr. Conger, in 1877,
John Muir wrote:
The Pasadena Colony…is scarce three years
old, but it is growing rapidly into importance,
like a pet tree, and already forms one of the best
contributions to culture yet accomplished in the
county…. There is nothing more remarkable in
the character of the colony than the literary
and scientific taste displayed. The conversation
of most I have met here is seasoned with a
smack of mental ozone, attic salt, which struck
me as being rare among the tillers of California
soil. People of taste and money in search of a
home would do well to prospect the resources of
this aristocratic little colony.
Besides Muir, Helen Hunt Jackson, author of
the California romance Ramona, visited Pasadena,
staying at Carmelita. Mrs. Jackson traveled the
countryside with Mrs. Carr and with Abbot
Kinney, surveying the condition of the Indians
and taking some of the inspiration for her book
from the people and scenery around Pasadena.
Another notable writer who settled in
Pasadena in 1876 was Margaret Collier
Graham. Mrs. Graham, who came to Pasadena
because of her husband’s poor health, wrote
stories and articles for national magazines such
as Atlantic Monthly, Century, Scribner’s Monthly,
and Overland Monthly. Her husband Donald
Graham, an attorney, ran the mail service
✧
Pasadena’s Episcopal chapel,
dedicated in 1885.
CHAPTER II
25

✧
The Sierra Madre Villa Hotel opened in
1877 as the first hotel in the Pasadena area.
(Photographer: T. G. Norton)
HISTORIC PASADENA
26
between Los Angeles and Pasadena for a time,
astonishing his passengers with his knowledge
of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.
Abbot Kinney was also an author, writing on
such varied subjects as political economy,
eugenics, education, and horticulture. Fluent in
several languages, he served as Spanish interpreter
for Helen Hunt Jackson as she interviewed
California Indians, and translated a
book from the French on the American Civil
War for President Ulysses S. Grant. Horatio N.
Rust of Chicago, a leading abolitionist and collector
of American Indian artifacts, wrote on
such topics as the Southwest Indians, the family
of John Brown, and horticulture in Southern
California. Charles Frederick Holder was a distinguished
zoologist, and the author of several
important scientific works as well as articles for
scientific journals and the popular press. Noted
artist William F. Cogswell, whose portrait of
Abraham Lincoln hangs in the White House,
settled just east of Pasadena on an estate which
he named Sierra Madre Villa where he established
the Sierra Madre Villa Hotel.
Although the village had only one store, a
blacksmith’s shop, a school, two churches, and a
Chinese laundry in 1876, growth was stimulated
by the increasing stream of health-seekers and
tourists. Tuberculosis was a feared incurable disease
at the time, and the pure dry air of Southern
California was believed to be beneficial. Popular
literature also ascribed cures of other respiratory
ailments to the sunny California climate. The San
Gabriel Valley had acquired a reputation as the
“Great Orange Belt and Sanatarium,” according
to John Baur in his book The Health Seekers.
Invalids were already in the valley in 1874 when
Berry described “a Boston man who came here
with hemorrhage of lungs, nearly dead, also his
aunt in the same condition. Both got well and
think of returning to Boston to get sick again.”
Berry himself probably came to California
for health reasons, as he suffered from asthma
and had been sick with respiratory problems in
the winter of 1868-1869. In his letters he intimates
that his wife, Marcia, died of a respiratory
ailment in Indiana. Some of the earliest letters
preserved from Pasadena, written by
Margaret Collier Graham and her sister, Jennie
Collier, record the lives of the invalids in the
little village. The Grahams, who first boarded
with Mrs. R. C. Locke in Pasadena, later rented
part of a house, where they also began to take
in boarders, invalids from the East.
The Grahams socialized with their guests,
prepared them special food such as boiled milk
and toast, made excursions with them into the
canyons, and read to those lying in bed to help
them keep up their spirits. Jennie Collier
described a curious croquet game: “The boarders,
sick and well, turned out and tramped
down a ground in front of the house. They are a
‘spooky’ looking set when they are all out
together but we try to have at least two well men
on the ground just to keep up the credit of the
house.” She also described the scene around the
post office as the invalids congregated, sitting
“coughing upon the steps or leaning against the
walls with eager anxious faces, waiting, hoping
for letters from home.” Most were men and
alone. If wealthy, they lodged in boardinghouses
or hotels. Some, however, lived in rude cabins in
the hills, fending for themselves, while others
bought small farms, and settled in.

An Eastern writer, quoted by Baur,
described the invalids as “a combination of illhealth,
intellectuality, and comfortable circumstances.
Orange culture is eminently adapted
to their condition and circumstances. They
can sit on the verandas of their pretty cottages…inhaling
the pure air of the equal climate,
reading novels or abstruse works of philosophy…and
waiting from year to year for
their oranges to grow.” Early accounts indicate
that many were also escaping the stress and
physical confinement of urban life in the East,
and actively seeking a simpler, rural life. It was
believed that outdoor work in the pure clean
air would cure the lungs of disease and relieve
the “neurasthenia” of city-dwellers.
The first real hotel in the area was Sierra
Madre Villa, which began as a large house set
on 500 acres on the mesa just east of Kinneloa.
The land was purchased by William Porter
Rhoades and his father-in-law, artist William F.
Cogswell, in 1874. They built a comfortable
house, planted the grounds in orchards and
vineyards, and landscaped with rose gardens
and ornamental trees. The house remained a
private home until 1877, when the James F.
Crank family arrived from Denver, seeking a
healthful climate for the ailing Mrs. Crank. The
Cranks stayed with the Rhoadeses, and during
this time, a twenty-room addition with a long
glass-enclosed veranda transformed the ranch
house into a full-fledged hotel.
The hotel soon became an important social
center, attracting guests from around the
world. Famous for its hospitality, beautiful site,
and eminent clientele, the hotel was also
known for its fine foods and genial host,
William Porter Rhoades. Activities for the
guests included horseback riding or driving
through the surrounding countryside, hunting
and fishing, and, in the evenings, dancing parties
and musicales. Guests came for a week, for
a month, or for the whole season, and their
ranks included such names as Ulysses S. Grant,
Collis P. Huntington, the Crocker and Mark
Hopkins families of San Francisco, as well as
English financiers with interests in Southern
California. When tobacco millionaire Abbot
Kinney visited Sierra Madre Villa in 1880, he
put up a sleeping tent in a eucalyptus grove on
the grounds, filling it with beautiful rugs and
furnishings. Like many health-seekers, Kinney
believed that sleeping in the open air would
cure his respiratory ailments. He was so
enchanted with the setting that he soon decided
to purchase the mesa to the west, which
became his ranch, Kinneloa.
In the early 1880s, large excursion groups
from Boston sponsored by Raymond and
Whitcomb Travel Agents began arriving in Los
Angeles. They made regular excursions out to
the San Gabriel Valley, taking lunch at Sierra
Madre Villa and then visiting Lucky Baldwin’s
ranch and winery, Rose’s Sunny Slope, Shorb’s
winery, and the San Gabriel Mission. This
greatly increased business at the hotel, and
fifty more rooms were added. But the intimate
home atmosphere was gone, and for Mr.
Rhoades, who had reveled in socializing with
his guests, the place had become too big. The
Rhoadeses sold the hotel to William G.
Cogswell, brother of Mrs. Rhoades. It later
changed hands again, and was converted into
a sanatarium, which was operated until it was
destroyed by fire in 1923. A remnant of the
building still stands on Old House Road in
northeast Pasadena.
Besides literary and cultural pursuits and
avid gardening, early Pasadenans enjoyed the
out of doors, hunting, fishing, and camping in
the local mountains. One of the first persons to
hike in the local mountains was John Muir,
who described the San Gabriels as one of the
most inaccessible ranges he had ever seen.
✧
This hardy group of hikers pauses on the
trail in the rugged San Gabriel Mountains.
CHAPTER II
27

✧
Early settlers often lived in their barns
until they could build houses.
HISTORIC PASADENA
28
Walking was difficult because of the dense
growth of chapparal. A highlight of his hike
was Eaton Falls, which he described as “a
charming little thing, with a low sweet voice,
singing like a bird as it pours from a notch in a
short ledge some thirty-five or forty feet into a
round-mirror pool.” The falls were surrounded
by delicate ferns and mosses, and overhung
with sycamore trees. Muir, famous for his hardiness,
camped in the canyon, sleeping on a
bed of “smooth cobblestones.”
The Indians had developed a network of
trails in the mountains, and the Spaniards,
Mexicans, and early American settlers had penetrated
the mountains primarily to hunt and
for timber. Benjamin Wilson, needing wood for
fences and wine barrels, had a trail built up
through Little Santa Anita Canyon to Wilson’s
Peak. Although not used much by Wilson, this
trail became the main route used by hikers and
riders for outings in the early days.
In her memoirs, Jennie Hollingsworth
Giddings describes a trip up Wilson’s Trail by
horseback with some friends in 1880. The first
part of the trail, from Sierra Madre to Halfway
House, was steep and dusty. Halfway House, a
small one-room shack, had been built by
Wilson’s men as a construction camp, and Mrs.
Giddings describes the settlement as having an
abandoned blacksmith shop and a neglected
apple orchard. The trail led up from Halfway
House “through slopes and vales of bosky beauty.”
Later the riders made their way over a slide
area of loose stones. “Beyond this shaly portion
the trail curved around huge mountain shoulders
crossing steep escarpments where we
gazed down thousands of feet into the depths of
Eaton Canyon…. Farther up our way led
through more open country.” The hikers spent
the night at the top in a log cabin, cooking on a
campfire. Telling stories round the campfire at
night and feasting on freshly caught trout were
high points in this early camping experience.
Mrs. Giddings’ brother-in-law, Eugene
Giddings, had a ranch up near Millard Canyon.
He eventually built a toll road to Millard Falls,
a popular destination for picnickers in the early
days. One early resident recalled that
Pasadenans drove up into the canyons in lumber
wagons to picnic beside the rushing
streams and waterfalls.
Brown Trail, named for Jason and Owen
Brown, sons of John Brown of Harper’s Ferry
fame, was also a gateway to the mountains. The
brothers had a ranch at Las Casitas (above the
present Loma Alta Drive in Altadena), where
they kept pack animals and served as guides
for tourists. Owen, the last surviving member
of the Harper’s Ferry raid, was a celebrated figure
in Pasadena, and his mountain grave is still
visited by hikers.
The rugged but beautiful Arroyo Seco was
opened up for tourists in 1884, when
Commodore Perry Switzer established a camp
above what is now known as Switzer’s Falls.
According to John W. Robinson, whose book
The San Gabriels provides a wealth of information
on early resorts and camps, Switzer’s was
the first tourist resort in the San Gabriel
Mountains and one of the most popular.
Tourists traveled by stage to Las Casitas and
there hired horses or burros for the trip to the
camp. The visitors slept in tents or rough cabins
and spent their days hiking, fishing, or just plain
loafing in the sylvan glade. The Arroyo Seco was
a favorite stream for trout fishing, and meals in
the camp’s log cookhouse often featured trout.
Although Switzer’s was probably far too civilized
for his tastes, John Muir visited it in the 1880s,
noting that “here one may sleep on a bed of fragrant
fir branches,” no doubt more comfortable
than the stones of Eaton Canyon.
Hunting was a popular sport, and in some
cases a necessity, in the 1870s and 1880s.

Eugene Giddings described shooting a grizzly
bear that had been robbing his honey stands.
Black bears and cinnamon bears were also listed
in Professor Holder’s catalogue of local fauna
which appeared in Hiram Reid’s History of
Pasadena (1895). In an essay on hunting and
fishing, Holder listed deer, mountain lion,
wildcat, badger, fox, and coyote as big game
animals for the huntsman in the early 1880s.
Smaller quarry included quail, pigeon, dove,
and water birds, as well as cottontails and
jackrabbits.
Rabbit coursing had begun in the Mexican
period, and its popularity continued under the
Americans. Raymond Hill was the site for meets
attended by Mexican and American gentry of
old Los Angeles, who set their greyhounds on
the numerous jackrabbits there. Mary Agnes
Crank recalled that “there were no fences and
few cultivated fields to prevent a good run
across country.” The hunters were led by Arturo
Bandini, a local sheep rancher who had married
Dr. Elliott’s daughter, and the popular pastime
was eventually institutionalized by the founding
of the Valley Hunt Club in 1888.
The founding of Pasadena in 1874, and its
development by the industrious settlers, had
not only increased the value of Benjamin
Wilson’s land to seventy-five dollars an acre, it
had also created great interest in surrounding
tracts. In 1880 Caspar T. Hopkins of San
Francisco purchased the Olivewood Tract, a
parcel of eighty acres bounded by the presentday
streets of Colorado, Lake, El Molino, and
Villa. An attempt was made to develop
Olivewood in the boom of 1886, but it did
not really experience growth until the early
1900s. In 1881, John H. Painter and
Benjamin F. Ball purchased 2,000 acres, the
old Henry G. Monk property, which comprised
all of north Pasadena between Lake
Avenue and the Arroyo. The tract, known as
the Painter and Ball Tract, was purchased for
fifteen dollars an acre, with no water on it.
Painter and Ball built the water supply system,
and sold off parcels for three times their
original investment.
In 1883, the San Rafael Ranch lands west of
the Arroyo were purchased by the Campbell-
Johnston family, and by Professor John D.
Yocum (present-day San Rafael and Linda
Vista). Yocum cleared land in Linda Vista, put
in water and streets and sold off some parcels.
However, Linda Vista was far from the town
center, and suffered from poor road and transportation
connections. It remained largely rural
until the 1920s. San Rafael Ranch was run as a
ranch until about 1920. The Campbell-
Johnstons grazed sheep and continued the
vineyards and winery established earlier by
Prudent Beaudry.
During its first decade Pasadena had grown
from a settlement of twenty-odd families to a
village of several hundred persons. It was
known by various names, first the California
Colony of Indiana, later Muscat, then the San
Gabriel Orange Grove Association, and, popularly,
the Indiana Colony. The adoption of the
euphonious Indian name, Pasadena, in 1875,
and the establishment of the Pasadena post
office near Fair Oaks and Colorado the following
year, were the initial steps in creating the
city. The school and the library, as well as several
churches, furthered the cohesiveness of the
community. Tourists and health-seekers had
already discovered the San Gabriel Valley, and a
number of them settled in Pasadena. Well-educated
and sometimes well-to-do, some of these
newcomers contributed much to the cultural
life of the community. For the most part, however,
Pasadena was a quiet village of orchards
(as citrus groves were then called), its residents
unprepared for the great land boom of the mid-
1880s that would permanently change the life
and economy of the community.
✧
A fireman proudly displays the Pasadena
Fire Department’s ladder truck.
CHAPTER II
29

HISTORIC PASADENA
30

THE FLOURISHING RESORT
The town makes me think of a bee-hive, it is all bustle and business and building.
Such an enterprising, striving place it is; one can see it grow daily. It seems bound to be a city
and even now to assume the dignity of a city, as children love to play ‘grown up.’
—Amy Bridges, 1887
In the mid-1880s Pasadena changed, almost overnight, from a sleepy agricultural village of
orange groves and vineyards into a bustling resort town, replete with sophisticated hotels, fancy
brick commercial buildings, railroad connections and trolley lines, and a number of elaborate mansions.
Pasadenans also gained control over their own affairs by incorporating as a city “of the sixth
class” in 1886. The great Southern California land boom of 1886-1888 reached a fever pitch of
speculation in Pasadena, stimulating the growth of the city far beyond the wildest dreams of the
early settlers. The population of 392 souls, mostly recorded as orchardists in the 1880 census,
jumped to an estimated 12,000-15,000 at the height of the real estate boom before settling at
around 5,000 in 1890. The continuing influx of tourists from the East, many of whom bought
property in Pasadena, ensured a steady pace of growth throughout the 1890s. By the turn of the
century, Pasadena boasted several millionaires among its population of close to 10,000; an opera
house; a new university; excellent schools, both public and private; social and cultural clubs; and
many imposing churches.
In the early 1880s, Pasadena had already begun to evolve from a village into a town. In 1883,
a newspaper, the Pasadena Chronicle, was founded, and the first telephone was installed at Barney
Williams’ new two-story store on the northeast corner of Colorado and Fair Oaks. At the same
intersection two frame hotels rose in 1883, the Los Angeles House on the northwest corner and
the Pasadena House on the southwest. And in 1883, work began on Pasadena’s grandest hotel, the
Raymond, a massive five-story structure of 200 rooms, sited on the prominent Bacon Hill south of
town. Shortly before ground was broken for the Raymond, James F. Crank got together a group of
investors and organized the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad to build a line from Los
Angeles to Pasadena. In 1883 Pasadenans also began to feel the need for stronger community organization,
for although there was no crime to speak of, a constable was elected to protect the citizenry.
In the same year, the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association passed out of existence, its stipulated
ten-year lifetime over, leaving no formal community organization to replace it.
In the following year, 1884, Pasadenans were to wish they had more power to regulate affairs in
their town. A billiard hall was established on Colorado Street, and shortly thereafter a saloon was
opened on the premises. The citizens held a mass meeting in the schoolyard across the street to
protest and demand that the saloon be closed, but the saloon-keeper, unmoved by this demonstration,
claimed he was abiding by state law and was within his rights. This confrontation raised the
issue of local control, and a petition was circulated proposing that Pasadena incorporate as a city.
Prior to incorporation, the boom, and the coming of the railroad, Pasadena was little more than
a rural hamlet with only a general store where the most essential provisions could be bought.
Nevertheless, Pasadena did have some fledgling industries. One of these was Joseph Wallace’s cannery,
established in 1881 near present-day Lincoln Avenue west of Orange Grove. In its first year,
the cannery packed 10,000 cans of perishable fruits, mostly peaches, and also processed dried
fruits. By 1884, production was up to 50,000 cans for the season, and many Pasadena women and
girls were employed for the pack. In 1885, however, the cannery burned to the ground, and all
that season’s pack plus much of the previous year’s was lost.
Another early industry was the Pasadena Manufacturing Company, a wood milling company
started by Clinton B. Ripley and Hamilton (Harry) Ridgway, builders and architects, to turn out
✧
The Royal Raymond was built in 1886 atop
Bacon Hill, now known as Raymond Hill.
Tour groups sponsored by Raymond &
Whitcomb Tours came by train from Boston,
stopping at the Raymond’s own depot at the
bottom of the hill. Tourists stayed for
several months, enjoying the climate, trips
to local attractions, and the social events
organized by the hotel.
CHAPTER III
31

✧
Pasadenans turned out to welcome the first
railroad car to arrive in town in September
1885. The pavilion shown here was covered
with leafy boughs and sheltered long
white-clothed tables, where the celebrants
gathered for lunch.
HISTORIC PASADENA
32
moldings and woodwork for the interiors of
the houses they were building. The mill also
produced doors, windows, fireplace mantles,
and frames, and had a local monopoly on
such items.
All lumber and other building materials,
as well as farm implements, tools, and provisions
had to be brought into Pasadena
from Los Angeles, either over the Arroyo
Seco Road, which had many steep hills and
fords across the sometimes flooded stream,
or by way of the adobe or mission road
through South Pasadena, which was virtually
impassable after a rainstorm because of
the thick mud. In order for Pasadena to really
grow, it needed a railway connection, at
least to Los Angeles.
Since its organization in 1883, Crank’s Los
Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad had
progressed in fits and starts. Construction of
the track had begun in late 1884, but was
delayed when the contractor went bankrupt
in January 1885. Another contractor was
hired within a few weeks, but by July only
3,500 feet of track and one of the two major
bridges were completed. The company experienced
delays in getting equipment and
materials from the East, because the Southern
Pacific Railroad, over whose lines the goods
had to travel, occasionally lost or misdirected
the freight. The management of the Southern
Pacific viewed any railroad, no matter how
small, as a competitor and sought to discourage
the enterprise. But the Los Angeles and
San Gabriel Valley Railroad refused to be
intimidated by the giant, and pressed on,
building its track beyond Pasadena as far east
as Mud Springs, near present-day San Dimas.
On September 16, 1885, the first passenger
train arrived in Pasadena, and the villagers
joined in a grand celebration. A large open
pavilion roofed with freshly-cut cypress
boughs was erected on the schoolhouse
grounds. The first passengers, mostly
Pasadena and Los Angeles dignitaries, were
treated to an extravagant lunch at tables decorated
with elaborate centerpieces, including a
locomotive and two cars constructed entirely
of flowers and fruits. Crank’s Los Angeles and
San Gabriel Valley Railroad had finally arrived.
Meanwhile, the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe Railroad was building its own line to
Los Angeles, and within two years it purchased
the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley
Railroad, connecting the line with its track at
Mud Springs, thereby gaining a direct route
into Los Angeles and incidentally connecting
Pasadena directly with Chicago and the East.
By the mid-1880s, the Central School at
Colorado and Fair Oaks was no longer adequate.
In 1885, two new schools were constructed,
one on Monk Hill and the other at
Colorado and Allen, to serve outlying settlers.
That same year also saw the establishment
of Pasadena’s first bank, headed by
Perry M. Green and located in the Pasadena
House hotel.
In that same year, a race riot occurred just
west of the hotel. On the evening of November
6, 1885, a group of whites attacked a Chinese
laundry in Mills Place, throwing rocks through
the windows and upsetting a lamp, which
started a fire. The Chinese managed to barricade
themselves in another building, and
finally some of the town’s leading citizens
arrived to quell the disturbance and rescue the
Chinese. The aftermath of the riot was not
exactly heartening to the Chinese, however, as
they were from that time on banned from living
or working in the center of town, being
exiled to the area south of California Street
and east of Fair Oaks Avenue.
A considerable number of Chinese had
lived in the San Gabriel Valley well before the
founding of Pasadena. At the old ranches such
as the Sphinx Ranch, Fair Oaks Ranch, and
the Sierra Madre Villa Hotel, house servants
and field hands were Chinese. Many of them

had been brought over to work on building
the Central Pacific Railroad, and when that
work was finished in 1869, they stayed on to
earn more money, saving for an eventual
return to China, or at least to pay for burial in
their homeland. Only men had been allowed
into the United States; therefore, Chinese
immigrants did not form families but lived
alone or in dormitories owned by their
employers. Daniel Berry mentioned frequent
encounters with Chinese men, noting that
they did all the work at little pay. By 1880
most of the 105,000 Chinese living in the
United States were residents of California,
where they constituted 25% of the labor force.
After the founding of Pasadena, one of the
first businesses established was Yuen Kee’s
laundry, which apparently did the laundry for
the whole village. Chinese entertainments
were popular for churches and bazaars; a
Chinese orchestra played at the library’s first
Art Loan Exhibition in 1884. This enthusiasm
for Chinese culture did not extend to social
acceptance of the immigrants. They remained
concentrated in menial occupations and were
notably successful in truck farming and produce
marketing. Their initial customers were
fellow Chinese, but they later branched out to
raise and sell all kinds of produce to the general
public. Many worked as peddlers, selling
vegetables and Chinese wares to individual
households and hotels. By the early 1900s,
many of the cooks in the great houses along
Orange Grove were Chinese.
The Chinese were the most isolated of all
immigrant groups. White workers feared their
cheap labor and small farmers and business
people feared their industrious habits. As a
result exclusionary laws passed in the 1880s
and 1890s restricted Chinese immigration.
Anti-Chinese sentiment would stir again in
1918 when arsonists destroyed the Chinese-
American Vegetable Cooperative dwellings
and warehouse on South Arroyo Parkway.
Several peddlers lived on the premises and
seventeen horses were stabled there. The fire
destroyed personal possessions, all the produce
and killed most of the horses.
In the mid-1880s Pasadena began suffering
severe growing pains. Street paving, a sewerage
system, streetlighting improvements, fire
protection, school expansion, police protection,
and the liquor question were all problems
that could be solved with more local
community control, said the proponents of
incorporation. The opponents, who feared tax
increases, were a strong voice. They were
strongest in South Pasadena, that is, south of
Columbia Street. To appease these opponents,
the incorporators at first agreed to a southern
boundary of California Street, excluding the
South Pasadenans. However, the petition presented
to the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors in the spring of 1886 proposed
the boundaries as the Arroyo Seco, the foot of
the mountains, Santa Anita Avenue (now
Altadena Drive) on the east, and the old
Monterey Road on the south. When the petition
was heard, protests from opponents
resulted in an amendment of the boundaries,
making the northern boundary run south of
Mountain Street, the eastern boundary run
between Catalina and Wilson, and the southern
boundary follow Columbia Street.
A referendum was held for those living
within those boundaries on June 7, 1886. Of
the 232 votes cast, 179 voted for incorporation
and 50 voted against. Five men were elected to
the first board of trustees, as the city council
was called: Millard M. Parker (principal of the
Parker School); E. C. Webster (manager of the
Carlton Hotel); R. M. Furlong; Edson Turner;
and Henry J. Holmes. Holmes served as the
✧
Much of the labor in California was
performed by Chinese men before the turn
of the last century. They came originally
to build the railroads, stayed on to work
in the groves and fields and also served as
cooks and houseboys. These men probably
worked as houseboys in Pasadena.
CHAPTER III
33

✧
The auction of the schoolhouse property in
1886 set off the building boom that created
downtown Pasadena. This photograph
shows a brick building already going up
in the background.
HISTORIC PASADENA
34
first chairman of the board (mayor), and the
first board meeting was held in Webster’s office,
over Frank D. Stevens’ hardware store.
Early ordinances enacted by the board
reflected citizen concerns. Ordinance No. 6
prohibited “loud or unusual noise,” “challenging
to fight, or fighting,” and using profane
language “within the presence or hearing of
women and children.” Ordinance No. 7 prohibited
keeping of a “riotous or disorderly
house.” Ordinance No. 31 prohibited riding
or driving any animal or team at a “dangerous
rate of speed,” while Ordinance No. 74 prohibited
fast or reckless driving of bicycles, tricycles,
or velocipedes.
But it was Ordinance No. 45, the
“whiskey” ordinance, that addressed the most
controversial question of the time. It was
passed in February 1887, several months after
incorporation. The villagers had tried to regulate
liquor by imposing excessive business
license fees ($100 a month), but the saloonkeepers
gladly paid and their establishments
remained the source of “brawls, carousals,
drunkenness, debauchery, gambling, strumpetry,
vagabondage,” and “indecent exposure,”
according to Hiram Reid, a leader of the
anti-saloon movement.
Finally, the townspeople passed Ordinance
No. 45 to prohibit “places and things of
immoral or indecent character.” Specifically
prohibited were “any tippling-house, dramshop,
cellar saloon, bar, bar-room, sampleroom
or other place where spirituous, vinous,
malt or mixed liquors are sold or given away.”
But the passage of the ordinance was not the
end of the matter. The ordinance was contested
by the liquor sellers, only to be finally
upheld by the California Supreme Court.
Even that, however, failed to discourage the
liquor dealers, who blithely continued to sell
liquor in the face of community opposition.
At a mass meeting held in August 1888,
one thousand citizens gathered to hear speakers,
who vowed to drive “the last rum-hole
from our borders.” The townspeople raised
money to create an enforcement fund and
hired an attorney. They filed a statement of
violators with the U.S. Revenue Office in Los
Angeles, but of the seven violators found,
only one, the Carlton Hotel, sold anything
stronger than beer. The Carlton, however, was
accused of giving wine banquets and serving
liquor to guests in their rooms. The issue of
serving liquor in hotels was a divisive one, as
the community already depended to some
extent on tourism.
The movement to enforce the ordinance
foundered on technicalities, and meanwhile
the “liberals” were gathering their forces.
Uncomfortable with the total ban on alcohol
that they felt infringed on personal liberty
(and might hurt the tourist trade), the “liberals”
produced a petition allowing the sale of
liquor in hotel dining rooms. Initially, their
efforts were unsuccessful, but the 1890 election
of the city board proved to be a landslide
for the “liberals.” Though the whiskey ordinance
was not repealed, enforcement was lax,
if not totally nonexistent. Eventually, in 1892,
Ordinance No. 195 was passed, allowing sale
of liquor in hotels, restaurants, and boardinghouses,
“when sold with and as a part of a regular
meal.” In the end, the compromise eliminated
the lowly saloons, but allowed alcohol
consumption in more refined atmospheres.
The beginnings of Pasadena’s role as a
major resort date from the completion of the
railroad and the opening of the Raymond
Hotel in 1886. Easterners could now travel by
Palace Car, a well-appointed Pullman car,
directly from points east to Pasadena. Walter
Raymond, of Raymond and Whitcomb
Excursions, a Boston travel firm which had
been organizing travel to Southern California

for several years, completed construction of
the Raymond Hotel in 1886. Raymond’s
father, Emmons Raymond, helped finance the
project, and since he was one of the forty
stockholders in the Santa Fe Railroad, he saw
to it that the hotel was served by a station just
below Raymond Hill.
The railroad and the Raymond Hotel also
contributed to the beginnings of the great
land boom in Pasadena from 1886 to 1888.
Travelers had easier access to Pasadena, and
the Raymond alone boasted a total of 3,500
guests in 1886 and 1887. But the spark that
ignited the boom in Pasadena, as Glenn
Dumke wrote in his book The Boom of the
Eighties in Southern California, was the schoolhouse
auction, which took place in March
1886. The schoolhouse occupied the five
valuable acres of land donated by Benjamin
Wilson in 1876 and located at the center of
town fronting on Colorado and Fair Oaks.
The directors of the San Pasqual School
District got permission from Wilson’s heirs to
sell the property. The land was subdivided
into thirty-five lots, which were auctioned off
for amounts ranging from $612.50 to $3,700,
for a total amount of $44,772. The schoolhouse
was moved off to a lot just south of
Colorado on the east side of Raymond, where
it served for a short time as a city hall. With
the proceeds from the sale, the school district
purchased land at the corner of Marengo and
Walnut Streets, where a new school building,
named after benefactor Wilson, was erected at
a cost of $30,000.
The availability of the school property in
the center of town promoted the growth of a
substantial business district. Almost immediately
building began along Colorado, and the
few frame buildings in the village center
began to disappear. Amy Bridges, a young
lady from Massachusetts and a guest at the
Raymond Hotel in its first season, described
Pasadena’s booming downtown in her journal:
little stores. But there are two or three, even
more than that, fine business blocks with neat
fronts and gilded signs, especially one bank
and the new Hotel Carlton. But all on a small
scale. Two other fine buildings are going up on
opposite corners of Colorado St. and they are
building everywhere, as the sides of the streets
are filled with piles of brick and lumber and
blocks of stone. They were so very dusty the
first weeks, and the horses and carriages and
foot passengers seemed to get all mixed up
with the bricks, stones and lumber, with the
dust and with each other….
In an attempt to cope with the building
boom, an early ordinance specified that
building materials were not to be left on the
public right-of-way, but building fever was
so high that it became impossible to enforce
it. By 1888, at the end of the boom,
Colorado Street was lined on both sides, east
and west of Fair Oaks, with substantial two
and three-story brick buildings of elaborate
design, giving downtown Pasadena a distinctly
citified character. Fair Oaks and
Raymond also had a number of large brick
buildings which were joined by other substantial
business blocks in the growth years
of the 1890s. Plans for an opera house on
South Raymond were announced in 1887,
creating a great deal of interest in property
on that street.
✧
Pasadena’s first downtown brick hotel was
the Hotel Carlton, located on the north side
of Colorado just east of Fair Oaks.
At [Colorado and Fair Oaks] is the greatest
confusion. The narrow dirty wooden sidewalks
are crowded with all sorts of foreignlooking
men and children. The little stores are
full of goods of all sorts, variety and quality,
and seem to do a thriving business, such queer
CHAPTER III
35

✧
Tennis became a popular sport in the latter
part of the nineteenth century. Here a group
of players gathers on the grass court
behind the Channing house on North
Orange Grove.
Pasadena’s streets were so muddy after a
good rain that it was impossible to step from
the horse-car to the sidewalk without sinking
knee-deep in mud. Gallant men threw planks
out over the mud to aid the ladies alighting
from the streetcar in their fine shoes and long
dresses. Rush-hour traffic was often so heavy
at Colorado and Fair Oaks that a contemporary
newspaper account warned “it is really
dangerous for the pedestrian to attempt to
cross…the carriages and wagons dash by so
rapidly and so close after one another.”
Sprinkling the streets to keep down the
dust and installing paving were top priorities
of early city government. Most houses kept a
feather duster outside the front door to brush
off dusty shoes and clothes. Amy Bridges
described a shopping trip in downtown
Pasadena in 1887, at the height of the boom:
The sidewalks of Pasadena are something
wonderful. When we first came there was
hardly more than ten feet of pavement in two
different places. Most of the sidewalks were of
wood and after passing over one of these flat
low wooden sidewalks for a few yards we step
onto the hard-trodden earth for a little distance,
then up two wood[en] steps to another
wooden sidewalk, down steps to a long plank,
then a careful balancing of oneself amidst all
sorts of debris and perhaps a ditch on one
side, then onto a wooden sidewalk again….
Before we left they had begun to lay a broad
cement walk on either side of Fair Oaks
Avenue and had finished it for some distance,
making a beautiful walk.
During the boom, land values escalated at
stupendous rates, and property often changed
hands daily, sold and resold at ever higher
prices. There seemed to be no limit. The library
lot on the schoolhouse property which had
been bid in at the admittedly low price of $170
at the 1886 auction was sold for $10,000 two
years later. Hiram Reid relates in his History of
Pasadena that Philander G. Wooster, who had
purchased ten acres of land on the east side of
Raymond between Green and Del Mar for $550
in 1875, sold one and a half acres of it for
$36,000 in 1887. Taxes rose proportionately.
Wooster’s taxes on ten acres in 1878 totaled
$7.68; in 1893, he paid $300 on his remaining
plot of less than one acre. Although many sales
were not recorded, real estate sales for 1886
may have been as high as $7 million and those
for 1887 were probably twice that.
Speculation mania brought with it sharp
practices and shady deals. It was said that
some real estate speculators produced maps
with fixed prices for lots, only to call them in
the following day to double the prices.
Purchasers would be convinced to join in
with the speculators to double their money,
reselling their lots the following day. To
counter this sort of activity, the Real Estate
Exchange was formed in 1887 with 149 member
firms. According to Reid, its stated purpose
was “to maintain principles of honesty
and fair dealing,” and “to stimulate greater
activity.” The exchange ensured that contracts
and deeds were executed in proper form, and
set commissions for its members as well.
Once the bubble of the boom had burst,
HISTORIC PASADENA
36

however, the Real Estate Exchange disappeared
with it, although it did reappear as the
Pasadena Realty Board some years later.
The building boom created a shortage of
workmen, and, despite all the building, a
tremendous housing problem, resulting in
tent cities in some parts of town where the
workmen lived. Amy Bridges described them:
“Low dirty white tents, long and narrow, furnish
‘Lodging, 25 cts.’ And many shanties are
only a little more respectable.” Some early
arrivals, like the Marston family, who came
from Oakland in 1883 and bought property at
California and Madison, built a barn to live in
while waiting for their house to be built.
Another problem was the lack of a sewerage
system. Cesspools connected to the
downtown hotels were constantly overflowing,
and with the increased population and
many new buildings Pasadena was becoming
an “odoriferous place,” according to Henry
Markham Page in his book Pasadena: Its Early
Years. The beginnings of a sewer system were
made during the boom years, but not until the
1890s did the system begin to catch up with
the growth of the city.
Water was a limited resource, and a city
ordinance was passed which set fines for violation
of the water rules. No one had anticipated
the growth of the village, and water
supplies were not inexhaustible. The two
water companies set fees for a family at four
dollars per quarter, with thirty cents extra for
each horse, cow, mule, or donkey, and seventy-five
cents extra for a bathtub or a water
closet. Irrigation was restricted to certain
times of the day, but since there was no metering
system, regulations were unenforceable.
Disputes over water continued until meters
were installed by the water companies in the
late 1890s.
A fire department was also established
shortly after incorporation. Wagons were
horse-drawn and dependent on local water
supplies, which were often unreliable during
the summer months. The building of a fire
station on Dayton Street in 1889 and the purchase
of modern equipment increased the
safety of the community. Firemen were largely
volunteer, responding to the call of the bell
mounted on the station roof. At the sound of
the bell, the horses were trained to leap from
their open stalls into the traces, where they
could be harnessed to the engine in seconds.
Lack of hydrants in many parts of town and
the inexperience of the men resulted in some
early mishaps, but the support of the citizenry
for the department encouraged growth and
increased competence.
Transportation in the form of horse-car trolley
lines expanded as the city grew. The first
line, completed in 1886, ran up Fair Oaks from
the railroad station to Colorado Street. Over
the next few years the horse-car lines created a
transportation network reaching east to Hill on
Colorado Street, north on Fair Oaks to the
Painter Hotel and beyond to Mountain View
Cemetery, south on Fair Oaks to the Raymond
Hotel, and west across the Arroyo into Linda
Vista. More complicated routes threaded
through the city streets and created connections
to Altadena and to Alhambra. Several of
these lines failed within a short time; others
were bought up, consolidated, and electrified.
By the turn of the century Henry Huntington
had begun establishing his Pacific Electric
empire, which amalgamated lines throughout
Los Angeles and its suburbs, creating a vast
network of interurban electric cars, known as
the “Red Cars,” which continued to serve area
transportation needs until 1951.
✧
Mrs. W. E. Cooley set up tents
surrounding her house on Orange Grove
near present-day Prospect Park. Here some
of her guests relax under the trees.
CHAPTER III
37

✧
The brainchild of Horace Dobbins, the
Pasadena Cycleway was built at the turn
of the century at the height of the bicycle
craze. Originally it was to follow the Arroyo
Seco all the way to Los Angeles, but it was
completed only between the the two hotels,
the Green and the Raymond.
HISTORIC PASADENA
38
The schools were stretched beyond capacity
by the boom. The Annual Report of the
Pasadena Public Schools for 1887-1888 noted
that the six schools could not accommodate
all the new pupils at the beginning of the fall
term and a vacant store on South Fair Oaks
had to be rented to handle the overflow. The
Monk Hill School doubled its teaching staff
and thirty-six more seats had to be added at
Wilson School. After the winter holiday the
situation was even worse: it was necessary to
hold half-day sessions, and the rooms were
still crowded. Enrollment had nearly doubled
from 703 in 1886-1887 to 1,354 in 1887-
1888, and the school had grown from four
rooms to forty in several buildings. Since the
background of the students was so diverse, it
was difficult to place them in the proper
grades. Yet the Pasadena schools were trying
out the so-called “new education,” a method
based on “learning by doing,” which also
added music, drawing, and physical exercises
to the academic curriculum.
The 1888-1889 school year saw 500
pupils added to the already strained system,
but in the following year the end of the
boom brought the number of pupils down
to 1,388. Steady growth continued through
the 1890s, and by 1900 the schools had
almost 3,000 pupils. The first high school
graduating class was that of 1890, when six
graduates received their diplomas, among
them Fred Sears, who went on to study
astronomy at Berkeley and in Berlin and
Paris before returning to Pasadena as the
assistant director of Mt. Wilson Observatory.
Pasadena High School was one of the few
accredited schools in the state, and
Pasadena graduates at that time were admitted
to Berkeley or Stanford without examination.
Most students, however, did not go
beyond the eighth grade. By 1900, a free
kindergarten had been established at
Garfield School, a school serving mostly
minority children, and manual training was
taught in the fifth through eighth grades.
Girls were taught sewing, while boys were
taught cooking and woodworking.
Hyper-inflation caused the collapse of the
boom in the spring of 1888, meaning tremendous
losses for some, and a decline in population,
but the effects were also positive. Since
the arrival of the railroad, Pasadena had
grown to become the third largest city in
Southern California in population and the
second in wealth. Amy Bridges wrote:

But it is all a new place of hardly more than
five years growth, and it is wonderful to see
how fast it has grown. Little by little the
cheaper, more temporary buildings will be
done away with. In another four years I may
not know the place. Four years ago, I remember
it only as a few cross roads, and a few
scattered houses.
Contemporary accounts ascribed many
positive developments in the city to the
boom, especially the many fine buildings in
the commercial district, the new schools,
improvements in water and sewerage systems,
paving of sidewalks, street lights, the beginnings
of a new library building, and new
church buildings. Optimists felt that Pasadena
could capitalize on these new assets and
would return soon to a more healthy rate of
growth, based on genuine improvement
rather than on mere speculation, and preserving
the more stable aspects of the community.
One unfortunate result of the boom was the
neglect of the orchards planted so hopefully a
few years earlier. Now the fruit lay rotting on
the ground, and weeds grew high among the
young trees. Although even before the boom it
had become clear that much land had become
too valuable to be planted in orchards, those
orchards already bearing still represented an
investment worth saving. The brief excitement
of the boom infected many growers with the
“town lot fever,” as it was called, but afterwards
many of them returned to the cultivation
of their land. Orange and deciduous fruit
production remained a significant aspect of
the local economy for at least the next decade.
With the boom, however, came the realization
that the future of the city lay in a touristbased
economy, and some of the negative consequences
of the boom had been detrimental
to that goal. Civic beautification again became
a community effort, for, as one newspaper put
it, “most of our streets are without shade
trees, denuded of those beautiful hedges so
celebrated by us some years ago, and [have
become] dusty thoroughfares of travel instead
of beautiful, shady avenues. The boom did
much to make the quiet village of Pasadena a
lively, animated city, but, alas! it destroyed
much of its original beauty.”
Jeanne Carr stated the problem more
dramatically:
Satan entered into this Paradise, finding his
opportunity in a branch Railroad, and congenial
occupation in the creation of a Boom. The
little parks, left in reverence of some grand
oak which had not lived out its ‘green century’
or at the points which commanded the
finest views of the mountains, were sacrificed;
as also other reservations of priceless value
for their wood and water. The ideals of a community
of fruit growers,were not those of
numbers who came later, to bask in one
winter’s sunshine….
By March 1888, the boom was virtually
over, and in that same month the Board of
Trade was organized, one of its principal
objectives being to stimulate tourism. The
general tone of newspaper articles and “booster”
literature of the late 1880s and 1890s was
that Pasadena was not pursuing industrial
development but was seeking to promote
the tourist trade by emphasizing the fine residential
qualities of the city, a healthful climate,
and scenic beauty. The first of many
Board of Trade pamphlets, published in 1888,
took pains to emphasize that Pasadena was
no rough Western frontier town, but a civilized
and moral community with imposing
✧
The Hotel Green took advantage of its
prime location next to the railroad station to
catch tourists just as they were getting off
the train. The building shown here was on
the east side of Raymond. It was linked by a
bridge across Raymond Avenue to the
building now known as the Castle Green
Apartments on the west side of the street.
CHAPTER III
39

✧
Fire destroyed the Royal Raymond
on Easter Sunday, 1895. The second
Raymond Hotel opened several years
later in a stucco building.
HISTORIC PASADENA
40
buildings, eleven churches, a new school costing
$35,000, a public library of 4,000 volumes,
many fraternal organizations, three
banks, several first class hotels, an opera
house, and three newspapers—and, of course,
no saloons. By this time, however, reserve was
evident in the description of the climate and
its benefits for tubercular patients; no longer
were all invalids encouraged to come to
Pasadena, for “persons well advanced in consumption…should
think well…. [before
undertaking the trip.] Many consumptives
arrive here only to die within a few weeks.”
Indeed, the early death statistics of Pasadena
reveal that from the 1890s at least into the
1920s one-third to one-half of all deaths
reported in the city were due to tuberculosis.
Plainly, the invalids came in great numbers,
but not all were cured.
The 1890s was the era of Pasadena’s
grand hotels. Construction had begun on
the Raymond Hotel in 1883 with the leveling
of the top of Bacon Hill, part of the
Marengo Ranch then owned by Henry
Douglas Bacon of San Francisco. Walter
Raymond, the new owner, thought a few
mules, men, and scrapers could create the
required flat building space in a short time.
Unfortunately, the hill proved to be bedrock,
requiring Thomas Banbury and his crew to
blast and then haul away the heavy rocks,
costing Raymond far more than was intended.
Work stopped on the project in 1884,
until Raymond’s father, Emmons Raymond,
came to the rescue with additional funds.
Finally completed in 1886, the hotel featured
tall, mansard-roofed towers stretching
three stories above the eaves, and twenty
towering chimneys. Built of wood, the massive
structure on its imposing site dominated
the landscape for miles around.
Known as the Royal Raymond, the new
hotel also began to dominate the community
socially as well. With 200 rooms and several
hundred guests, the hotel became the focal
point for concerts, balls, and parties. Although
not many Pasadenans participated in the life at
the Raymond, the hotel was clearly Pasadena’s
most sophisticated establishment.
Amy Bridges wrote that every evening
there was music and dancing for the guests
and every Sunday afternoon a concert with
printed programs. Sunday dinners had special
themes, with elaborate souvenir menus. As
guests stayed on for several months and ate
their meals together, they became well
acquainted. As for the rooms, Miss Bridges
wrote: “Our rooms are very pleasant and nicely
furnished in red. We have two long windows
in each room and the view is magnificent.
The hotel is on a hill and we look down
over the valleys with their orange groves and
vineyards and cultivated fields.”
Responding to the continuing stream of
booster literature about Pasadena which was
circulated throughout the country, tourists
began flocking to the hotels and various inns
and boardinghouses, which were springing
up all over Pasadena. Each hotel had its particular
charm or interest and appealed to a
particular clientele. The Arroyo Vista Guest
House, perched on the bluff of the Arroyo
south of Colorado Boulevard, featured the
rugged beauty of its Arroyo setting and
offered the guest quiet and seclusion away
from the bustling town. First opened by
Mrs. Emma C. Bangs in 1882, it offered few,
if any, of the glittering social events of the
Sierra Madre Villa or Raymond Hotel, but it
was a much sought-after place of residence,
where reservations were usually necessary to
ensure accommodation.
One of the most advantageously located
hotels was the Green, on South Raymond
Avenue next to the Santa Fe station. It
was no accident that hotel and station were
linked, for E. C. Webster, who originally
began building the Webster Hotel at that
location in 1887, also built the station,

a turreted Romanesque building behind the
hotel, and gave it to the railroad. This put
the Webster on par with the Raymond,
which had its own station below Raymond
Hill. Unfortunately, Webster did not survive
the boom in a financially solvent condition,
and the faltering enterprise was taken over
by Colonel George G. Green, whose father,
Dr. Lewis M. Green, had made a fortune in
the patent medicine business.
Colonel Green was a man of great
resources and great vision. In 1894, he
enlarged the original four-story building,
which occupied the south end of the lot next
to the tracks, into a massive four-story-plusattic
structure stretching from Kansas Street
(now Green Street) south to present-day
Dayton Street on the east side of Raymond
Avenue. The architecture was distinctly
Mission Revival, which was echoed by the
Mission furniture in the public rooms,
but classical columns and plaster work
abounded in the interiors. The curved,
columned entrance still survives at the corner
of Green Street and Raymond Avenue
and traces of the plaster work can still be
seen in the interior of the one-story remnant
of this once grand establishment.
Easter Sunday, 1895, was an important day
in the history of Pasadena resort life, for on
that afternoon the massive five-story, 200-
room wood-frame Raymond Hotel burned to
the ground. All that was left standing of the
Royal Raymond was a lone brick chimney, but
luckily there was no loss of life. Insurance did
not cover the loss, and Walter Raymond was
unable to rebuild until 1901, when he
received financing from Chicago industrialist
Richard T. Crane, who had been a regular
guest at the hotel.
As the largest and most elaborate hotel in
Pasadena in the 1890s, the Hotel Green
became the focus of many social events.
Perhaps the most memorable was the visit of
President Benjamin Harrison in 1891. It was
the second time an American president had
visited Pasadena. President Rutherford B.
Hayes had stopped briefly in Pasadena in
1880 to humor his wife, who wanted to see
where her ne’er-do-well half-brother, J. M.
Matthews, a member of the original colony,
had lived. The Hayeses were greeted by a few
locals on Orange Grove Avenue, and had dinner
at the Los Robles Ranch of Governor
Stoneman. Reflecting Pasadena’s increasing
sophistication, President Harrison’s welcome
was far more elaborate.
Arriving in his own presidential car at the
Santa Fe station, the president proceeded to
the Green Hotel where a suite of rooms overflowing
with floral arrangements, including
wisteria hanging from the chandelier, awaited
him. That evening a reception and banquet
with 135 male guests lasted into the early
✧
Guests pose for a photograph at the banquet
held for President Harrison at the Hotel
Green in 1891.
CHAPTER III
41

✧
The Valley Hunt Club, led by Charles
Holder, started the Tournament of Roses
celebration in 1890. This photograph shows
the club’s tent set up for the Tournament on
New Year’s Day, 1893.
HISTORIC PASADENA
42
morning hours and created a minor scandal
when it was discovered that the waiters had
drunk most of the wine. One story has it that
the president, in deference to Pasadena’s reputation
for temperance, turned over his wineglass,
signaling others to do the same.
Apparently the waiters felt the wine should
not be wasted and so proceeded to drink it up
themselves. Needless to say, the service deteriorated
as the evening wore on.
The following morning the president
toured the city, passing under a monumental
floral arch on Marengo near Green Street. But
as Page reports in his book, the arch was raining
orange juice, for the words “Welcome to
our guests” had been spelled out in oranges
nailed across the top of the arch. On the
whole, however, the visit was a great success,
and Pasadenans pointed with pride to the fact
that a president had found their city important
enough to honor it with a visit.
The visit of the president seemed to confirm
what Pasadenans already believed, that they
were living in the finest, most beautiful, healthful,
cultured, and intelligent community in the
West. The collapse of the boom had momentarily
weakened confidence in the future, but
as people looked around them at the climate,
the scenic beauty, and the fine buildings that
had already been built, they took heart again
and proceeded to proclaim the advantages of
Pasadena to all who would listen.
One of the events highlighted in the booster
literature of the 1890s was the newly
established New Year’s Day festival, the
Tournament of Roses. Conceived by Charles
F. Holder, president of the Valley Hunt Club,
the first festival was held on New Year’s Day
in 1890, and it consisted of a parade of
flower-bedecked carriages and an afternoon
of games in the open field east of Los Robles
Avenue and north of Colorado. Holder later
wrote that it was a “combination of fête, fiesta
and tournament to celebrate, in a poetic
and beautiful manner, the ripening of the
orange, which took place about January first,
that being the one event of importance in the
year in Pasadena at that time.” The inspiration
for the parade had come partly from Dr.
Francis F. Rowland, who had seen Rome’s
Battle of the Roses, a floral parade that was
part of Rome’s carnival celebrations. It was a
particularly apt model because of Pasadena’s
Mediterranean climate.
The games consisted of foot races, an egg
and spoon relay, hurdles, and a “tourney of
rings,” the latter giving its name to the
Tournament of Roses. This Spanish jousting
match—in which horsemen with lances tried
to spear three rings hanging at thirty-foot distances—was
suggested to Holder by old
Spanish and Indian games he had seen at Pala,
a mission station northeast of San Diego.
The tournament continued to be celebrated
through the 1890s, evolving and growing
as it has done every year since. The 1891 festival
was held near Devil’s Gate, with the
parade beginning on Orange Grove Avenue
and winding its way down into the Arroyo,
where spectators picnicked and watched the
games. In 1892, the organizers specified for
the first time that “every man, woman and
child plus horse and carriage should be decorated
with flowers.” Ironically, a severe winter
caused a shortage of roses, so the event was
called the Orange Tournament that year. In
1893, female equestrians were allowed to ride
astride, a new and daring thing. For the 1894
parade, the first reviewing stands were built.
In 1895, the Valley Hunt Club declared that
the tournament had become too much of a

urden on the organization, and it was then
that the Tournament of Roses Association was
formed. Track events, horse and bicycle races
made up the afternoon games during the
1890s. By the end of the century, the tournament
was becoming a major tourist attraction.
When New Year’s Day dawned in 1900,
50,000 people were on hand to watch the
parade and the games.
The early settlers had enjoyed the simple
pleasures of riding, hunting, and hiking in the
mountains, but with the arrival of the tourists,
new diversions became a part of Pasadena life.
Tennis was introduced to Pasadena in the
1880s. The hotels, particularly the Raymond
and La Pintoresca, had tennis courts on their
grounds and some families, notably the
Daggetts on Columbia Hill and the Channings
on North Orange Grove, had their own private
courts. The Daggetts organized the
Columbia Hill Tennis Club, which became a
focal point for the social life of the younger
people in the community and also produced
several nationally-ranked tennis players.
The 1890s also saw the beginnings of golf
in Pasadena. Pasadena’s first golf course was a
makeshift affair located north of the Painter
Hotel on Raymond near Montana Street. Laid
out in 1892 by early settler McDougall
Snowball and his Scottish compatriot, J.L.
McFarland, the course was nine holes bounded
roughly by Dakota Street (now Howard)
and Mountain View Cemetery. Fairways were
dust, putting greens were dust, and after a
game, “the players looked as if they had had
dust shot at them with a spray-gun,” according
to an article in the Pasadena Star-News.
Cups were tomato cans embedded in the
ground. A similarly primitive course was laid
out on Campbell-Johnston’s San Rafael Ranch
in 1894 by an Englishman, E.H. Stafford. In
1898, a proper nine-hole course was constructed
near Wilson’s Lake on the old Lake
Vineyard Ranch. This course became the
home of the Pasadena Country Club and was
in use until the founding of the Midwick
Country Club in Alhambra in 1912, when the
old course was subdivided for residences.
Probably the major tourist attraction of the
1890s, however, was the Mt. Lowe Railway. In
his book Mount Lowe: The Railway in the
Clouds (1976), Charles Seims gives a detailed
account of the development of the railway. A
young Scottish engineer, David J.
Macpherson, who had done well in the boom,
dreamed of building a mountain railway to
the summit of Mt. Wilson. In 1890 he surveyed
the route, and declared it feasible. His
innovation was the plan to use electricity,
which, although used for street railways, had
not been used successfully for mountain
ascents. Macpherson presented his ideas and
cost estimates to groups of local capitalists,
arousing their interest but failing to pry open
their pocketbooks. Finally he approached
Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, a man famous
for his own inventions in balloon flight, gas
manufacture, and refrigeration.
Lowe was indeed interested, and he persuaded
a number of wealthy friends and
acquaintances to go in on the project with
him. A corporation was formed in 1891, and
Lowe proceeded to try to gain the cooperation
of various landowners on Mt. Wilson. That
cooperation was not forthcoming, so Lowe
and Macpherson turned their attention to
Echo Mountain, and the idea of the incline
railway was born. Work began in December
1891, and the railroad was opened to the
public on July 4, 1893. The “white chariots,”
as they were called, ascended and descended
the 3,000-foot incline on an average grade of
59 percent, passing each other in the middle
of the slope. The weight of the descending car
✧
Riding the Mt. Lowe Railway was the
paramount tourist experience in Southern
California. Here tourists are shown in a car
rounding the famous circular bridge on a
snowy day.
CHAPTER III
43

provided part of the power propelling the
ascending car. At the top was a small hotel,
the Chalet, and at the base stood a pavilion,
the Hotel Rubio.
Lowe soon extended his railroad three
miles up to Crystal Springs, elevation 5,000
feet, where he built the large rustic Alpine
Tavern, which became a favorite retreat for
tourists and locals alike. Herbert F. Brown
remembered that “special deluxe cars took
guests on this unique trip from Los Angeles to
Alpine Tavern for $2.50. You could remain
overnight at the Tavern or you could dine and
dance and come down on the one o’clock special
which ran to Los Angeles.” Below Alpine
Tavern, on Echo Mountain, Lowe built the
elegant Echo Mountain House and an observatory
to promote scientific research. Lowe
also installed a searchlight on Echo Mountain
which swept the valley with its powerful
beam, occasionally frightening horses and
causing panicky runaways in the valley below.
All of this investment, however, proved
disastrous for Lowe. He was finally forced to
sell out in 1896 and so lost control of his
dream railway, besides losing much of his personal
fortune. Nevertheless, the railway and
hotels remained one of the greatest tourist
attractions in Southern California, for no trip
to the area was complete without a ride up the
mountain to enjoy the breathtaking views and
to wander in what became known as the “Alps
of America.”
The growth of the tourist trade brought
many people of national prominence to
Pasadena, especially wealthy Easterners seeking
to retire in the land of eternal sunshine.
Down in Pasadena, the millionaires were
beginning to buy up property and build their
mansions on or near Orange Grove Avenue,
referred to as Pasadena’s “Fifth Avenue.”
One of the most prominent residents on
Orange Grove Avenue was Amos G. Throop,
who had come to Pasadena in 1886 after retiring
from a long career as a prominent politician
and civic leader in Chicago. “Father” Throop,
as he was affectionately called in Pasadena, was
as concerned with the improvement of
Pasadena as he had been with Chicago.
Throop became active in community
affairs, served on the city Board of Directors,
and was mayor of Pasadena from 1890 to
1892. He founded the Universalist Church in
1886 and gave more than $30,000 to finance
the building of the church at Raymond and
Chestnut. He was remembered by the
Universalist congregation when their new
church was dedicated in 1923 as Throop
Memorial Universalist Church. More important
for the history of Pasadena, though, was
Throop’s interest in education and his founding
of Throop University in 1891.
Father Throop solicited the cooperation of
Professor Parker, whose Pasadena Academy
combined with Throop University at the
founding. The new institution opened in
November 1891 in the Wooster Block on the
corner of Fair Oaks and Green Street (still
standing as part of the Hotel Green). The next
year, the school moved to a new building at
Fair Oaks and Chestnut Street, and the name
was changed to Throop Polytechnic Institute.
This new name reflected more closely the philosophy
behind the founding of the school,
based on Chicago educator John Dewey’s slogan,
“Learn to do by doing.” The aim of the
school, influenced also by the ideas of
William Morris and John Ruskin, was to instill
in its students, both men and women, a
knowledge and respect for manual skills and
crafts. To this end, the institute offered not
only the standard academic courses in the
classics, English, science, and philosophy, but
also courses in “sloyd” (Swedish for crafts),
woodworking, machine shop, cooking,
sewing, and weaving. Art, music, and physical
education were also part of the curriculum.
This was revolutionary in an era when education
was still based on classic academic subjects.
Father Throop wanted those students
who might become owners or managers of
businesses or factories to respect the skills of
their workers and to take pride in quality
work. For those seeking a more practical
training, Throop offered business courses
such as typewriting and stenography. By
1895, Throop Polytechnic had 300 students
housed in two substantial brick buildings at
Fair Oaks and Chestnut.
Father Throop, however, did not live to
see the growing success of his institute. On
March 22, 1894, he died, occasioning “the
HISTORIC PASADENA
44

most impressive demonstration of popular
sorrow that ever occurred in Pasadena”
(according to Reid) at his funeral a few days
later. Flags were at half-staff, businesses
closed, and thousands crowded into and
around the church. Many speakers paid tribute
to Father Throop, including Governor
Henry H. Markham, a Pasadenan who served
as governor of California from 1891 to 1895.
Pasadena’s other important cultural institution,
the library, experienced significant
growth in the years following the boom. In
1887, the library was able to sell its lot on
Colorado Street for $10,000, creating a tidy
sum to build a new building. Charles Legge
offered the Library Association a lot at
Raymond Avenue and Walnut Street free, if a
building costing not less than $25,000 were
erected there by January 1, 1888. A number
of citizens pledged sums to cover the additional
cost. A grand stone building was
begun, but the contractor failed, causing a
delay. In the meantime, the land boom collapsed,
forcing many subscribers to default
on their pledges. Various means were tried to
raise additional funds, including a loan from
a local bank signed by prominent guarantors,
and an Art Loan Exhibition, but finally the
only way to save the library was to have the
city take it over. This was done, and an
$8,500 bond issue was voted to finish the
building. The library opened on September
9, 1890, with 3,000 volumes, quite a gain
from the 329 volumes on the shelves at the
first opening in 1884. During the 1890s, circulation
grew apace under the capable supervision
of Sarah Elizabeth Lawrence Merritt,
Pasadena’s first librarian. In 1896 it was an
astounding 6,500 a month and by 1898 there
were nearly 13,000 volumes in the library.
Pasadena was well on its way to becoming a
well-read community.
The population in 1900 of less than
10,000 was lower than it had been during the
boom of the 1880s, but the stage was set for
solid growth and prosperity. The small village
of prosperous orange growers had become a
major town in Southern California, distinguished
by an unusually high level of wealth
and culture.
✧
The Alpine Tavern was one of the major
destinations of the Mt. Lowe Railway. Here
guests enjoy the view from the veranda.
CHAPTER III
45

HISTORIC PASADENA
46

THE CREAM OF AMERICAN CULTURE:
MILLIONAIRES, EDUCATORS,
SCIENTISTS, AND ARTISTS
I selected Pasadena as the winter home of my family because I consider it a veritable paradise. It has no equal
in the world regarding healthful climate, scenery, vegetation, flowers, shrubberies, fruit and general comfort of
living…. Pasadena is undoubtedly destined to become…a most popular American winter residence.
—Adolphus Busch, 1911
The comments of St. Louis millionaire brewer Adolphus Busch reflect the typical views published
in the 1911 New Year’s Day issue of the Pasadena Daily News under the title “Why I Live in Pasadena.”
During the first two decades of the twentieth century, Pasadena experienced phenomenal growth in
population and wealth, claiming by 1920 to be the wealthiest city per capita in the nation. Orange
Grove Avenue became known as “Millionaires’ Row,” and luxury hotels catering to wealthy Easterners
proliferated. Sophisticated and wealthy patrons fostered the arts, and Pasadena became an important
center for distinctive architecture, painting and sculpture, music, literature, and science. Altogether,
wrote resident Charles F. Holder in 1908, Pasadena was “made up of the cream of the culture, education
and refinement of Eastern cities.”
Although the natural attributes of Pasadena might have been enough to attract outstanding
citizens, the activities of the Pasadena Board of Trade were a major factor in the city’s development.
Formed in 1888 in the aftermath of the boom, the board was, according to its president,
D. W. Coolidge, in 1905:
…a Pasadena Promotion Board. The sole purpose…is to advertise Pasadena and to promote and
encourage everything that will make our beloved city more beautiful, more healthful morally and physically,
and more and more the home of the highest type of American and foreign citizenship. We do not
bid for factories but lay special stress on our superior location, climate, civic improvement, churches and
schools as making the most desirable place of abode.
✧
Known affectionately as “Stinker, Thinker,
and Tinker,” Caltech’s triumvirate, chemist
and educator Alfred Noyes, astronomer and
visionary George Ellery Hale, and physicist
and man of action Robert Millikan pose in
front of Gates Chemistry Laboratory.
COURTESY OF INSTITUTE ARCHIVES, CALTECH.
The board’s successful efforts coupled with the strong pattern of migration into Southern
California resulted in the tripling of Pasadena’s population from just under 10,000 in 1900 to 30,000
in 1907. By 1920, the population had more than quadrupled—to 45,000 people. During the same
period, Los Angeles grew even faster, from 170,000 in 1900 to a city of half a million in 1910 and
nearly a million in 1920.
Initially, in the 1880s, many of Pasadena’s migrants had come from the East, especially Boston. Later,
however, residents of Midwestern cities, especially Chicago, predominated. Not only the wealthy
responded to the advertising by the Board of Trade. Middle-class people streamed into Southern
California, drawn by the promises of health and an easier life in the mild climate, and they came to
Pasadena as well. The city’s reputation as a haven for the wealthy, however, caused the boosters some concern.
In 1906, it was estimated that only 10 percent of the population were “laborers and artisans.” Since
middle-class and working-class people were needed to support the comfortable lives of the rich, and to
provide a year-round, stable population, booster literature in this period began to make direct appeals to
the working-man, promising good opportunities in Pasadena for sober, hard-working individuals.
The southwestern part of the city remained the province of the wealthy, but the rapidly expanding
neighborhoods to the north and east provided housing for middle-class retired people, small businessmen,
and working people. These neighborhoods, which cover most of the total land area of Pasadena,
CHAPTER IV
47

✧
Above: Boys enjoy the water at Catalina
Island during the Pasadena YMCA’s second
annual camping season in 1902.
Below: Carrie McAdoo stands in front of
her grocery store in about 1909.
still retain much of the atmosphere of that period;
the tree-lined streets are a progression of
modest cottages and bungalows, interspersed
occasionally with larger, more substantial
dwellings. While the mansions of the wealthy
and the grand hotels commanded the most
attention, a contemporary writer noted, “there is
no less charm…in viewing the miles upon miles
of flower-embowered cottages or bungalows,
which indicate even more plainly than anything
else that while wealthy people are coming to
Pasadena from all over the country, the city is
still preeminently…middle-class.”
The overwhelming majority of these
migrants were white, but other ethnic groups
contributed to the population boom and the
prosperity of the community. African
Americans began arriving in larger numbers
around the turn of the century, following the
ratification of Southern segregation practices in
the Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, in
1896. Since the end of the Civil War, the freed
slaves had suffered a steady erosion of their
rights, especially in the South. Subject to organized
violence by the Ku Klux Klan and others,
and trapped in the economic bondage of the
share-cropping system, many African
Americans abandoned their rural homes and
moved first to Southern cities and then to
Midwestern and Northern cities, in a movement
known as the “Great Migration.” Those
coming to Southern California may have been
influenced by a 1910 article by W. E. B.
DuBois, founding director of the NAACP,
extolling Los Angeles and Pasadena. Those settling
in Pasadena tended to come from border
states or from the northern states of the
Confederacy, primarily Virginia.
African Americans had come to the area as
early as the 1850s, when Robert Owen cut
wood in El Prieto Canyon to sell in Los
Angeles, but the earliest African-American settler
in Pasadena was Joseph Holmes, who
drove a herd of cattle from Nebraska to Los
Angeles in 1883 and bought a vineyard in
Pasadena with his earnings. Following him,
two brothers, William and Frank Prince, came
to Pasadena in 1886, where they found work
as a porter and a coachman, respectively.
William Prince and another brother Charles
established their own business, Prince
Brothers Feed and Fuel, the first African-
American-owned business in town, in the
early 1890s. Perhaps the wealthiest African
American in town in the early 1900s was
Reuben Scott, who owned a transfer business,
picking up trunks at the railroad station and
delivering them to hotels and residences.
Although most of the immigrating African
Americans were unskilled workers, some were
semi-skilled workers or craftsmen. Silas
Carnahan and Henderson Boone were blacksmiths,
Wiley Chafee Dent established a barber
shop, and Seaborn Carr, a whitewasher by
trade, became the editor of Pasadena’s first
African-American newspaper, The Enterprise,
HISTORIC PASADENA
48

established in 1902. In 1900, Pasadena had
only about 250 African-American residents,
but by 1920, over 1,000 lived in the city.
Early social life in Pasadena centered around
the churches, and the African-American community
was no exception. The first meetings of
the African Methodist Episcopal congregation
(A.M.E.) were held in the Holmes residence,
and in 1892 the group acquired a regular place
of worship by refurbishing a barn and moving
it to a lot on North Fair Oaks. Friendship
Baptist Church was organized in 1893; the
congregation’s first church building was located
on Vernon Avenue. Scott Methodist
Episcopal Church and Metropolitan Baptist
Church were also organized shortly after the
turn of the century.
In the early years, African Americans had
the general respect of the community at large
and had unsegregated access to most institutions,
including schools and public accommodations.
That there was little discrimination
can probably be attributed to the fact that
Pasadena, unlike much of Southern California,
was settled by people from the Midwest and
New England; many of them were veterans of
the Union Army and a number of them had
been prominent abolitionists. But as the memories
of the abolition movement and the Civil
War faded, and a wave of new white migrants
came to Pasadena in the early years of this century,
the atmosphere of tolerance was replaced
by incidents of racism and the beginnings of
segregation in public accommodations and
schools. At the same time, African-American
citizens expanded their political organizations
to protest against new segregation policies.
Early migrants Boone, Scott, Dent, and
William Prince, among others, were Pasadena’s
representatives to the Afro-American State
Council, a national civil rights organization
founded in 1887.
The earliest African-American neighborhood
was on Vernon Avenue, east of Orange
Grove and west of Fair Oaks. In some cases,
residents lived in houses owned by their
employers living in the mansions on Orange
Grove, but many could afford to own property
and so bought their own houses. After the turn
of the century, African Americans also settled in
the northwest area of town, along Lincoln and
North Fair Oaks, south of Washington
Boulevard. However, it is important to note
that while Pasadena’s racial and ethnic groups
tended to concentrate in certain neighborhoods,
members of various groups lived scattered
throughout the city, and even ethnic
neighborhoods were to some extent racially
mixed, unlike the strict segregation of Eastern
and Midwestern cities
The first major racial incident occurred in
1909, when the A.M.E. congregation began
building a church on North Vernon Avenue.
Attempts to burn the church down forced
parishioners to stand guard at night with
rifles. There were also threats against the proposed
Metropolitan Baptist Church building
on Waverly, following the burning of two
houses on Cypress Avenue owned by African
Americans. Later that year a house on Sunset
Avenue occupied by a black man was burned
in a fire of mysterious origin.
The issue of segregation of Pasadena’s only
public swimming pool, Brookside Plunge,
arose in 1914, only a week after its opening on
July 4. Pasadena’s African-American citizens
protested that they were not being allowed to
use the new pool. After some discussion, the
city decided to open it to them and to other
minorities on Wednesdays, the last day before
the weekly draining and cleaning of the pool.
✧
Seaborn Carr, who came from Georgia in
1893, was an early civil rights leader in
Pasadena. As editor of Pasadena’s first
black newspaper, The Enterprise, and a
founding member of Scott Methodist
Episcopal Church, Carr was also Pasadena’s
first representative to the Afro-American
State Council, an early national civil
rights organization.
Below: Football was first played at the
Tournament of Roses in 1902, when
Michigan beat Stanford 49-0. Here the
Michigan team rides in the Rose Parade.
CHAPTER IV
49

✧
Pasadena tennis player May Sutton (Bundy)
was the first American to win Wimbledon.
After her victory in 1905, she won again
in 1907, and she was Pasadena’s Rose
Queen in 1908.
HISTORIC PASADENA
50
White women and girls were also restricted to
one day a week, and black women had no privileges
at all. Led by William Prince and others,
the African-American community formed the
Negro Tax Payers’ and Voters’ Association and
hired lawyers from Los Angeles to press their
case. Although they cited California’s laws prohibiting
discrimination in public facilities, they
failed to move the City Commission. The segregation
of Brookside Plunge remained a major
source of resentment in the African-American
community until the 1940s, when it was finally
opened on an equal basis.
In 1915 Pasadena’s African-American citizens
began a drive to get jobs with the City of
Pasadena, applying for policeman and fireman
positions. At the time, African Americans were
employed only in menial jobs in the Street
Department, and as janitors in City Hall.
Another sign of African-American consciousness
was a float entered by the community in
the 1916 Rose Parade. The float, depicting the
Dove of Peace in 2,000 white carnations, was
awarded a major prize. A little over a year later,
two black women who were charged twentyfive
cents admission to a Pasadena theater
which admitted whites for less, sued the theater,
won their case in Superior Court, and
were awarded $100 in damages. The increasing
political action by blacks led to the founding in
1919 of Pasadena’s chapter of the NAACP.
The large population increase in the region
and in Pasadena caused not only social tensions
but also put a major strain on city government
and utilities. Since incorporation, Pasadena had
been governed by a Board of Trustees, citizenvolunteers
who had functioned well within the
limits of their prescribed responsibilities. In
1901 Pasadena got a new charter, enabling it to
increase revenues and gain greater control over
its water supply, which was approaching a crisis
situation. The charter provided for a mayorcouncil
form of government, vesting important
powers in the mayor, a salaried official.
Pasadena’s first mayor elected under the
new system was Martin H. Weight, who won
despite fears that he might interpret the liquor
ordinance too liberally. Although Weight was
mayor for only two years, his administration is
remembered for its establishment of Pasadena’s
first parks, Central Park and Library Park (now
Memorial Park), and the completion of
Pasadena’s first City Hall building in 1903. A
stolid Mission Revival style structure located at
the northeast corner of Fair Oaks and Union,
the new City Hall was “a disappointment in
location, convenience and architecture,”
according to historian John W. Wood.
Moreover, it soon proved inadequate for the
needs of the rapidly growing city.
Weight was defeated in the 1903 election by
William H. Vedder, a “retired capitalist,” who
was an extremely popular figure in the community.
Vedder’s most important accomplishment
was to obtain the approval of the voters
to form a municipal water department by combining
Pasadena’s two water companies, the
Lake Vineyard Water Company, which served
the neighborhoods east of Fair Oaks, and the
Pasadena Water Company on the west side of
town. Aggravated by the city’s rapid growth,
the water situation had become a major issue
by the time of Vedder’s election.
Pasadena’s water supply was limited to the
waters of the Arroyo Seco and the reserves of
the Raymond Basin, which were tapped by
wells. For the small colony of orange growers,
these sources had been perfectly adequate,
once an efficient piping system had been
installed. But after little more than a decade,
the early cast-iron mains began to deteriorate,
and pollution of the unlined ditches and
uncovered reservoirs caused further problems.
Increased consumer demand at the time of the
boom and a dry winter in 1887-1888 caused
the water supply to dry up completely in the
late summer of 1888.
Both water companies undertook extensive
repairs and improvements to their systems, but
by the late 1890s the water question again
became acute. In 1896, extensive fires in the
mountains destroyed most of the vegetation
that protected the watershed of the Arroyo
Seco. A well-known hydraulic engineer, J. B.
Lippincott, hired in 1898 to assess the water
needs and resources of the city, determined that
Pasadena would need to tap outside sources in
order to accommodate future growth.
Finally, in 1903, the voters approved
acquisition of the two water companies by
the city and the funding of a project to
obtain water from the San Gabriel River at

Whittier Narrows. But Mayor William
Waterhouse, who succeeded Vedder in 1904,
declared the election invalid on technical
grounds, putting the water question back where
it had started and delaying the formation of the
department for another eight years. Annexations
of North Pasadena in 1904 and East Pasadena in
1906 had more than doubled the city’s area, further
straining the water supply.
Thomas Earley, who ran successfully against
Waterhouse in 1906 by campaigning on the
water question, failed to accomplish his goal
during his four years in office. It was left to
Mayor William Thum, who took office in 1911,
finally to achieve the passage of the bond issue
that paid for the acquisition of the private
water companies and their merger into the
Pasadena Water Department. Thum, who had
gained his wealth as the inventor and manufacturer
of a sticky flypaper sold under the brand
name of “Tanglefoot,” was a civic-minded philanthropist
known for his active interest in public
affairs. Under his guidance, the two original
water companies and the North Pasadena
Water Company were purchased for a total of
$1,211,209.16, and the municipal system was
officially established on November 1, 1912.
Until the 1930s Pasadena continued to get its
water from local wells and streams, principally
the Arroyo Seco; no water was ever developed
from the Whittier Narrows source.
The first accomplishment of Pasadena city
government to attract national attention in this
period was the city’s unusual sewage disposal
system. With no available outlet to a river or the
sea, the City of Pasadena purchased 300 acres of
farmland in present-day Alhambra for $37,500
in the 1890s to develop a working farm, watered
and fertilized by sewage. Using deep irrigation
and deep cultivating methods, the process was
claimed to be sanitary and odorless. Walnuts,
pumpkins, hay and grain, corn, and alfalfa were
raised, and the land was made to produce constantly
throughout the year.
For years the sewer farm was a profitable
enterprise; the 1904-1905 auditor’s report
shows $10,500 in receipts, against $8,000 in
disbursements. Walnuts were the biggest
source of income, and the walnut grove was
said to be the largest in the nation in the early
part of the century. By 1908 the farm, which
had grown to over 500 acres, also raised food
for the street and fire department horses; pigs
kept on the farm consumed table scraps collected
and trucked in from Pasadena. The farm
proved to be a profitable investment in other
ways; by 1914 the land was valued at half a
million dollars, and with the increasing urbanization
of Southern California, parcels sold off
at later dates financed such major city projects
as the building of the Municipal Golf Course in
Brookside Park in the 1920s, the Pasadena
Civic Auditorium in the early 1930s, and the
bailout of the police and firemen’s pension
fund in the 1980s.
In the early years of the century Pasadena
pioneered in municipal lighting, and its battle
with the giant Edison Electric Company (later
Southern California Edison) received national
attention. The Edison Company began selling
electricity in Pasadena for streetlighting and
other purposes in 1904, but the initial year’s
service was so unsatisfactory that Mayor
Waterhouse refused to pay Edison’s bill. Soon
afterward the City Board decided to start a
municipal streetlighting system of its own.
Pasadenans approved a bond issue to finance
streetlighting, and, by 1907, Pasadena was able
to terminate its contract with Edison. City electricity
proved to be cheaper than Edison’s, and
in 1909, the voters approved extending the
utility, ably managed by lighting engineer C.
Wellington Koiner, to serve residential and
commercial customers. Thus began a decadelong
struggle between the competing municipal
and private systems.
✧
Above: Pasadena’s mounted police unit
poses on Union Street in front of the south
side of the old City Hall.
Below: Employees of the Pasadena Electric
Light and Power Company pose in front
of their office on South Raymond Avenue.
The city-owned company competed
successfully with the Edison Company
and eventually won a monopoly to supply
power in Pasadena.
CHAPTER IV
51

✧
Above: Clara Burdette was the leading
advocate for the 1915 Plan for Pasadena.
Below: Roses lay strewn along the path
prepared for President Theodore Roosevelt’s
arrival at Wilson School in 1903.
HISTORIC PASADENA
52
Though the city’s rates were initially cheaper
than Edison’s, Edison soon undercut the price,
subsidizing its Pasadena losses with higher rates
in neighboring cities and starting an all-out rate
war. Pasadenans, however, remained loyal to
the city system, even though they were paying
more. The struggle was made more bitter by the
fact that many Edison officials and influential
stockholders lived in Pasadena, and they tried
to bring their political influence to bear on the
city. Edison employed salesmen to solicit business
for the company among residential customers.
The city responded with volunteers
who talked to their friends and neighbors and
to new residents about the advantages of the
municipal power system.
A major turn of events in the rate war was
the passage of the Unjust Competition Act by
the state legislature in 1914. Introduced by
Senator William J. Carr, formerly Pasadena’s
city attorney, the new law made it illegal for
Edison to charge discriminatory prices among
various cities. Rate regulation proved favorable
for Pasadena; by 1920, the city utility had
12,000 customers, while Edison served only
4,000. Later that year, Edison sold its Pasadena
business to the city, giving the municipal utility
a monopoly on Pasadena’s power supply.
Besides providing for water, electricity, and
sewage disposal, the city was also responsible for
streets and parks. In 1906, architect Alfred
Heineman urged the City Board to institute a
street tree planting program to enhance the beauty
of Pasadena, arguing that tree-lined streets
would improve everyone’s property values. The
earliest settlers had recognized the importance of
mature shade trees in the Southern California climate
and had planted pepper trees along Orange
Grove and Marengo Avenues and walnut trees
along West Colorado Street. By 1909 the city had
established a tree nursery and began to designate
the tree species to be planted on each city street.
Throughout the century’s early decades,
Pasadena’s schools struggled to keep pace with
the growth of the city. The schools were forced
to resort to half-day sessions and the use of
basements and tents for classrooms. In 1901,
Pasadena’s first public kindergarten opened.
During this period Pasadena became one of the
first cities in the nation to create an “intermediate
school” (later called junior high school).
Pasadena High School was built in 1904 at
Walnut and Los Robles, the first separate high
school in the city. It later became John Muir
Junior High School when, in 1912, Pasadena
built another Pasadena High School located
“out in the country” on the old Rose Villa
Ranch, known for its half-mile long blooming
rose hedge. The high school’s three new buildings
were sited in an open quadrangle facing
Colorado Street near Hill. Planned as a community
center, the new school had an assembly
hall, lecture rooms, and sports facilities intended
to serve the entire community.
By 1920 Pasadena schools had an enrollment
of 10,000 pupils, compared to fewer than
4,000 in 1900. In 1915, adult education was
started, with evening high school classes in
Spanish, automobile repairing, and domestic
science. There were also “Americanization”
classes to aid the foreign-born.
The Pasadena Public Library grew rapidly
after the turn of the century. The imposing
building on North Raymond Avenue, which
predated the first City Hall building by over a
decade and was often mistaken for a church,
was visible evidence of the importance of the
library to the community. In 1898, when Miss
Nellie Russ took charge as librarian, the library
had 14,000 volumes, which in health-conscious
Pasadena were regularly disinfected with
formaldehyde to prevent the spread of disease.

Miss Russ, continuing the work of Mrs.
Merritt, proceeded to develop Pasadena’s
library into a leading cultural institution. The
library housed not only books, but also many
collections of artifacts and paintings, objects
which today would more properly belong to a
museum. In those days, however, the library
did serve as a museum, and it was particularly
rich in natural history collections. The
library for some time also had a “California
table.” Miss Russ developed this collection,
buying many items from her small budget that
later proved to be important, even priceless,
works related to California history. By the
time she resigned her position in 1919, her
California collection had become the third
largest of its kind in the state, and was considered
by many the best in any California
public library.
Pasadena was known as a city of churches,
and, by 1910, over fifty churches were serving
the community. The Methodists claimed the
greatest numbers, having one of the largest
congregations in the country, while the
Presbyterians were Pasadena’s wealthiest congregation.
The three Friends’ Meetings numbered
among their members many prominent
early citizens. The Catholic church, St.
Andrew’s, founded in 1886, also served a
growing congregation. Certainly the largest
and most striking building belonged to the
Christian Scientists. Completed in 1909, the
majestic domed First Church of Christ
Scientist dominated the residential neighborhood
where it stood at Green Street and
Oakland Avenue. The Nazarenes, led by their
founder, Phineas Bresee, a former Pasadena
Methodist minister, moved their Pacific Bible
College to the old Hugus ranch in northeast
Pasadena in 1910. Known later as Pasadena
College, the school offered religious instruction
and later a standard liberal arts curriculum
on its Pasadena campus before moving to
San Diego in the 1970s.
Musical life in Pasadena began in earnest
with the establishment in 1904 of the
Coleman Chamber Music Association. The
founder, Alice Coleman, was a gifted pianist,
who had studied in Boston and considered
pursuing a concert career. The annual series
of chamber concerts which she organized is
now recognized as the oldest chamber music
association in the nation. Launching the series
was not easy; Alice Coleman recalled telephoning
friends and acquaintances in that
first year to explain to them what chamber
music was. Suitable halls were unavailable, so
the concerts were held at Clune’s Theatre, the
Hotel Green, the high school auditorium, and
even in Alice Coleman’s home after her marriage
to Ernest Batchelder. Not until 1928 did
the association find a semi-permanent home
at the Pasadena Playhouse.
In 1921, the association established a
Composer’s Fellowship to aid Southern
California composers. The first recipient was
Arthur Farwell, and the second Roy Harris,
both of whom are recognized as distinguished
American composers. The Coleman continues
to sponsor concerts by leading chamber
music groups from this country and abroad,
and its prestigious annual competition for
young artists has greatly advanced the careers
of the winners.
In 1911, Alice Coleman noted that Pasadena
had a growing audience for music and a flourishing
musical life. But she envisioned an even
greater role for Pasadena. “Why should we not
make of Pasadena a veritable little home of the
best in music and kindred arts?…. Let us cease
to lament our distance from the music centers
of the east and stand shoulder to shoulder in
making of Pasadena a worthy center of art.”
One who took up her challenge was George
Ellery Hale, internationally known astronomer,
✧
George Ellery Hale had his good friend
Bertram Goodhue (1869-1924) draw up a
campus plan for Caltech to give the place
the national, even international stature that
he sought for all of Pasadena. Goodhue’s
plan (1917) and his austere flat-roofed
building designs tied together by arcades
and interior patios were basically carried
out, except for the central domed building
and the reflecting pools. The cypress trees
were planted along the arcades as shown,
but were lost to a new landscape design in
the 1980s.
COURTESY OF INSTITUTE ARCHIVES,
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
CHAPTER IV
53

✧
Members of the congregation gathered
at the corner of Colorado and Marengo
to lay the cornerstone of the new First
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1901.
The building stood on that corner until the
mid-1920s, when it was taken down, stone
by stone, and moved to Holliston Avenue,
becoming Holliston Avenue Methodist
Church. The First Methodists built their
next church at the corner of Colorado and
Oakland Avenue.
HISTORIC PASADENA
54
who had come from Chicago in 1903 to establish
an observatory on Mt. Wilson. Hale, who
was from a wealthy Chicago family, became a
leader in Pasadena’s intellectual and cultural life.
In 1912, he founded the Pasadena Music and
Art Association, an organization that began to
bring well-known concert artists and the Los
Angeles Philharmonic to Pasadena. The association
had as members of its board some of the
most influential men and women of the city,
including Henry Huntington, James Culbertson,
James Scherer (president of Throop), Charles F.
Holder, C. B. Scoville, George S. Patton, Bishop
Joseph Johnson, and Arthur Fleming. Hale was
able to persuade Miss Susan Stickney to donate
the Shakespeare Club building on North
Fair Oaks to the association, founding the
Stickney Memorial School of Fine Arts, where
local artists such as Jean Mannheim, Guy Rose,
and Alson Clark taught. The association began
to acquire paintings and pieces of sculpture in
anticipation of the establishment of a permanent
art museum.
Literary figures who lived in Pasadena after
the turn of the century included Upton
Sinclair, Robinson Jeffers, and George Wharton
James. Jeffers, who came to Pasadena with his
family at the age of sixteen, graduated from
Occidental College and soon settled in Carmel,
where he did most of his writing. Upton
Sinclair came to Pasadena in 1915, staying and
writing for about two decades. The Sinclairs
lived first on North Hudson Avenue, and later
moved to Sunset Avenue, where they owned
several lots, onto which Mary, Sinclair’s wife,
kept moving old houses and attaching them to
each other, forming in the end a large but
rather strange-looking dwelling. Publication of
some of Sinclair’s books was subsidized by Kate
Crane Gartz, a Chicago heiress who lived in
Altadena. Sinclair was known in Pasadena less
for his literary achievements than for his excellent
tennis playing, which he indulged in regularly
on the courts of the exclusive Valley Hunt
Club, partnering Pasadena businessmen.
A usually neglected writer, but one who has
well over fifty books to his credit, is George
Wharton James. James, who came to Pasadena
in the 1890s and worked as a publicist for the
Mt. Lowe Railway, wrote a number of volumes
on Indians of the Southwest, and especially on
Indian basketry, on which he was an acknowledged
expert. He also wrote on the California
missions, on travel in Southern California, on
psychological subjects, and on Craftsman
design. Given his interests, it is not surprising
that James was a rival of Charles F. Lummis, his
better-known counterpart in Los Angeles. In
Pasadena, James was known for Thursday
evening salons at his home on North Raymond
Avenue and for his founding of the local
Browning Club, a society devoted to the study
of the works of the poet Robert Browning.
Another largely forgotten writer of the period,
Charles F. Holder, wrote not only about
Pasadena, but about wildlife, marine animals,
hunting, and fishing. Elizabeth Grinnell was a
well-known author who wrote about bird life
in Southern California. Ernest Batchelder
wrote on education, aesthetics and design;
Una Nixon Hopkins and Helen Lukens Gaut
spread knowledge of Pasadena’s unique architecture
in articles in major national magazines.
Helen Elliott Bandini wrote on early Pasadena
and California history. Elizabeth Boynton
Harbert, feminist and social activist from
Chicago, wrote articles and books on women’s
issues. Writers who were temporary residents
included Gertrude Potter Daniels of Chicago;
novelist and short story writer George Peck,
creator of the Peck’s Bad Boy series; Noah
Brooks, best known for his works on Abraham

Lincoln and his editorship of Mark Twain’s
works; and Francis Leupp, an authority on
American Indians.
Despite the material prosperity and vital
cultural life of Pasadena in this period, its history
would undoubtedly have developed differently
if George Ellery Hale had not established
Mt. Wilson Observatory at the top of Mt.
Wilson near Pasadena. As early as the 1880s,
Mt. Wilson had been recognized as enjoying an
unusually stable atmosphere, ideal for astronomical
“seeing.” An early collaboration
between Harvard University and the University
of Southern California to found an observatory
on the mountain foundered for financial
reasons after the collapse of the Southern
California land boom in 1888, but Hale, a
young MIT student at the time, was impressed
by Harvard professor E.C. Pickering’s enthusiastic
accounts of the fine atmospheric conditions
at Pasadena.
In 1902, Hale was appointed to the committee
on astronomy for the newly-established
Carnegie Foundation. Remembering Pickering’s
accounts, Hale made an expedition to Southern
California in 1903 to view the site and immediately
proposed to Carnegie the installation
of both a solar observatory and a sixty-inch
stellar telescope.
The following year the Carnegie Institution
awarded Hale $150,000 for each of the next
two years. Work had already begun on the
mountain, and an instrument shop was set up
in a building on West Union Street in Pasadena
to fabricate the necessary equipment. In anticipation
of the construction of the sixty-inch
telescope, the shop was moved to a new building
on Santa Barbara Street in 1905, where
land had been donated by the city. Walter S.
Adams, a colleague of Hale’s and later director
of the observatory, recalled that Santa Barbara
Street in those days was a dirt country road
“with only occasional small farmhouses and
barns scattered here and there.”
If conditions were primitive in Pasadena,
they were even more primitive on Mt. Wilson.
Transportation up the mountain was by burro,
and these beasts proved to be wily and unpredictable,
preferring the trip down to the trip up
and stopping to graze on the slopes whenever
they had the chance. The limitations of this
mode of transport meant that no building materials
or equipment could measure more than
eight feet long. The animals, however, proved
their worth when one professor discovered that
their very fine hair could be used to make
crosshairs for the guiding telescope.
Astronomers and workmen lived in tents or at
Martin’s or Strain’s mountain resort camps nearby,
while an old building, known as the Casino,
was repaired and made ready for use. Other
buildings, such as the legendary Monastery, a
dormitory for professors and students, soon followed.
From that first summer of 1904, scientists
from the east and abroad visited the observatory,
culminating in the meeting of the
International Solar Union in Pasadena in 1910.
While Hale was busy with activities on Mt.
Wilson, he also took an interest in the future of
Pasadena’s chief educational institution,
Throop Polytechnic Institute. Primarily a coeducational
manual training school for all ages
from first grade through college, the institute
added a College of Science and Engineering in
1905. Hale saw in the school the opportunity
to create an “MIT of the West,” an institution of
international stature on a par with the growing
Mt. Wilson Observatory. Named to the Throop
Board of Trustees in 1907, Hale convinced his
fellow trustees to appoint a new president,
James A. B. Scherer, whom Hale had met in
1907 while sailing to Europe. Although no scientist,
Scherer was an accomplished orator and
a proven fundraiser, just the person needed to
head a new and growing institution.
✧
Pasadena’s First Church of Christ Scientist
is one of the most monumental religious
buildings in town. Completed in 1909
and built of poured concrete, it was paid
for before it was dedicated.
CHAPTER IV
55

✧
The Scoville Bridge, shown here, was
replaced in 1913 by the Colorado Street
Bridge. The adjacent pumping station
pumped water up from the Arroyo Seco
into the reservoir on North Orange Grove.
HISTORIC PASADENA
56
Throop’s location at North Fair Oaks and
Chestnut at the edge of the expanding business
district limited the size of its campus.
Hale persuaded Arthur Fleming, whose lumber
interests in the Pacific Northwest had
made him a millionaire, to donate funds to
purchase twenty-two acres of orange groves
at Wilson and California and to erect a
building. Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, local
architects who had practiced together since
1904, were hired to draw up a campus plan
and to design the first building, Pasadena
Hall (later called Throop Hall), which was
dedicated in 1910.
No sooner had Throop opened its doors as
Throop Institute, an engineering and science
college for men only, than news came that
the California State Legislature was considering
establishing a “California Institute of
Technology” in Southern California. Pressure
from Northern Californians, who wanted no
rival state institution in the south, finally
forced the Legislature to abandon the plan,
but the resultant publicity for Throop and
President Scherer brought in $250,000 in new
endowment funds, and enhanced the prestige
of the institute.
Assuming yet another name, Throop
College of Technology in 1913, Throop began
to develop its various departments by attracting
famous scientists. First to come, on a parttime
basis, was Arthur Amos Noyes, distinguished
chemist at MIT and former classmate
of Hale. Then came physicist Robert Millikan
of the University of Chicago, who at first
spent only three months each year in
Pasadena. Gifts from Arthur Fleming of $1
million, from Dr. Norman Bridge (a Chicago
physician who had retired to Pasadena for
health reasons) of $250,000 for a physics laboratory,
from Robert R. Blacker of $50,000,
and others, put the college on a solid financial
footing. In 1919 Noyes resigned from MIT
and came to Throop full-time; and in 1920,
the college formally adopted the name
California Institute of Technology.
By 1920, President Scherer’s health was
failing and he submitted his resignation.
Tapped for president of the institute was
Robert Millikan, who was wooed ardently by
George Hale, and tempted by Norman
Bridge’s offer of a new physics laboratory and
by Arthur Fleming’s promise to turn over his
entire fortune to the institute if Millikan
would accept the post. Millikan came to
Pasadena and formally took charge of the
institute in the fall of 1921. With Millikan’s
assumption of the presidency, the modern
history of the California Institute of
Technology began.
As Pasadena and its institutions grew during
the first two decades of the century, the
beginnings of a major change in the Southern
California way of life were taking place.
“Automobiling” was becoming a popular pastime,
and Pasadena’s Board of Trade, together
with the Automobile Club of Southern
California, aggressively promoted the development
and paving of roads in the Los
Angeles area, opening the vast and picturesque
countryside to the driver. In one
month alone, the newspaper reported that
eighteen railroad cars loaded with fifty-four
tourist autos had arrived in Pasadena. By
1915, Pasadena claimed more autos per capita
than any other city in the world, 5,000 in a
city of 40,000 people.
The completion of the Colorado Street
Bridge in 1913 and the subsequent designation
of Colorado Street as a link in the
transcontinental highway known as the
National Old Trails Route made Pasadena a
through-route for automobile traffic, both for
the transcontinental traveler and the local
motorist traveling between the San Gabriel
and San Fernando valleys. Rising 160 feet
above the bed of the Arroyo Seco, the new
bridge greatly simplified the crossing of the
Arroyo. Previously the traveler had descended
to the bottom of the Arroyo to cross the stream
over the small Scoville Bridge, and then
climbed arduously up the other side. The new
bridge not only shortened and eased the trip,

it was a marvel of modern engineering, the
longest and highest bridge in the Southwest.
Its curved concrete span of enormous arches
prompted one contemporary to claim it as
“one of the few bridges that can properly be
classified as a work of art.” Ornamental lights
and floodlights, installed some years later, illuminated
its graceful lines at night.
Ceremonies to open the Colorado Street
Bridge were held at Carmelita on December
13, 1913. Afterward a procession of cars decorated
with banners and pennants and led by
Chamber of Commerce President Edwin
Sorver drove across the 1,467-foot long span,
where celebrants could enjoy the beautiful
views of the Arroyo and the mountains. Built
in eighteen months, the bridge had cost
$200,000, with half the cost being borne by
the City of Pasadena, the other half by Los
Angeles County.
A few months after the opening of the new
bridge, the Auto Club posted signs at
Colorado and Fair Oaks, directing the traveler
to New York or Los Angeles along the
National Old Trails Route (later Route 66). By
1916, twenty to thirty cars a day were arriving
in California over the new route. Like the railroad
only a few decades earlier, the transcontinental
automobile route affected the development
of all the towns through which it
passed; in Pasadena, Colorado Street developed
from a residential street into an automobile-oriented
commercial strip.
The outbreak of World War I in August
1914 gave a great boost to Pasadena’s tourist
trade, as wealthy Easterners could no longer
frequent their favorite resorts in Europe. And
Pasadenans and visitors alike organized relief
efforts, beginning in late 1914 with the
founding of a local chapter of the American
Red Cross. Dr. James Scherer and Mrs. James
A. Garfield were among the founders. The
local chapter distinguished itself by being
the first to organize and equip a Red Cross
Ambulance Corps. The Pasadena chapter
sent thousands of surgical dressings, hospital
supplies, and refugee garments to Europe
and in three years collected almost $200,000
for war relief. Other relief groups in
Pasadena aided the Belgians, Italians,
Syrians, and Armenians.
In drives for Liberty Loans and War
Savings Stamps, Pasadenans subscribed over
$9 million. Education in food conservation
and thrift extended down to the smallest children,
who were encouraged to perform small
household tasks for money; in ten weeks
Pasadena schoolchildren earned and saved
$5,500 for the war effort. A fabricated ship,
“The Good Ship Thrift,” built over the body of
an automobile, toured the town campaigning
for membership and enrolling over 2,100 citizens.
Once the United States entered the war,
the Navy League (later the Army and Navy
League) under the chairmanship of Mrs.
Myron Hunt, set up a knitting program, with
4,000 knitters knitting 61,000 garments in
little over a year.
Pasadena’s increasing prosperity during
and after the war helped it become what the
Board of Trade had long claimed it to be, an
ideal residential city. Well-built houses, both
large and small, bordered its tree-lined streets.
Good schools and many churches sustained a
stable middle-class community, which supported
artists, writers, musicians, and architects.
As a winter resort, Pasadena offered an
unparalleled natural environment as well as
sophisticated hotels and amusements for the
wealthy. As the fame of the resort spread,
more and more people began to choose
Pasadena as a permanent residence, creating
an ever-growing year-round community.
✧
Red Cross nurses, led by Dorothy Dobbins,
march in the 1918 Rose Parade.
CHAPTER IV
57

HISTORIC PASADENA
58

THE CITY BEAUTIFUL
To make a city attractive is to make it prosperous.
—Willis Polk, 1921
Pasadena’s development into an attractive residential city culminated in the 1920s. A cultural
reawakening across the United States in the period just prior to World War I had resulted in a proliferation
of new magazines, clubs, little theaters, experimental schools, and art galleries.
Pasadenans had founded musical organizations, an art school, many clubs, and a little theater
which during the following decade reached their full flowering, supported by a cosmopolitan middle
class. Moreover, Pasadena’s already distinctive architecture developed in the 1920s into a new
California Mediterranean style, a blend of Spanish and Italian motifs. The building of the Civic
Center, the construction of major commercial buildings, the development of the Caltech campus,
and the proliferation of white-walled, red-tile-roofed villas set in luxuriant gardens gave Pasadena
an elegant character which still remained primarily suburban and informal.
Between 1920 and 1930 Pasadena grew from a population of 45,000 to 76,000. Although
accounts of the period concentrate primarily on the wealthy and famous, Pasadena remained predominantly
middle class. Besides the hotels with their large staffs and the many retail establishments
serving both tourists and residents, by 1929 Pasadena had over 150 industrial plants, some
of which were attracted to the city by a Chamber of Commerce campaign in the early 1920s.
Offering low electricity rates and the promise of a stable work force as enticements, the chamber’s
campaign specified only clean industries, such as textiles, clothing, food products, printers, potters,
and machine tools for Pasadena. The growth of the construction industry contributed to
employment in Pasadena, bringing architects, contractors, builders, carpenters, plumbers, plasterers,
and painters to the city. A number of small companies and individual craftsmen supplied the
extra touches needed by the building trades; interior decoration, cast stone work, ornamental tiles,
wrought iron railings and light fixtures, stenciling, leaded glass, even adobe construction and furniture
designed to fit the new architecture. Most of these small businesses and industries were
owned by and employed Pasadenans, and, at the height of their prosperity, many extended their
trade beyond Pasadena’s borders to Los Angeles and other Southern California communities.
The prosperity of the times and the availability of work coincided with a substantial immigration
of Mexican Americans to Pasadena. Mexican Americans had been living in the San Gabriel
Valley at least since the colonization by Spain. After the conquest by the United States, many of
these people had remained, living near the mission, in small settlements called rancherías, or on
ranches scattered throughout the valley. They also formed a good part of the labor force that the
Pasadena colonists used to plant and harvest their vineyards and orchards. Prior to 1900 they were
joined by immigrants from Sonora in northern Mexico.
After 1900, this immigration swelled, partly because of political unrest in Mexico (the Mexican
Revolution occured in 1910), but mostly because of economic hardship caused by population pressures,
expropriation of lands, low wages and higher food costs in Mexico. Twice as many emigrated
in the 1920s as during the previous decade.
An important figure in the early days of Pasadena was Arturo Bandini, a sheep rancher of
Spanish ancestry, who led the early hunts and taught Spanish to some of the settlers. Bandini married
Helen Elliott, daughter of Dr. Thomas Elliott, and their son, Ralph Bandini, was one of the
founders in 1915 of the Hispanic Society, a statewide organization dedicated to preserving the history
of Spanish California.
The Mexican-American community in early Pasadena was concentrated south of California
Street. A focal point of the community was a Catholic mission church, Our Lady of Guadalupe,
✧
Three versions of the design for the City
Hall submitted by Bakewell & Brown.
CHAPTER V
59

✧
Our Lady of Guadalupe mission church
was the center of the Mexican-American
community in the neighborhood around
South Raymond and California Street.
After a fire damaged the church in the
1980s, it was demolished.
HISTORIC PASADENA
60
built on California at Raymond in 1911. The
Pasadena Settlement House (later called the
Edna P. Alter Memorial Association) was
established by Associated Charities in 1911 to
serve the neighborhood. Operating out of
small buildings on California Street and
Raymond Avenue and organized along the
lines of Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago,
the association provided help to indigent families,
educational programs, a day nursery,
and a small maternity hospital set up in a former
garage. (At the time, non-whites were not
admitted to Pasadena Hospital for treatment.)
Like Hull House, where work centered on
European immigrant communities in
Chicago, the goal of the association was
Americanization, and to this end it offered
English classes and other programs designed
to teach American customs. Women were
taught housekeeping, cooking, and baking, so
that they might better care for their families,
but also so that they might be employed as
domestics.
In east Pasadena, east of Lamanda Park and
Eaton Wash, another Mexican-American
neighborhood, Titleyville or Chihuahuaita,
founded to provide labor for the railroad,
offered a “suburban” alternative to the neighborhood
in Pasadena’s industrial district.
According to an early newspaper account, the
houses there were “neat and comfortable,
there are little yards and in most of them flowers
are growing. There is a small mission
church here, [which] serves on weekdays for
school purposes and on Sunday for church
services. It is undenominational and is well
attended by all.”
In about 1915 separate schools were set up
for Spanish-speaking children, one on
Raymond Avenue, called the Raymond
Avenue School, the other in Titleyville, which
later became Fremont School. At Garfield
School on California Street, where Anglo children
also attended, Spanish-speaking children
were taught in separate classes and
steered toward manual work. According to a
newspaper account of 1912, “the Garfield
School is unique in that it has representatives
of all classes—those of wealthy parentage
from millionaires’ row, as well as the humble
Mexicans.” Most of the Mexican immigrants’
children came from families whose parents
worked in the fields or did heavy labor for the
railroad or construction projects. In 1916 at
the behest of Anglo citizens, the Arroyo Seco
School was opened on South Grand Avenue
for their children, effectively segregating the
schools at the elementary level.
Symptomatic of a trend taking place in similar
middle-class cities across the nation in the
1920s was the reorganization of Pasadena’s
city government and the establishment of a
city manager system in 1921. In 1913
Pasadena had changed its government from
the mayor-council system to the commission
system. Five elected, salaried commissioners,
each charged with administering designated
city departments, governed the city. As a legislative
body, the commission was empowered
to pass ordinances, some of which were subject
to referendum by the voters.
Despite the greater efficiency promised by
the commission system, some Pasadenans
began agitating as early as 1914 for another
change, to the city manager system.
Advocates of the city manager plan saw in the
commission system opportunities for political
abuse; they were also the advocates of civic
beautification, concerned with preserving

Pasadena’s residential character and opposed
to the building of a rapid transit line to
Los Angeles, which some commissioners
favored and which opponents felt would create
too rapid growth. Under five equally powerful
commissioners, it was difficult to resolve
disputes; it was said that Pasadena’s commissioners
“fought among themselves like cats
and dogs.”
The city manager plan was appealing for
many reasons. Based on the organization of a
private corporation, it applied business methods
to government, promising to increase efficiency
and to improve accountability. It separated
administrative responsibilities from
direct political influence, and it unified all the
branches of city government by concentrating
authority and responsibility in the manager.
The city manager system was spreading rapidly
throughout the country in this period;
ninety-eight municipalities had adopted it by
1918. When Pasadena adopted the system in
1921, it hired as its first city manager C.
Wellington Koiner, who had risen to prominence
as director of the financially successful
Municipal Light Department. Koiner had
proven managerial abilities and a clear sense
of dedication to public service. He was widely
known and respected, and within a short
time was elected president of the
International City Managers’ Association.
In Pasadena Koiner took charge at once,
and with the support of the newly elected
board of directors (whose chairman retained
the honorary title of mayor) embarked on a
series of projects that would have lasting
effects on the city. Both Koiner and the members
of the board were visionaries, men used
to doing things “in a big way.” The most farreaching
project of the new city government
was the establishment of a planning commission,
which hired a team of experts from
Chicago to prepare Pasadena’s first city plan.
Some Pasadenans had been working for
years for a city plan. The City Beautiful concept,
which had been introduced at Chicago’s
Columbian Exposition in 1893, made
Americans aware of the possibilities of city
planning. The “Great White City” of Beaux
Arts buildings, with pools, fountains, open
plazas, uniform cornice lines, and vistas, created
a sense of order hitherto unknown in
American cities and spread a taste for the City
Beautiful throughout America.
Long proud of their residential neighborhoods,
Pasadenans had turned their attention
early in the century to the beautification of
the public and commercial sections of the city.
Women’s organizations were in the forefront
of the movement. The Outdoor Art
Association called for a plan in 1902 to determine
the placing of public buildings, the
arrangement of streets, the location of parks
✧
Above: A group of schoolgirls at
Garfield School.
Below: These young boys are attending the
Pasadena Preventorium, a school
established in the Arroyo to improve the
health of youth in Pasadena.
CHAPTER V
61

✧
Edward Bennett’s plan for Pasadena tied
two parts of the city together by means
of a long boulevard, Holly Street, that
terminated at City Hall. While many cities
developed similar grand Beaux Arts plans
in the early 1900s, Pasadena is unusual
in that the core of the plan, the Civic Center,
was largely completed in the years 1925-1932.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF PASADENA.
HISTORIC PASADENA
62
and monuments, the planting of street trees,
and the preservation of natural beauty and
historic places. The Shakespeare Club, one of
Pasadena’s oldest and most prestigious
women’s clubs, sponsored lectures by experts,
explaining the advantages of city plans and
the work of Daniel Burnham, who had played
a major role in the 1893 fair.
By 1908, when a new post office building
was proposed, calls for a city plan and civic
center became louder. Prominent clubwoman
Clara Burdette saw the post office as an
opportunity to create a civic center. The Board
of Trade invited city planner Charles Mulford
Robinson to Pasadena in 1908, but nothing
came of the project. Even Daniel Burnham
visited Pasadena, but the city was not yet
ready to hire such a renowned expert.
Nevertheless, interest in creating a plan for
Pasadena continued to grow, and, in 1914, a
City Beautiful Association was formed, with
representatives from twenty-eight different
organizations, including the Parent-Teacher
Association, the Women’s Civic League, the
Pasadena Realty Board, the Tournament of
Roses Association, and the Chamber of
Commerce. Recognizing Pasadena’s dependence
on tourism, these groups were especially
inspired by the hope that 1915, the year of
the California-Panama Exposition in San
Diego and the Panama-Pacific Exposition in
San Francisco, would bring even more
tourists to California.
Moreover, the European war had greatly
increased tourist bookings at Pasadena’s
hotels for the coming season, and Pasadenans
knew that their city would have to compete
with the charms of Europe to convince these
newcomers to return to Pasadena once the
war was over.
At first, City Beautiful efforts were concentrated
on cleanup, especially of streets, empty
lots, and the Arroyo Seco. Businesses were persuaded
to remove billboards and put up flower
boxes on downtown buildings. Then George
Damon, a member of the Throop faculty who
had some city planning experience, especially
in the area of transportation, put forward a
plan to create a union terminal for all the railroads
at Colorado and Broadway (now Arroyo
Parkway), on the site of the Southern Pacific
station. North of the terminal, Damon planned
the City Hall facing onto a plaza surrounded by
the library, an auditorium, and a “social center”
for use by clubs and other organizations. The
railway station would function as a gateway for
visitors and railroad tracks would be below
grade through the business district. Although
never implemented, Damon’s plan was widely
discussed. It was published in 1915 by the
Women’s Civic League and a model was exhibited
in the Board of Trade offices.

The proposed civic center would solve several
problems. The old City Hall was by now
inadequate. The library, too, was antiquated
and needed more space to house its growing
collections. Pasadena’s expanding cultural life
demanded a suitable auditorium for concerts
and plays and a museum for art exhibits. The
business community wanted an exhibition
hall that could be used for trade fairs and conventions.
A civic center was an obvious solution,
but it was a huge project for a town of
only 45,000 people.
Finally in 1921, George Hale turned his
attention to Pasadena’s need for a Civic
Center. Hale, an internationally recognized
scientist with cosmopolitan tastes, had enormous
energy, and he could be highly persuasive.
He had garnered the support of
industrialists like Charles Yerkes and
Andrew Carnegie for his scientific projects.
He persuaded Arthur Fleming to donate
most of his fortune to Caltech and Henry
Huntington to create a major research institution,
the Huntington Library and Art
Gallery. His Mt. Wilson Observatory was the
leading observatory in the world, and it continued
to grow, expanding from the sixtyinch
telescope to the 100-inch, finally culminating
in the project for the great 200-
inch telescope at Palomar.
Hale wanted to create in Pasadena an
“Athens of the West,” a city which would
have a full complement of the best in cultural
and scientific institutions. He dreamed of a
major medical school and hospital and a
school of architecture and design at Caltech.
He envisioned a Pasadena art institute, modeled
on the Art Institute of Chicago and an
active theater. As for Pasadena itself, Hale
dreamed of a City Beautiful plan which
would be a fitting setting for the institutions
he was establishing.
Hale went before the City Board in January
1922 to present his ideas. Following the
endorsement of the board and of Mayor
Hiram Wadsworth, Hale presented his proposal
to prepare a city plan with a civic center
to a group of influential Pasadenans at a dinner
at the Hotel Green. To gain the support of
businessmen, Hale repeated the words of San
Francisco architect Willis Polk: “To make a
city attractive is to make it prosperous.”
In April a Planning Commission was
established by city ordinance. In May, the
Chicago firm of Bennett, Parsons and Frost,
architects, planners, and successors to Daniel
Burnham, were retained to make a plan for
Pasadena. Over the next few months, the
planners visited Pasadena several times, even
taking an airplane flight over the city, as well
as descending into the Arroyo to explore a
“through route without any intersections to
the big city.”
The Bennett plan had several components.
Central to it was the Civic Center, which
Bennett located on two axes, Garfield and
✧
Above: Hiram Wadsworth, a retired
industrialist from Boston, served as
Pasadena’s mayor during the crucial period
when the Civic Center was being planned.
He also served as a trustee of Caltech and
led the drive to build the Colorado River
Aqueduct in the late 1920s.
Below: Architect and city planner Clarence
Stein of Bertram Goodhue’s office produced
this design for the Pasadena Art Institute at
Carmelita Park. Reminiscent of Goodhue’s
design for the Nebraska State Capitol,
the building, sited on a high knoll, would
have been the third component, with the
Colorado Street Bridge and the Memorial
Flagstaff, to mark the entrance to Pasadena
on the west.
CHAPTER V
63

✧
The Civic Auditorium as envisioned by
Bennett Parsons & Frost had the look
of the Paris Opera.
COURTESY OF THE PASADENA PUBLIC LIBRARY.
HISTORIC PASADENA
64
Holly, to take advantage of three buildings
already in place, the 1915 Post Office, the
YWCA, designed by Julia Morgan, California’s
first woman architect, and the YMCA. Bennett
proposed two major automobile entrances to
the city, one at the head of the Colorado Street
Bridge, the other at Lamanda Park on the east.
Bennett’s recognition of the growing importance
of the automobile also led him to propose
widening and cutting through Green and
Walnut Streets to create more east-west arteries
in the city center, and landscaped medians
to beautify major auto routes.
In his report to the City Board, Bennett
emphasized the garden nature of Pasadena and
its residential character. The purpose of his
plan was to enhance these qualities. Bennett’s
analysis of Pasadena’s primitive zoning led him
to recommend changes that would limit population
growth. He foresaw that it could result
in congestion, which would destroy Pasadena’s
unique character. Bennett recommended planning
for a stable population of 120,000, which
he predicted would be achieved in about fifty
years. Pasadena actually attained this population
in 1980.
The Bennett plan linked the western
entrance of the city to the Civic Center by a
broad boulevard, Holly Street, to be lined by
double rows of trees. Driving into Pasadena
over the Colorado Street Bridge, the visitor
would see panoramic views of the Arroyo
Seco and Pasadena spread out before the
majestic San Gabriel Mountains. Passing a
memorial flagstaff at Colorado and Orange
Grove and turning north toward Holly, the
motorist would view an art museum set in the
gardens of Carmelita. Far ahead would be a
monumental City Hall, which would draw the
visitor’s eye while proceeding eastward
through the city. Arriving at the City Hall
plaza, the visitor would view the Public
Library to the north, and the Civic
Auditorium to the south. Looking west, the
view would be of a hilltop park along the San
Rafael Heights.
Only the core of the Bennett plan, the
Civic Center, was adopted by the board. On
June 7, 1923, the voters approved a $3.5 million
bond issue to build three Civic Center
buildings: a library, a city hall, and a civic
auditorium. The vote was overwhelmingly in
favor, with over 8,000 votes for and only
2,300 against. No organized opposition had
surfaced during the campaign. Edwin Sorver,
president of the Chamber of Commerce, was
chairman of the Boosting Committee,
although he had earlier been lukewarm to the
plan. The business community had been
promised an exhibition hall on the auditorium
grounds, satisfying their need for a convention
center.
George Ellery Hale’s idea for an architectural
competition for the Civic Center
buildings had aroused great enthusiasm
among the voters. Hale wanted a national—
even an international—competition, but the
Planning Commission chose to limit it to
California architects. The ten firms invited to
submit plans were the leading California
architects of the day. Each firm was to submit
drawings for all three buildings, and the
competitors were advised that the architecture
of the Renaissance or later periods in
Mediterranean countries could serve as
“fruitful sources of inspiration.”
The jury, with Hale as chairman,
announced its decision on February 28, 1924.
The jury had selected one design from each of
three firms. Bergstrom, Bennett, and Haskell’s
design for the auditorium was chosen because
of its excellent seating arrangement, colorful
tiles on the north-facing facade, and exterior
terraces and stairways. Myron Hunt’s firm was
selected for the library, which had a beautiful
entry patio, good provision for expansion,
and a charming facade. The jury liked

Bakewell & Brown’s design for the City Hall
best because of its unusual arrangement
around a garden courtyard, combining the
best in modem office design with a plan ideally
suited to Pasadena’s climate. They objected,
however, to the “belfry tower” at the front
of the building; the architects produced several
alternative designs before the present dome
was accepted.
Construction of the library began first, and
it was completed in February 1927. Work on
City Hall began in January 1926, and the
building was officially opened on December
26, 1927. The building of the auditorium was
delayed for lack of funds, and it was not completed
until 1932. Monies from the ever-profitable
Light Department and funds raised
from the sale of a portion of the sewer farm
were used to build the auditorium.
The development of the Civic Center stimulated
property values and encouraged new
building in the area, most of which conformed
to the style of the principal buildings.
The YMCA building was remodeled to be
compatible with the Civic Center and the
YWCA across the street. The American Legion
building, the First Baptist Church, and the
Hall of Justice completed the Civic Center on
the west. The Southern California Gas
Company, several small-scale commercial
buildings on Colorado and Garfield, and the
Post Office addition in 1939, all enhanced the
setting of the City Hall. The civic and government
uses of the Civic Center buildings created
a focus for community activities in a parklike
setting. The area around the Civic Center
and the Maryland Hotel was Pasadena’s exclusive
shopping district in the 1920s. Silver and
jewelry shops, milliners, haberdashers, banks,
interior decorators, art and antique galleries
catering to the carriage trade prospered.
Perhaps the most outstanding shop was Grace
Nicholson’s gallery of Oriental art across Los
Robles from the Maryland Hotel, housed in a
fanciful Chinese temple.
The new Civic Center district drew business
away from the traditional downtown at
Colorado and Fair Oaks. In an attempt to
revitalize the older commercial center, the
western end of Colorado Boulevard was
widened in 1929. The fourteen feet cut off the
building fronts on each side of the street
allowed for the design of up-to-date facades,
many of which were done in the California
Mediterranean style, tying the street more
closely to the Civic Center.
At about the same time, one of Pasadena’s
most renowned institutions was also building a
new home near the Civic Center. The new
Pasadena Community Playhouse theater, on
South El Molino was taking shape to plans
Elmer Grey. Modeled on Spanish Colonial forms,
the new playhouse had a large patio with a
Baroque fountain fronting on the street.
✧
Bennett Parsons & Frost proposed this
design for City Hall.
COURTESY OF THE PASADENA PUBLIC LIBRARY.
CHAPTER V
65

✧
The Pasadena Public Library, designed by
Myron Hunt, was the first building to be
completed in the new Civic Center.
HISTORIC PASADENA
66
The main auditorium, as well as many interior
and exterior elements, was designed by artist
Alson Clark, whose painting of a Spanish galleon
on the curtain still dominates the main stage.
The playhouse became one of the most
active and successful community theaters in
America. It had its first season in 1917/1918
under the direction Gilmor Brown, an actor and
director lured to Pasadena by Mrs. J. B. Durand.
Operating on the principle that “you interest all
the various elements in the city” and that you
“always have a clergyman on the board,” Brown
won the support and financial contributions of
citizens such as Sam Hinds, Eleanor Bissell, the
Reverend Robert Freeman, the Robert Millikans
and the George Ellery Hales. Originally located
in the old Savoy Theater on North Fair Oaks, a
former burlesque house, the playhouse in its
heyday presented twenty-four plays annually,
ranging from Shakespeare to Ibsen, Molière to
Noel Coward. The playhouse’s greatest triumph
came with the world premiere of Eugene
O’Neill’s Lazarus Laughed in 1928.
A small paid staff of about a dozen operated
on an annual budget of approximately
$100,000, most of it raised through box office
sales. Members of the Playhouse Association
provided additional financial support. One of
the playhouse’s greatest benefactors was Fannie
Morrison, who essentially paid for the new theater
by her generous gifts in 1929 and 1930.
She also paid for the construction of the school
building behind the main theater in 1938.
The playhouse was largely a volunteer
organization. Casts, although they always featured
professional actors, were all volunteer,
giving talented amateurs from the community
a chance to participate. Sets and backstage
work, costumes and ticket sales were also
handled by volunteers under the supervision
of paid staff. A smaller theater, the Workshop,
trained players for the main stage; and the
Playbox, an experimental theater in Gilmor
Brown’s backyard on South Fair Oaks Avenue,
did avant-garde productions for a small subscription
audience. The Playhouse School,
founded in 1928, produced some of America’s
best-known actors.
The success of the playhouse was largely
due to the energy, charisma, and genius of
Gilmor Brown. Not surprisingly, Brown was
named the recipient of Pasadena’s first Noble
Award in 1925, a civic honor reserved for the
person making it the most valuable contribution
to civic advancement in the preceding
year. Charles Prickett, the group’s business
manager from its earliest days, kept the playhouse
on solid financial footing.
Pasadena’s cultural life was further
enriched by the founding of the Pasadena Art
Institute in 1924. Spearheaded by Ernest
Batchelder and George Hale, the Art Institute
set up its first museum in the Reed house,
which had replaced Jeanne Carr’s Victorian
house at Carmelita. Unfortunately, the Art
Institute failed to gain enough support to
build a suitable building during the most
prosperous years of the 1920s, although the
Carmelita site was designated for that purpose.
It was not until the 1940s that the institute
found a temporary home in Grace
Nicholson’s Oriental art gallery on North Los
Robles Avenue.
A major political crisis hit Pasadena in
1925, in the midst of the building program
for the Civic Center. After four years of the
city manager system, some members of the
public began to raise their voices against what
they saw as arrogance, elitism, and reckless
expenditure. They criticized the long delays
in producing the final design for City Hall, the
miscalculation of land purchase and construction
costs necessitating an additional bond
issue of $750,000, and the raising of the city

manager’s salary to $12,000 a year, half of
which was borne by the Light Department,
which Koiner continued to superintend. The
cost of various other improvements such as
streets and sewers had begun to be felt by the
taxpayers. Opposition focused on the city
manager, who was accused of dominating the
board. Board members, who were elected at
large, all came from the wealthier sections of
town, which also led to the charge that the
board was unrepresentative.
Led by O. D. Hunt, former acting mayor
of Tulsa, Oklahoma, the opposition attained
a majority on the board in the 1925 election.
A dispute soon developed between Koiner
and the new board over the disciplining of
some city employees, and Koiner resigned.
Koiner defended his action, maintaining that
the interference of the board in personnel
matters violated the city manager concept,
“making the manager nothing more nor less
than an office boy or clerk to the board.” His
resignation sparked national debate, for it
was seen as a significant confrontation
between the new city manager system and
old-style city politics.
Hunt’s bid for the city manager post failed
after he announced his intention to revert to
the spoils system in making appointments at
City Hall. In the end, Robert V. Orbison, manager
of South Pasadena, was appointed city
manager, and, in the November 1926 election,
voters reaffirmed their support of the city
manager plan over the mayor-council system.
Despite political controversies, the
momentum established in the early twenties
and fed by a prosperous economy carried
Pasadena through the decade. Pasadena’s reputation
continued to be enhanced by the
annual Tournament of Roses. By 1922, the
parade had grown from a few carriages decorated
with garden flowers to 100 motor-driven
floats, numerous equestrians, marching
bands, and a Rose Queen. The first radio
broadcast describing the floats came over
KPSN from the Pasadena Star-News building
on East Colorado Street in 1926.
The tournament’s afternoon sporting events
had changed over the years. In 1904, informal
field sports had been supplanted by spectacular
chariot races held at Tournament Park at Wilson
and California, where the parade terminated. A
football game had been a feature of the tournament
in 1902, but it was not until 1916 that football
became a permanent part of the festivities. A
wave of enthusiasm for college football across the
nation helped put Pasadena on the map as the
home of an important contest. The 1916 game
between Washington State and Brown, however,
was not a great success. It rained, and the
Tournament of Roses Association lost $11,000.
The next year’s game recovered the loss, and it
soon became clear that the bleachers at
Tournament Park, with a capacity of only
25,000, were inadequate for the football crowd.
By the early 1920s the association was able
to finance the building of the Rose Bowl by
selling 210 box seats at $100 each guaranteed
for ten years and an additional 5,000 seats for
five years. In a complicated agreement, the
city swapped land in the Arroyo for
Tournament Park, and the association built
the bowl, deeding it to the city with the provision
to lease it back each year for the New
Year’s festivities. The new stadium, completed
in 1922, seated 57,000 persons, more than
double the capacity of Tournament Park. For
the 1931 game, the bowl was enlarged to
accommodate 86,000.
✧
Pouring the concrete for City Hall and
building the tower were major engineering
feats in the mid-1920s.
COURTESY OF THE PASADENA PUBLIC LIBRARY.
CHAPTER V
67

Myron Hunt, the architect for the bowl,
came up with an open horseshoe design in the
shape of an ellipse, which accommodated a
football field and a 220-yard track. Borrowing
an idea from the ancients, who had placed
their stadiums in natural depressions, Hunt
cut and filled the flat site, putting half the mass
below grade, thus minimizing the visual
impact of the bowl on the surrounding park
and reducing the climb for the spectators.
Each riser was six-hundredths of a foot higher
than the previous one, creating a dramatic
bowl-like form and improving the views from
each seat—a refinement copied from the Yale
Bowl. The earth-banked sides of the bowl were
planted with rosebushes to blend with the surrounding
park.
North of the bowl the new Municipal Golf
Course at Brookside was completed in 1928. It
filled a long-standing need in Pasadena, where
the only golf courses available belonged to the
hotels or private clubs. In the early years, most
of these private courses had been open to the
public for a fee, but later policy was more
restrictive, creating the need for a public
course. A clubhouse, designed free of charge by
Myron Hunt and Harold C. Chambers, was
paid for through the $45,000 bequest of Emma
Dickinson, a former Methodist missionary.
In order to support its expanding population,
Pasadena took major steps in the 1920s
to increase the water supply by exploiting outside
water resources. In the mid-1920s, the
city began development of the Pine Canyon
Dam (renamed Morris Dam), located in the
San Gabriel Canyon. The dam was completed
in 1934, but in the meantime Pasadena initiated
the organization of the Metropolitan Water
District, an association of eleven cities formed
in 1928 to finance the building of Parker Dam
and the Colorado River Aqueduct, thus securing
for Pasadena a virtually unlimited supply
of water for the foreseeable future.
Like the water department, the police department
grew in size and sophistication in the
1920s in response to an increase in the major
crimes of the day—bootlegging and traffic violations.
The 1922 City Manager’s Report stated
that arrests had increased 64 percent over the
previous year, owing to “a vigorous campaign
prosecuted against bootlegging.” The report
noted that many upstanding citizens chose to
disregard the Volstead Act, believing it to be an
infringement of their rights. In fact, it was wellknown
in Pasadena that no jury would convict
persons charged with selling liquor. Too many
people were themselves buying it from the bootleggers.
Yet, police raids on bootleggers continued,
and hundreds of gallons of liquor were
seized annually. The police had the benefit of a
new radio communications system, which also
helped in apprehending the increasing number
of traffic violators. Traffic arrests rose from 3,000
in 1922 to 11,000 a decade later.
Pasadena’s model sewer farm had become
an embarrassment by the 1920s, forcing the
city to build a modern sewage processing
plant. Still, Pasadena’s sewage continued to be
recycled profitably; the processed sludge was
sold as “Nitroganic” fertilizer in bags emblazoned
with the city seal. Table scraps were still
sold for hog feed, and tin cans, bottles, and
paper were collected separately to be recycled.
As Pasadena grew and prospered so did the
tourist industry and the grand hotels. Several
new hotels joined the Greene and the Raymond
(which was rebuilt in 1901 after the disastrous
1895 fire). Most notable of these were the
Maryland, built in 1903, and the Wentworth
(later the Huntington), built in 1906 on twenty-five
acres set aside in Oak Knoll.
The Wentworth, designed by architect
Charles Whittlesey in the then popular Mission
Revival style, had a broad U-shaped plan and
commanded the slope on which it stood, just
above the Old Mill. Its financial underpinnings,
however, were shaky, and the hotel was forced to
close within a few months of its February 1907
opening. Only partially finished, the Wentworth
stood empty until 1911, when Henry
Huntington bought it. Huntington chose architect
Myron Hunt and horticulturist William
Hertrich to work on the newly-acquired hotel.
Hunt redesigned the interior and much of the
exterior, adding two floors to the building and
moving the main entrance from the north side to
a porte-cochere on the east in recognition of the
growing importance of the automobile. The hotel
reopened in 1914 as the Huntington Hotel with
a grand reception for over 2,000 people. Selected
to manage it was Daniel Moore Linnard, then
also manager of the Hotel Maryland and
HISTORIC PASADENA
68

✧
Construction of the Rose Bowl, 1922.
Pasadena’s most successful hotelman. At one
time or other, Linnard or his son-in-law, Stephen
Royce, either owned or managed all of the major
hotels—the Green, the Raymond, the Maryland,
the Huntington, and the Vista del Arroyo.
The Maryland was located on Colorado
Street between Euclid and Los Robles in a residential
neighborhood just east of the business
district. Under Linnard’s stewardship, the
Maryland became the center of Pasadena’s social
and civic life, as it was the only hotel to remain
open throughout the year. Linnard also pioneered
a new form of hotel accommodation, the
bungalow, at the Maryland. Bungalows dotted
the grounds north of the hotel, providing exclusive
private accommodations for families. Often
built to the specifications of the tenant, the bungalows
were leased for a specified number of
years with full hotel services, reverting to the
hotel after the lease expired. “Bungalowland” at
the Maryland was successfully imitated at both
the Vista del Arroyo and Huntington Hotels,
creating an even more deluxe accommodation
for Pasadena’s wealthy guests.
Symbol of the Maryland was its whitecolumned
vine-covered pergola which
stretched across the front from Euclid Avenue
east to the middle of the block. Designed by
Myron Hunt, the pergola was one of the most
photographed and admired sights in Pasadena.
A later pergola at the Vista del Arroyo sought to
capitalize on this distinctive architectural feature,
which became a favorite motif of
Pasadena architects and builders. The shops in
the hotel behind the picturesque pergola were
among the most elegant in town; they formed
the nucleus of a new fashionable shopping district
which grew up around the hotel.
Pasadena’s third great hotel fire virtually
destroyed the Maryland in April 1914.
Starting in the basement and fed by exploding
gas pipes, the fire spread so rapidly that
guests were forced to hurl their belongings,
including large trunks, out the windows. At
first it was feared that “Bungalowland” might
also go up in smoke, but the Los Angeles Fire
Department sent a contingent to Pasadena,
and the bungalows were saved. As the guests,
many in their nightclothes or in evening
dress, stood outside in the eerie darkness, lit
only by the blaze of the huge building. The
hotel staff, led by Linnard, hurriedly began
preparations to reopen the Huntington Hotel,
which had just closed after its first season.
CHAPTER V
69

✧
Brookside Plunge, built in 1914, was
Pasadena’s only public swimming pool for
many years. As soon as it opened, it became
the focus of unsuccessful legal actions by
Pasadena’s African-American community to
force its integration. Brookside Plunge was
finally integrated in the 1940s.
HISTORIC PASADENA
70
Myron Hunt, a resident at the Maryland since
his wife’s death two years earlier, began work on
plans for the new hotel at four in the morning
on the night of the fire. Within a few days, the
new design was ready. Work commenced almost
immediately, and the new Maryland, strongly
reminiscent of the original but with many
improvements including fireproof construction,
opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1914.
Each hotel offered its own special attractions.
The Raymond, reached by a picturesque
flower-bordered road, boasted a golf course and
grounds landscaped by Theodore Payne, an
expert on native plants and flowers. The Green,
in the center of town, appealed to those who
enjoyed an urban atmosphere, with shopping
and transportation right at the doorstep. The
Maryland, with its bungalows formed a unique
home-hotel combination appealing to the very
wealthy who could afford to rent entire houses
for months on end. The Huntington was situated
on a large acreage on the outskirts of town
and became a resort for the growing class of
automobile and sports enthusiasts. It offered a
golf course with the picturesque Old Mill as its
clubhouse, and tennis courts designed by May
Sutton Bundy, a Pasadena girl who in 1905
became the first American to win at
Wimbledon. The Vista del Arroyo, not fully
developed until the 1920s, offered a panoramic
site on the Arroyo bank overlooking the
Colorado Street Bridge. Its elegance eventually
surpassed the older hotels, as it gradually
became the scene of Pasadena’s most sparkling
social life.
Distractions during the “season,” which
began as early as November and extended to
mid-April, included equestrian sports such as
riding, polo, and hunting; cycling; and automobile
excursions. The mountains retained
their attractions; mule or horseback rides to
rustic mountain camps and trips on the Mt.
Lowe Railway remained popular. At the annual
spring horse show at Tournament Park, the
major event of the spring social season, the
Paris dresses and Tiffany jewels of the women
rivaled the thoroughbreds for attention.
Of the local country clubs, the Midwick, a
few miles away, was the most outstanding,
offering four polo fields, an eighteen-hole golf
course, tennis, swimming, whippet racing,
and a brilliant social life. The Pasadena
Athletic and Country Club, located in a multistory
building on Green Street, offered squash
and handball courts, a swimming pool and
gymnasium, dining rooms, reading rooms,
and dormitory rooms. The club played an
important role in fostering athletic achievement
among young people, especially women.
In 1925, the Amateur Athletic Union recognized
the club for its sponsorship of a national
women’s track and field meet at Tournament
Park. In 1926, the club sponsored the
National Women’s Basketball championship,
national women’s swimming relay and water
polo meets, and the Pacific Coast track and
field championship meet for women.
Hotelman Linnard concentrated on developing
the Vista in the early 1920s. New buildings
and bungalows were built on the Vista
grounds, making it a hotel to rival the
Huntington or the Maryland. With the opening
of the Flintridge Riding Academy, the
establishment of a riding school at the Hotel
Raymond, and the development of bridle
paths in the Arroyo, riding became an even
more popular sport with the guests.
Entertainment was provided for the guests at
all the hotels, including concerts, pageants,

fashion shows, bridge tournaments, and interhotel
golf tournaments. Easter Sunday at the
Huntington featured John McGroarty’s Easter
Pageant set in Spanish California. Saturday
night dance music and the regular Sunday
evening concerts were broadcast weekly from
the Maryland on KPSN.
In 1926, the Huntington, Vista, and
Green remained open for the summer for
the first time. A swimming pool was built
at the Huntington, and all the hotels began
to solicit convention business to fill their
off-season.
Expansion of the public schools continued
in the 1920s, with new buildings for
Washington Elementary and Junior High
schools, McKinley School, Daniel Webster
School, a Pasadena Vocational School (now
Muir High School), and others. In 1922,
Pasadena High School was rated the best in
California for its physical plant by the
University of California’s Building Survey
Committee. A new emphasis on physical education
led to regular physical education programs.
Junior high schools became integral
parts of the Pasadena school system in the
1920s, and in 1924, a junior college was
established on the Pasadena High School
campus. This led in 1928 to a reorganization
on the 6-4-4 plan, offering six years of elementary
school, four years of junior high
school and four years of high school-college.
In effect until 1954, this plan was carried out
under the leadership of Dr. John A. Sexson. It
integrated college courses into the public
school system, and brought Pasadena national
recognition for innovative education.
Pasadena’s private schools supplemented
the excellent public school system. The
Polytechnic School, descended from the old
Throop Polytechnic Institute, offered grammar
school education to the very highest standards.
The Orton School, a classical school for
girls, and the Classical School for Boys, founded
by Stephen Cutter Clark, prepared students
in classical subjects for entrance to the top colleges
and universities in the East. Westridge
School, founded in 1914 by Mary Ranney, was
an exclusive girls’ preparatory school.
By the end of the decade, Pasadena had
developed into the quintessential American suburb,
a residential community dominated by the
wealthy and middle classes. Pasadena differed,
however, from similar suburbs around the country
in that it supported its own thriving cultural
life and was not a mere bedroom satellite of Los
Angeles. Its educational and cultural institutions
attracted educators, scientists, artists, and writers
who contributed much to the community.
Working-class people and servants who lived in
Pasadena were employed largely in the service
industries needed to maintain the leisured life of
the rich or in the booming construction industry.
Pasadena had escaped the industrialization
and commercialization so much a part of the
prosperous 1920s in the rest of the nation. Most
local businesses were geared to serve a growing
number of residents and tourists who were
escaping the climate and industrialized cities of
the East and Midwest. These newcomers, in
turn, contributed to the prosperity of the city,
and like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the early
boosters’ claim of Pasadena as the ideal residential
city was largely realized.
✧
The local firm of Bennett & Haskel,
associated with Edwin Bergstrom, won the
commission to design the Civic Auditorium.
The simple Renaissance palazzo is
ornamented with blue tile by designer Jess
Stanton. Graceful staircases along the sides
of the building allow the audience to exit
from the balcony.
CHAPTER V
71

HISTORIC PASADENA
72

CROESUS AT HOME:
DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR
Pasadena is ten miles from Los Angeles as the Rolls-Royces fly. It is one of the prettiest towns in America
and probably the richest. So long as twenty years ago it had fifty-two millionaires living in one street….
There is also a generous sprinkling of chiropractors, osteopaths, fortune tellers, swamis, and purveyors
of electronic vibrations…. Nothing disturbs [Pasadena’s] tranquility…. The town is actually friendly to
political radicals, some of whom are multi-millionaires themselves…. Upton Sinclair also lives in
Pasadena…. Roger Baldwin was permitted to speak there…. Pasadena police have removed Los Angeles
open-shop bands from the…Tournament of Roses. The town, in fact, is somewhat of a paradox.
The richest city in America, it is also one of the friendliest to organized labor.
—Morrow Mayo, 1932
In his article in the American Mercury, Mayo satirized the small-town atmosphere and leisure activities
of the wealthy, characterizing the population as “plutocrats, domestic servants, and tradesmen…
garnished with perhaps two thousand retired folk of more modest means.” Yet Morrow identified a
paradox that has characterized Pasadena since its beginning: he depicted the town as conservative in
politics and religion, and yet friendly to labor, socialists and civil libertarians. Mayo praised Charles
Prisk, millionaire editor of the Pasadena Star-News, as the man chiefly responsible for this atmosphere
of tolerance: “He has done more than any man to make Pasadena a pleasant place to live in.”
Pasadena’s image was enhanced by Ralph Thorndike’s study of 1939, which rated Pasadena as
America’s most desirable city, based on thirty-seven measurable factors, ranging from the infant death
rate to the per capita public expenditures for libraries and museums and the number of automobiles,
radios, and telephones per capita. As might be expected, most of the top-ranked cities in the New
York professor’s study were suburbs, cities like Montclair, New Jersey; Evanston, Illinois; and
Berkeley, California. The book, entitled Your City, was based on 1930 statistics, and it confirmed
Pasadena’s image of itself.
Yet, for all its beauty and wealth, Pasadena did not remain untouched by the Depression.
According to 1930 census figures, the city’s labor force had as its largest group domestic servants, a
class hard-hit by the loss of fortunes in the stock market crash. Domestic workers constituted the
largest group of unemployed in the city, and most of them were women. Retail salespersons (many of
whom were also women) were the second-largest group. The tremendous building boom of the
1920s was over, and many of the unemployed in Pasadena were members of the construction trades.
The number of residential building permits issued fell from a high of over 8,000 in the 1920-1929
period to a low of 523 in 1930-1934. Although Pasadena had relatively few industrial plants, numbering
159 in 1929, only ninety-seven still survived in 1936.
Pasadena’s chief industry, tourism, slackened, and by the end of the 1930s most of the great
hotels had been closed, demolished, or converted to other uses. At the same time, the mansions of
the wealthy, particularly on Orange Grove Avenue, were abandoned or converted to rooming houses,
creating an area classified as “blighted” in a 1940 report by Stanford University professor Edwin
Cottrell. In Pasadena, as elsewhere in the country, a great change had occurred. The Depression and
the war following it altered forever many of the sources of wealth and much of the way Americans
lived, worked, and played, forcing a community like Pasadena to search for new ways to sustain
itself economically.
Before facing the consequences of the Depression, Pasadena had to face another crisis in city government.
Scandal, rooted in the corruption of some city employees, forced Robert V. Orbison, the city
manager, to resign and created such dissension among the members of the Board of Directors that
✧
Jesús Meza worked on building Pasadena’s
Civic Auditorium in 1931-1932. It would be
the last job for a long time for many of the
workers who built the Auditorium.
CHAPTER VI
73

✧
The Model Grocery on Colorado Boulevard
was a legendary locally owned grocery
store, which served Pasadenans for decades.
This photograph shows the interior during
the 1930s.
HISTORIC PASADENA
74
they were all ousted in a recall election in
December 1931.
The scandal, uncovered as early as 1927,
involved employees in the street and engineering
department, where a ring of forgers had
embezzled thousands of dollars in city funds. A
number of those involved went to San
Quentin, but the board failed to fire the city
manager. Not until the 1930 election did
reformers get enough seats on the board to
force Orbison’s resignation, based on incriminating
testimony from the deputy city controller.
Once Orbison resigned, however, the
board deadlocked over the appointment of a
new city manager. C. Wellington Koiner,
Pasadena’s first city manager, applied for the
job. He was supported by the reformers, but
eventually withdrew his application to break
the deadlock, leaving the board free to appoint
the other candidate, John W. Charleville.
The deadlock over the city manager as well
as many other issues led to harsh words and
shrill accusations in the council chambers. On
one occasion a policeman had to be called in
to restore order. In the meantime, city government
was standing still, water projects
were not moving forward, and unemployment
was mounting.
Finally, in October 1931, the Pasadena
Association, an organization of 210 members
newly formed by Myron Hunt and his second
wife, Virginia Pease Hunt, voted to mount a
recall campaign. They gathered the required
number of signatures in a short time, and the
election was set for December 28. What followed
was a fierce campaign, characterized by
vituperation and mudslinging on all sides.
Another organization, the Better Government
League, entered the fray, supporting the three
reformers on the City Board, Francis J. Walker,
William J. Wise, and Robert S. Allen; and three
additional candidates, McClellan Reed, George
E. Lee, and Arthur L. Hamilton, the latter a former
city commissioner and superintendent of
schools. Halbert P. Gardner, chairman of the
Pasadena Association, charged that the reformers
were preparing the soil for Communistic
and “Red” propaganda, and that Mayor Patrick
Walker, a conservative, was trying to re-institute
the mayor-council form of government.
Labor leader Edward B. Hillier supported the
Pasadena Association because the city had
refused to give Pasadena residents priority for
jobs on city building projects such as City Hall,
the Rose Bowl expansion, and the Hall of
Justice. Other labor leaders, however, including
Fred W. Jackson, editor of the Pasadena
Labor News, supported the Better Government
League candidates, as did Pasadena’s black voters.
League candidates promised to take
stronger action on the unemployment question
than any of the other candidates.
The incumbents fought back and were later
accused of planting a spy in the association
offices to report any suspicious campaign contributions.
Voters went to the polls in record
numbers despite the pouring rain on election
day. Pasadena Association candidates were victorious,
sweeping out the entire board and replacing
them with a completely new slate. The new
directors were Milton Brenner, Robert Fulton,
Peter Hall, Robert Dawson, John Lutes, Albert
Stewart, and Edward O. Nay. Once the new
board took office, however, they had to face
Pasadena’s unemployment problem directly.
At a mass meeting on unemployment held in
the new Civic Auditorium in the spring of 1932
and reported in the newspapers, Pasadenans
from all walks of life told their stories of deprivation
and even starvation. The newspaper
reported that a young waitress hired to help

serve a banquet at the Huntington Hotel had
fainted from hunger, and it was estimated that
over 1,000 heads of families were in dire need
of help. At the meeting, chaired by Myron
Hunt, a resolution was passed: “Pasadena shall
not let its unemployed and their wives and children
starve,” and Pasadenans were exhorted to
“give until it hurts.”
The Pasadena Block-Aid Committee,
chaired by Mrs. Myron Hunt, had already been
formed to aid the unemployed. The Block-Aid
concept relied on volunteers who canvassed
every block in the city, soliciting pledges of
weekly contributions from each householder.
The goal was that each block support one family.
With 1,500 to 1,900 blocks in Pasadena,
the committee hoped to raise enough to support
as many families. Pledges to employ the
unemployed as domestics or gardeners were
also solicited. Pasadena’s Block-Aid organization
served as a model for other cities, including
New York.
The initial pledge drive, however, raised
only $22,900, or enough to provide the unemployed
with a mere four dollars a week. In
addition, city employees contributed one day’s
salary per month, totaling $52,000 a year to
aid the unemployed. But with over 5,000
unemployed, it was estimated that to help even
1,000 of these with a minimum of $40 per
month, $40,000 monthly would be needed.
As the summer of 1932 wore on, according
to newspaper accounts, the number of unemployed
rose alarmingly, from 5,000 in May
to over 8,000 in June, increasing to 16,500
in September. By October it was estimated
that $225,000 a month would be needed to
sustain the unemployed at a subsistence level.
In 1933, more than 9,000 Pasadenans filed
applications for employment at the city’s
Employment Bureau, which handled 7,000 to
10,000 inquiries and interviews monthly. In
the midst of the crisis, the City Board rehired
C. Wellington Koiner as city manager in 1933.
Myron Hunt and his Block-Aid Work
Committee sought to devise work of permanent
value that would use the skills of the unemployed.
The first Block-Aid project was to repair
the Pasadena Preventorium, a school for
unhealthy or malnourished children. Block-Aid
provided guides for the 1932 Olympics, and,
when the games were over, started a joint project
with the Pasadena Garden Club to build La
Casita del Arroyo, a public clubhouse for meetings
of civic organizations. Using stones gathered
from the Arroyo and wood from the dismantled
Olympic velodrome at the Rose Bowl,
several unemployed men were kept busy for a
few weeks. But the project provided only
$2,000 to help the unemployed. A ballot measure
to appropriate $200,000 in Light
Department surplus funds for unemployment
relief was defeated in November 1932,
although the still-profitable Light Department
hired extra employees to help ease the situation.
The Olympic Games, held in Los Angeles in
1932, provided a brief respite from the crisis.
✧
Sears Roebuck and Co. opened its first
Pasadena store in the 1930s in this grand
Italian Renaissance-style building originally
built for the Pasadena Furniture Co. The
building still stands, stripped of its ornate
facade, on Colorado across from the First
Presbyterian Church.
CHAPTER VI
75

✧
Above: When Los Angeles hosted the
summer Olympic Games in 1932,
Pasadena’s Rose Bowl was the site of
the velodrome, a track built for the
bicycle races.
Below: The Exhibition Hall at the rear of
the Civic Auditorium was included to gain
the support of businessmen for the Civic
Center buildings. Here the space is used for
a garden show. It is now used as an ice rink.
Pasadena’s Rose Bowl was the site of the bicycle
competition, and the water polo and diving trials
were held in the pools at Brookside.
Dorothy Poynton, a Pasadenan who had
trained at the Pasadena Athletic Club, won the
platform diving competition, a feat she repeated
in the 1936 Olympics.
The election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in 1933 brought federally funded public works
programs, such as the Works Progress
Administration (WPA), Public Works
Administration (PWA), and State Employment
Relief Administration (SERA). In Pasadena,
these projects put the unemployed to work on
Rose Bowl and Brookside Park improvements;
the undergrounding of utility lines; tree
surgery; flood control in the Arroyo and in
Eaton Wash; and in building rock walls in the
Arroyo. Work on the baseball diamond in
Brookside Park improved the field for the
Chicago White Sox, who had begun using
Brookside as their spring training ground in
1933. As Myron Hunt noted in a report, most
of the projects involved heavy labor, jobs from
which women were excluded, so an equitable
distribution of available funds was not
achieved. Some women were employed in
knitting and sewing projects, as domestics or in
office work, but generally men received the
bulk of the assistance.
Statewide proposals to deal with the
Depression were made by Pasadena resident
and novelist Upton Sinclair in his “EPIC”
campaign for governor of California in 1934.
EPIC (End Poverty in California) took control
of the California Democratic Party and
launched a campaign with the promise to take
over idle land and factories and put people to
work. Sinclair’s failure to get the endorsement
of President Roosevelt and a misleading poll
showing him far behind three days before the
election were important factors in his defeat
by incumbent Frank Merriam. Sinclair was
greatly feared by the conservative establishment,
but was also attacked by the Socialists
and Communists. Not long after his defeat,
Sinclair moved to Monrovia, where he lived in
his later years.
Traditionally, the majority of Pasadena’s
workers were dependent on the tourist trade.
Hotels, restaurants, and retail shops were the
principal employers, and as the full effects of
the Depression sank in, these mainstays of the
local economy began to feel the pinch. By the
end of the 1930s, the Raymond Hotel, the
Maryland, and the older portion of the Hotel
Green had been demolished.
The Green underwent many changes during
the 1930s. Part of the Green’s West Annex had
been converted into cooperative apartments in
1926, while the wing along Green Street continued
to be run as a hotel by D. M. Linnard.
The original hotel on the east side of Raymond
Avenue was demolished in 1935. Its location,
close to the railroad station, which had been
such an asset in the age of the railroad, had
become undesirable in the age of the automobile.
The shift of the more elegant shops
from the Fair Oaks-Raymond-Colorado area to
the Civic Center, and the expansion of the
HISTORIC PASADENA
76

✧
Forced to call in a policeman to restore
order, members of this fractious and corrupt
Pasadena City Council were voted out of
office or recalled. Around the table from
front to back are N. J. Shupe; P. J. Walker;
C. G. Wopschall; Bessie Chamberlain, city
clerk; R. L. Daugherty, chairman; R. V.
Orbison, city manager; Harold Hale, city
attorney; Charles Paddock; James J. Jenkins;
and Paul W. Merrill.
industrial area south of Central Park further
affected the fortunes of the Hotel Green, which
could no longer compete with the newer, more
up-to-date facilities at the Huntington or the
Vista del Arroyo. The elegant Maryland, demolished
in the late 1930s, was replaced in 1940
by a Woolworth’s and a Broadway department
store, indicating that once again the more fashionable
retail trade had moved eastward, this
time to concentrate on South Lake Avenue,
which was developed after World War II. The
Maryland’s magnificent bungalows gradually
disappeared, most of them being moved away
to other locations in Pasadena.
The Raymond, already antiquated, was
unable to compete with the Huntington, and the
bank holding the mortgage foreclosed in 1931.
Even hotel genius Linnard could not operate the
Raymond at a profit in the Depression, and the
hotel was finally demolished in 1934, the year of
Walter Raymond’s death.
The Vista del Arroyo and the Huntington
remained open throughout the Depression
years, and the Vista even added some new
bungalows to house well-to-do retirees
rather than seasonal guests. In 1943, however,
the Vista was taken over by the U.S. Army
and used as a military hospital. Stephen
Royce, son-in-law of Linnard, made a special
trip to Washington to plead that the
Huntington be allowed to remain open as a
civilian facility. The World War II years
proved to be one of the Huntington’s busiest
periods, as civilians involved in the war
effort in California patronized the hotel,
which also served as the headquarters of the
Army’s 35th Division and of the Office of
Civilian Defense for Southern California.
A WPA project that was to have a major
impact on Pasadena was the completion of the
Arroyo Seco Parkway and its accompanying
flood control channel in the Arroyo in 1940.
The first freeway on the West Coast, the parkway
linked Pasadena with Los Angeles in a
nonstop winding route cutting around
Raymond Hill through the old Raymond Hotel
golf course and following the Arroyo Seco
south. The freeway set two important precedents
for future California freeways: its banks
were landscaped, and billboards were banned.
Rose Queen Sally Stanton and California
Governor Culbert L. Olson officially opened
CHAPTER VI
77

✧
The great storms of March 1938 flooded the
Arroyo Seco, shown here with the Rose Bowl
in the background. People living along the
Arroyo at the time remember the crashing
sounds of the great boulders being washed
down the gorge.
HISTORIC PASADENA
78
the freeway in a ceremony on the slope of
Raymond Hill on December 30, 1940.
Early proposals for the route suggested
extending it up the Arroyo to Altadena and
even beyond, putting a road through the Upper
Arroyo Seco and across the mountains to connect
the Antelope Valley with Los Angeles.
Altadenans and the citizens of northwest
Pasadena were the chief advocates of the plan.
But opponents charged that the Arroyo could
not be developed with a highway because of
restrictions placed on the land in the original
acquisition. Moreover, the 1918 plan for the
Arroyo specified that no roads were to be built
in the Arroyo south of the Colorado Street
Bridge. Former City Commissioner A. L.
Hamilton said, “The highest possible use of this
property is in affording natural seclusion and
restfulness and outdoor charm,” and the city
manager and city attorney made a special trip
to Sacramento to oppose the route.
Support was high citywide, however, for the
building of Angeles Crest Highway, which
began as early as 1929. A committee comprised
of members of the Pasadena Board of Trade, the
Automobile Club of Southern California, and
the U.S. Forest Service was formed in 1919 and
commissioned a survey of the route. The City
of Pasadena, fearing pollution of its water supply,
opposed the Arroyo route north of Devil’s
Gate, and so it was decided to take the high
route, via La Canada, instead. In 1932 a celebration
at Switzer’s Camp, sponsored by the
Pasadena Junior Chamber of Commerce,
marked the opening of the first ten miles of the
highway. The completion of the route to Red
Box in 1934 was celebrated by the Pasadena
Chamber of Commerce and the Auto Club at
Charlton Flats. A connecting road into the
Antelope Valley, the Angeles Forest Highway,
was completed before World War II, using
prison labor. By 1939, the Crest Highway had
reached Chilao Flats, when construction was
halted by the war. Further building to
Wrightwood and the connection with State
Highway 39 were finally completed in 1961.
The development of highways, heralded as
signs of progress in the Depression years,
brought with them unforseen effects on the
environment of Pasadena and the whole Los
Angeles Basin. Smog was first noticed in Los
Angeles in 1940, and in July 1943, the first
smoggy day was recorded. Pasadenans and
Altadenans particularly noticed the smog, which
backed up against the mountains and lasted
from noon until nightfall. The pollution was
traced to a factory on Aliso Street in Los Angeles,
where butadiene, a component of synthetic rubber,
was being manufactured as part of the war
effort. A cleanup of the plant by December was
promised in August of 1943. The Pasadena
Chamber of Commerce, noting Pasadena’s reputation
as a clean and healthful city, was particularly
active in attempts to end smog, which was
beginning to affect the health and reputation of
the community. The chamber noted that “in
Pasadena, where many lived mainly for the climate,
smog was immediately intolerable.”
The problem was not solved with the
cleanup of one plant, however, and the
increase in industrial production during and
after the war increased pollution. It took some
time before the complexity of the problem was
realized; the role of automobile exhaust was
not immediately recognized. In the 1940s, the
public still believed that technology could soon
solve the air pollution problems of the Los
Angeles Basin.
After the declaration of war by the United
States in 1941, Southern California became an
area of high activity in the war effort. Much of
the aircraft industry, which underwent tremendous
expansion during the war, was located in
Southern California, a staging area for the war

✧
Left: Mayor Edward O. Nay cuts
Pasadena’s 50th birthday cake in 1936 on
the steps of City Hall.
Below: Completed in 1936, St. Luke
Hospital is an imposing Moderne-style
building executed in poured concrete.
in the Pacific. As in World War I, the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena played a
leading role in the war effort.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Caltech had
matured from a provincial technical institute
into a full-fledged, internationally-recognized
research institution. Led by Robert Millikan,
Caltech assembled an outstanding faculty in
such fields as physics, aeronautics, biology, and
seismology. Much of Caltech’s growth can be
attributed to Millikan’s genius at fundraising.
He organized the Caltech Associates, a group of
donors who pledged support for the institute
and in return, attended special lectures and
events to keep in touch with the exciting new
research going on at Caltech. With the stock
market crash of 1929, Caltech’s major endowment,
Arthur Fleming’s fortune in lumber
stock, became worthless, but Millikan was not
deterred. Salaries were cut by 10 percent, and
Millikan used his connections in government
and industry to keep the institute going.
CHAPTER VI
79

✧
Above: Built on the site of the old Painter
Hotel, La Pintoresca Branch Library (1930,
architects Bennett & Haskell) was one of
four branch libraries that served Pasadena
until the 1950s, when four additional
branches were built.
Below: Pacific Electric trolleys served
Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles region
from the early 1900s until 1951. This
streetcar is running on the Oak Knoll line.
HISTORIC PASADENA
80
Physics always held prime place at Caltech
during the Millikan years. Millikan himself had
won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1923 for
experimental work he had carried out while at
the University of Chicago, and he invited as
visiting scholars such giants as Niels Bohr, Paul
Dirac, and Arnold Sommerfeld. Caltech also
produced outstanding students, such as Carl
Anderson, a Nobel Prize winner who discovered
the positron in 1932. Richard Tolman and
J. Robert Oppenheimer, Caltech faculty members,
were destined to play major roles in the
development of the atomic bomb. And in
1931, Albert Einstein visited the campus, the
first of three successive winters he spent in
Pasadena.
Einstein’s sojourns in Pasadena brought
favorable publicity to Caltech. A genuine international
celebrity, Einstein was in demand for
dinner and speaking engagements wherever he
went, and he had difficulty in turning down
anyone, especially if they represented social or
humanitarian causes. Millikan, on the other
hand, feared Einstein’s political views might
offend potential donors, so he did his best to
control Einstein’s activities in Southern
California, a situation which Einstein accepted
good-humoredly.
Astronomy, based at Mt. Wilson
Observatory, which operated in close cooperation
with Caltech, received a major boost with
the building of the largest optical telescope in
the world at Palomar. The 200-inch telescope
had long been a dream of George Ellery Hale
and, in 1928, a $6 million grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation made the dream a reality.
The great glass disk for the telescope arrived
in Pasadena in 1936, more than two years after
it had been cast at the Corning Glass Works in
New York. For years technicians worked at
grinding the disk in a specially built laboratory
on the Caltech campus. The telescope, dedicated
to Hale and located on Palomar Mountain
near San Diego, went into operation in 1948,
ten years after his death.
In 1928, under the direction of Beno
Gutenberg from Göttingen, Germany, Caltech
established a seismological laboratory where
systematic research in seismology began to take
place. During the 1930s, a young Caltech graduate
in physics, Dr. Charles Richter, working
with Dr. Gutenberg, developed the Richter scale,
a method of measuring earthquake magnitude
more precisely than had been possible before.
Research scientists in biology were drawn to
Caltech by the reputation of Thomas Hunt
Morgan, who had done pioneering work in
genetics. Charles C. Lauritsen, a physicist,
developed an X-ray tube that was used in the
treatment of cancer and other diseases.
In 1926, Millikan recruited Theodore Von
Kármán, a Hungarian working at the Technical
Institute at Aachen, Germany, and a specialist
in the developing field of aeronautics. Von
Kármán joined the Guggenheim Aeronautics
Laboratory at Caltech, where research carried
out on aerodynamics eventually led to the
founding of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during
World War II.
One of Von Kármán’s protégés, graduate
student Frank Malina, proposed in 1936 to
do his doctoral dissertation on problems of
rocket propulsion. Working together with two
other Pasadena rocket enthusiasts, Ed Forman
and John W. Parsons, Malina conducted the
first tests on a rocket motor in October 1936
about three miles above the Rose Bowl in the
Arroyo Seco. The first tests were a failure, but
tests in succeeding months proved more positive,
and in the spring of 1937 the group was
allowed to start testing on campus at the

Guggenheim Laboratory. Dubbed the “suicide
squad” after their first laboratory test bathed
the building in noxious fumes, the group was
ejected from the Guggenheim and forced to do
their experiments outdoors.
Others joined the group, and in 1938
Malina read a paper on their work, coauthored
by colleague Apollo M. O.
Smith, at a conference of the Institute
of Aeronautical Sciences in New
York. Malina and Smith’s prediction
that great altitudes could be
attained by rocket propulsion
excited journalists, who gave the
project much publicity. A year
later, in the atmosphere of a military
buildup that would culminate
in America’s entry into World War
II, the Guggenheim Laboratory was
granted $10,000 to pursue research
on jet-assisted takeoff of propeller-driven
airplanes. In 1940, funding was
doubled to $22,000.
The additional money enabled the rocket
group to move off campus, and they negotiated
a lease with the City of Pasadena for seven
acres in the Upper Arroyo Seco. A few small
corrugated metal and frame buildings were
built, to be expanded when the next year’s
funding increased to $125,000. By the spring
of 1942, the researchers were able to produce
solid-fuel and later liquid-fuel jet-assisted takeoffs,
which cut both takeoff time and the distance
needed by one-third. By mid-1943,
eighty-five people were working on the site,
and Aerojet, a company formed by Von
Kármán, Malina, and others, began to market
the engines to the U.S. Navy for use on carrierbased
aircraft in the Pacific.
News of German rocket research changed
the direction of the research toward guidedmissile
work. The Caltech group submitted a
proposal in late 1943 (using the name Jet
Propulsion Laboratory for the first time) to
develop theoretical models and to design and
test rocket missiles. At the same time, scientists
at Caltech’s Kellogg Laboratory were working
on rockets in Eaton Canyon under the direction
of Charles C. Lauritsen. The army offered
the JPL group $3 million if they would also
produce prototypes for production. This
staggering sum, soon increased to over $5 million,
marks the real birth of the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. At the same time, Von Kármán
vainly tried to obtain funds from Caltech for an
independent laboratory under institute control,
which would be devoted to research
unhampered by military requirements.
Although the war had a generally positive
effect on Pasadena’s economy, it proved disastrous
for one portion of Pasadena’s population,
those of Japanese descent. In early 1942, in the
hysteria of wartime, all Japanese and Japanese
Americans on the West Coast (most of them
United States citizens) were rounded up and
moved to camps in the interior. The largest
assembly center on the West Coast was at Santa
Anita Race Track, but Pasadena’s Japanese
Americans were assembled at Tulare, bringing
only the few possessions they could carry. They
traveled on an antiquated train for hours to
reach Tulare, where rude barracks awaited
them. Most of the Pasadenans were then sent
✧
Practicing golf at the Maryland Hotel,
c. 1930.
CHAPTER VI
81

✧
Sammy Lee, Pasadena diver who won a
gold medal in the 1948 Olympics,
executes a thrilling dive at the Huntington
Hotel pool.
HISTORIC PASADENA
82
on to a camp at Gila River, Arizona, where conditions
were little better. These 700
Pasadenans—physicians, accountants, businessmen,
teachers, gardeners, and agricultural
workers—represented a cross section of the
larger Pasadena community.
Persons of Japanese descent had first come
to Pasadena around the turn of the century.
Seventeen Japanese were recorded in the 1900
census, increasing to 253 by 1910, reflecting a
wave of immigration in the early part of the
century. Many notable Japanese lived in
Pasadena in this period, including T. Aoki, a
well-known artist, and his daughter, Tsura, a
Pasadena High School graduate who became a
film actress; K. Ota, a photographer whose
prints were exhibited internationally; Toichiro
Kawai, who designed and built the Japanesestyle
bridge and bell tower in the gardens of the
Huntington Library; Y. Shimanouchi, editor of
the Japanese-American daily newspaper of Los
Angeles; and F. T. Kuranaga, who owned the
largest Japanese newspaper in the country
(based in San Francisco) and was head of a big
labor contracting business.
In Pasadena in the 1940s, there were a few
people who thought the Japanese were being
treated unfairly. Some, like Robert Millikan,
joined a statewide organization to put pressure
on the authorities to release the Japanese. On a
local level, Pasadenans formed an organization
called “Friends of the American Way,” and
established headquarters in the abandoned
Japanese Union Church on Kensington Place.
This group, led by William Carr and Hugh
Anderson, wrote monthly letters to all
Pasadena citizens in the camps, to let them
know that they had not been forgotten.
After some time, Carr and Anderson conceived
of a novel idea: why not ask for the repatriation
of a single person from the camps to
demonstrate that innocent American citizens
were being persecuted? They secured the agreement
of General Bonesteel, who was in charge of
the detention, to release Esther Takei, an eighteen-year-old
Pasadenan, to the custody of
Anderson and his family. The young woman
arrived in Pasadena on September 12, 1943, and
registered for the fall term at Pasadena Junior
College. Despite adverse publicity and threats to
the Anderson home and family, as well as
attempts to bar her from school, Esther Takei
attempted to lead as normal a life as possible,
attending PJC and living with the Andersons in
Altadena. Toward the close of the war, some of
the internees were allowed to return to
Pasadena, and by 1946 they had all been freed.
The end of the war brought a new burst of
prosperity to Pasadena, and an early sign of it
was the construction of Bullock’s suburban
store on South Lake Avenue in 1947. In the
late 1930s, when the Arroyo Seco Parkway
was nearing completion, the Chamber of
Commerce had formed a committee named
“Pasadena Preferred” dedicated to promoting
Pasadena as a regional retail shopping
center. Composed of 121 merchants who
feared that the freeway would draw Pasadena
shoppers to Los Angeles, Pasadena Preferred
mounted an advertising campaign stressing

Pasadena’s specialty shops and traditionally
high-quality merchandise.
The campaign received an enormous boost
with the development of the shopping district
on South Lake Avenue. Bullock’s Pasadena
brought a new retailing concept to Southern
California—the auto-oriented suburban
department store. Other stores soon clustered
around Bullock’s, creating an early suburban
shopping mall in concept if not in name.
In its new-found postwar prosperity and
in a spirit of reconciliation, Pasadena adopted
a sister city, Ludwigshafen, in Germany in
1948. An industrial city founded the same
year as Pasadena, 1874, Ludwigshafen had
suffered devastating bombing during the war,
and shortly after being adopted by Pasadena,
a tragic chemical factory explosion occurred
there, killing scores of people. Lacking
food, clothing, and medical supplies,
Ludwigshafen appealed to Pasadenans, who
sent needed aid through a program called
SHARES. (A second sister city, Mishima, in
Japan, was adopted in 1957, and, in 1983,
Jarvenpaa, Finland, became Pasadena’s third
sister city.) Pasadena also gained international
recognition at the 1948 Olympic Games in
London when Pasadena Athletic Club divers
Victoria Draves and Dr. Sammy Lee carried
off a total of three gold medals, Draves making
history by winning two events.
Despite the signs of prosperity, the Pasadena
Council of Women’s Clubs, sensing that
Pasadena was not quite what it used to be, conducted
a Civic Betterment Survey in 1943 to
determine how to improve the city. The survey,
however, focused on details like streetlighting,
health inspection of restaurants, and more visible
house numbers, and failed to address the
underlying economic issues that were changing
Pasadena, such as the lack of an industrial base
and employment opportunities for the middle
class, the development of pockets of poverty,
and deteriorating neighborhoods.
The end of the war had not brought about
the total dismantling of military research. The
army wanted to keep its new facilities in the
Arroyo and applied for renewal of its lease after
the war. Although City Manager Koiner stated
that the Jet Propulsion Laboratory violated “the
first principle of proper zoning in residential
territory,” the city was forced to accede when the
army threatened to condemn and take the land.
The outcome of the dispute between the city
and the army was propitious, for it augured a
change in the direction Pasadena would take
after the war. Linked by a freeway to Los
Angeles and now a center for the aeronautics
industry, Pasadena began to shed its image of a
wealthy resort city. With most of its hotels and
tourists gone, and smog beginning to damage
its reputation for healthful living, Pasadena
could ill-afford to reject a government-sponsored
laboratory that was already one of the
city’s major employers. After the war, Pasadena
would neglect its reputation as an ideal residential
city, while trying to attract business and
industry to bolster the economy.
✧
Albert Einstein and his wife Elsa spent three
winters in Pasadena as guests of Caltech in
the early 1930s. They are pictured here with
Governor James Rolph, Jr.
CHAPTER VI
83

HISTORIC PASADENA
84

POSTWAR PASADENA: NEW DIRECTIONS
1945-1975
Pasadena is at the crossroads.
—Robert H. Oliver, 1959
At the end of World War II Pasadena found itself facing a changed world. The city could no longer
entertain the idea of reestablishing itself as a resort for the wealthy. American economic and social traditions
had undergone a profound change; the prosperity of the 1920s, based on the fortunes of nineteenth-century
industrial expansion, was being replaced by a new, technology-oriented prosperity,
based on mass consumption. Moreover, the scientific and technological development of Southern
California in the war years, primarily related to the aircraft industry, continued to expand after the war,
drawing new people to the region.
Pasadena was no longer a remote, peaceful suburb of Los Angeles, but lay in the heart of a metropolitan
area of burgeoning population, one of the fastest-growing metropolises in the country.
Pasadena itself, which had gained only about 7,000 new residents between 1930 and 1940, jumped
from a population of 82,864 in 1940 to 104,577 in 1950, an increase of about 25 percent. In the
same period, Los Angeles County grew from 2,786,000 to 4,152,000, an increase of almost 50 percent.
This population increase, based on the increasing industrial development of Southern
California, brought with it housing shortages, increased pollution, and traffic congestion, all of
which had an impact on Pasadena.
A fundamental change in Pasadena’s self-image can be dated from the decision to rezone Orange
Grove Avenue for apartment development in 1948. Recognizing that the mansions on “Millionaires’
Row” represented a way of life that was gone forever, the city sealed the fate of the famous avenue by
allowing garden apartments to replace the millionaires’ mansions. Hulett Merritt, one of the first millionaires
to build on the street, wrote a protest to the Planning Commission on a postcard bearing a
picture of his famous home: “We wish here and now to go on record permanently for your files that
we are utterly and violently opposed to any plan that would in whole or part change South Orange
Grove from a strictly residential street.” The South Orange Grove Association and the Southwest
Protective and Improvement Association also opposed the zone change, but others, including absentee
owners who cited the expense of keeping up their properties, were for it.
Although strict setback, density, and landscaping requirements attempted to maintain the quality
image of Orange Grove Avenue, the new apartments could never match the beauty and craftsmanship
of the buildings they replaced. Moreover, the rapid redevelopment of the street lent the once varied
and unique streetscape a quality of utilitarian sameness. With the change, Pasadena acknowledged the
end of an era and began to move into a new period.
While Pasadena was trying to cope with an increased postwar population and fundamental economic
changes throughout the 1950s, the city’s cultural institutions were also struggling to accommodate the
changing times and the loss of traditional audiences and support. The Pasadena Playhouse had thrived
throughout the Depression, producing all of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as many others. The Playhouse
School had become known as an important training ground for aspiring young actors and, by the 1950s,
had already sent on to stardom such actors as William Holden, Dana Andrews, Robert Young, Randolph
Scott, Lee J. Cobb, John Carradine, Victor Jory, Eleanor Parker, and dancer Martha Graham. Its 300 students
were housed in dormitories on El Molino Avenue, named for some of its leading sponsors, Ernest
Batchelder (president of the Playhouse Association for twenty years), Dr. and Mrs. Robert Millikan, Dr. and
Mrs. George Ellery Hale, and Mr. and Mrs. Clinton Clarke. By the 1960s, however, the Playhouse was
faltering. A series of “angels” tried to save the enterprise, but it finally had to declare bankruptcy in 1969.
✧
Caltech seismologist Charles Richter
developed the Richter scale to measure the
magnitude of earthquakes. Here he is shown
at home with his seismograph which he kept
handy so that he could respond to media
questions day or night in the event of a quake.
CHAPTER VII
85

✧
Caltech professor Linus Pauling won two
Nobel Prizes, for chemistry in 1954 and for
peace in 1964.
HISTORIC PASADENA
86
In 1970, many of its treasures, including its
prized costume collection, were sold off by auction.
Through it all a few of the faithful, notably
Peggy Ebright, refused to believe that the institution
was finished.
The Pasadena Art Institute initially accommodated
to the changing times when it received the
Galka Scheyer collection of German Expressionist
paintings in 1951. This gift of about 600 works
made Pasadena the home of an internationally
recognized art collection and determined the
course of the Pasadena Art Institute in encouraging
and showing contemporary art.
The dream of a major museum on the
Carmelita grounds, a vision that went back to
the Civic Center plan of the 1920s, was realized
in 1969, when the new Pasadena Art Museum
opened its doors at Carmelita. Although the
new building was criticized for functional deficiencies
and its exterior design, it became a
West Coast center for contemporary art, drawing
artists to Pasadena, where many of them
rented lofts and studios in the old commercial
district around Fair Oaks.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, the
museum staged major exhibits of modern
masters such as Paul Cézanne, Paul Klee,
Alexej von Jawlensky, Andreas Feininger, and
Marcel Duchamp, as well as contemporary
artists such as Robert Motherwell, Roy
Lichtenstein, Joseph Cornell, Richard Serra,
Andy Warhol, and Claes Oldenburg. Group
shows featured West Coast artists, a collection
of New Mexican folk art, Asian stone sculptures,
and a history of the Bauhaus. The most
popular shows were the biennial California
Design series, which exhibited the latest in
California craftsmanship and design.
Pasadena’s excellent library system set as its
goal in the early 1950s a branch library within
one mile of every resident in Pasadena. To serve
the expanding residential neighborhoods on the
east and west sides of town, the Pasadena
library established branches in Allendale, San
Rafael, Linda Vista, and Hastings Ranch. A new
building was provided for the old Lamanda
Park Branch in 1967. The main library received
a major addition to house the Alice Coleman
Batchelder Music Collection, which formed the
nucleus of a growing collection of scores and
recordings. The Pasadena Public Library system’s
circulation figures and expenditures per
capita earned Pasadena the title of “best read
city in America” in 1963, according to an article
in McCall’s magazine.
The California Institute of Technology continued
to expand during the 1950s, building a
radio astronomy observatory in the Owens
Valley and administering the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, which in 1958 became a facility of
the newly formed National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, changing its focus from
military to space research.
The city’s growing population gave rise to
new residential developments in the 1950s.
New housing going up on the outskirts of
Pasadena, especially the large Hastings Ranch
tract development, and the many new houses
being built in Linda Vista and San Rafael, contributed
to the decline of the center of Pasadena
with its older commercial buildings and homes.
New shopping centers in Hastings Ranch competed
with downtown Pasadena; only two
major new buildings, Robinson’s department
store and Mutual Savings and Loan, were constructed
on Colorado Boulevard in the 1950s.
One sign of fundamental change in Pasadena’s
economic and social structure was the purchase
in 1954 of the Huntington Hotel by the Sheraton
Corporation, which changed the focus of the
hotel from a resort to a businessman’s hotel. At
the same time, new industries were moving into
Pasadena, most notably Stuart Pharmaceuticals,
which opened in 1958 in the eastern part of
town. Avon Products had opened a plant in the
same area in the late 1940s.
Concern over Pasadena’s future prompted
the Chamber of Commerce to commission an
economic survey by the Stanford Research
Institute, which was published in 1959. This
report, often referred to as the Oliver report for
its author, Dr. Robert Oliver, provided the first
real data on Pasadena’s economic situation and
suggested ways to deal with it. Oliver cited the
lack of available land in Pasadena, the large
number of old houses and commercial buildings,
and the increase in low-income families in
the heart of the city as major deterrents to economic
growth. The report, however, also noted
Pasadena’s major assets: a preponderance of
high-income families in the Greater Pasadena
area; Pasadena’s central role in the San Gabriel

Valley for banking, finance, insurance, retail
trade, and health and legal services; increased
employment in Pasadena’s industrial establishments
since 1940; and the community’s educational
and cultural advantages.
Seeking to build on Pasadena’s assets and
enhance its already strong areas of retail trade
and offices, Oliver recommended forming a
redevelopment agency to engage in large-scale
planning and redevelopment efforts. Oliver
also noted two goals in planning for Pasadena’s
future: the maintenance of Pasadena as a desirable
residential community for persons working
outside the city, principally in Los Angeles;
and the increase in economic activity in the city
itself to create a solid economic base for the
future. The trick was to achieve both of these
goals without tipping the balance too much in
favor of one to the disadvantage of the other.
Despite the recommendations of the Oliver
report, the 1960s were marked by vacillation in
the area of redevelopment. Although the report
had stressed the need for industrial development
and new economic activity in the downtown
core, uncertainty as to the routes of the
proposed east-west Foothill Freeway and
north-south Long Beach Freeway led the
Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA),
formed in 1960, to concentrate its first efforts
on residential blight. Agency board members
taken on a tour of the northwest part of the city
focused on Pepper Street near Washington and
Fair Oaks in a largely black neighborhood, designating
it Redevelopment Area I, the Pepper
project, in 1960. The CRA planned to level the
neighborhood and build new apartments and a
shopping center.
The Pepper project became controversial
almost immediately, because of restrictions
placed on property owners that prevented
them from repairing or improving their buildings.
These restrictions were to prevent higher
✧
A decade after the great floods of 1938,
the weather again turned curious. This
photograph of the Civic Center shows the
snowfall of 1949.
CHAPTER VII
87

✧
Richard Neutra designed this compact house
for Occidental College art history professor
Constance Perkins in 1955. Glass walls and
a pool that flows between the living room
and the garden bring the outdoors inside.
(Photographer: Walt Mancini)
HISTORIC PASADENA
88
property appraisals when the buildings were
eventually taken by eminent domain.
Neighborhood associations such as the Fair Oaks
Businessmen’s Association and Home Owner’s
Protective Endeavor (HOPE) agitated for the
abolition of the CRA and revision of the city’s
housing code without success. A majority of the
people in the project area owned their own
homes and businesses, and many opposed the
displacement that redevelopment would cause.
The project languished into 1964, when the
passage of Proposition 14 in California suddenly
stopped the flow of needed federal funds to redevelop
the area. Proposition 14, which upheld the
right of owners and realtors to discriminate on
the basis of race in selling property, caused a
freezing of all federal money for housing in
California, until the courts ruled the measure
unconstitutional. Later, federal funds were held
up because Pasadena’s housing inspection and
code enforcement did not meet federal requirements.
Demolition of the long-deteriorating
buildings did not begin until 1966, and finally, in
1969, nine years after the designation of Pepper
Street for redevelopment, ground-breaking for
new housing units took place.
The delay of the project created worsening
conditions for those prohibited from repairing
their homes before demolition and relocation.
The effect on business, however, was perhaps
even more devastating. The largely minorityowned
businesses on North Fair Oaks were
promised space in the new business development,
but by 1968, only one business
remained, and most of the businesses had been
unable to operate for several years. These businessmen
simply gave up and retired or moved
elsewhere, and the community of neighborhood
businesses on North Fair Oaks has never
been reestablished.
Attracting industry to Pasadena was one of
the goals of redevelopment. The Chamber of
Commerce established a “Pasadena Standard,” a
set of guidelines for attracting non-polluting
industries that would not detract from
Pasadena’s residential quality. “Tech Square,” a
fifty-two-acre industrial park with a 6,000 car
garage, office buildings, commercial shops, and
several blocks of high-technology industries
was planned by the CRA to be located between
South Fair Oaks and the proposed Long Beach
Freeway extension, but the plans never came to
fruition. Auto dealerships generated considerable
sales tax revenue for the city, but lack of
available land made it difficult for them to
expand. An auto center project, which was to
concentrate auto dealerships along the future
route of the Foothill Freeway, was proposed as
a solution, but it was also abandoned.
The top Chamber of Commerce goal in 1961
had been the elimination of smog, but, by 1965,
it had become the development of off-street
parking downtown. Parking was seen as the key
to revitalizing downtown Pasadena, and several
solutions were proposed, including parking
structures both north and south of Colorado
between Los Robles and Marengo and a complete
redesign of the Civic Center, using the
Auditorium as a focal point. While these specific
plans were not implemented, other factors
later brought about downtown revitalization.
During the 1960s Caltech added fifteen new
buildings on its campus, as well as a new solar
observatory at Big Bear. The international reputation
of the institute continued to grow, as evidenced
by the increasing numbers of Nobel
prizes awarded to its faculty and graduates.
Prizes in physics went to Edward D. McMillan
(1951), William Shockley (1956), Donald Glaser
(1960), Rudolph Mossbauer (1961), Charles
Townes (1964), Richard Feynman (1965),

Murray Gell-Mann (1969), Leo James
Rainwater (1975), and Robert D. Wilson
(1978), joining earlier Caltech winners
Carl Anderson (1936) and Robert
Millikan (1921). Prizes in medicine went
to George Beadle in 1958 and Max
Delbruck in 1969. Howard M. Temin
and William N. Lipscomb, who had
earned doctorates at Caltech, were
awarded the prize in medicine in 1975
and 1976, respectively. Linus Pauling,
who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in
1954, made history by being awarded
the prize again in another field, the
Nobel Peace Prize for 1964.
A nationwide trend was reflected in
the increased voice of minorities in
decision-making in Pasadena in the
1960s and 1970s. In Pasadena, the largest and
most vocal minority were African Americans.
Pasadena’s African Americans had already taken
leading roles in many areas in the 1920s and
1930s. Dr. James T. Whittaker, Pasadena’s first
African-American doctor, founded Dunbar
Hospital in Los Angeles in 1923, as encroaching
segregation forced African Americans out of
community hospitals in the region. Mrs.
Corinne Bush Hicks was elected president of the
California State Federation of Colored Women’s
Clubs in 1924. James Phillips, early African-
American real estate broker and lawyer, and
William Harrison, contractor and real estate broker,
both erected business buildings in
Pasadena. In the 1930s, George Garner became
the first African American to play a leading role
at the Pasadena Playhouse, and Mack Robinson
distinguished himself by winning a medal at the
1936 Olympic Games in the 200-meter event,
placing second to Jesse Owens.
Despite these accomplishments, whites in
Pasadena were organizing to place restrictive
covenants on property, severely limiting where
African Americans could live in the city. By the
early 1940s, 60 percent of the city was restricted,
including all the property surrounding
African-American neighborhoods.
By 1939, Pasadena’s African Americans were
no longer content to sit back on the issue of the
Brookside Plunge. Led by Dr. Edna Griffin, an
African-American physician, they filed suit
against the city, a suit which was finally won
in 1945. But it was a short-lived victory, for the
city closed the plunge, claiming that revenues
had fallen off so much that it was no longer economically
sound to keep the facility open. After
two years, the Brookside Plunge was reopened,
in the same year (1947) that a Pasadenan,
Jackie Robinson, brother of the Olympic star
Mack Robinson, became the first African
American to play major league baseball.
After World War II, the great Southern
California population boom also brought many
African Americans into the region, and, by
1960, the percentage of Pasadena’s African-
American population had tripled. African
Americans continued to press for jobs at City
Hall, just as they had in the century’s early years.
Following an investigation by the California Fair
Employment Practices Commission in 1963-
1965, African Americans were employed more
frequently by the city in higher-paying, more
skilled positions.
The expanding population also put strains on
the school system, and to meet the need six new
elementary schools, two junior high schools,
and a new high school, Pasadena High School,
were built in the 1950s. Pasadena’s school system
became the focus of unwelcome national
attention in the early 1950s, when Dr. Willard
Goslin, the superintendent, was forced to resign.
Goslin, who had been hired in 1948, was a
nationally recognized educator who brought to
Pasadena many innovative ideas in education.
He also came at a time when the postwar “baby
✧
Prebles produce market on Dayton Street
(later on Glenarm) was a Pasadena
institution where shoppers could find fresh
produce as well as nuts and grains in bulk
long before the appearance of health food
supermarkets and farmers’ markets.
CHAPTER VII
89

✧
Pasadena hung onto its 1890 library for a
long time after it was heavily damaged in
the Long Beach earthquake of 1933. In
1954, however, it was finally demolished,
leaving only a remnant of the entrance still
standing in Memorial Park.
HISTORIC PASADENA
90
boom” mandated a boom-like expansion in
school facilities. When Goslin attempted to get a
tax measure passed to fund this expansion, he
was roundly defeated at the polls.
The defeat of the school bond measure was
in part a reluctance on the part of the citizenry
to pay higher taxes, but it was also a revolt
against the progressive ideas of Goslin himself,
and a protest against the superintendent’s
attempt at redistricting the school system.
Goslin had proposed redrawing district lines to
send pupils to neighborhood schools nearest
their homes, a measure that would have broken
down de facto racial segregation in the city’s
schools. Goslin’s defeat and dismissal were preliminary
skirmishes in the battle that would
erupt in the 1960s and 1970s over segregation
in Pasadena’s schools.
Since the 1930s, Pasadena students had
been allowed to request transfers from their
neighborhood school to another school, if they
wished. After the Supreme Court ruled in 1954
that segregated schools were inherently
unequal, school districts outside the South also
came under pressure to reform their de facto
segregated schools. In Pasadena, the NAACP
threatened a taxpayers’ suit when the school
board proposed building new classrooms at the
overcrowded all-white Arroyo Seco school,
while there were empty classrooms at neighboring
Garfield School. The board responded by
redrawing the neighborhood boundaries.
Meanwhile, transfers were no longer granted
openly, but the custom continued, based on
false addresses and trumped-up health excuses.
In 1961 the board voted 3-2 to send white
Linda Vista area junior high students to
McKinley School, instead of Washington,
which was closer, but had a large number of
African-American students. At the same time,
schools all over the country were coming
under pressure not only to refrain from policies
that would result in segregation, but to
actively encourage integration. The Pasadena
Board of Education therefore adopted a twopronged
policy in 1961: “A…. to define each
attendance area in such a way as to effect the
best utilization of school plants and equipment;
[and] B…. the Board…shall do nothing
which promotes racial or other types of segregation…within
the framework of Item A.” This
policy, which clearly gave the priority to “best
use” of facilities while giving lip service to
integration, would not be a tenable position
for long.
Throughout the 1960s, various plans
were adopted, such as “Plan B of the
Committee on Improving Racial Balance,”
“Plan Six,” “Geographic and Controlled Open
Districting,” “Plan A of the Districting
Committee of 1967.” These plans attempted
to address the problem at all three levels of
the system: elementary, junior high, and high
school, but, in reality, the lower schools
became ever more segregated. A new high
school, Blair, was established in 1964 at the
head of the Pasadena Freeway. As it was on
the south side, it drained more white students
out of Muir in the northwest, where most

African Americans lived. Pasadena High
School had been built in the 1950s on the east
side and was nearly all white.
Muir High School had an outstanding reputation,
with 80 percent of its graduates going on
to college; among its students were seven
National Merit Scholarship winners and fifty
semi-finalists in the years 1957 to 1964. In the
mid-1960s, this began to change, and white
families began moving out of the Muir district.
The board began a program of sending a few
Muir students to the other two schools,
although enrollment at Muir was below its
capacity, and both Blair and Pasadena High
School were overcrowded. After white voters on
the west side defeated a tax bond issue for the
schools, the principal and several teachers at
Muir resigned in protest.
In 1967 a group of concerned parents filed
suit to require the board to adopt ethnic balance
in the schools. Spangler v. Board of
Education became a landmark action, which,
when decided in 1970, required busing in the
Pasadena public schools. Throughout the
1960s there had been a measurable amount of
“white flight” out of Pasadena, especially out of
the neighborhoods most directly affected. The
institution of busing, however, did not achieve
the racial balance that the plaintiffs sought.
Instead, white families continued to leave
Pasadena. Many who remained put their children
in private schools. By 1980 Pasadena had
over forty private schools.
The Mexican-American population of
Pasadena showed a small increase in the 1930s
and greater increases in the postwar period.
Mexican Americans continued to be concentrated
in their traditional neighborhoods in
Lamanda Park and near California and
Raymond. Fremont School in East Pasadena
was all Mexican-American, and both Garfield
and Cleveland schools had relatively high proportions
of Mexican-American pupils throughout
the 1950s and 1960s.
The settlement house on South Raymond
Avenue became an important community center
during the 1930s and 1940s. Under director
Stephen Reyes, it offered recreational programs—handball,
basketball, and folk dancing,
and social activities such as Cub Scouts and
Campfire Girls. It also ran programs in
Lamanda Park at Fremont School and at
Cleveland School in north Pasadena. Social
organizations such as the Mexican Central
Council and the Spanish-American Alliance
held their meetings at the settlement house.
Around 1950, the house and the organization
were moved to West Del Mar, near Fair Oaks, to
make way for an expansion of the city’s garbage
dump, which had been located next to the
building for years. In its new location, it gradually
became a African-American community
center before its closing in the late 1950s.
By the 1940s the maternity hospital sponsored
by the original Settlement House
Association had been moved to a site near the
Huntington Hospital and was renamed
Women’s Hospital. The Huntington had begun
to operate a free clinic, the Dispensary, which
provided medical care to those who could not
afford to pay.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Reyes, who had
become professor of Spanish at Pasadena City
College, and others in the community fostered
the development of a scholarship committee to
support Mexican-American students of high
academic achievement. The committee is still a
growing organization and grants several thousand
dollars in scholarship money each year. In
the same period, young Mexican Americans
pressed for greater recognition in Pasadena
community affairs, establishing El Centro De
Acción Social, an organization that has
increased the voice of the Mexican-American
minority in the community.
Thirty years after the end of World War II,
Pasadena was beginning to feel comfortable in
its new role as a regional center of business and
science. However, the progress came at a price.
The demise of the old hotels and the end of the
era of winter visitors and millionaires, brought
with them a neglect of the distinctive cultural
traditions and environment that had made the
community such a good place to live. The
money that had supported these institutions
had not exactly disappeared; instead, the people
who had it no longer knew or cared much
about what Pasadena had once been. In the
mid-1970s, however, that began to change.
Pasadena’s past, especially its architecture,
began to be rediscovered, and the city experienced
a renaissance.
✧
The Neighborhood Church stood boarded up
for some time before it was hastily
demolished by the State of California in
1974 to make way for the 710 freeway,
which has still not been built. The
demolition marked the beginning of serious
preservation efforts in Pasadena. Still
remaining on the site are the parsonage by
Sylvanus Marston and church educational
buildings by Smith & Williams.
(Photographer: Ed Norgord)
CHAPTER VII
91

HISTORIC PASADENA
92

THE LAST QUARTER CENTURY
1976-2000
During the past quarter-century, Pasadena’s commitment to its history, culture, and
architecture has only increased. Thus, as we approach the new millennium and
prepare to face the challenges that lie ahead, we have never been more aware of
the foundations upon which this community is based.
—Mayor Bill Bogard, 1999
In 1932, Morrow Mayo identified a paradox that has characterized Pasadena throughout its history.
While on the one hand a city with a conservative reputation, a stronghold of the Republican
Party since the Civil War, and the birthplace of the ultra-conservative John Birch Society, Pasadena
also has a strong progressive streak, represented by its role as the southwestern headquarters of the
American Friends Service Committee; the social activism of All Saints Church, one of the largest
and wealthiest Episcopal parishes in the country; its active city government and public library system;
and its strong historic preservation community. In the context of Southern California as a
whole, Pasadena stands out for its community spirit, its activism and leadership on important
issues, be they conservative or progressive.
Pasadena’s city government has undergone several important changes in the past two decades.
In a nod to changing times and a more democratic image, the City Board of Directors became the
City Council. City-wide runoffs for council seats were replaced by district-only elections in 1981,
ensuring minority representation on the council. Loretta Thompson-Glickman, already on the
council, became Pasadena’s first African-American mayor in 1982, receiving the gavel from Jo
Heckman, who had taken over as Pasadena’s first woman mayor in 1980.
The office of mayor traditionally rotated among the council members, based on seniority. The
mayor’s job was largely ceremonial, leaving the day to day operation of the city to the city manager.
The city manager system, so well suited to a small community run by a council of volunteers,
revealed its weaknesses when faced with the complexities of modern city government. City
Manager Donald McIntyre, a highly effective manager, was often setting policy and assuming powers
that the council felt were its prerogatives. For the most part, the volunteer councilmembers had
neither the time, the experience nor the expertise to study the issues and make well-informed decisions.
Furthermore, with the institution of district-only elections, councilmembers tended to represent
their districts vigorously, to the detriment of common city-wide goals.
When McIntyre retired, controversy over the hiring of the next city manager, Phil Hawkey, who
was white, instead of an African-American candidate, split the council and alienated the African-
American community. Hawkey and his family moved to an integrated East Arroyo neighborhood,
and he spent years building bridges with minority communities, hiring by far more non-white and
female senior managers than any predecessor. But enmity with black Councilmember Chris Holden
remained, and Hawkey was forced out after seven years. His top assistant and sucessor, Cynthia
Kurtz, became Pasadena’s first woman city manager in 1998.
The question of a city-wide elected mayor was put to the voters in 1998, and, in 1999, Pasadena
elected its first mayor city-wide in over 80 years, providing an eighth seat on the council and a
counter-weight to balance the strong city manager. The new mayor, Bill Bogard, is a former member
of the council and is expected to represent city-wide concerns on the council.
The passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, which limited property tax increases, severely cut back the
funds available for redevelopment, which had been financed by tax increment (the increase in taxes
on properties affected by redevelopment projects). This sharp financial cutback, plus the questions in
✧
This panorama of downtown Pasadena
was taken from the Linda Vista hills in the
mid-1990s.
(Photographer: Tavo Olmos)
PHOTO COURTESY OF POSITIVE IMAGE.
CHAPTER VIII
93

✧
Above: The Doo Dah Parade, started in
the 1970s as a spoof on the Rose Parade, is
now a Pasadena institution. Here some
marchers take a rest in the middle of
Colorado Boulevard.
HISTORIC PASADENA
94
the community concerning the negative effects
of redevelopment and the lack of sufficient public
review of projects, led to the dissolution of
the Pasadena Redevelopment Agency in 1981
and the incorporation of its staff and functions
into the City Planning Department, under the
direct control of the City Board of Directors.
Pasadena had its own taxpayers’ revolt in
1985. Property owners were notified only a
few days before a public meeting that their
annual tax payments would be increased by
up to $100 to fund street repairs. Irate citizens
showed up at the meeting at the Pasadena
Civic Auditorium and
publicly berated the City Council for highhandedness
and arrogance. The council
retreated and ordered the city manager to find
other sources of revenue to fund street repairs.
Pasadena’s city government faced one of
its biggest challenges in the 1980s, when a
court ruling forced the city to honor its earlier
agreement with the police and firemens’
pension funds to grant annual cost of living
increases. The high inflation of the 1980s plus
the increased longevity of the beneficiaries
threatened to bankrupt the city. Since the
city was technically insolvent, and going further
into debt at the rate of $26,000 a day,
Councilmember John Crowley, an expert on
public finance, set to work on the problem.
Analyzing the city’s finances, Crowley, together
with Finance Department head Mary Bradley,
came up with the “three basket” solution, which
found a way to increase revenue and cash flow
from city assets by a kind of arbitrage, based on
the difference between debt service at taxexempt
rates and income from investment at
higher rates. Several revenue sources were
tapped, including the interest on a redevelopment
debt to the city, interest revenue from revenue-producing
assets, such as parking garages,
liquidation of the remainder of the old sewer
farm property in Alhambra, and income from
the Concord, a senior citizen complex acquired
by the city in the 1980s. Funds for low to moderate-income
housing and reimbursement to
the school district were included in the complicated
package that was finally put together. A
special bill, Senate Bill No. 481, passed with the
help of Senator Newton Russell and the cooperation
of Los Angeles County and the State
Department of Education in September 1987,
resolved various issues surrounding the use of
redevelopment funds and put Pasadena back on
a solid financial footing.
Crowley’s familiarity with city finances and
his close working relationship with Bradley
resulted in finding funds for the long-stalled
repair of Pasadena’s streets as well, and, as part
of the pension fund package, which required
selling the old police station and its land, a bond
issue to build a new police building was passed.
This most recent addition to the Civic Center,
designed by architect Robert A. M. Stern in a
Post-Modern style, occupies an important site
on the Garfield axis across from the Library.
Mayor Chris Holden, who represented the
northwest district through the 1990s after
Thompson-Glickman retired, was instrumental
in bringing a long-awaited full-service
supermarket to Fair Oaks and Orange Grove.
Holden also put in motion a reexamination of
Pasadena’s Civic Center plan and the problem
of the financially shaky Plaza Pasadena at its
center. Serving as the city’s last rotating
mayor, Holden engineered the ballot measure
that created a city-wide elected mayor, though
he lost in his own first bid for that post.
In an echo of the tense council politics of the
1930s, a police officer was again posted in
council chambers during the 1991-1995 term
of firebrand District 1 Councilman Isaac
Richard. Tension between Richard and unlikely

✧
Above: Willis Stork was the headmaster of
Polytechnic School, but he was known and
loved by many Pasadenans for his verbal
wit and his interest in Pasadena history.
Left: Pasadena lost only one building in the
1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake, but we
also lost the landmark quote on the
neighboring wall: “My people are the people
of the dessert,” said T. E. Lawrence, picking
up his fork.
Below: Pasadena architect Richard Rose
performed major work on the Church of the
Angels in the 1990s, including seismic
strengthening of the walls and rebuilding the
belfry, which had been missing since the
Simi Valley earthquake of 1971.
adversaries Rick Cole and Holden—both also
young Democrats—upset council decorum for
months during Cole’s mayoral term and led
Holden to file for a restraining order against the
volatile Richard.
Throughout the postwar period, changes in
Pasadena’s built environment were of an evolutionary
nature, but in the 1970s the pace of
change accelerated in the downtown area.
Private projects—such as the opening of the
new eight-story Hilton Hotel near the Civic
Auditorium in 1971, the ten-story Beverly
Enterprises building on South Lake, and the
ten-story Pacific Telephone Building on the site
of Mather’s Department Store on Colorado
CHAPTER VIII
95

✧
Right: The reinvigoration of Old Pasadena
can be traced directly to the opening of this
new United Artists Theater in the mid
1980s on Colorado at Delacey Avenue.
The theater brought crowds of people to the
area at night, causing new restaurants and
shops to flourish. The design of the theater
was heavily influenced by the City’s Design
Commission and staff to make it compatible
with existing buildings.
COURTESY OF THE PASADENA CONVENTION AND
VISITORS BUREAU.
Below: In 1983, Caltech professor and
Nobelist Willie Fowler trod the well-worn
path from Pasadena to Stockholm to have
dinner with Queen Sylvia of Sweden.
Boulevard—complemented public projects
such as the Conference Center around the
Auditorium, which opened in 1973. As part of
the new center, a fountain, given by Pasadena’s
sister city Ludwigshafen and a plaza named for
Mishima, Japan, were dedicated in 1974. A new
Holiday Inn behind the Auditorium provided
additional hotel facilities for conventioneers.
Efforts by the Pasadena Redevelopment
Agency to woo corporate headquarters to
Pasadena were crowned with success when the
Bankamericard Center opened in 1974. In the
same year the first phase of the world headquarters
of the Ralph M. Parsons Corporation,
an international engineering and construction
company, opened on Walnut Street, the centerpiece
of a four-block complex. Corporate headquarters
of Avery International, makers of adhesive
labels, opened on North Orange Grove
west of Parsons in 1982. A major retail project
to improve Colorado Boulevard was the shopping
mall called the Plaza Pasadena, which
opened in 1980. Other redevelopment projects
of the 1970s included residential projects such
as the Orange Grove and Del Mar condominiums,
adding over 800 residential units in
Pasadena (including the 400 completed in the
Pepper project), and smaller office projects such
as Plaza Centre and Cordova Garden Offices.
Although redevelopment transformed
much of downtown Pasadena in the 1970s,
the completion of the Foothill Freeway,
which cut a wide swath through the entire
city, probably had the most far-reaching
effects. All told, over 3,500 households were
displaced by the freeway. Freeway exits at
Lake Avenue became among the most congested
in the city, and two high-rise office
towers built during a building boom in the
1980s only increased congestion.
The drastic changes of the last quarter century
in downtown Pasadena were not endorsed by
all of the community. As early as 1961, a referendum
on a proposed high-rise apartment project
at the corner of Colorado and Orange Grove was
defeated, signaling that many citizens did not feel
that high-density, urban-type development
belonged in Pasadena. The demolition of the
Neighborhood Church in 1974, one of the city’s
oldest churches, for a freeway that still has not
been completed aroused the ire of the community.
Some of the downtown projects also engendered
controversy: the location of the Plaza
Pasadena cutting across the main axis of the
Civic Center; the razing of a core African-
American neighborhood and demolition of the
Pasadena Athletic Club, one of the masterpieces
of the Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury firm; the
demolition of several historic buildings in the
African-American community and the Victorian
Masonic Temple Building for Parsons expansion;
proposed twenty-story twin apartment towers on
Lake and twin office towers at Colorado and Los
Robles; and the proposed redevelopment of Los
Robles Avenue with tower office blocks.
Ironically, economics professor and former councilman
Bob Oliver, who had recommended redevelopment
for Pasadena in the 1960s, led a rally
in the 1970s on the steps of the Civic Auditorium
HISTORIC PASADENA
96

to protest the demolition of the Athletic Club and
the building of the Plaza Pasadena.
In response to these concerns, the City of
Pasadena established the Cultural Heritage
Commission in 1976, which was charged
with designating landmarks and conducting a
survey to identify Pasadena’s historic buildings.
At the same time, a private organization,
Pasadena Heritage, was formed to create
awareness of Pasadena’s cultural resources
and to encourage their preservation.
Steps were taken to preserve Pasadena’s old
commercial district around Fair Oaks and
Colorado with the establishment by the city in
1980 of an urban conservation zone known as
Old Pasadena. The property owners, who had
been threatened with redevelopment for years,
supported the preservation of the buildings,
and gradually the buildings began to be
restored to their former glory. As speculators
began investing in the area, however, its lowincome
residents, including artists and minority
families, were forced out by the higher rents.
The city contributed to the effort by building
two new parking garages, one on DeLacey
Avenue and the other at Green and Fair Oaks.
In the mid-1980s, a multi-plex movie theater
replaced a burned-out building at DeLacey
and Colorado, drawing customers for the
restaurants and shops starting up in the area.
The multi-plex had been built by developer
John Wilson, who acquired nearly the entire
block across Colorado from the theater. After
stripping the buildings of all of their valuable
interiors and exterior ornament, Wilson abandoned
the project to a San Francisco developer.
The struggle with the new developer to
restore the buildings was led by Pasadena
Heritage, but in the end their historic condition
was so compromised that that block
was deleted from the Old Pasadena National
Register Historic District. Financially, Old
✧
Above, left: When one of Pasadena’s
bungalow courts, Gartz Court, was
threatened with demolition, Pasadena
Heritage and the City of Pasadena
cooperated to move the bungalows to a new
site. The bungalows were moved at night to
avoid disrupting traffic.
(Photographer: Walt Mancini)
Below: The One Colorado project in Old
Pasadena has been successful despite its
elimination from the Old Pasadena
National Register Historic District, because
the buildings were stripped of their
architectural detail by a former owner.
COURTESY OF THE PASADENA CONVENTION AND
VISITORS BUREAU.
CHAPTER VIII
97

✧
Above: Murray Gell-Mann of Caltech,
winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in
1969, is reknowned for his concept of the
“quark” particle, a name he borrowed from
James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake.
Top, right: Rose Bowl Aquatic Center
was built in the 1980s to replace
Brookside Plunge
Below: Mayor John Crowley (left) chats with
Armand Hammer (center) and “Murph”
Goldberger, president of Caltech.
HISTORIC PASADENA
98
Pasadena has shown that preservation can
bring great economic benefits and vitality to
the community; people from throughout the
region visit its shops, theaters and restaurants.
In response to the controversy over continuing
high-rise development, a High-Rise Task
Force appointed by the City Board of Directors
recommended that Pasadena create an Urban
Design Plan to manage growth in the Central
Business District. Based on the recommendations
of consultants Allan Jacobs and Thomas Aidala
and the Urban Design Advisory Committee,
composed of representative citizens, an Urban
Design Plan was adopted which designated certain
areas of the Central Business District as
appropriate for high-rise development. The plan
also recommended residential development
around the two central city parks and height limits
in the Civic Center and other areas.
While the Urban Design Plan helped to
direct growth and improve architectural design
in the downtown, it proved inadequate in
addressing the rapid introduction of small
apartment houses into what had been relatively
stable neighborhoods that still maintained a
strong single-family character. At the behest of
council member Rick Cole and others, a committee
was established to study the problem.
Out of this committee came the “City of
Gardens” zoning plan, developed by architects
Christopher Alexander, Daniel Solomon, and
Phoebe Wall Wilson. Using zoning to regulate
design, the plan sought to preserve neighborhood
open space by requiring courtyards,
greater setbacks and underground parking for
apartment buildings. The ideas were based on
a careful examination of existing Pasadena
building types, especially the bungalow court.
These piecemeal planning efforts failed to
solve the central issue, which was unprecedented
growth fueled by the real estate boom of the
late 1980s. By the end of this period, many
Pasadenans had had enough of demolition, tall
buildings, “mansionization” and destruction of
the historic downtown and the neighborhoods.
Citizens organized to oppose growth by putting
an initiative on the ballot that became known as
the Growth Management Initiative. Pasadena
Residents in Defense of the Environment
(PRIDE) was led by architect and activist
Michael Salazar. The organization tapped into
the deep feelings of many Pasadenans that their
familiar, high-quality environment was being
destroyed before their eyes. When the PRIDE
initiative passed, city bureaucrats were faced
with implementing the broadly-written, but
forceful initiative, a process that took over a year.
The 1983 election to the City Council of former
Blair High activist Rick Cole marked a sea
change in Pasadena politics. Knocking on every
door in his north central district, the proudly
progressive Cole, still in his 20s, stunned establishment
incumbent Stephen Acker and went on
to three terms on the council and later service as
city manager of Azusa. Cole’s career was highlighted
by an intense focus on planning issues,
including the landmark early 1990s version of
the General Plan, which for the first time brought
thousands of Pasadenans into the process at
mammoth, hands-on community meetings.
The construction of the Pasadena Art
Museum at Carmelita left the Grace Nicholson

Building vacant, until a group of visionary
Pasadena citizens formed the Pacificulture
Foundation in the 1970s and used the building
for a museum devoted exclusively to Asian art.
At the behest of Lennox Tierney, a scholar of
Asian art, and with the support of John and
Barbara Crowley, Violet and Willard Graham,
Francis Ching, Frank and Nancy Wheat, Irene
Choi, and Sofia Adamson, the Pacific-Asia
Museum struggled through the 1970s. With the
hiring of a skilled director, David Kamansky, the
museum has found its footing and has the distinction
of being the only museum devoted to
Asian art on the West Coast. In a happy accident,
Pasadena’s version of a Chinese temple
became once again a home for Asian art.
The Pasadena Art Museum, however, was
overwhelmed by the expenses of its new building
and began to falter amid mounting debts.
Despite shows of national importance, innovative
art education programs, and the popular
California Design exhibitions, the museum
could not continue to operate. In 1974, wealthy
businessman and art collector Norton Simon
took control of the museum board, renaming
the museum the Norton Simon Museum of Art
and installing his own collection of celebrated
great masters, creating a different but equally
important museum for Pasadena.
Despite the demise of the Pasadena Art
Museum, the Pasadena Art Alliance, a group of
its supporters, continued to produce exhibits
for enthusiasts of contemporary art in
Pasadena. Starting at the Baxter Art Gallery at
Caltech, they presented a number of exhibits,
including one of Caltech’s architecture and
another on architect Myron Hunt. When
Baxter Gallery was forced to close, the group
with director Jay Belloli opened the Armory
Center for the Arts in Old Pasadena. With the
help of the city, which owned the building, the
1933 drill hall was converted into a fine space
for exhibitions and classes.
Another institution, Art Center College of
Design, which opened in 1976 in its landmark
International Style building by Craig Ellwood
in the Linda Vista hills, brought a major educational
institution devoted to commercial and
industrial design to the city, further enriching
Pasadena’s artistic life. For a time, the college
maintained a gallery in Old Pasadena, carrying
on the arts tradition of the area. Art Center
now plans to expand and to begin offering a
wider range of programs, including fine arts.
The Pasadena Playhouse also has experienced
a renewal. Closed for a number of years, with the
building steadily deteriorating, the Playhouse
stood as a stark reminder of Pasadena’s cultural
decline. Finally, however, the City stepped in to
rescue the building, eventually negotiating with a
developer to restore the building and begin operating
it as a theater. The City also invested in
developing a plan for the historic Playhouse
District to encourage restoration of historic
buildings in the area and compatible new development.
Although the Playhouse initially shied
away from the classics and the avant-garde plays
of its tradition, presenting mostly tried and true
commercially successful pieces, its programming
has become more adventuresome in the late
1990s, and it has become a welcome asset in a
metropolitan region where actors, playwrights
and theater enthusiasts abound.
The Pasadena Historical Society, founded in
1924, finally found a home in 1970, when the
Paloheimo family donated their estate on North
Orange Grove to the group. Now known as the
Pasadena Historical Museum, the society has
opened the family home, the Fenyes Mansion,
for tours and operates a research library and
archives devoted to Pasadena’s history.
✧
Above: Richard Feynman, winner of the
Nobel Prize in physics in 1965, proudly
displays two grapefruit from his own tree in
Altadena.
Below: This Old Pasadena restaurant and
courtyard were adapted from a former
Texaco filling station.
COURTESY OF THE PASADENA VISITORS AND
CONVENTION BUREAU
CHAPTER VIII
99

✧
Above: JPL’s Rover photographed the
landscape of Mars after landing on
July 4, 1997.
Below: Dr. William Pickering, director of
JPL, standing with Explorer, the first U.S.
satellite to be launched in space into
January 1958.
HISTORIC PASADENA
100
The long tradition of the Pasadena
Symphony, organized in 1928, continues under
the baton of conductor Jorge Mester.
Performing in the newly restored Civic
Auditorium, the Symphony presents eight concerts
a season and is now rated among the top
orchestras of smaller cities in the country. The
opening in 1974 of Ambassador Auditorium on
the Ambassador College campus made
Pasadena an important musical center for the
entire region. Sponsored by the Ambassador
Cultural Foundation, the auditorium hosted
internationally renowned musicians in recital.
The intimate hall provided an excellent setting
for solo recitals and chamber orchestra music,
as well as bluegrass and jazz concerts.
Unfortunately, the Ambassador Foundation
experienced financial problems, forcing it to
close the auditorium and put the campus up for
sale. The fate of the property, its many historic
buildings and the auditorium, is not yet clear.
Earth and space dominated the news from
Pasadena’s leading scientific institutions,
Caltech and JPL, in the last quarter century. A
series of earthquakes in Southern California,
beginning with the Whittier earthquake in
1987, focused public attention on California’s
seismic activity. Long the world’s leading center
of seismic research, Caltech became the center
of media attention with each succeeding temblor.
The discovery of many new faults and the
experience of different types of quakes, particularly
the upthrusting Northridge earthquake,
taught scientists and engineers a great deal
about what to expect and how to improve
building safety. Despite the severity of some of
the quakes, especially the Northridge quake,
there was relatively little loss of life, and
Pasadena itself, except for damage to a number
of residential chimneys, the loss of one brick
building in Old Pasadena (1987), and the
knocking askew of the finial atop the City Hall
dome, emerged relatively unscathed.
Caltech’s satellite laboratory, JPL, participated
in several notable successes in NASA’s space
program in the 1980s and 1990s. Most spectacular
was the Mars Pathfinder mission,
which saw the landing of Rover, a robot on
wheels with a camera and extendable arms, in
the summer of 1997. Watched on television
worldwide, the small machine moved about
the surface of the planet, took photographs
and tested soil and rock samples, all the while
transmitting scientific information to its monitors
on earth. JPL scientists were overjoyed at
the success of the mission, since Rover had
been built at the lab.
In the late 1990s Caltech inaugurated a new
era with the installation of Dr. David Baltimore
as president. A molecular biologist and 1975
Nobelist in medicine, Dr. Baltimore began at
once to put new emphasis on research in the
biological sciences. While Caltech has had a
long tradition of important research in biology,
starting with the hiring of genetics researcher
Thomas Hunt Morgan in the early part of the
century, the Institute has traditionally been better
known for its work in physics.
Advances in physics continued to earn
Caltech additional Nobel Prizes in the 1980s
and 1990s, when Kenneth Wilson won in
1982, William A. Fowler in 1983 and David
Osheroff in 1996. Professor Rudy Marcus
won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1992,
and in 1997 Robert Merton was honored
with the first Nobel ever in economics for a
Caltecher. In 1981, however, Caltech professor
Roger W. Sperry followed in the footsteps
of George Beadle and Max Delbruck by winning
the Nobel Prize in medicine for his

pioneering split-brain research. Sperry’s work
was an important step on the way to greater
understanding of the brain, and, by the latter
part of the century, scientific attention had
turned to biology, especially research into the
brain and consciousness, as well as into
unlocking the secrets of genes. Caltech faculty
member Edward B. Lewis won a Nobel in
medicine in 1995 and, under Baltimore’s
leadership, Caltech is pushing forward in
these new fields.
As a community Pasadena has changed
much over the years. Its development from an
“aristocratic little colony” of orange growers
into a major resort and then into one of
America’s most desirable residential cities still
influences life in Pasadena today. The standards
of excellence and the cultural legacy of
the past have become part of Pasadena’s heritage,
reflected in its architecture, museums,
scientific and educational institutions, and
general quality of life.
In the past quarter century, Pasadena, like
much of greater Los Angeles, has also become
a diverse multi-cultural community, absorbing
new immigrants from Asia, Mexico and
Central America, the Middle East and the former
Soviet Union. These new immigrants
join members of their groups who are already
long-time Pasadenans, enriching the community
with new traditions. Paradoxically, the
revival of tradition is in Pasadena a progressive
movement. As Pasadena moves into the
new millenium, the recent changes in its city
government, the revival of its cosmopolitan
and diverse cultural traditions, and its leadership
in science and technology will serve it
well in facing the challenges of the future.
✧
Plaza Las Fuentes.
CHAPTER VIII
101

HISTORIC PASADENA
102

PASADENA’S ARCHITECTURE
The development of residential architecture in Southern California has been spontaneous….
In a city the size of Pasadena… there is always an unconscious interchange of ideas, resulting from a
healthy rivalry which naturally prevails. The resulting evolution in artistic design has developed
certain [distinct] types of buildings…. It must be borne in mind also that there has been, and is, a larger
proportion of educated architects in this locality than in any other community which has come under my
observation…. It is due to this fact that California, and especially Southern California, has experienced
a greater progress in the design of private houses than any other part of our country.
—Peter B. Wight, 1920
Chicago architect and critic Peter B. Wight spent several winters in Pasadena before moving here
in the late teens. He correctly observed what the advantage of hindsight clearly tells us, that
Pasadena has an extraordinary collection of fine residential architecture, perhaps greater than any
other city in the country. World-renowned for the works of Greene & Greene and the many fine
examples, large and small, of the California Craftsman style, Pasadena was also the center for the
distinctive California versions of the major revival styles of the 1920s, especially the California
Mediterranean. Santa Barbara may have more examples of the California Mediterranean, Oak Park
its marvelous collection of Prairie Style buildings, and Berkeley its unusual mix of the rustic and
the sophisticated in architecture, but Pasadena alone experienced a continuous span of thirty years
from 1900 to 1930 which produced an astounding number of buildings of a consistently high level
of quality. The concentration of gifted architects, fine craftsmen, and interested and interesting
clients produced this outstanding legacy. The consequences are, however, that Pasadena has little
to show of the modern era, since the city was virtually built out by 1930.
Even before 1900, Pasadena established a reputation for its architecture. Pasadena was only a
rude village of wooden buildings and dusty streets when the 29 year old Frederick Louis Roehrig
(1857-1948) arrived in 1886. Educated at Cornell University, one of the leading architectural
schools of the day, Roehrig settled in Pasadena, marking the beginning of Pasadena’s long tradition
of sophisticated resident architects. His career would span forty years and produce some of the
most varied designs of any Pasadena architect before or since.
At the time, the most notable construction project in town was the building of the Raymond
Hotel, completed and opened in 1886. Designed in the Second Empire style by San Francisco
architect J. B. Lippincott, the massive wooden building with its tall mansard roofs dominated the
landscape for miles around. Its destruction by fire in 1895 left Pasadena with no other notable
building in the style that was already out of fashion in the East when it was built. Until the turn of
the century, West Coast architects would continue to ape Eastern styles. In Pasadena, this usually
occurred with a time lag of about ten years, hence the already outdated style of the Raymond.
Nearby, located outside town in the San Rafael hills, Roehrig certainly visited the Church of the
Angels, designed by English architect Arthur Edmund Street and adapted for the site by Ernest A.
Coxhead (1863-1933), an English-born architect who designed many Episcopal churches in
California. It was built in 1889 by Mrs. Campbell-Johnston as a memorial to her husband,
Alexander, who died at their ranch in 1888. The widow had traveled to England to obtain the
plans, which were modeled on a parish church in Dorking. The church still remains on Avenue 64
south of La Loma Road, one of the few stone buildings in Pasadena.
An older, more experienced architect already practicing in Pasadena was Hamilton (Harry)
Ridgway, who had no architectural education but had come up through the building trades in his
native Canada, the Midwestern states, Colorado, Nevada, and San Francisco before arriving in
Pasadena in 1878. Ridgway established a planing mill together with Clinton B. Ripley and the two,
✧
Built as a wedding gift in 1927 by Lily
Busch for her granddaughter, Mrs. Sidney
Berg, this Oak Knoll house by Wallace Neff
demonstrates the architect’s sophisticated
adaptation of the Italian villa and his love
of circular forms. The dramatic oval
entrance hall and curved stairway are
echoed in the circular form of the motor
court at the front entrance.
(Photographer: Rolland W. Lee)
ARCHITECTURE
103

✧
Above: The buildings of architect Frederick
L. Roehrig were key contributions to the
look of Pasadena between the late 1880s
and 1920. Although Roehrig continued to
work after 1920, he never again received
the big commissions of his early career.
Top, right: Ernest Coxhead’s Church of the
Angels remains as the rock masonry
building in Pasadena.
Below: William Stanton commissioned
architect Frederick Roehrig in the 1890s
to design this Shingle Style mansion for a
spectacular site atop a knoll known as
Grace Hill. Although damaged by fire
in the 1970s, the house still stands.
HISTORIC PASADENA
104
both practicing architects and builders, profited
in the boom of the 1880s, when two- and
three-story brick buildings went up in the
downtown, and Queen Anne mansions sprouted
in the landscape. Ridgway’s most notable
building, the Pasadena Public Library (1890),
was a massive Richardsonian Romanesque
stone structure, which clearly exemplified the
new town’s commitment to culture and learning.
Ridgway’s earliest building, the Central
School of 1878, and major commercial buildings
such as Lawson D. Hollingsworth’s store
(1883), the Carlton Hotel (1886), the Wooster
Block (1887), the Masonic Temple Block
(1887), the First National Bank as well as all six
of the early public schools were the dominant
buildings of early Pasadena. Major residences,
like the McPherson house on Markham Place,
the Lukens house, and Hillmont, a house built
for storekeeper Barney Williams, still survive.
These houses were ostentatious mansions in
the popular Queen Anne style. Their elaborate
band-sawn trim and turned posts, varied shingle
shapes applied in highly-textured patterns,
corbelled chimneys and lacy iron fences and
cresting, extensive porches and turrets
expressed the extravagance of the boom period
and of the newly rich.
During the latter part of the century there
was enough work for more than one first-rate
architect, and the young Roehrig obtained
important commissions, such as the La Solana
Inn on Locke-Haven just off Orange Grove
and houses in Altadena for Colonel Green,
owner of the Green Hotel and for Andrew
McNally, of Rand-McNally in Chicago. The
McNally house is a rare example of the
Shingle Style, a popular style for resort houses
in New England. Besides the McNally
house and a scattering of Shingle Style houses
on Bellefontaine, St. John Avenue and a few
along South Grand Avenue by architect
Seymour Locke, virtually nothing remains of
that popular resort era style in Pasadena.
Just seven years after Roehrig’s arrival, in
1893, two young brothers arrived from
Boston to join their parents who had moved
to Pasadena for their health. Born in St. Louis,
Charles (1868-1957) and Henry Greene
(1870-1954), who had studied architecture at
MIT, would bring a strong creative influence
to Pasadena architecture. Their early work,
such as the mansion “Torrington Place”
(1895) for James Swan, reflected the Shingle
Style they were familiar with from New
England and demonstrated their ability to
attract and carry out major commissions.
By the turn of the century, Pasadena’s
reputation as a fine residential city had been
firmly established. It was only natural that
artists, writers, designers, and architects
should be attracted to Pasadena, where they
could also expect to find wealthy patrons.
While their patrons lived above, on the bluff
along Orange Grove Avenue, the artists

congregated below, on the slopes of the Arroyo
Seco. This colony became a West Coast center
of the burgeoning American Arts and Crafts
movement, termed the “Arroyo culture” by
architectural historian Robert Winter.
With the establishment of degree programs
at major universities, architecture was
becoming a recognized profession by the
turn of the century. Pasadena’s Roehrig
gained further prominence as a founding
member of California’s State Board of
Architecture in 1901. In 1899, he had
designed a new type of resort home on
Orange Grove Avenue. Built for Arthur
Fleming, this two-story unpainted Swiss
chalet must have attracted attention; its
prominence surely inspired chalet elements
in later California Craftsman houses, such as
the Garfield house by the Greene brothers in
1904. Roehrig’s California Craftsman masterpiece,
however, was the Eddy House located
on California Street near Euclid (1905). The
client, Arthur Jerome Eddy, wrote extensively
about the house and credits himself with
the design and even a hand in some of the
plasterwork. However, Roehrig’s name on
the plans belies at least part of Eddy’s tale.
The U-shaped plan around a patio was a
more sophisticated version of the Greenes’
Bandini House. Rough-sawn redwood timbers
and redwood paneling characterized the
interiors, but the entire exterior was clad in
concrete, and the roof was of Mission tile.
Photographs and descriptions of the house
indicate the built-in cabinetry, hand-made
hardware, massive fireplaces and leadedglass
windows typical of the best California
Craftsman houses. Because both the Fleming
House and the Eddy House have been
demolished, Roehrig’s achievements and
influence are less apparent today.
The development of Oak Knoll, beginning
in 1905, created a new neighborhood for the
wealthy to rival the Orange Grove district. A
park-like area of gentle slopes and wooded
canyons dotted by majestic oak trees, Oak
Knoll was subdivided by Henry Huntington,
who had purchased San Marino, the Shorb
ranch, in 1903, later transforming it into the
estate now known as the Huntington Library
and Art Gallery.
Myron Hunt (1868-1952) was Henry
Huntington’s architect. Hunt had come from
Chicago because of his wife’s health. Trained
at MIT and well-traveled in Europe, Hunt had
shared an office in Chicago with a group of
Prairie School architects, including Frank
Lloyd Wright. When he arrived in Pasadena in
1903, he already had an established reputation,
and, to underline it, he opened an office
in Los Angeles rather than in Pasadena. The
following year Hunt associated with Elmer
Grey (1871-1963), a gifted designer, who had
no formal training but had had a successful
residential practice in the Midwest. Henry
Huntington had Hunt & Grey design two
✧
Above: Pasadena’s Public Library, completed
in 1890, was a massive stone pile in the
then-popular Richardsonian Romanesque
style, so-called because of its association
with Boston architect, Henry H. Richardson.
(Photographer: William Henry Hill)
Below: When the Raymond Hotel
went up in 1886, it was the largest
building for miles around.
ARCHITECTURE
105

✧
Top: The firm of Marston Van Pelt &
Maybury moved into its newly-built office
building on South Euclid in the heart of
downtown Pasadena in the 1920s. The
building, reminiscent of a Tuscan town
hall, was demolished to make way for the
Plaza Pasadena.
Below: This Pasadena bungalow displays
typical bungalow features, including a
porch, pergola, prominent chimney,
shingle siding, casement windows and
the use of local Arroyo stone in the
chimney, porch piers, foundation and
edging of the driveway.
HISTORIC PASADENA
106
houses in Oak Knoll for his only son,
Howard, and for his daughter, Mrs. Gilbert
Perkins. These houses offered the possibility
of life close to nature, with terraces and large
sleeping porches opening toward the gardens
and vistas of mountains, canyons and sea.
Hunt & Grey became Huntington’s official
architects, designing his own mansion (now
the Art Gallery) and the library building for
Huntington’s collection of rare books.
At the same time that Hunt was working
for the wealthy but essentially conservative
railroad magnate, the Greene brothers had
received commissions from several more
imaginative and daring clients. Their 1903
rustic board and batten ranch house for
Arturo Bandini, an original Californio, with
the stunning simplicity of its U-shaped oneroom-deep
courtyard plan, in which circulation
is along outdoor roofed galleries (“corredors”)
was the best example of the integration
of indoor and outdoor spaces of this period in
California architecture. At the same time, the
Greenes began to introduce Oriental elements
already used in the Tichenor house in Long
Beach into their Pasadena designs, most
notably in the Robinson house overlooking
the Arroyo.
After a succession of many residential commissions,
large and small, the Greenes
embarked in 1907 on their masterpiece in Oak
Knoll for lumber baron, Robert R. Blacker, a
commission that they inherited from Hunt &
Grey. The Blacker House and the somewhat
later Gamble House on the Arroyo, for the
soap manufacturers from Cincinnati, marked
the high point of the Greenes’ California
Craftsman style. In these two houses, particularly,
they achieved a subtle fusion of the
Eastern Shingle Style, Japanese and Swiss elements,
the California ranch house, and the
architecture of rustic mountain camps. The
extensive garden of the Blacker House, landscaped
in Japanese style by Charles Greene,
lent that house an especially strong Oriental
character. Several smaller simpler chalet-like
houses, including Charles Greene’s own
house, clustered on the bluff of the Arroyo
behind rustic stone walls, earning that neighborhood
the name “Little Switzerland.”
Working at the same time in Pasadena were
a number of other architects and designers.
Louis B. Easton (1864-1921), who had
migrated to California in 1902 with his family,
was married to Honor Hubbard, sister of
Arts and Crafts proponent Elbert Hubbard,
and had taught manual arts in Illinois. A
member of the same generation as Coxhead,
Bernard Maybeck, somewhat younger than
Roehrig but a few years older than the
Greenes, Easton was not a trained architect.
His houses reflected his hands-on approach.
Extraordinarily simple and rustic, they nevertheless
featured carefully wrought hand-made
hinges and door latches, and, since the structure
was exposed on the interior, fine clear
redwood boards and structural members.
Easton worked on the houses himself, along
with his carpenters; his drawings were

minimal, the details of the design evolving as
the house went up. Easton admired the work
of the Greene brothers. His own work was
admired in turn by other architects; he
designed and built a beach house for Myron
Hunt, and his work was published in national
as well as local publications.
Younger architects working in Pasadena in
the Craftsman tradition included the
Heineman brothers, Arthur and Alfred
(1882-1974), and Sylvanus Marston (1881-
1946), who had grown up in Pasadena. Like
Easton and Grey, the Heinemans were not
professionally trained as architects. Starting
out as developers and builders, they began
designing their own houses with Alfred as the
principal designer and Arthur taking care of
the business side of the firm. They designed
everything from mansions, such as the
Hindry House (1910) in Prospect Park, to
pattern-book bungalows. They are most
remembered for their bungalow court, Bowen
Court (1910-1912), on Villa Street. Unlike
many of the latter courts, laid out with
monotonous symmetry, the cottages in
Bowen Court were turned every which way,
with varied entrance approaches, porch
designs, window treatments and siding. This
not only gave the court the look of a small
village street, it also promoted the privacy of
the residents.
An extension of the bungalow idea, the
bungalow court first appeared in Pasadena
around 1910. Individual dwellings were
grouped on one lot, with the bungalows built
along both sides of a central grassy court, typically
bisected by a walkway giving access to
all the units. Pasadena’s first bungalow court,
St. Francis Court on Colorado Street, was
designed by Sylvanus Marston.
Marston had grown up in Pasadena where
his family had a large house and orange grove
south of California Street. A graduate of
Pomona College with an architecture degree
from Cornell, Marston began his career when
the Craftsman style still held sway. His most
memorable buildings, however, date from the
1920s, when, in partnership with Edgar
Maybury and Garrett Van Pelt, he produced
refined Italian villas (the Everett House,
1928), elegant French manors (the Staats
House, 1926), and rambling Andalusian farm
houses (the Peters House, 1923). He also
left a legacy of handsome commercial and
public buildings, including the Grace
Nicholson Building, the Pasadena Athletic
Club and the William Wilson Building in the
Civic Center, that defined the character of
downtown Pasadena.
While the well-educated architects generally
designed for the rich or sophisticated,
other architects and builders produced the
vast majority of Pasadena’s bungalows.
✧
Above: Local architect Joseph J. Blick
designed Pasadena’s moumental Scottish
Rite Temple in the mid 1920s.
(Photographer: Harold A. Parker)
Bottom, left: Students of architecture can
find examples of almost all styles of
architecture in Pasadena, including this rare
fan vaulting in the ceiling of the First
Methodist Church.
Architect: Thomas P. Barber.
(Photographer: Luckhaus & Hoops)
ARCHITECTURE
107

✧
Frank Lloyd Wright’s first concrete block
house, “La Miniatura,” was built for
Pasadena rare book dealer Alice Millard
in 1924.
HISTORIC PASADENA
108
Writing in 1908, Charles F. Holder noted that
Pasadena suffered from its reputation of being
only a home for the wealthy. Although
Pasadena had a great number of ostentatious
mansions, it had a greater number of small
but strikingly artistic homes and bungalows,
which, Holder wrote, were “the mecca of visiting
architects.” Articles on Pasadena houses
in many national magazines and in “bungalow
books” (catalogues of bungalow plans),
extended the city’s architectural influence
beyond Pasadena.
The design of these bungalows was a peculiarly
regional one, based on local materials,
but at times reminiscent of Swiss,
Scandinavian, English cottage, or Japanese
prototypes. The California houses were
almost always clad in stained shakes or shingles.
Most bungalows, constructed of
California redwood, rested on a foundation of
boulders gathered from the nearby Arroyo
Seco. Roofs of the one-story houses were shallow-pitched,
almost horizontal gables, with
broad overhanging eaves supported by
exposed and extended rafters. Sturdy square
posts and tie beams supported the porch
roofs, and beam ends often protruded below
the gable, emphasizing the structural honesty
of the design. Bands of vertical casement windows
allowed light into the interior.
Chimneys were prominent on the exterior and
were typically of Arroyo stone.
The focal point of the interior was the
hearth, sometimes flanked by built-in seats to
make a cozy inglenook fireplace. Handcrafted
andirons and fireplace implements were set
off by the earthtone tiles or brick of the hearth
and fireplace surround. Woodwork was simple
but extensive: beamed ceilings, wainscoting,
plate rails, built-in buffets, window seats,
and benches of oak or redwood lent warmth
to the interior. Both furniture and woodwork
were finished in a soft matte finish; American
Indian and Oriental rugs were the preferred
floor coverings.
The integration of the house with the outdoors
was an important aspect of the design.
French doors often led out onto the porch,
and windows were arranged to take advantage
of garden views. The house was set in an informal
“natural or English” garden, creating “the
environment of a home, not a mere house.”
Often, a vine-covered pergola extended out
from the porch and even across the driveway
to form a porte-cochere. The entire design
emphasized harmony with nature, the low
ground-hugging lines and the integration of
the house with trees and plants creating a

California version of the Prairie style. Care was
taken to preserve the natural environment
when building. In the best designs, the house
was planned to conform to the site, saving the
fine old oaks, and taking advantage of uneven
sloping sites, rather than leveling and clearing.
The bungalow floor plan was also innovative.
Entrance halls were generally done away
with, and the guest entered into a spacious
living room, which opened directly into a
dining room and perhaps a study. This open
plan, made possible in Prairie Style houses
after the installation of central heating, was
even more natural in California, where hardly
any heat was required. The addition of a
courtyard or pergola-covered terrace and
expansive porches made even larger areas
available for entertaining.
Another feature of the bungalow plan was
the sleeping porch. Nearly every house had
one, and many of the larger ones had one for
each bedroom. Separate tenthouses with canvas
walls, originally designed for invalids,
also served as sleeping porches. Medical
experts of the time advocated living, or at
least sleeping, out-of-doors, for everyone, not
just respiratory sufferers.
The vogue for the Craftsman style ended
with the onset of World War I. While the bungalow
remained a feature of the architectural
landscape in the 1920s, it appeared no longer
as a rustic Craftsman bungalow. Instead it
took American Colonial, Spanish Colonial,
European cottage, or even Pueblo forms, providing
for the common man smaller versions
of the then-fashionable European-style villas
of the rich.
Like the developers of the Craftsman style
of the previous decades, Pasadena’s architects
in the 1920s were “more generally
artists” than in other parts of the country.
Wealthy clients allowed them to indulge
their artistic sense fully, and skilled builders
and craftsmen made realization of their
designs possible. Their contribution to architecture
was, like the Craftsman style, a
regional phenomenon called “Californian” in
its day and now referred to as California
Mediterranean. The new style borrowed
from Spanish and Italian forbears and also
made use of California traditions, elements
from the Anglo architecture of Monterey, the
Spanish Baroque of colonial Mexico, the
adobe of the Southwest, and the hacienda, or
ranch house, of early California settlers.
Architectural critics John Burchard and
Albert Bush-Brown, writing in 1961, called
the California Mediterranean style the best
American domestic architecture of its time:
The houses were charming and much more than
competent. Beginning with their cool and comfortable
patios, filled with moist air and rich
plants, they were consistently graceful and comfortable.
Simple exterior facades were formed
by broad, white stucco walls covered by lowpitched
tile roofs. Wrought-iron balconies,
sequestered views, varied vistas and luxuriant
foliage, created a wealth of textures, color,
✧
Above: The Raymond Theater (1921,
architect: Cyril Bennett) remains as
Pasadena’s only remnant of the days when
vaudeville and movies were presented
together. Unused for years, its future is
uncertain.
(Photographer: Frederick Martin)
Below: This elegant building designed by
Marston Van Pelt & Maybury in the late
1920s was in the shopping district
surrounding the Maryland Hotel. Long
hidden by “modern” false fronts, much of
the elaborate green-glazed Deco tile was
uncovered and restored in the 1990s.
(Photographer: Hiller)
ARCHITECTURE
109

✧
Above: Roehrig’s Scofield House (1906) is
an unusual example of the Prairie style
in Pasadena.
Below: The Craftsman living room focused
on the hearth, which often had built-in seats
next to it. Wood paneled walls lend
additional warmth to artist Jean
Mannheim’s house, built in 1909.
patterns of light and shade…. Outside of
[Frank Lloyd] Wright’s work no other American
architecture had comparable warmth….
Burchard and Bush-Brown merely echoed
the opinion of Thomas Talmadge, who wrote
in 1927 that “the palm for the best domestic
architecture in America [must] be transferred
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast.”
The two centers of the California
Mediterranean style were Pasadena and Santa
Barbara. Of the ten or so outstanding Southern
California architects of the day, eight of them
were generally based in Pasadena: Reginald D.
Johnson, Myron Hunt, Wallace Neff, Roland
Coate, Garrett Van Pelt, Sylvanus Marston,
Donald McMurray, and Gordon Kaufmann.
Born in a ranch house designed by Roehrig
in La Mirada, Wallace Neff (1895-1982) was
the grandson of Andrew McNally and had
enjoyed a gentleman’s education which
included a five-year sojourn in Europe with
his family before the outbreak of World War I.
Deciding to become an architect, he entered
MIT in 1915. He spent two years there, coming
under the influence of Ralph Adams
Cram, but he left in 1917 before finishing the
course of study. Neff was probably the most
innovative Pasadena architect working in the
California Mediterranean style. Neff’s houses
combined rustic surfaces and bold simple
forms with elegantly refined ironwork, sinuous
curves and fine detailing. Architect to the
stars, Neff had many famous clients, including
Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.
In Pasadena, one of his most interesting
houses, the Thorne House (1928), sited high in
the San Rafael hills, is built around a completely
enclosed courtyard. Its entrance is marked by
a curved and corbelled parapet of Moorish
ancestry, and tiles are used extensively throughout
the house to accentuate the Moorish theme.
HISTORIC PASADENA
110

Neff loved circular forms, and his houses are
famous for circular stairways and stair halls; one
house for a Busch granddaughter in Oak Knoll
has a semi-circular concave facade enclosing an
auto forecourt and a circular stairway in the
entry hall. Neff later achieved the ultimate circular
form in his unusual bubble houses, balloon-shaped
gunite houses designed for quick,
cheap, construction in developing countries.
His own bubble house, where he lived in later
years, still stands on South Los Robles Avenue
in Pasadena.
Reginald Johnson (1882-1952), the son of
the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles, was a
graduate of Williams College and MIT. He
worked in the office of Hunt & Grey and in
the Los Angeles office of Robert Farquhar and
also spent some time in Europe, before opening
his Pasadena office in 1912. Johnson
excelled at the understated forms of Italian
villas. A master at careful proportion and
informal massing, Johnson designed elegant
houses such as his own house on Lombardy
Road (1922) and the Tod Ford, Jr. House on
South Grand Avenue (1917). Outside
Pasadena he designed the Biltmore Hotel in
Santa Barbara (1927), and with his partners
Kaufmann and Coate, St. Paul’s Episcopal
Cathedral (1925) in downtown Los Angeles
and All Saints Church (1923-1925) in
Pasadena. Like Neff, Johnson confronted the
problem of designing inexpensive, quality
housing. He designed several housing projects,
including Harbor Hills in San Pedro
(1941), Baldwin Hills Village in Los Angeles
(1940-1942), and housing for Mexican workers
on South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena.
Johnson won an AIA gold medal for the best
small house of 1930.
Another 1920s innovator was Roland
Coate (1890-1950), whose 1925 Bixby House
in South Pasadena is credited with starting the
fashion for the Monterey Colonial Revival.
Coate’s work is best exemplified in the simple
Town Club (1925) on South Madison Avenue,
which looked forward to the California ranch
style houses so popular after World War II.
Although Coate is usually associated with the
style, the best example of Monterey Colonial
Revival in Pasadena is the Swift House (1927)
on Arroyo Boulevard, with its double balconies
overgrown with wisteria, designed by
Donald McMurray. McMurray’s career began
in the late 1920s, and the onset of the
Depression sharply limited his opportunities
for large commissions. Except for his elegant
Popenoe/Childs House (1938), copied after a
historic villa in Antigua, Guatemala, he made
his mark in small house designs, winning
architectural awards for at least three of his
small houses, including his own home on
California Terrace.
In partnership with Johnson and Coate for
a time in the l920s was Gordon Kaufmann
(1888-1949), an Englishman who had come
to Southern California via Canada because of
his wife’s health. Trained at the London
Polytechnic and in Germany, he worked in the
office of London architect A. W. S. Cross, as
well as in Germany. Kaufmann came of age
during the period when Sir Edwin Lutyens’
imaginative response to classicism dominated
the English architectural scene.
Kaufmann created some of the most
elegant buildings in the California
Mediterranean idiom, the most outstanding in
Pasadena being the Athenaeum and a dormitory
complex at Caltech (1929-1930).
Architectural historian Alson Clark likened
walking through this complex to “a stroll
✧
The H. L. Thompson House by Gordon
Kaufmann (1927) is a fine example of an
Italian villa. Across Lombardy Road is the
Osthoff House, Pasadena’s best example of
an Andalusian farm house. Together, the
two illustrate key elements of the Italian
and Spanish motifs that make up the
California Mediterranean style.
ARCHITECTURE
111

✧
Above: Designed in the late 1920s by Bennett
& Haskell, the Art Deco United Artists
Theater still stands, minus its tower, in the
Playhouse block on Colorado Boulevard.
Below: Designed by Donald Mc Murray
in 1938 for the Childs family, this courtyard
house replicates a house in Antigua,
Guatemala.
through a neighborhood in Florence.” Nearby
is Kaufmann’s classic H. L Thompson House
(1927), which Clark calls “an eighteenth century
villa on the Brenta.”
Besides the Caltech buildings, Kaufmann
also did the plan and most of the major buildings
at Scripps College in Claremont (1926).
Another important work was La Quinta, a
resort complex in the desert near Palm
Springs (1927). Kaufmann’s Mediterranean
buildings exhibit striking proportions and
masterful detailing, with exquisite wrought
iron and cast stone work and elaborately decorated
walls and ceilings. For Kaufmann, the
patio was a private space, secluded from the
street and the city, decorated and furnished to
be used as an outdoor room. He exploited its
drama to the fullest, lavishing detail on
paving, fountains, niches, plants, and tiles.
Like other architects, Kaufmann’s residential
practice languished during the
Depression. Unlike most of the others, however,
Kaufmann had the opportunity to exhibit
his design ability on a grandiose scale, as
the architect for Boulder Dam, done in the Art
Deco style, as well as Parker Dam, Grand
Coulee Dam, Keswick Dam, and Shasta Dam,
the latter a sleek International Style structure
from the late 1940s. Another large project was
the Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia (1934),
which gave architectural style to an often
merely utilitarian building type. He also is
credited with having a hand in the design of
the Pentagon building in Virginia.
The Caltech campus made its own contribution
to Pasadena architecture, combining a
model of campus planning and a distinctive
new style. At the behest of his good friend,
George Hale, East Coast architect Bertram
Goodhue, perhaps America’s most well-known
architect, created a campus plan for Caltech in
1916, a plan which followed to some extent an
earlier plan by Hunt & Grey. In 1921,
Goodhue’s first building, Bridge Hall of
Physics, was built, uniting in its highly original
design the simple lines of the early modern
movement and decorative elements reminiscent
of Spanish Baroque. Although Goodhue
died in 1924, his New York office carried out
the building of the two wings of the west campus
plan in accordance with his original
designs. East of Throop Hall, landscape architect
Florence Yoch designed the olive walk
leading to Kaufmann’s Athenaeum, and Beatrix
Farrand created the landscaping for Dabney
Court, a sheltered oasis on the campus.
Adding to its wealth of fine local architecture,
Pasadena has the distinction of having an
example of the work of another outsider,
Frank Lloyd Wright. One of his most important
buildings, La Miniatura, a house built of
pre-formed concrete blocks, the first of its
kind attempted by Wright, was built in 1924
for Alice Millard, a dealer in rare books, who
HISTORIC PASADENA
112

had commissioned a house from Wright in
Chicago. La Miniatura is sited on a small
wooded ravine in the Prospect Park district. Its
distinctive ornamental blocks, cubic massing,
and vertical slit windows, stand in stark contrast
to the shingled Craftsman and stuccoed
Mediterranean houses surrounding it. Wright’s
Pasadena work was the most successful of several
such houses that he built in Los Angeles.
Another less well-known outsider, Irving
Gill (1870-1936) of San Diego, is represented
by a house also built in Pasadena in 1924, the
Little Cloister on North Oakland Avenue. Gill
designed the house as a duplex for Kate
Crane Gartz, wealthy social activist, whose
Altadena house, the Cloisters, lent its name
to the project. A pioneer in tilt-slab concrete
construction, Gill revived Mission and adobe
forms while also prefiguring the International
Style with his cubic forms in white plaster
and his clean interiors, devoid of woodwork
or ornament.
Although Modernist works in Pasadena
are few, there are several choice examples. In
1955, Richard Neutra designed an exquisitely
planned small house for Constance
Perkins, professor of art history at Occidental
College. Notable for its economical use of
space, its siting atop a small ridge in the San
Rafael hills, and its indoor-outdoor ornamental
pool, the house is now owned by the
Huntington Library and used as guest quarters
for resident scholars.
Craig Ellwood’s dramatic Art Center
College of Design building in the Linda Vista
hills is a significant example of the
International Style. Linda Vista, which developed
primarily after World War II, is also
home to several outstanding contemporary
residences designed by local resident architects
Pulliam & Matthews and Buff &
Hensman. South Pasadena-based Whitney
Smith of Smith & Williams, a designer of two
of the famed Case Study Houses of the 1950s,
also has contributed a number of unusual
small commercial and institutional buildings
and distinctive residences to Pasadena’s architectural
landscape.
In recent years, major architects have once
again received commissions in Pasadena.
Besides Robert Stern’s Police Building, the
firm of Moore Ruble Yudell was responsible
for the Plaza las Fuentes, another major contribution
to the Civic Center. The same firm
has recently completed a dormitory complex
at Caltech, Avery House, named for
Pasadenan Stanton Avery. And to show that
Pasadena is indeed up to date, the Norton
Simon Museum recently commissioned celebrated
architect of the 1990s, Frank Gehry, to
redesign its spaces. Pasadena has arrived!
Despite the great interest in Pasadena’s
architecture, and the international and national
attention it receives, local efforts to preserve
the legacy are not always successful. Although
Pasadena Heritage’s annual Craftsman weekend
in the fall draws fans of the style from
across the United States and even from
Europe, much of the city remains unsurveyed
and unrecorded. Especially neglected are the
buildings of the 1920s, which garnered architectural
prizes and national recognition in
their time. Substantial houses and commercial
and civic buildings are well-known, but the
smaller houses and buildings, which often
exhibit designs and details just as worthy as
the larger buildings, often go unrecognized.
And as we all learned in the 1980s, even a
building as revered as the Blacker House by
Greene & Greene can be stripped of its architectural
details by a greedy owner. The restoration
of the Blacker House in the 1990s by a
new, sympathetic owner was an important step
forward. However, the struggle over the
preservation of Pasadena’s great architectural
legacy remains a never-ending one.
✧
The Blacker House is widely acknowledged
to be the Greenes’ masterpiece.
ARCHITECTURE
113

HISTORIC PASADENA
114

PASADENA’S GARDENS AND PARKS
The necessarily ephemeral nature of the art of garden-making is its most alluring charm. Just as an
individual flower, so the garden blooms, fades, and if not renewed, becomes a memory. But the glory of
the garden is renewed in successive seasons, it matures. In proportion as it has been well-conceived and
intelligently nourished, its character mellows year by year. Its childhood is a promise; its youth is a glory;
its maturity is a thing of restfulness; its old age a study guide for generations to follow.
—Myron Hunt, 1931.
The pursuit of historic gardens is always a vain one, for gardens are ever-changing and are even
more subject to the whims of new owners than are houses. Pasadena, however, is blessed with “historic
gardens,” meaning gardens that have indeed changed in their details but have maintained
their overall design scheme. One of the reasons for this is the large number of notable gardens that
have been created in the Pasadena area. When Winifred Starr Dobyns published her book,
California Gardens, in 1931, the majority of the gardens pictured were in and around Pasadena,
with Santa Barbara and Montecito gardens in second place. That Dobyns lived in Pasadena certainly
had much to do with this. Nevertheless, the peculiar combination of a favorable climate, a
certain degree of prosperity, and a cosmopolitan cultural life allowed the art of landscape architecture
to flourish, particularly during the 1920s and later.
Pasadena’s setting in the fertile San Gabriel Valley and its abundant water supply ensured not
only the success of its groves and vineyards but also the success of its gardens. Moreover, natural
features, especially the Arroyo and the wooded canyons along the southern edge of the town, as
well as the opportunities for spectacular vistas of the mountains and the ocean, were assets that
were exploited over and over again by successive generations of garden designers.
In the United States the earliest designed landscapes were cemeteries, beginning with Mt.
Auburn Cemetery (1831) near Boston. Later the notion of designed landscapes was largely confined
to great estates and to public parks, and these were based on the English tradition of the carefully
contrived “natural” landscape. In most cases the large Victorian house was surrounded by a
collection of plants and trees, assembled to be viewed as individual horticultural wonders, like a
collection of stamps or rocks, with little attention to effects that could be achieved by views, massing,
shapes, textures, or the role of paths, hedges, fences, gates, pergolas, etc. At the end of the
nineteenth century, however, Americans became aware of other traditions of garden design, especially
the French, Italian and Japanese. In California, the old mission gardens, which predated the
designed cemeteries of the East, gave Californians access to even older Spanish and Moorish traditions
ideally suited to the climate.
At about the same time, the profession of landscape architecture had its beginnings with the
establishment of a degree program at Harvard University under the direction of Frederick Law
Olmsted, the dean of American landscape architects who himself had no official training in the profession.
Landscape architecture grew up somewhat later than the profession of architecture and still
suffers from a secondary position in the minds of many clients. In California, however, the profession
has enjoyed considerable respect and has its largest number of practitioners.
Pasadena’s earliest gardens, conceived by the settlers themselves and based on ideas they
brought with them, were combinations of the practical with the ornamental. Daniel Berry fantasized
about his own plot on Orange Grove Avenue in 1874:
✧
Landscape architect A. E. Hanson
designed the Charles Young garden in 1929
to complement the Andalusian-style house
by George Washington Smith. Although the
garden has been subdivided, the area
of the rose garden survived intact and has
been restored and maintained by the
current owners.
My cabin is supposed to be in the middle of a curved avenue of orange trees, a carriage road. A foot path
curves up to the fountain & thence up to the house…. A circular road leads to the barn and chickenry.—
The foot path is hedged with lime bushes.—-The boulevard planted with olive and Pepper trees. Peaches,
GARDENS
115

✧
Part of the 1920s Civic Center plan was this
plan for Carmelita, showing the Pasadena
Art Institute buildings set amid gardens and
the flagpole marking the western entrance
to the city.
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF PASADENA.
HISTORIC PASADENA
116
apples, &c in circle behind the House. Pumkin
Pies on back end of lot. Corn ditto. Potatoes
North of house. Raisins on south side of house.
Berry’s plot was a combination of the practical
and the ornamental, carefully avoiding
the wine grapes of Pasadena’s neighbors, Rose
and Wilson. Across the street from Berry,
Jeanne Carr laid out her garden in 1877,
standing on a buckboard with notebook in
hand. A writer and horticulturalist, she was
interested in scientific experiment. She planted
many varieties of raisin grapes, oranges,
limes and lemons; thirty varieties of apples, as
well as apricots, peaches, pears, plums;
English walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pecans
and chestnuts, as well as strawberries, raspberries
and blackberries, all spread out in
orderly rows on her forty-four acres, which
extended on the north side of Colorado from
Orange Grove to Fair Oaks. Her experiments
taught later gardeners which plants were best
suited to the climate both for agricultural production
and ornamental use.
A great lover of trees, she planted pines first
of all, to remind her of her Vermont childhood,
and to listen to them “whisper” to her while she
worked. The Spanish word carmel (grove)
became Carmelita (little grove), an appropriate
title for her magnificent collection of trees and
plants. Included were such exotics as deodars
from the Himalayas, cedars of Lebanon, eucalyptus
and acacia from Australia, palms and
pines from many lands, as well as all the species
of coniferous trees of the Pacific Coast. Friends
from all over the world sent or brought
her seeds or seedlings to add to her collection,
and John Muir was one of those
who contributed to her stock. Jeanne
Carr was the famous naturalist’s mentor,
and the two carried on a lively correspondence
until her death in 1903.
As the land grew more valuable,
Carr sold off portions of her property,
until finally only the hilltop remained
at the northeast corner of Orange
Grove and Colorado. In the 1890s
the property changed hands, and the
new owners, the Simeon Reeds, built
a Shingle Style house in keeping
with the times. So legendary were the
trees and plants of the garden, however, that
many of these remained to ornament
Carmelita Park when the land was later
acquired by the city in the 1920s. Only with
the building of the Pasadena Art Museum in
the 1960s did all of these towering specimen
trees disappear.
Down the street from Carmelita was Glen
Rosa, the estate of Thomas Nelmes, a wealthy
Scottish-born tea merchant from London.
Nelmes’ thirty acres extended from California
north to Palmetto and west into the bottom
of the Arroyo. Unlike the other properties in
town, Glen Rosa was planted primarily as an
ornamental garden. Its design harked back to
a long tradition of the garden as a sacred
place, a place for meditation and revelation.
The garden was filled with unusual and
whimsical ornamental devices borrowed from
European landscape traditions and representing
occult signs. A cypress bower in the
shape of a triangle with three rustic triangular-shaped
chairs marked the entrance to the
property on Orange Grove. Other cypress
bowers were planted and trimmed in the
shapes of a square, an oval, a spiral, and a circle.
The spiral hedge, 156 feet in circumference,
was only three feet high at its outer
edge and rose to nine feet at the center, where
it measured ninety feet in circumference. The
experience of walking into the spiral was
described by one writer as follows: “At the
further end of the pathway, within the inner
circle, one found himself underneath a living
cypress dome, 58 feet in circumference.

In the center of this stood a lone Monterey
pine, passing up through the dome.” Nelmes
opened his gardens to the public with a sign:
“Visitors welcome. Each visitor shall be
allowed to pick one orange.”
The most famous of Pasadena’s gardens
was Busch Gardens, located at Orange Grove
and Arlington. In 1904 brewing millionaire
Adolphus Busch purchased the John Cravens
house on Orange Grove with two acres of
land. Cravens had sold the property because
“the grounds were not large enough to suit
him.” In March 1905, Busch began developing
Busch Gardens, which became one of
Pasadena’s major tourist attractions. At the
same time, Busch went on a buying spree,
acquiring additional property from various
owners, until by 1910, his grounds extended
in one continuous stretch down into the
Arroyo. In February 1910, Busch acquired
the neighboring Blossom estate (the former
home of Thaddeus Lowe) adding twelve acres
and Pasadena’s largest house (30 rooms) to
his holdings.
Work on the gardens proceeded as rapidly
as Busch acquired his land. The first portion,
the Sunken Garden, was a series of curved terraces
in a canyon leading down toward
Madeleine Drive. The Lower Gardens, in the
bed of the Arroyo, featured live oaks, a duck
pond, and rustic Arroyo stone piers, bridges,
and walls. A well and pumping station were
installed on Fair Oaks and Arlington Drive to
supply water for the gardens. Thirty expert
gardeners plus additional unskilled laborers
worked to construct and maintain the sixty
acres of plants, trees, paths, drives, and water
works. Over 38 railroad car loads of water
main pipe were laid in the gardens. Fantasy
follies were built, including the Old Mill,
complete with mill wheel, stream, pond, and
a stork nest atop the building. Figures from
fairy tales were assembled in tableaux in the
woods and gardens to amuse children. Two
miniature fishermen, Doc and Dill, fished in a
stream by the Mystic Hut in the Lower
Gardens. While these follies came from
European traditions, Busch Gardens was neither
a natural landscape park in the English
tradition nor a formal French or Italian garden
design. It remained essentially a plant collection
in the Victorian tradition, connected by
paths, drives and bridges.
From 1906 onward, the gardens were
open to the public, first only two days a
week, then, by 1910, seven days a week. At
the end of 1910, Busch hired Robert Fraser, a
local nurseryman, as landscape gardener for
the gardens. Although Fraser is often credited
with the design of the gardens, the project
was essentially finished by the time he took
over. In that same year, the Pacific Electric
added a Busch Gardens stop on its Fair Oaks
line at Arlington, indicating that the gardens
had become a regular Southern California
tourist destination. In 1911, Busch invited
the American Medical Association, which was
holding its annual meeting in Los Angeles, to
a barbeque and afternoon of entertainment in
the gardens, as well as chariot and horse races
at Tournament Park. Three thousand attended.
It was the first of many large events held
in the Gardens.
After Busch’s death in 1913, the gardens
remained open, even throughout the First
World War, when Busch’s widow Lily chose
to remain in Germany with her two daughters
who were married to German officers. In
1915, the year of the expositions in San
Diego and San Francisco, over 1.5 million
tourists visited Busch Gardens. To demonstrate
the family’s loyalty, a Red Cross benefit
was held on the grounds in 1918.
✧
The spiral hedge at Glen Rosa was only one
of several cypress bowers representing occult
symbols in the garden. This photo shows the
hedge, which was 156 feet in circumference,
and the Monterey pine at its center, before it
grew to full size.
GARDENS
117

✧
The Sunken Gardens (top) and the Lower
Gardens (bottom) at Busch Gardens.
HISTORIC PASADENA
118
After the war, the gardens continued to be
open to the public, but a small entrance fee
was charged to benefit the Disabled Veterans
of the American Legion. When Lily Busch
died in 1928, the gardens were offered to the
city as a public park, but the city refused the
gift. During the 1930s the unemployed
worked on maintaining the gardens.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Busch
Gardens was used for filming. Notable artists
such as Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn,
Madame Schumann-Heink, and others
appeared in concert performances, plays and
benefits staged in the Gardens.
The upper portion of the estate was finally
sold and subdivided in 1937. After World
War II, some Pasadenans tried to get the city
to purchase the Lower Gardens in the Arroyo,
but once again the city was not interested. In
the late 1940s and 1950s the Lower Gardens
were subdivided, becoming Busch Garden
Drive and related streets, while the Sunken
Gardens were developed as Stoneridge Drive.
Remnants of the gardens still remain, however,
in the backyards of many of the houses
built on the property. The Old Mill has been
converted into a residence, the Rustic Bridge
and its 30 foot waterfall have been integrated
into a backyard swimming pool, and the
horseshoe pergola has been preserved as a
semi-enclosed patio area attached to a residence
built in the 1950s.
While Busch was developing his gardens, the
City of Pasadena was also developing an enviable
park system. The jewel of Pasadena’s parks
is the Arroyo Seco. Pasadena’s founders had all
received wood lots in the Arroyo Seco, considered
worthless for agricultural purposes. By the
turn of the century, the great wooded gorge on
the western edge of the city began to be appreciated
as a picturesque refuge from town life.
Unfortunately, the Arroyo had also long served
as a dump. Dead horses and cows as well as
garbage were routinely dumped over the banks,
and since 1902 the city had operated an incinerator
in the northwestern part of the Arroyo.
As early as 1887, leading citizens proposed
making the Arroyo a public park. When conservationist
President Theodore Roosevelt visited
Pasadena in 1903, he gave impetus to the
idea, saying to Mayor Vedder, “What a splendid
natural park you have right here! O, Mr.
Mayor, don’t let them spoil that! Keep it just
as it is!”
It was not until 1911, however, under
Mayor Thum, that the city began to acquire
Arroyo land which was held by a number of
owners. The city bought the first parcel of
thirty acres for $4,500. By 1912, the city held
or had options on 200 acres. A syndicate of
wealthy citizens bought up most of the
remaining options and held them until the
city could purchase the parcels.
A plan for the Arroyo was formulated in
1917-1918 with the help of Emil T. Mische, a

well-known landscape architect brought to
Pasadena through the efforts of the Pasadena
Garden Club. Mische and the Arroyo Park
Committee, headed by Myron Hunt, recommended
that the Lower Arroyo be preserved,
restricted to walking and bridle paths and
planted only with native plants. The Upper
Arroyo was designated as more suitable for
recreational development.
The city had begun developing a park in
the Upper Arroyo in 1913 with a playground,
picnic tables, plantings, and sports facilities.
In 1914, Mrs. E. W. Brooks had donated funds
to build a municipal “plunge,” and the park
was renamed Brookside Park in her honor.
Tennis courts and a baseball diamond were
added shortly afterwards, and plans were
made for an outdoor “Greek” amphitheater,
which was finally built in 1924.
Efforts continued in the 1920s to acquire
even more land in the Arroyo. Although by
1917 the city owned or held options on 70
percent of the land, key parcels still
remained. One was the Dontanville property,
which included an auto tourist camp north
of Brookside Park and property near the
Rose Bowl. The city acquired these and other
parcels through condemnation proceedings
for $128,000 in 1924, making nearly all the
Arroyo between Columbia Street and Devil’s
Gate city property. One of the
city’s last acquisitions was an
eleven-acre strip of wooded
land, covered with fine specimens
of oak, laurel, and
sycamore, situated south of La
Loma Road on the west bottom
and bank of the Arroyo. The
land was held by the
Campbell-Johnston family who
offered it to the city on very
good terms ($10,500) in 1927.
To protect the watershed the
city continued to acquire land
in the Upper Arroyo above
Devil’s Gate.
An important public garden
of the 1920s is the garden at
Pasadena City Hall. Its design is
based on the gardens of the old
missions, as well as on gardens
in Spain. Surrounded by a cloistered walk, the
garden has a tiered Spanish Baroque style
fountain at its center, which brings the continuous
sound of splashing water into this
small urban space. Paths of decomposed granite
separate the strictly geometrical beds,
which were originally outlined by boxwood
hedges. During the 1940s, lawns and azaleas
crept into the design, but in the 1980s these
water-loving features were banished, and the
original paths were restored.
✧
Above: Brookside Park was located in the
Upper Arroyo, the part of the arroyo
designated for recreational uses.
Below: This unusual gate marks the
entrance to the garden of landscape
architect Paul Thiene.
GARDENS
119

✧
Tod Ford Jr. had engineer Clarence Day lay
out a formal Italian garden to enhance his
Italian villa by Reginald Johnson on Grand
Avenue. Below the garden are orange groves
and the Arroyo Seco.
HISTORIC PASADENA
120
Other parks purchased or developed by the
city in this period included Washington Park,
acquired from the Serrurrier family, and La
Pintoresca Park, site of the old La Pintoresca
Hotel. Both parks were landscaped by
Theodore Payne and Ralph Cornell, two of
Southern California’s most noted landscape
architects. Arthur Fleming led the drive to
acquire Carmelita Park for the city; a group of
public-spirited citizens provided the initial
down payment and pledged to pay the balance
over a period of years. By 1930, Pasadena
boasted over 1,000 acres of public parkland.
Besides Busch Gardens and the city’s parks,
Pasadena’s hotels provided outstanding gardens
for both guests and the public to enjoy.
Native plant specialist Theodore Payne
designed the gardens of the Raymond Hotel;
the grounds of the first Raymond were largely
planted in succulents and other desert plants
that needed very little water.
The Maryland Hotel set its bungalows in
gardens north of the main hotel building, but
its main attraction was its pergola along
Colorado Street, designed by Myron Hunt.
The pergola, according to one writer, was
more extensively used in Pasadena than any
other place in Southern California. “Indeed,”
she wrote, “so generously has this bit of old
Italy been adopted that it may be considered
a distinctive feature of Pasadena architecture.”
The Vista del Arroyo Hotel’s gardens were
less important, however, since the hotel’s site
on the edge of the Arroyo gave the hotel and
its bungalows spectacular views and easy
access to the Arroyo below. The Huntington
Hotel also took advantage of its natural setting
on a promontory on the edge of wooded
canyons. Myron Hunt and William Hertrich
collaborated on a design that capitalized on
the views to the south and the north from the
hotel, leaving open a broad sloping lawn
where guests could indulge in recreational
pastimes and filling a small ravine at the side
with a Japanese stroll garden.
Just as Japanese art, porcelain, fabrics, and
other accessories were fashionable around the
turn of the century, so were Japanese gardens.
Pasadena had a number of them, including
Victor Marsh’s garden at the corner of Fair
Oaks and California. Open to the public for
strolling and tea service, the garden had a
replica of a Japanese house as well as bridges
and pools, miniature mountains and other
typical Japanese features. When the garden
was replaced by commercial buildings, Henry
Huntington had the house moved to his
estate, where it has become part of the
Huntington’s Japanese garden.
The most famous Japanese garden in
Pasadena was the Storrier-Stearns garden, on
Arlington near Pasadena Avenue. Designed
and built over a period of about five years in
the late 1930s by Frank Fujii, the garden has
suffered the loss of its tea house to fire and
many of its ornaments to theft or sale. Yet the
garden still remains, with its fanciful mountain,
its pools and streams, its bridges and
paths. Located adjacent to the proposed Long

Beach Freeway, it remains one of Pasadena’s
hidden treasures.
Pasadena’s last great garden in the
Victorian tradition is Henry Huntington’s
“ranch” in nearby San Marino. A collection of
rare and unusual plants from all over the
world, the Huntington garden outdoes virtually
all its competitors, especially in the areas
of Australian plants, cactus specimens, palms
and roses. William Hertrich, head of the garden,
was primarily a horticulturalist, and followed
his master’s wishes in assembling the
collection. Ironically, the garden never benefited
from the professional expertise of a landscape
architect, even though one of the
nation’s most accomplished and artistic practitioners
lived on the estate for years as the
wife of the Library director, Max Farrand.
Beatrix Cadwalader Jones Farrand (1872-
1959) was a founding member of the
American Society of Landscape Architects,
organized in New York in 1899. The niece of
Edith Wharton, she had accompanied her
aunt on European trips and was certainly
aware of Wharton’s influential book, Italian
Villas and Their Gardens (1904), which introduced
Italian garden traditions to the
American public. The only woman among the
ten founders of the ASLA, Farrand continued
her practice after moving West by commuting
to the East Coast, designing large residential
projects and also working on the campuses of
Princeton, Yale, the University of Chicago and
Oberlin College. Her masterpiece is
Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. She
did little work in California; in the Pasadena
area she designed a part of the Occidental
College campus, Dabney Court at Caltech,
and the garden for the Hale Solar Laboratory
on Holladay Road.
Myron Hunt, like many architects of his
time, also practiced garden design. Hunt’s
father had been a nurseryman and Hunt’s
experiences working in Chicago during the
✧
Above: The Hotel Maryland Pergola by
Myron Hunt started the fashion for pergolas
in Pasadena gardens.
Below: This Japanese garden was a
commercial enterprise located at California
and Fair Oaks. Visitors could take tea in the
teahouse and buy garden ornaments.
GARDENS
121

✧
An early writer and naturalist, Charles
Saunders built a new type of garden behind
his Craftsman bungalow on Lake Avenue.
An arrangement of beds separated by
decomposed granite walks, with no lawns,
the garden could be reached from the house
by means of this unusual terraced porch.
COURTESY OF THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY.
HISTORIC PASADENA
122
rise of the Prairie School made him aware of
the important relationships between building
and site, house and garden. While his architectural
designs could be somewhat dry, he
never failed to provide well-thought-out visual
and practical access to the garden. His
Pasadena Public Library was originally
designed to allow readers to take their books
out onto the patio to enjoy the charm of the
splashing fountain. His own house on North
Grand Avenue featured a pergola and porch
enclosing the garden behind, which had at its
center a small pool and fountain.
Charles and Henry Greene also sought to
extend their houses into the out of doors by
means of porches, terraces, walkways and
views. Rustic clinker brick walls, distinctive
terra cotta pots, Japanese-style ponds, subtle
grading to nestle the house more firmly into the
site and to take advantage of perspective, and
consideration of available vistas into the landscape
are features of their designs that remain
part of many of their houses, even today.
Paul Thiene (1880-c.1960) was born in
Germany, and came to California in about
1910. Already trained as a landscape designer
in Europe, he began to work for the Olmsted
Brothers on the San Diego Exposition of
1915. There he became acquainted with
Irving Gill and Lloyd Wright, also a landscape
designer working on the fair. Thiene worked
with both of them, in San Diego and in
Laughlin Park in Los Angeles. In the late teens
Thiene began to get important commissions
on his own, including estates in Beverly Hills
and Pasadena, many of them working with
architects Gordon Kaufmann and Reginald
Johnson. He also designed the garden for the
Coppell house (1916) by Bertram Goodhue
on South Grand Avenue in Pasadena. Other
important gardens by Thiene in the Pasadena
area include the Wigmore estate (later subdivided),
the Severance estate, the Hoag estate
in Altadena, and a pool and pool house for
Wellington Morse on San Rafael Avenue
(extant). Thiene’s own house and garden
(house by Kaufmann) at the corner of South
Arroyo Boulevard and Bradford Street has
recently been altered extensively.
By the mid-1920s many of the most important
landscape architects working in Pasadena
were women. Myron Hunt wrote in 1931:
The profession of landscape architecture is
fortunately attracting an increasing number
of able, highly-trained, much-travelled and
experienced women, who handle with firmness
and decision those broad background
essentials of the good garden,—the ground
plan and the mass planting. They also have
what seems an inborn interest in that other
essential element of continuing success,—the
planting and the yearly renewal of the annuals
and perennials whose blending colors
make the jewels of a garden.
The most active of these women were
Helen Van Pelt, Katherine Bashford, and the
partners, Florence Yoch and Lucile Council.
Van Pelt (b. 1901), who is credited with the
landscape design for Frank Lloyd Wright’s La
Miniatura, among other landscape designs in
Pasadena, was a graduate of Bryn Mawr and
lived and worked in Pasadena in the 1920s.
Later, as Helen Van Pelt Wilson and living in
the East, she became a well-known garden
writer, publishing several books and numerous
magazine articles on gardening and plants.
The gardens of Florence Yoch (1890-1972)
and her partner Lucile Council (died in 1964)
have become legendary in Pasadena, largely
because there are so many of them and several
still remain relatively intact. Yoch’s long practice,
from 1915 to 1960 in Pasadena (Council
joined her in 1921), has left an outstanding

legacy of gardens from the period, all of which
have their distinctive stamp.
Yoch grew up in Laguna Beach, where her
parents owned the Laguna Hotel. She began
her education in landscape architecture at the
University of California at Berkeley, then transferred
to Cornell’s College of Agriculture
before finally getting a degree in landscape
gardening from the University of Illinois in
1915. Her persistent search for a program that
suited her needs reflects her intensity and dedication
to her professional training. Council
had studied at the Cambridge School of
Domestic and Landscape Architecture, a
school for female students who were excluded
from Harvard, but wished to study under
Harvard professors. She also studied at
Oxford. Both women traveled frequently to
Europe and brought a deep knowledge of garden
and architectural history to their practice.
While they did many large estates, they also
designed many smaller gardens, especially for
members of the Pasadena Garden Club and its
parallel club, The Diggers. (Pasadena is one of
the few cities with two affiliates of the
American Garden Club. The Diggers was
formed by members of the Pasadena Garden
Club who actually worked in their gardens, as
opposed to the ladies who employed gardeners
to do their work for them).
Yoch is generally credited with the design,
while Council ran the business side of the
practice, supervised construction and ordered
plants and materials. The essence of their
designs was an artful combination of various
historical garden traditions, English, French,
Spanish, with the added touch of mission and
California agricultural traditions. They
respected and used native plants and trees,
while also using plants suitable to California’s
Mediterranean climate. They had an unerring
sense of how to manipulate the site and topography
to best advantage. They took jobs only
on referral from clients or friends; they wanted
to make sure that each client was serious
about the project. For each garden Yoch prepared
a plant list and maintenance program to
help the client care properly for the garden.
Yoch & Council designed many large
estates in Pasadena, San Marino, Santa
Barbara and Beverly Hills. Their client list
included Hollywood figures such as George
Cukor, Jack Warner, and David O. Selznick.
In San Marino, they collaborated with Myron
Hunt and Katherine Bashford on the Frank
Emery estate, a traditional English-style garden
that is now undergoing restoration.
Smaller Pasadena gardens by the firm include
the Bryner/Doerr garden, the Asche garden,
and the Davis garden, each of which makes
extraordinary use of the site’s topography.
The smallest of the three, the Asche garden,
is sited on the upper bank of the Arroyo
on a traditional suburban lot that slopes up
steeply at the rear. The Asche Garden shows
the ease and elegance of Florence Yoch; she
exploits the steep slope by creating a series of
terraces, each devoted to a specific plant
theme. A colorful herbaceous border fronts
the stone wall, reminiscent of an English garden.
Another level features citrus trees, a
California theme. Paths are decomposed granite,
a favorite paving material. At the top of
the garden large pine trees screen the garden
from neighboring buildings. A special
Pasadena touch is the badminton court on the
upper terrace, reflecting the popularity of the
game in Pasadena in the 1930s and 1940s.
Located nearby is the Bryner/Doerr garden,
which extends over three lots on a steeply
sloping site. Yoch worked closely with the
✧
The Asche garden by Yoch & Council
combines the California orange grove with
English herbaceous borders, lawns, and
stone walls.
GARDENS
123

✧
The Barber House by Roland Coate, garden
by Katherine Bashford.
HISTORIC PASADENA
124
architect Roland Coate, who sited the house at
an angle on the highest point of the property,
in order to take advantage of views of the
Arroyo and hills beyond. A pergola and terrace,
small flower beds, and a rose arbor fill
the level ground next to the house.
The real drama is saved for the space in
front of the house. The first terrace below the
house is the “Spanish garden,” planted in citrus;
the next terrace, the “French garden” is a
formal rose garden with brick edging and
steps. At the bottom of the slope is the
“English garden,” a broad lawn edged by
flower borders with a reflecting pool at one
end and a white-painted summerhouse at the
other. Paths are decomposed granite and a
winding concrete stairway leads down the
slope from the house. There is a constant
interplay between the angles of the house and
the rectangular plot; this complexity makes
the garden appear larger than it really is.
Yoch’s last garden, completed after she had
retired and moved to Carmel and only as a
favor to her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Charles E.
Davis, is sited on the edge of a wooded
canyon in Oak Knoll. This garden combines
many of the conceits of Yoch’s earlier gardens
with new ideas and variations on older
themes. The garden terraces on the steep
slope are connected by a series of switchback
paths which eventually merge into the woods
below. Around the swimming pool near the
house is a formal planting of magnolia trees
and a pergola of white wisteria that introduces
white flowers, the only flower color
used in the garden. Connecting the formal
garden and the terraces is an unusual curved
flying stairway, a streamlined sculpture that
adds an element of modern design. Another
innovation is the paving material for the
paths which substitutes the deep red color of
crushed bricks for Yoch’s usual ochre decomposed
granite.
Katherine Bashford (1885-1953) began
her career working in the office of Florence
Yoch. After two years she opened her own
office, later associating with Fred Barlow, Jr.
Like Yoch, Bashford melded traditional
European design elements with a feeling for
the California climate and way of life. Largely
self-taught, Bashford also traveled to Europe
to see its great gardens first-hand. Like Yoch,
she also had an extensive library of books
and photographs that she consulted regularly
for inspiration.
One of her best-known projects was the
landscape design for the Old Mill, which was
restored by Fritz Ruppel under the direction
of Myron Hunt for Mrs. James Brehm in the
1920s. Although the garden has since been
changed, Bashford’s plan survives, showing
her use of native plants and plants introduced
by the padres. Her use of citrus trees and a
fruit and nut orchard evokes the agricultural
character of the missions. In the original plan,
a small pool or fountain was the sole water
element in the garden; small formal beds
around it may have been intended for vegetables
and herbs.
One of Bashford’s masterpieces was the
Harry J. Bauer garden in Oak Knoll, which
remained intact until the 1980s and still
under the care of the original owner. Another
remarkable Bashford garden which remained
intact until recently was the John and
Grayson Barber garden on the edge of the
Arroyo. Supposedly modeled on the Castro
house and garden at Mission San Juan
Bautista, the garden provided a deep foreground
to the Monterey Colonial Revival

✧
Katherine Bashford was the landscape
architect for the Bourne House designed by
Wallace Neff. The patio shows the use of
water, simple paving, trees, shrubs, and
plants in pots to create a restful outdoor
room in the Spanish style.
house by Coate, which like Coate’s
Bryner/Doerr house, served as a backdrop for
the garden instead of the other way around. A
brick path leads up the center to the front
door, which is secreted behind a picket gate
and low stone wall. Lawn panels flank the
walk; they are bordered by a series of fruit
trees with the understory planted in bulbs
and perennials, giving color to the garden.
Unfortunately Bashford’s gardens are not well
documented, but the few traces that remain
in Pasadena demonstrate her design ability.
Landscape architects from outside
Pasadena also did some outstanding work in
the area. These include Thomas Church’s
design for the Stuart Pharmaceutical
Building (architect Edward Durell Stone) on
East Foothill Boulevard and Ruth
Shellhorn’s designs for Bullock’s Pasadena,
and for the Mutual Savings Building. Francis
Dean, partner of Garrett Eckbo, lived in the
Ernest Batchelder house on the Arroyo, and
designed the walled pool area adjacent to
the house.
Pasadena’s tradition of excellence in
landscape architecture and garden design is
of a piece with its architectural tradition.
Architects like Myron Hunt and the Greenes
recognized that in Southern California the
garden was integral to the design of their
houses. By the 1920s, the architect’s concern
with the relationship between indoors
and outdoors was already highly developed,
and trained landscape architects were available
to design appropriate gardens. In the
1950s the California house became synonymous
with outdoor living, a condition that
we take for granted today. Some of the
earliest and best examples of this trend may
be found in the gardens and outdoor spaces
of Pasadena.
Just as Pasadena furnishes a wealth of
important architecture from the past, so its
gardens, although more ephemeral and less
well-documented, must be counted as important
contributions to regional and national
culture. Much still needs to be discovered, but
it is clear that Pasadena clients and landscape
architects were also “pathfinders” in the
development of California garden design, its
relationship to architecture, and its role in a
new way of life.
GARDENS
125

HISTORIC PASADENA
126

SHARING THE HERITAGE
historic profiles of
businesses and organizations
that have contributed to
the development and economic
base of Pasadena
✧
Arroyo View from Holly Street Bridge by Louise Burnham. This idyllic view, probably painted in the 1930s,
depicts a water-filled Arroyo stream in the foreground, the Holly Street Bridge in the middle ground, and the
Flintridge Hotel (now Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy) perched atop Flintridge in the background.
COURTESY OF HOLLY AND DAVID DAVIS.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
127

130 THE MARKETPLACE
Lincoln Avenue Lumber & Mill, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Vroman’s Bookstore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Absolute Automotive Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Crown City Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Glabman’s Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Pasadena Federal Credit Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Wood & Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Wells Fargo Private Client Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Burkard Nurseries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Pasadena Schools Federal Credit Union. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Fedde Furniture Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Tournament Souvenirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Citizens Business Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
150 QUALITY OF LIFE
Huntington Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Pasadena Historical Museum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Westminster Presbyterian Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
California Institute of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Pacific Clinics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Fuller Theological Seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
William Carey International University . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Guardian Ambulance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Reasons to Believe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Hillsides Home for Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
HISTORIC PASADENA
128

Bethany Home Health Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Aria Montessori School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Pasadena Athletic Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Planned Parenthood of Pasadena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Tom Sawyer Camps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Sequoyah School. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
U.S. Center for World Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
SILVER
SPONSORS
Blair-Martin, Inc.
182 BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
Parsons Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Clifford Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
The Chandler School
MCG Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
WiseGuys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Edward C. Turrentine Interior Design, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Seismic Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
George Coulter
Pierce Precision Sheet Metal, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
L.A. Steelcraft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Lytle Roofing, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Kaiser Permanente
Federal Credit Union
PaineWebber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Temo A. Arjani & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Provident Investment Counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Palermo, Barbaro, Chinen & Pitzer, LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Wilber & Company, Inc.
EPT Landscape Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Maginnis, Knechtel & McIntyre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Ray Wilson Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
THE MARKETPLACE
129

HISTORIC PASADENA
130

THE MARKETPLACE
Pasadena’s retail and commercial
establishments offer an impressive
variety of choices of Pasadenans
✧
The Sycamores (Pasadena, California) by Guy Rose (1867-1925). This landscape featuring native California
sycamores was probably done in about 1918 after Rose had returned from several years in Giverny, where he
became a disciple of Monet. The son of Leonard J. Rose, Guy Rose was born in 1867 at Sunny Slope, his father’s
ranch and vineyard (now part of East Pasadena).
COURTESY OF THE ORANGE COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART.
THE MARKETPLACE
131

✧
Right: Pasadena contractor W. A. Tirrill
bought Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill
in 1945.
Any business that provides service depends
on its staff. Lincoln Avenue Lumber and
Mill thanks and salutes these Pasadenans
who over the years have each put in at least
ten years at Lincoln Avenue:
HISTORIC PASADENA
132
LINCOLN
AVENUE
LUMBER AND
MILL, INC.
Cliff Abbott
Otis Hooper
W. B. Alexander
Don Jehnings
Erwin Bubeck
Henry Pohnert
Joe Caughey
L. T. (Tommy) Poole
Fred Chown
Art Rearkrant
Jim Davee
Clyde Sanders
Hugh Fields
Harold Simeral
Cecil Gilson
Lee Strickland
Don Hillier
W. A. Tirrill
Patty Howse
Frank Westlake
Kasper Skarsten
Harriet Ringson
Douglas Davee
Virginia Hagopian
Rolland Whiteside
Jose Gomez
Bob Puls
Brian Pickard, M.C.
Many of Pasadena’s finest and oldest
craftsman homes are constructed of
lumber that came from one of the
area’s oldest lumberyards, Lincoln
Avenue Lumber and Mill, Inc.
Founded at its present location in
1903 by J. C. Smith, the Smith Cash
and Carry Sawmill at 1464 Lincoln
had a mill along with a sash and door
department that provided windows
and entries for the houses going up in
the early days of Pasadena. A local
woman in her eighties recently
stopped by the yard to see if the place
where she bought coal and chickens as
a little girl was still standing. To her
delight, it was.
The original yard extended from
Lincoln Avenue all the way to
Washington and was home to a complete
sawmill that also supported locations
on Lake Street and in Altadena.
Prior to World War II, the business
took the name Smith-Lindsey and the
volume of business dictated the need
for a railway spur onto the yard to
transport greater quantities of lumber.
With the coming of the war, Smith-Lindsey
suffered because of restrictions on the availability
of lumber. It was during this time that
W. A. Tirrill; a second generation Pasadenan
and general contractor came into the picture.
When a Caltech professor designed a new
bombsite for the U.S. Army Air Corps, Tirrill
got the contract to box the new technology for
shipping to the Pacific and European Theaters
of war. He brought the contract to Smith-
Lindsey and then bought the company outright
in 1945. Wanting the business to be
more than just a lumberyard, Tirrill added
hardware to the inventory and encouraged
a clientele of “do-it-yourselfers.” The newly
named Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill, Inc.
pioneered the concept of the store that caters
to homeowners unafraid to use a hammer
and saw.
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill became a
family business for the most familial of reasons.
W. A. Tirrill’s daughter Thelma had married
Jim Davee who had studied Portuguese
and was preparing to move his family to Brazil
shortly after the war. Mrs. W. A. Tirrill did not
want to be separated from her grandchildren
and a compromise was reached—the Davees
would stay in Southern California and Jim
would go to work at the lumberyard. He put
in hard days cleaning bins and unloading
lumber as he learned the business from the
ground up. Fifty years later, in 1999, Jim
Davee still runs the business and helps customers
who visit 1464 Lincoln Avenue.
In the years Jim Davee has managed
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill, there have
been many changes in the business and the
area. A 1960 law banning the burning of sawdust
led to the closing of the mill. The building
of the freeway in 1968 took some of the
property and half the remaining lot was leased
to Roedeffer Cement Company, which supplied
concrete for the freeway construction.
Today, Robertson Ready Mix occupies that
site. The 1989-90 recession and the emergence
of national chain hardware stores cut
into the do-it-yourselfer market, and Lincoln
Avenue Lumber and Mill began to seek more

contractor business. The yard’s ability to
quickly fill specific orders at reasonable costs
has led to contracts with the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Caltech, and Pasadena Unified
School District and other local firms.
By never turning their back on the do-ityourselfers,
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill
has, in a way, come full circle with the burgeoning
interest in the restoration of
Pasadena’s older homes. Homeowners come
to 1464 Lincoln for customized woodwork
for windows, doors, moldings, trim, and original
siding for older homes that are not available
anywhere else.
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill is proud
to serve westside residents and glad they
stayed in the area when other companies
moved away. The ethnic diversity of the area
is reflected in the people who work at the
Lincoln Avenue yard just as it is reflected
in the customers who stop by. Davee is
also proud of the company’s involvement in
sponsoring local Little League, John Muir
sports, and other West Side organizations
and churches.
With roots that go way back in the area,
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill is not planning
on going anywhere anytime soon. Jim
Davee’s son, Douglas, has been learning the
business after a career as a banking accountant.
One of Pasadena’s longest standing businesses
is poised to pass to a new generation in
the Davee family in order to continue serving
new generations of Pasadenans.
✧
Lincoln Avenue Lumber and Mill Company
has been in these buildings and at this
location, 1464 Lincoln Avenue, since 1903.
THE MARKETPLACE
133

VROMAN’S
BOOKSTORE
✧
Today’s Vroman’s Bookstore at 695 East
Colorado nearing the turn of a
another century.
HISTORIC PASADENA
134
Vroman’s, Pasadena’s extraordinary bookstore,
was founded by an extraordinary man.
Adam Clark Vroman came to Pasadena originally
to preserve the health of his new bride,
Esther Griest. Sadly, a change in climate was
not enough and she passed away in 1894.
Vroman decided to remain in Pasadena and
turned his attention to opening the city’s
first bookstore on November 15, 1894, in
partnership with stationer J. S. Glasscock.
Glasscock & Vroman was located at 60 East
Colorado in a business district comprised of a
single hotel, blacksmith shop and butcher. By
1900, Glasscock had sold the business to
Vroman and the shop took its current name,
selling books, cameras, and stationery.
Vroman had worked for the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad in his home
state of Illinois before moving to Pasadena in
his mid-thirties. Already an avid photographer,
Vroman became a distinguished photographic
chronicler of the Hopi Indians and
other cultures of the American Southwest. As
a collector, Vroman’s eclectic tastes included
Navajo blankets, Hopi kachinas, and Japanese
netsukes, which are artfully carved purse
string ornaments from the island’s feudal past.
Many of A. C. Vroman’s photographs and collections
are housed in local libraries and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
While A. C. Vroman explored the
Southwest, two of his earliest friends, Allan
David (A. D.) and Joel (Joe) Sheldon, were
seeking their fortune in the Alaska Gold Rush.
The Vroman and Sheldon families had been
close back in Oregon, Illinois during the
1870’s—close enough that Joe’s middle name
was Vroman—and Vroman had kept in touch
with these younger men over the years. In
Alaska, Joe went into banking and A. D.
became superintendent of a rich gold mine on
the Seward Peninsula. When the mine played
out, Vroman invited A. D. to come work in
Pasadena in 1914. It proved a key event in the
history of the store.
When A. C. Vroman died in 1916 he had
built a solid business with loyal employees
in whom he took tremendous interest. “We
have surely lost a good friend and many
others have also,” wrote A. D. Sheldon to
his brother. “He was so different, his entire
life having been given to the pleasure of
others.” Vroman’s friend and associate,
George F. Howell, became president of
the newly incorporated bookstore when
Vroman passed away. In 1920, A. D. Sheldon
succeeded Howell. Except for a few years,
Sheldons have owned and run Vroman’s
ever since. Joe Sheldon joined his brother
in the business in the 1920’s and today

Joel Vroman Sheldon III is president and
principal owner of Vroman’s Bookstore.
Vroman’s thrived over the years and occupied
different addresses in Pasadena, including
the ornate Warner Building at 469 East
Colorado, before settling in the current location
at 695 East Colorado. Under the guidance
of A. D. Sheldon and Leslie Hood, Vroman’s
opened a wholesale division distributing
books throughout the West and started the
Vroman’s School Book Depository program
supplying school textbooks. In the ’50s, before
the advent of the national chain stores,
Vroman’s was the largest book distributor west
of the Mississippi. In 1968, Vroman’s became
the first totally computerized bookstore.
Vroman’s became a literary focal point and
destination for Pasadena with the introduction
of book and author luncheons in 1939.
Californians came from as far a hundred miles
away to hear speakers like Upton Sinclair,
James Hilton, and Irving Stone. Sometimes
controversy livened these events. In 1940, a
hundred followers of evangelist Aimee Semple
McPherson protested a luncheon featuring
Langston Hughes who had satirized
McPherson in a poem. Vroman’s still offers
space in the store for children’s readings and
other literary events.
In the tougher environment of book sales,
Vroman’s remains a Pasadena tradition.
President since 1978, Joel V. Sheldon III has
overseen the streamlining of the business and
an extensive renovation of the premises in
1995. His philosophy reflects what has made
Vroman’s the special place that it is for over a
century. “My focus now and in the future is on
running the best book and stationery stores in
Southern California while supporting the city
of Pasadena.”
✧
Above: Bibliophile, photographer, and
entrepreneur Adam Clark Vroman in his
office at the turn of the century.
Below: Interior of the original Vroman’s
Bookstore in 1915.
THE MARKETPLACE
135

ABSOLUTE
AUTOMOTIVE
SERVICE,
INC.
✧
Absolute Automotive Service, Inc.
specializes in import luxury automobiles.
HISTORIC PASADENA
136
Absolute Automotive Service, Inc. is a
young Pasadena business that has come a
long way in a short time. Founded in 1990
by Chris Dickie, Absolute offers a full range
of services for Acura, BMW, Honda, Infiniti,
Lexus, Mercedes, and Volvo automobiles,
including service and repair as well as onsite
detailing and licensed auto brokers.
Readers of the Pasadena Weekly selected
Absolute “Best Mechanic” twice in the last
three years. Dickie believes the essential
factors in the success of the business are
quality repairs and excellent service provided
through staff teamwork.
With experience in automobile service but
a dislike for the poor reputation of much of
the industry, Dickie decided to open his own
shop in 1990 while studying finance in college.
Prior to opening the doors at his original
location on Raymond, Dickie was introduced
to Edward Rios who had helped his mechanic
father since he was a boy. “Edward is amazing,”
says Dickie. “He knows cars beyond the
information in manuals, he uses his head and
never gives up.” The two men formed the first
Absolute team.
To get clients, Dickie and Rios passed out
fliers around Pasadena, and more than once
they spent the night in the shop turning out a
complete engine overhaul to make rent. “It’s a
good thing we were both single back then,”
muses Dickie. A mail campaign playing off of
the Absolut Vodka ads where a mechanic’s
legs jutting from beneath a car replaced the
bottle prompted more clients to come in even
if it irked the vodka maker. Absolute
Automotive ended the campaign, but the
shop’s reputation for service had spread
enough to grow the business.
Dickie set out in automobile service to
“do it differently, do it with integrity.” The
approach at Absolute is to build a relationship
of trust with clients and establish a
partnership in care for the automobile. “We
counsel clients on the state of their car.
We’ll take them under the lift so they can
see what we are doing and why we’re doing
it.” No work is done without approval and
the amount of repeat business proves the
quality of the trust. The quality of service
compares very favorably with what might
be expected at a dealership but with a
personal touch.
In 1994, Absolute Automotive moved from
the old shop that could accommodate only
eight cars to the present shop at 451 South
Arroyo Parkway, which regularly handles up
to 30 automobiles per day. The six mechanics
at Absolute include factory- trained and ASEcertified
Technicians. Rios is still with
Absolute Automotive as shop foreman. The
quality, courtesy, promptness, and near

pristine neatness of the shop keeps clients
coming back.
“I want to express my sincere appreciation
for all your efforts in servicing our automobile,”
writes one client, “You and your staff
have been extremely professional and nice to
deal with,” says another client. “We appreciate
your caring and helpful attitude as well as the
exceptional courtesy and service you always
extend,” yet another client has written. Other
letters mention “gracious hospitality”,
“Everyone at your establishment…(is) kind,
courteous and eager to be helpful,” “Your considerate
and excellent attention to every detail
always astounds me.” And lastly writes a client
from the earliest days of Absolute Automotive,
“It’s not just your competitive pricing or high
quality work, it’s the people.”
Beyond the excellent mechanical care,
Absolute offers a detailing service headed by
Frank Chavez, another man who Dickie
describes as “amazing.” Chavez has great
knowledge of automobile finishes and exactly
what combination of materials will bring out
the best look. Having acquired a dealership
license, Absolute also brokers car purchases for
clients, offering superior service throughout
the purchasing experience. “We eliminate the
dealership juggling act. We’ll find the car and
set a single, non-negotiable, wholesale price
that you can’t beat.”
Absolute Automotive has grown into a onestop,
full service business. “Clients never have
to go anywhere else for anything,” says Dickie.
For bodywork, upholstery and even stereo
installation, Absolute has secured services off
the premises that match the quality for which
Absolute is known.
The words of yet another loyal client illuminate
the success of Absolute’s desire to “do it
differently, do it with integrity.” “For me to
return to Pasadena to get brakes and have my
wheels realigned—you have to know that I
think you’re the best and your price is the best.
Your place is so clean and attractive for a garage
and you’re so courteous and cooperative. Very,
very worth the drive from San Diego.”
Indeed, Absolute Automotive Service does
it differently, with integrity.
✧
Top: Absolute Automotive promises absolute
satisfaction—guaranteed.
Left: Absolute Automotive President Chris
Dickie with wife Darlene.
THE MARKETPLACE
137

CROWN CITY
HARDWARE
With a history dating to Pasadena’s early
days, Crown City Hardware has grown to
national prominence by fulfilling a need that
was, at first, uniquely local. Founded in 1916,
Crown City Hardware was originally known
as Eastside Hardware on Colorado Boulevard
before moving to the heart of “Bungalow
Heaven” at 1047 North Allen Avenue. The
public vision of the store in the 1940s was
a caricature of owner Leonard Fields that
appeared in local advertising. In 1999, with
Field’s grandson Richard Perris as president,
the image of Crown City Hardware is associated
with a nationally available catalogue
and website.
A turning point for Crown City occurred
with the country’s economic problems of the
late 1980s and early 1990s. New housing was
difficult to afford and homeowners began taking
greater interest in restoring their homes
rather than simply moving on to someplace
new. Residents of Bungalow Heaven began to
discover the value and quality in their homes
and would come into the store seeking to
replace hardware items for houses that were
70 to 80 years old. They would receive the
same answer every other hardware store gave
them, “Nobody makes those anymore.”
Kip Beatty, Director of the Catalogue
Division, says for Crown City Hardware it all
started with the crystal cabinet knob. “They
hadn’t been available for fifty years but people
were coming in almost everyday asking if we
had them. It was eventually decided that
maybe reproducing this item was better business
than just turning people away.” This
move into reproduction started in 1989 and
led to Crown City Hardware occupying a marketing
niche long ignored. As for the crystal
knobs: “They’re still in demand and we can
barely keep them in stock.”
With an eye to customer needs, Crown
City broadened the number of items they
reproduced and began to acquire antique
HISTORIC PASADENA
138

hardware to sell and copy. When word of
mouth spread to the East Coast and the
Midwest that a store carried items that had
been out of production for fifty years, the
impetus for the first catalogue was born. More
than a thousand items were offered on 227
pages and in the intervening years, catalogue
sales have come to make up more than half of
Crown City Hardware Sales. The 1999 catalogue,
The Crown City Collection, Volume 5, is
comprised of 416 pages showcasing 4,000
items, hundreds of which are not available
anywhere else. The pages are filled with crisp
photographs of cabinet knobs, decorative
hinges, door locks, and all manner of antique
and reproduced hardware. The styles include
Colonial, Victorian, Arts and Crafts, and Art
Deco among a broad selection.
“Anytime we approach reproduction;
authenticity and quality are our first concerns
much more so than cost,” says Beatty. “The
items we are replicating were very high quality,
and we want our reproductions to be as
good or better than the original piece.” This
attitude toward quality springs from the same
sensibility held by the craftsmen who built
the homes that have stood for nearly a century
or more. Crown City Hardware recreates
the look and dependability from earlier days.
The relationship the store has with its customers
is evident in the bantering tone of the
catalogue’s text as well as the breadth of selection.
Many customers who have shopped
through the catalogues stop by the store when
they visit Southern California. They are surprised
to find what appears to be so ordinary a
hardware store, but they soon find out that the
service people and managers have a thorough
and unique knowledge of home restoration.
The store is still a place where a local bungalow
owner can walk in and have a great chance
of finding what he or she is looking for.
Crown City Hardware is as old as some of
the homes being restored in Pasadena and as
new as the Internet where many customers
shop. Uniquely a product of Pasadena, Crown
City Hardware and its catalogue are familiar
throughout the United States where their classic
hardware items shine in the finest of homes.
THE MARKETPLACE
139

GLABMAN’S
FURNITURE,
INC.
✧
Top: The exterior of the Glabman’s
Furniture Building.
Above: An illustration of the original main
lobby and business office on the first floor of
the Star-News Building. Taken from the
front page of the August 19, 1925 edition of
the Pasadena Star-News.
HISTORIC PASADENA
140
On the verge of its second century in the
fine furniture business, Glabman’s Furniture
and Interior Design is proud to have opened a
store in one of Pasadena’s most historic buildings.
In 1925, the floors of the new Star-News
Building at Colorado and Oakland were
designed to hold the tremendous weight of
printing machinery. Today those floors boast
18,000 square feet of the finest furniture
available in the United States. Glabman’s
opened on the first floor of the Nationally
Registered building in 1998.
The history of Glabman’s goes back further
than that of the Star-News Building, all the
way back to Illinois in the year 1900. Brothers
Morris and Isadore Glabman opened the original
store in Chicago offering modestly priced,
mid-level furniture. The business became a
thoroughly family affair when children of the
founders became involved and initiated a
series of key decisions. In 1948, the second
generation, Donald Glabman and his sister
Ruth Glabman Savin, moved the entire business
to Los Angeles and opened a store in the
Robertson/Pico area. The move to the West
Coast was a good one; the store flourished
and began to change into what Glabman’s has
become today.
As Ruth Savin became a popular interior
designer, the store began stocking more
upscale merchandise. Ruth’s dual role of
designer and furniture purveyor became
the model of Glabman’s unique approach to
customer service.
By the early 1960’s, Glabman’s made a
commitment to providing high quality, handcrafted
furnishings and professional interior
design to their clientele. A person walking
into any of the four Glabman’s in Southern
California will find it staffed exclusively by
experienced, professional interior designers
prepared to help the customer pick a single
piece or decorate an entire home. This specialized
help is part of the regular
service at Glabman’s.

All services at Glabman’s are provided
through an in-house staff. This means there is
a Glabman’s fleet of delivery trucks, a complete
service department, warehouse and
manufacturing facility that produces custom,
upholstered furniture. All furniture that
arrives at Glabman’s is thoroughly inspected
and prepared, carefully blanket wrapped for
home delivery, delivered with distinctive
white glove service and the designer is usually
present to supervise placement.
Of particular pride to Glabman’s Pasadena
store is the way the impressive two story
ground floor of the Star-News Building has
been remodeled to serve as a show room for
fine furniture. Within the building is a “House
within a Store,” a 1500 square foot model home
consisting of an entry, living room, dining room
and bedroom decorated and accessorized to the
smallest detail. The showroom features furniture
from respected manufacturers such as
Baker, Kindel, Karges, John Widdicomb, E. J.
Victor, and Morris James Custom Upholstery, in
addition to fine carpets, rugs, and accessories
from the four corners of the world.
And throughout a hundred years of changes
and evolution, Glabman’s has remained a family
business. Donald’s son, Jim Glabman and
Ruth’s son Morris Glabman Savin came aboard
in the 1960’s and took part in the expansion
from West Los Angeles to Woodland Hills,
Costa Mesa and Pasadena. Morris Savin has
become president, Jim Glabman is chairman.
And now a fourth generation Glabman, Jim’s
son Brian, vice-president, is responsible for the
supervision of the new showroom in Pasadena.
Ensconced in a newly refurbished historic
building and guided by the experience of four
generations, Glabman’s happily begins a second
century in the furniture business with its
new showroom in Pasadena.
✧
Top, left: Morris Glabman, co-founder of
Glabman’s in Chicago.
Top, right: Donald Glabman who, with
sister Ruth Glabman Savin, moved the
business from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Below: Three generations of Glabmans.
(Left to right) Brian Glabman, James
Glabman, Ruth Glabman Savin, and Morris
Glabman Savin.
THE MARKETPLACE
141

PASADENA
FEDERAL
CREDIT
UNION
✧
Top: The Pasadena Federal Credit Union
has occupied its own building at 1038 Fair
Oaks since 1980.
Bottom: The glass from the entry door to
Pasadena Federal Credit Union from
City Hall is now on display at the Fair
Oaks office.
HISTORIC PASADENA
142
The Pasadena Federal Credit Union serves
fourteen thousand members in the Pasadena
area and others as far away as Kuwait,
Australia and Singapore. PFCU began as the
Pasadena Municipal Employees Federal
Credit Union in September 1935. Founded by
city workers, the credit union was housed in
City Hall for nearly fifty years. The office was
the first stop for newly hired policemen and
firemen who came to get loans for uniforms
and revolvers. Today, PFCU is located in their
own offices at 1038 South Fair Oaks offering
a full range of consumer financial services.
Although thoroughly computerized, the
personal touch characterizes PFCU. CEO Mary
Wilson and Vice President of Member Services
Leanne Dickson often take deposits by hand
when they encounter members at public gatherings
or at the grocery store. Members who
have taken out car loans often bring their new
automobiles by PFCU offices to show them off;
many members bring by new babies while
making the rounds of other friends’ homes.
The sense of community is that strong.
Originally, the credit union was very conservative
in its lending policies. In 1946, no
loans were offered over $300 without security
and the maximum term was 24 months. “Now
we are aggressive in meeting and exceeding
our members’ needs,” says Wilson. An
Olympic hopeful managed to finance the purchase
of an Andalusian horse to pursue her
dream because PFCU worked to find a way to
make the deal feasible. In the twenty years
since 1978, the credit union has expanded its
assets tenfold from $7 million to $75 million.
The Pasadena Federal Credit Union has
been in the forefront of the fight to protect
credit unions and preserve the right of various
groups to join credit unions. PFCU members
accounted for more than 5,000 letters and signatures
in support of The Credit Union
Membership Access Act that President Bill
Clinton signed into law August 7, 1998. It is
fitting that PFCU was so involved in this effort.
Over the years, more than a hundred groups,
some as small as the Police Motorcycle Club
some as large as Montgomery Watson
Engineers, have joined the municipal workers
who founded the credit union.
PFCU’s vision is reflected in its history;
“People helping people within the structure of
financial stability and the spirit of integrity.”

The name Wood & Jones still glistens from
the historic building at 139 West Colorado
recalling a rich past that extends back to the
early days of the 20th Century. The presses no
longer roll at the Colorado location, but Wood
& Jones Printers continues to thrive a few
blocks away at 66 Waverly Drive. Always
emphasizing quality, the shop specializes in
full color, sheet-fed custom projects like
brochures as well as catalogs, newsletters, stationery
systems, and complex invitation packages.
Furthermore, Wood & Jones has maintained
the more traditional capabilities of letterpress,
die cutting, foil stamping, and
embossing. This focus on detail has been a
hallmark of Wood & Jones.
Bert Wood, a pressman from England, and
Fred Jones, a Canadian compositor, combined
to found the company in 1907 and by 1909
were settled on Colorado Boulevard. Wood
selected Pasadena and this location because of
its proximity to the wealthiest citizens of the
country’s wealthiest city. In the days when the
horse was still far more common than the car,
the decision of location was critical. When
Jones died in the 1940s, the Wood family
acquired the entire business. After serving in
World War II, Dick Wood joined the business
and by the late 1950s had taken over from his
father. His cousin, Dave Wood, joined him at
the company.
It was during these years that the heart of
Pasadena moved east, taking most of the vitality
of the business community with it, but
Wood & Jones remained and expanded on
Colorado Boulevard. The printing plant was
still thriving when good days returned to the
area in the 1980s. A third generation of Woods
was drawn to the shop. First, Chris Wood
worked with his father before spinning off a
technical publishing business (Siechert &
Wood) in 1988. Hanna Wood, who had gone
to college to pursue and teach art, returned to
the family business she had grown up loving.
She became president when Dick retired and
still maintains an office at Wood & Jones today.
Another man whose father was in the printing
business and learned the trade from his
youth at Wood & Jones purchased the company
in 1994. J. J. Gish rose from shipping clerk
in his high school years to become plant manager
after graduating from Cal State with a
degree in Printing Management and finally
became the owner. Like Hanna Wood, Gish
loved the business from his boyhood and follows
a family tradition—his father Jerry Gish
is plant superintendent at Typecraft. As new
owner, Gish further acquired Login Printing
and moved Wood & Jones to the Login location
on Waverly in 1998. The transitions at the
company have been as smooth as they have
been dynamic. The time-proven reputation for
quality remains as Wood & Jones Printers
approaches a second century in business.
WOOD & JONES
✧
Top: A Wood & Jones engraving from the
1930s depicting the Wood & Jones Building,
which remains a Colorado Boulevard
landmark and is still owned by the Wood
family.
Below: Hanna Wood and new owner, J. J.
Gish, in the shop at Wood & Jones beside
one of the color presses.
THE MARKETPLACE
143

WELLS FARGO
PRIVATE
CLIENT
SERVICES
HISTORIC PASADENA
144
Wells Fargo is one of the great names in
banking; its emblem and reputation are
widely recognized and respected. Wells
Fargo Private Client Services, in Pasadena
located over the retail bank branch at 350
West Colorado, offers special, comprehensive
services to individuals of substantial
wealth. What is unique about Wells Fargo
Private Client Services is how a broad spectrum
of management and banking services
have been integrated to serve the varying
needs of different clients or the variety of
needs of a single client through one office.
The service is unmatched.
Of course, it all begins with banking.
Clients at Wells Fargo PCS can choose from
an impressive selection of premier credit services,
and obtain generous credit that can
enhance the success of financial plans. A program
of loans, lines of credit, Gold credit
cards, and adjustable and fixed-rate mortgages
can be customized for greatest impact.
In particular, the Wells Platinum Account
combines checking, savings, investment, and
credit services in one integrated account. But
banking is only the beginning.
For the client who wants his or her assets
managed by experts, a Private Client Manager
can utilize the specialized services of Wells
Fargo’s investment management, brokerage,
and trust and estate services. The relationship
with the Private Client Manager usually begins
with a meeting where the manager really gets
to know the client to understand his or her
goals, concerns and even fears. From this initial
meeting and through regular, ongoing consultation
at the client’s convenience, a strategy
is tailor-fitted to the individual’s specific needs.
Wells Fargo is one of the nation’s largest
investment managers with $130 billion under
management and is the oldest and largest trust
manager west of the Mississippi.
Those clients who prefer to manage part
or all of their assets in the market themselves
will find the brokerage services under
the same roof. The market professionals at
Wells Fargo can provide the expert assistance
with individual securities that affluent
individuals require. For investors wanting
simply to make stock transactions, Wells
Fargo also offers a discount brokerage service.
At the other end of the spectrum,
clients who prefer money management outside
of Wells Fargo PCS can use the office to
contact external investments managers but
use in-house help in evaluating and directing
these specialists.
By design, the staff of two dozen trust
administrators, private bankers, portfolio
managers, financial consultants, and assistants
at the Pasadena office work only with
individuals, there are no corporate or large
business clients. Such keen focus keeps the
client number limited and attention to client
needs very high. It is individual attention
backed by breadth of service and flexibility
that makes Wells Fargo Private Client Services
unique in its ability to simplify and enhance
the financial lives of affluent Pasadenans.

BURKARD
NURSERIES
In 1937, a field on North Orange Grove
bloomed in the extraordinary colors of hybrid
delphinium and pansies planted by the knowing
hands of Hans Burkard and his English
partner, Mr. Cole. This earliest incarnation of
Burkard and Cole Field Grown Delphiniums
and Pansies employed a twine grid to separate
different types of flowers. Customers, often
ladies of higher society, would come to the
field, pick the flowers they liked, and Burkard
or Cole would carefully liberate the roots from
the soil and wrap the plant in burlap. Hans’
wife Rosa worked beside her husband in the
field; he would later proudly recall how in
hard times she would brave the rain standing
among the flowers holding an umbrella hoping
to coax a customer to make a purchase.
Hans Burkard was Swiss and came to the
United States with a great knowledge of horticulture
and command of five languages,
English not among them. He worked for
Jannoch Nurseries in Altadena before throwing
in with Cole to start the flower field. Cole
left the successful business in 1939 although
his name remained until the fifties. In 1954,
Frank Burkard, Sr. joined the business and it
was not long until his young son, Frank Jr.,
became a regular visitor to the nursery. Frank
Jr., who today runs the nursery, was his
grandfather’s shadow and anxiously learned
the lessons the older man happily shared.
Hans’ grandson attended Cal Poly Pomona
and put his horticultural education to good
use when he came to the nursery full-time in
1972. He vastly expanded the selection
offered by Burkard’s and transformed the
nursery into what it is today. Burkard
Nurseries offers vast selections of flowering
plants, citrus trees and ornamentals with a
staff uniquely able to guide the interested customer.
Many of the employees are horticultural
students who are encouraged to work on
their areas of expertise within the nursery.
Like Grandfather Hans, Frank shares his work
with wife and fellow horticulturist, Penny,
whom he met at Cal Poly.
Community involvement is also a tradition
with the Burkards who are proud to be in
Pasadena. The colors around the Roosevelt
School grounds, Five Acres and many
other community projects were donated and
planted by Burkard Nurseries. Naturally
Burkard’s is involved in the Community
Gardens and proudly sponsors the South
Pasadena soccer teams.
Like other businesses, it is service that
counts in the nursery business. “Our customers
are loyal so we’re loyal right back,”
says Frank Burkard, Jr. A gardener choosing
from the hundreds of varieties of roses or
needing exact information on the chilling
needs of certain fruit trees will find the right
answers and the best selections at Burkard’s.
✧
Top, left: Founder Hans Burkard and his
son, Frank, among the blooms of Burkard &
Cole Field Grown Delphiniums and Pansies
circa 1955.
Top, right: Frank Burkard, Jr. (middle rear)
with wife and co-worker Penny and
daughters Elizabeth, Caroline, and Anne
(middle left to right) among 1999 staff of
Burkard Nurseries.
Below: Fourth generation Burkard,
Caroline, tends the flowers.
THE MARKETPLACE
145

PASADENA
SCHOOLS
FEDERAL
CREDIT UNION
✧
Top: The Pasadena Schools Federal Credit
Union was created by teachers from
Pasadena Junior College (now PCC) in
1936 during the depths of the Great
Depression. This was the “tent era” in the
college’s history, when most of the campus
was under reconstruction following the 1933
Long Beach earthquake.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PCC LIBRARY.
Below: Pasadena Schools Federal Credit
Union, 1998.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DON MILICI.
HISTORIC PASADENA
146
During the Great Depression, a group of
Pasadena teachers banded together to survive
those tough times by establishing a financial
institution to make credit more available to
“people of small means.” They formed the
Pasadena School Employees Federal Credit
Union and received a charter from the Farm
Credit Administration on June 1, 1936.
Leland M. Pryor was the first president of the
board of directors and Harley Lyon the first
secretary. The Credit Union served teachers
who had trouble getting loans because of their
modest salaries.
The office was a janitor’s closet next to the
cafeteria at Longfellow School and the “vault”
was a cigar box kept in a bottom desk drawer.
Since that humble beginning the current
Pasadena Schools Federal Credit Union
(PSFCU) has become an organization with
8,000 members and $50 million in assets.
While the original Credit Union provided
small loans to tide people over, today’s Credit
Union meets the needs of a fast-paced, hightech
society.
Membership in the Credit Union is now
extended to all staff members and students of
Pasadena City College, the Pasadena Unified
School District, Fuller Theological Seminary,
and a majority of Pasadena’s private schools,
along with their families. This growth was
accompanied by a full range of financial services
and technological advantages. Services
include: loans (real estate, auto, MasterCard,
personal, etc) and savings ranging from checking
to money market accounts and IRA’s. The
technological advantages include ATM, telephone
banking, and home financial services.
Perhaps because a credit union, at its heart,
is an organization of mutual assistance, this
financial institution takes pride and pleasure
in its involvement within the Pasadena community.
PSFCU has re-established an updated
version of the old banking day in schools.
Pasadena school children who become members
of the Chalkboard Club can open a nofee
savings account with a quarter. These
youngsters receive quarterly statements, educational
coloring books and small gifts as
savings incentives.
In addition, employees at the Credit Union
look forward each year to joining other businesses
which sponsor Giving Trees during the
holiday season. PSFCU’s tree benefits two
Pasadena homes for abused children:
Hillsides and Five Acres. However, both the
Credit Union members and the staff feel they
receive far more than is given every year.
The Pasadena Schools Federal Credit
Union, created out of dire need in the early
part of the 20th Century, looks forward to a
smooth transition into the next millennium
by utilizing the latest technology, while maintaining
the personal, community touch.

FEDDE
FURNITURE
COMPANY
Family owned and operated, Fedde
Furniture Company has been on the same block
for over sixty years. With pride in offering the
best in customer service and satisfaction for
many decades, Fedde’s features a broad selection
of the nation’s top name brands such as Drexel-
Heritage, Henredon, Century, Pennsylvania
House, and La-Z-Boy. Mark Fedde is the third
generation to manage the family company.
Founded by Arnold and Ellen Fedde in
1937, constant expansion led to their current
location at the corner of Sierra Madre and
Colorado Boulevards. It is said the firm’s distinctive
curved building was planned to allow
street cars to turn the corner, and that corner
is a very popular spot every New Year’s Day
when Pasadena’s famous Rose Parade passes
by and turns north.
Don Fedde, who has owned the firm since
the mid sixties, was President of the Tournament
of Roses for the 1990 Parade and Rose Bowl
Game, when his alma mater, the University of
Southern California defeated Michigan at the
last minute. Don’s selection of Astronaut and
Senator John Glenn as Grand Marshal of the
Parade proved a very popular choice.
Active in the community, at publication,
Don is President of the U.S.S. Pasadena
Foundation that supports the crew of the
City’s namesake submarine and the Pasadena
Historical Museum. Mark serves on numerous
Tournament committees.
The company enjoys many loyal, longterm
employees with extensive experience
in home furnishings and interior design.
Fedde’s is proud to be serving the second
and third generation of many families, and
customers who have moved out of the area
often return for the quality and value the
store offers. It’s not unusual to see Fedde’s
trucks in Lake Arrowhead, Palm Springs, or
the beach cities. With continuing growth
and a solid reputation, Fedde Furniture
expects to be going strong for the next
generation of Pasadenans.
✧
Top: Mark Fedde (standing left) is the third
generation Fedde to manage the store. Don
Fedde (standing right) is still active at the
store and in the community.
Below: The distinctive curved facade of
Fedde Furniture, a family business serving
Pasadena since 1937.
THE MARKETPLACE
147

TOURNAMENT
SOUVENIRS
✧
Tournament Souvenirs Catalogs regularly
use employee family members to model the
hundreds of items they offer.
HISTORIC PASADENA
148
Chances are good that right now in just
about every state in the union someone is
wearing a memento of a visit to Pasadena that
originated at Tournament Souvenirs, the official
souvenir shop of the Tournament of
Roses. At its inception in 1975, the company
offered just half a dozen items like sweatshirts
and mugs. Today Tournament
Souvenirs offers more than three hundred
items through a catalog that is marketed
nationwide. In twenty years, gross revenues
have soared from $36,000 to more than a
million dollars; the mailing list has expanded
from 400 names to more than 35,000, and it
is still growing.
The founders of Tournament Souvenirs
were Inman and Nellie Moore who had
always wanted to be in business for themselves.
In 1975, Inman resigned as pastor of
Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church
and Nellie left her position as secretary at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory to start Moore
Vending and Game Machines along with
Greg and Camille Moore (no relation).
Inman and Nellie Moore could have moved
anywhere but chose to stay in Southern
California. “We deliberately chose Pasadena
and have never regretted it,” says Inman. “To
my mind, Pasadena is the greatest small city
in America.”
In addition to the vending company, Nellie
and Inman Moore also owned gift shops at
the Pasadena Hilton and Pasadena Holiday
Inn Hotels. The CEO of The Tournament of
Roses, Jack French, approached Inman about
organizing and licensing souvenir items, and
Tournament Souvenirs was born. As sole
stockholders, Nellie served as president and
chief financial officer, Inman as vice-president
and director of sales. Tournament
Souvenirs has grown to become a year-round
business with a staff of three full time
employees that swells to 30 in the busy
months of October through February.
For years, the company issued licenses to
other outlets and handling those responsibilities
is how current owner, Darryl Rodgers
entered the business. Although the licensing
responsibilities were returned to the city,
Darryl staid on at Tournament Souvenirs and
learned the business thoroughly from Inman
whom he calls “a great mentor and good
friend.” Rodgers bought the business from the
Moores in 1996 but is pleased that the feel of
the place has not changed. “It started as a
Mom and Pop business and people who come
in here year after year say that it still feels like
family, I’m proud of that.”
Rodgers is expanding the business into
advertising specialties like customized
embroidering, silk-screening and custom
advertising. The store also carries a very broad
variety of collegiate and professional sports
items. But still the “bread and butter” of
Tournament Souvenirs is the souvenir shirt or
mug or tie that reminds someone of Pasadena.

Citizens Business Bank, the “Bank Business
Banks On,” has roots in Pasadena dating back
to 1912.
W. H. Hubbard founded Citizens Savings
Bank that year in a store-like room on the
northeast corner of Colorado and Marengo,
but he had bigger plans. The distinctive
Citizens Bank Building rose to seven stories at
225 East Colorado in 1915, and remains a
landmark in downtown Pasadena. The large
square cast metal clock on the corner of the
building was placed there in 1926.
For eighty years, Citizens was Pasadena’s
only family-owned, independent bank.
Management of the bank was passed down
through four generations of Hubbards who
served as presidents and chairmen of the
board of directors. A trust department was
formed in 1931 and in 1959 the La Canada
office was opened to serve Citizen’s customers
in the La Canada-Flintridge area.
Into the ’90s, the bank took pride in its
strength, independence and service to its customers
in the Pasadena area.
Citizens Bank was transformed to Citizens
Business Bank in 1995 through its union with
another vigorous independent bank, the former
Chino Valley Bank founded in 1974.
With offices throughout the Inland Empire,
San Gabriel Valley, North Orange County and
Pasadena, Citizens Business Bank is the
largest independent bank in all of it markets.
The bank offers a complete package
of financial services to business, professional
and individual clientele including
comprehensive asset management, investment
services and international banking
accommodations.
Citizens Business Bank was the highest
performing bank in California for the ten-year
period from 1985-1995 in a study conducted
by the highly regarded consulting firm of
McKinsey and Company and was named
Entrepreneur of the Year for 1995. The
Findley Reports has designated Citizens
Business Bank as “Premier Performing Bank”
for the past two dozen years—six of those
years it was rated a “Super Premier
Performing Bank.”
The future of Citizens Business Bank is to
be the premier relationship financial institution
for business and professionals by delivering
the finest in financial products and services
to its customers. This will be achieved
through an unqualified commitment to its
five core values of financial strength, superior
people, customer focus, effective operation
and having fun.
CITIZENS
BUSINESS
BANK
THE MARKETPLACE
149

HISTORIC PASADENA
150

QUALITY OF LIFE
healthcare companies, educational
institutions, and historical and
civic organizations contribute to
Pasadenans’ quality of life
✧
From My Window by Charles Walter Stetson. This watercolor study, dated 23 October 1889, shows the view from
a house on North Orange Grove Avenue where Stetson and his wife, Charlotte Perkins Stetson (later Gilman), were
staying. The child in the foreground may be the couple’s daughter, Kate. The Stetsons lived across Orange Grove
from the Channings, whose property was bought by the Fenyeses and later became the home of the Pasadena
Historical Museum.
COURTESY OF HOLLY AND DAVID DAVIS.
QUALITY OF LIFE
151

HUNTINGTON
HOSPITAL
✧
Below: The 16-bed Pasadena hospital
opened its doors to patients in 1899.
Bottom: A 1940s patient room at
Huntington Memorial Hospital.
HISTORIC PASADENA
152
If a community’s heart can be measured
by how much its members care about one
another, Pasadena’s heart may be judged by
its outstanding healthcare facility, Huntington
Memorial Hospital. Huntington was born
from the collaboration of community leaders
in 1892 who formed the nonprofit Pasadena
Hospital Association. Today, it thrives because
that spirit of community caring and participation
has burgeoned with each new generation
of Pasadenans. Today, Huntington Memorial
Hospital draws its strength and support
from the people of Pasadena and, in turn,
provides the San Gabriel Valley with
unmatched healthcare.
Before the 16-bed Pasadena Hospital
opened its doors to patients in 1899, the seriously
ill of the area had been forced to ride a
baggage car into Los Angeles for hospital care.
This original facility was in the second story
of a business building in what is now Old
Town Pasadena, but the hospital association
had bigger plans. The association raised
$21,000 and built a permanent, two-story,
26-bed hospital on the site where Huntington
stands today. Thanks to ongoing private contributions,
other buildings were added
including a maternity ward and housing for
nurses. Throughout the first 30 years of the
century, Pasadenans gave generously and creatively.
Pipes, sheet metal, bedding, linen and
crates of oranges found their way to Pasadena
Hospital from enthusiastic philanthropists, in
addition to cash donations.
The Great Depression of the 1930s brought
the hospital to its direst days. The hard conditions
of the times led to this remark in the
1932 annual report: “Those unable to pay for
care appear in increasing numbers. And
income from paying patients has decreased
markedly. How long can we continue?” But
Pasadena Hospital was to have a benefactor
who would never know of his gift and the
good it would do to the organization that
would take his family’s name. Superintendent
Alice G. Henninger became aware of a
bequest in the will of railroad magnate Henry
Huntington in the amount of $2 million for
an unspecified hospital “in or near Los
Angeles” that would take the name Collis P.
and Howard Huntington Memorial Hospital.
These were the names of Huntington’s uncle
and son. In 1936, the Pasadena Hospital
Association took the Huntington name, ending
a period of doubt and generating a new
era of advancement.
Within four years of receiving the
Huntington bequest, Huntington Memorial
Hospital had renovated older facilities, retired
the hospital debt and built a children’s department
and physical therapy building, as well as
a major four-story fireproof hospital structure.
In 1941, Huntington Memorial admitted
more than 7,500 patients, performed 4,000
operations and delivered 754 babies. By
1950, these numbers nearly doubled. With
the national economy recovered from depression,
the community eagerly rose to the challenges
the hospital faced and supported its
growth. A second great gift came to
Huntington Memorial from the estate of
William Wingate who once had been a
patient. Wingate had taken a chance and

invested in a little known company called
IBM at its inception. His foresight meant a gift
of $5 million to the hospital, which named a
building in his honor.
The pattern of community support through
large and small gifts and the hospital’s advancement
in size and quality of care had been established
by the middle of the 20th century. As the
century ends, this pattern of support and
growth has given Pasadena a front-ranked hospital
that offers a vast assortment of leadingedge
care to persons of all ages.
Huntington Memorial Hospital provides
primary and critical care to hundreds of
thousands of people every year through
more than 90 programs and services. Since
1978, Huntington has also been a teaching
hospital through an affiliation with the USC
School of Medicine.
A visitor to Huntington Memorial will
probably first notice the new Hale East Tower,
named in honor of Charles and Carmen Hale
whose trust donation for cancer care is one of
the most generous in the history of
Huntington. The tower is crowned with a
helipad that serves the hospital’s emergency
room, the only Level II trauma center in the
San Gabriel Valley. Emergency and trauma
services as well as cardiac and pediatric care
units are aligned vertically along the elevator
path for swifter patient transport between
critical care areas. Huntington treats more
than 40,000 emergency and trauma cases
a year, maintaining a constant physician
presence in the ER and a trauma team on call
24 hours a day. The pediatric intensive care
unit has the highest-rated level of experience
and technology in high-risk maternity care
and neonatalogy.
The Hale East Tower holds 96 beds, all in
private rooms designed with great attention to
incorporating input from many sources. “The
new patient tower is a symbol of all that can be
accomplished when community members,
physicians, caregivers and administrators
share a vision of excellence,” says Jim Gamble,
the hospital’s 1998 board chairman. Each floor
has four separate patient care areas with eight
beds each and a dedicated nursing station. The
technologically advanced rooms have handi-
✧
Top: Huntington Hospital has the only
Level II trauma center serving the San
Gabriel Valley.
Below: In 1998, there were 806 volunteers
who contributed over 106,000 hours of
service to Huntington Hospital.
QUALITY OF LIFE
153

✧
Above: The Hale East Tower, opened to
patients in 1998, features all private rooms
with soft colors and natural lighting to
promote healing.
Bottom: A patient room in the new Hale
East Tower.
cap-accessible bathrooms and can accommodate
a loved-one who wishes to stay overnight
with a patient.
From an archway at Caltech’s Athenaeum
to a cantilevered balcony from the Hotel
Green, the Hale East Tower also incorporates
many other architectural details from notable
Pasadena buildings making a statement of the
hospital’s connection to the community.
Huntington Hospital offers the best in
cardiology, minimally invasive cardiovascular
and thoracic surgery, liver care, ophthalmic
surgery, orthopedic care, plastic
surgery and vascular surgery. Furthermore,
there is an asthma and allergy center, infertility
services, rehabilitation programs, and
psychiatric services among the broad range
of healthcare services offered to patients.
Huntington also does a great deal of outreach
work including its part in the
Community Health Alliance of Pasadena
(CHAP) which opened its doors to the medically
underserved population of northwest
Pasadena in 1998. The Senior Care Network
provides professional in-home assessment
and coordination of support services for
approximately 1,500 seniors, disabled adults
and caregivers a year.
The myriad ways in which Huntington
Memorial Hospital serves its community is
the fruit of the myriad ways the community
finds to support the hospital. From more than
1,500 donors in 1998, the hospital raised
$7.4 million in the form of philanthropic
gifts, bequests and pledges. Ninety-three
cents of each dollar donated goes directly to
patient care, medical education and other
vital hospital services.
“From the community, for the community
and with the community” characterizes the
heart and soul of the hospital, from its birth as
the Pasadena Hospital Association to its present
incarnation as Huntington Memorial
Hospital. Just as the architecture of the new
buildings reflects the elements of historic
Pasadena, the hospital itself reflects the high
quality of philanthropy that has typified
Pasadenans for more than a century.
HISTORIC PASADENA
154

Founded in 1924, the Pasadena Historical
Museum collects, preserves, exhibits, and makes
available to the public and scholars historic documents
and artifacts representative of the history
of Pasadena and the surrounding San Gabriel
Valley. Since 1970, the museum has been located
on the Fenyes Estate, a 2.1-acre site located
on the corner of Walnut Street and Orange
Grove Boulevard in Pasadena, California.
In 1982, the museum signed a 99-year lease
on the property with its owner, the Leonora
Curtin Paloheimo Trust, to preserve and exhibit
the property’s buildings, the contents of those
buildings, and its beautiful gardens. The property
is also now the site of the newly constructed
History Education Center where the museum’s
own collections of more than 1,000,000 historic
photographs of Pasadena are preserved and
exhibited. The museum’s collections also
include manuscripts, artifacts, books, costumes,
ephemera, and the original charter of the city of
Pasadena and the original plot plan of the
Indiana Colonists, the founders of Pasadena.
The principal building on the property
remains the Fenyes Mansion, an 18-room
Beaux Arts residence, designed in 1905 by the
famous architect, Robert Farquhar. In 1911, a
salon, designed by world-renowned architect
Sylvanus Marston, was added.
The mansion was the home of Eva Scott
Fenyes, and her husband, Adalbert. The Fenyeses
presided over the then 7-acre estate on Orange
Grove Boulevard, which was known as
“Millionaires’ Row.” Their wealth permitted them
to fill their home with antique furniture, decorative
arts, and paintings by national and regional
artists, such as Benjamin Brown and Richard
Miller. Also on display in the mansion are a few of
Eva Fenyes’ own watercolors, many of which are
of historic California missions and southwestern
adobes. Several of Eva’s paintings are in the collections
of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles,
California. The Fenyeses home was a center for
the cultural life of the Pasadena community. In
addition to being a patron of the arts, Eva held
weekly salons for her wide circle of friends,
including aspiring poets, artists, and musicians.
Also befriended by the Fenyeses were important
people in the motion picture industry and the
estate was used as the location for such early films
as D. W. Griffith’s The Queen’s Necklace.
The Fenyeses’ daughter, Leonora Muse Curtin,
inherited the estate and kept the Edwardian mansion
much the same as it was in 1905. Mrs.
Curtin passed the estate on to her daughter,
Leonora Curtin Paloheimo. After World War II,
Mrs. Paloheimo’s husband, George, a Finnish
diplomat, was appointed the Finnish Consul for
the Southwestern United States. For 16 years, the
mansion served as the Finnish Consulate, and to
this day, flies the American and Finnish flags.
George was responsible for adding a building
to the estate. In the 1960’s, he purchased a small
wooden structure designed by the noted architect
Frederick Roehrig and had it moved onto the
estate. This building, set in the extensive gardens
of the estate, was made into the Finnish Folk Art
Museum and contains George Paloheimo’s collection
of Finnish folk art and artifacts.
Today, in addition to offering public tours of
the Fenyes Mansion and the Finnish Folk Art
Museum, the museum’s new History Education
Center offers changing exhibits of art and the
history of Pasadena.
The primary mission of the Pasadena
Historical Museum is to educate the children
and adults of Pasadena about their past, to educate
all children and adults about the history of
the region, and to educate the visitors to the
museum about the artworks depicting scenes of
Pasadena and the remainder of the San Gabriel
valley painted from before the turn of the 20th
century to the present. The museum also hosts a
series of lectures each year that focus on the history
of Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley.
PASADENA
HISTORICAL
MUSEUM
✧
The Fenyes Mansion.
QUALITY OF LIFE
155

WESTMINSTER
PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
✧
Below: Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Bottom: The original Westminster Chapel,
mission branch of Pasadena Presbyterian
Church, located at Lake and Claremont, as
it appeared in 1907, before incorporation as
a separate church, and removal of the
chapel to a new site further north.
HISTORIC PASADENA
156
“We are a Church, called by Christ to Care,
to Share and to Dare. By God’s grace we proclaim
the gospel of Jesus Christ through worship,
fellowship and mission, ministering to all
of God’s children.” This mission statement of
the Westminster Presbyterian Church of
Pasadena, from a 1998 self-assessment of the
church, aptly reflects both the past of
Westminster and a vision for its future.
Throughout its eventful history, Westminster
Presbyterian Church indeed has cared, shared,
and dared to minister to all of God’s children.
The architectural evolution of the church is
intertwined with its fine record of service.
Visitors often are astonished to discover that
Westminster’s awesome sanctuary serves such
a close-knit, friendly and service-oriented congregation,
a true extended family.
Westminster’s majestic French Gothic style
cathedral, with its soaring crowned tower and
magnificent stained glass windows, was dedicated
in 1928, but the history of the church
goes back much further. Presbyterians were
the first denomination to found a church in
Pasadena during the pioneer days of 1875 in
what was then known as the Indiana Colony.
The Pasadena Presbyterian Church later
formed a mission branch in the rapidly growing
northern area of the city that became
known as Westminster Chapel. Under the
direction of the Reverend William E. Dodge,
the chapel hosted its first service on Sunday,
July 1, 1906.
Located but a few blocks south of the present
sanctuary, the chapel became an independent
church with 51 charter members on June
14, 1908 under the name Westminster
Presbyterian Church of Pasadena. The original,
craftsman style mission building was a lovely
redwood structure perfectly suited to the community
it served. Ladies Home Journal presented
the chapel an award as an outstanding
example of a small church structure.
Fortunately, the little church also traveled well.
In the winter of 1908-1909, during the
rainy season, the redwood chapel was moved
slowly by mule teams and log rollers to a new
location at Woodbury and Lake. Trolley wires
over Lake Avenue prevented a direct move, so
the church was in transit for weeks. At the
close of Sunday services Dodge would jokingly
tell the congregation that the following week’s
services would be held “at whatever vacant lot
on Catalina that you may find the building.”
The little chapel, which took Dodge’s name
when he retired, served the congregation in
many roles as other structures rose to house
Christian education and worship services.
By 1916, Westminster had grown to 214
members. The congregation contracted with
renowned Pasadena architect, Sylvanus
Marston, to design a new Westminster Chapel.
The new church went up and another landmark
event occurred with the chartering of
Boy Scout Troop 4, now the oldest continuously
meeting Boy Scout troop west of the
Mississippi. Its founding also marked the
beginning of extended community involvement
by Westminster Presbyterian Church,

involvement that has characterized the congregation
from those earliest days. Church House,
the Christian education and administrative
building, constructed in 1924-25, hosts many
community events and served as the site for
Wednesday evening fellowship dinners until
construction of a new fellowship hall in 1958.
A full gymnasium on the lower level of Church
House was also home to many activities.
The congregation grew rapidly during the
1920’s. In 1926, Sylvanus Marston again was
selected to develop plans for a great cathedral
sanctuary, this time with assistance from consulting
architect Ralph Adams Cram of
Boston, a preeminent church architect.
Construction began the following year, and
the cathedral was completed in 1928.
On July 25, 1928, a meeting of the Synod,
the first use of the new church, revealed that
the awe-inspiring new structure was an
acoustical nightmare, in which the spoken
word was rendered unintelligible. The church
was closed to permit installation of acoustical
tiles and a dossal curtain to cure the defect. On
November 28, 1928, a congregation of 801
attended dedication services conducted by the
Reverend Dr. Josiah Sibley. With the acoustics
fine tuned, voices from the pulpit, lectern and
choir reached clearly throughout the sanctuary,
and members of the congregation were
delighted by the sounds of a magnificent
Reuter pipe organ donated by Mary Wickett
Stewart in memory of her husband, Milton.
The original organ recently was replaced with
a state-of-the-art electronic console, the pipes
removed and the pipe chambers rebuilt, and
the console modified so that all impulses from
four keyboards and the foot pedals are carried
to the pipes by coaxial cable. The system produces
extremely rich sounds through the full
range of pipes of a cathedral-quality organ,
well suited for the world-class music for which
Westminster has always been known.
A style uniquely conducive to reverence
and worship, Westminster’s French Gothic
Cathedral draws its inspiration from medieval
cathedrals at Metz, Beauvais, and Amiens. The
150-foot tower is similar to the one at the
Église St. Maclou in Rouen. The ceilings were
decorated by master art stone painter Julian
Garnsey, who provided a starry heaven of
deepest azure above the nave and a rich crimson
vault above the pews adorned with crosses
and fleur-de-lis. Aside from required repair
due to earthquake damage, the colors laid
out by Garnsey never have been retouched
and remain rich and pleasing to the eye after
nearly three quarters of a century.
The cathedral sanctuary, a designated cultural
monument, is remarkable also for the
beautiful stained glass windows designed by
the Judson Studios of Los Angeles. The chancel
window, a soaring triptych in the grisaille
style of the Thirteenth Century, depicts Christ
ascending. Three magnificent rose windows,
each using a symbolic color, illuminate the
sanctuary. The Sapphire Window on the north
face symbolizes heaven and faith, and portrays
the parable of the Good Samaritan. The
southern, Emerald Window, symbolizes eternal
hope and happiness through the color of
spring, and depicts the parable of the Prodigal
Son. Spiritual love is in the color of the Ruby
Window on the east side of the church. Here
the six Christian virtues of ministering to the
hungry, thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the
sick, and the imprisoned are represented in
separate medallions.
The cathedral was designed to seat 1,600
and it would not be long before all of those
seats were filled. Although the membership
had declined to 642 souls by 1942, when
✧
Above, below: Earthquake repair,
necessitated by devastating quakes of 1990
and 1991, brought offers of aid from many
sources all over the world.
QUALITY OF LIFE
157

✧
Left: Reverend Dr. Max Merritt Morrison,
pastor from 1942-1966, with one of many
couples who have exchanged marriage vows
at Westminster.
Right: Reverend Dr. Twining Campbell and
Reverend Dr. Martha Campbell, a husbandwife
shared ministry team, have responded
to the call to become co-pastors of the
Westminster Presbyterian Church, their
term commencing September 1, 1999.
HISTORIC PASADENA
158
Dr. Max Merritt Morrison of Oklahoma was
called to become the new pastor, it grew by
leaps and bounds during his remarkable 24-
year ministry, rising to 1,040 members by
1944 and peaking in 1966 at 2,570, including
the nonresident associate members. Debt,
which had sorely pressed the church during
the Depression, was brought under control
and finally eliminated during his tenure, and
the congregation hosted such guests as Martin
Luther King, Jr., Richard Nixon, and Norman
Vincent Peale.
With a change in community demographics,
the church membership has declined
since the mid 1960’s. With but 325 members
on the present church rolls, the congregation
has embarked on a well-coordinated program
to attract younger members. Congregants of
all ages readily confess themselves pleased to
be associated with a church in which all members
know and care deeply for all of the others,
and show it.
Dedication of the Max Merritt Morrison
Hall in 1958 deepened Westminster’s involvement
in the local community by providing the
area with its first large gathering place, open
to the public. Many social, service and performing
groups ranging from Alcoholics
Anonymous to the Golden Years Dance Club
use the hall. Other on-site mission activities
include a children’s day care center, a clinic, a
public charitable foundation, and a non-sectarian,
professionally run psychological counseling
facility that offers help to those in need,
utilizing an “ability-to-pay” fee structure to
assure that no one is turned away.
Westminster’s community mission activities
beyond the church complex include
sponsoring development of low cost housing
for families displaced by freeway construction
and urban renewal, and continuing involvement
in low-to-moderate income housing in
central Pasadena. The congregation actively
supports Union Station, cold weather shelters
for the homeless, and numerous programs to
relieve hunger. For nearly a century, the congregation
has pursued a mission of caring,
sharing, and daring.
Faith is strong at Westminster—faith in
God, faith in the church, and faith in future. It
is emblematized in the timeless strength, grace
and height of the cathedral and in the efforts to
emulate Christ’s mission in the community.

CALIFORNIA
INSTITUTE OF
TECHNOLOGY
The California Institute of Technology is a
small, independent university specializing in
science and engineering and encompassing a
student body of some 900 undergraduate and
1,000 graduate students. Caltech has a worldrenowned
faculty, including three Nobel laureates,
and such off-campus facilities as the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Palomar Observatory,
and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
Over the years, Caltech alumni and faculty
have received 27 Nobel Prizes and 43
National Medals of Science.
Caltech began as Throop University,
founded in 1891 by the Honorable Amos G.
Throop as a local school of arts and crafts.
George Ellery Hale, first director of the Mount
Wilson Observatory, became a Throop trustee
in 1907, bringing with him a new vision for
the school’s future. By 1921, chemist Arthur
A. Noyes and physicist Robert A. Millikan had
joined Hale, and Throop had become the
California Institute of Technology. It was well
on its way toward becoming one of the world’s
leading institutions for scientific and engineering
research and education.
Over the years, Caltech scientists and engineers
have developed the principles that
made jet flight possible, published the logarithmic
scale for measuring the magnitude of
earthquakes, discovered the nature of quasars,
determined the nature of the chemical bond,
conducted studies of bacterial viruses that led
to a new branch of biology called molecular
genetics, theorized that all particles are made
up of quarks and anti-quarks, developed new
insights into the implications of right-brain
and left-brain functions, and played a critical
role in space exploration.
While the student body maintains a high
standard of scholarship and intellectual
achievement, the enterprising undergraduates
are also well known for their annual Ditch
Day, which over the years has gained the institution
local fame, as well as national media
coverage. On this unofficial day each spring,
seniors leave the campus, leaving their rooms
“stacked” against invasion by the underclassmen.
Over the years, the “stacks” have
evolved into complex, imaginative puzzles
that challenge the underclassmen to a day of
cerebral fun.
Today the campus occupies 124 acres in
Pasadena and includes among its 100 structures
some 40 laboratory and research buildings
equipped with the latest scientific instrumentation.
Caltech is currently focused on
expanding its programs in the biological sciences;
a $100-million campaign will fund a
new building, additional faculty, and state-ofthe-art
equipment.
✧
Top: Throop University relocated from its
downtown location to a 22-acre site at
California Boulevard and Wilson Avenue in
1910. The first building on the new campus
was Pasadena Hall, named after the citizens
who raised the funds for its construction.
The building was renamed Throop Hall in
1920 and was torn down after it suffered
extensive damage in the 1971 earthquake.
Above: In 1962 President Kennedy awarded
Theodore Von Kármán the first National
Medal of Science for his outstanding
contributions to the development of science
and engineering. Von Kármán and his
colleagues developed the principles of flight
that helped launch the aircraft industry in
Southern California.
Left: Beckman Auditorium, a campus
landmark and venue for performing arts
programs and lectures that are open to
the public.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB PAZ/CALTECH.
QUALITY OF LIFE
159

PACIFIC
CLINICS
✧
Top: Pasadena Child Guidance Clinic
Building. Established in 1926, Pacific
Clinics (formerly the Pasadena Child
Guidance Clinic) moved into its first
permanent facility in 1942, a tool shed in
Central Park adjacent to the Green Hotel
(above clinic) that had served as a soup
kitchen during the Great Depression.
Below: All Pacific Clinics programs
incorporate family involvement in order
to create a stable and supportive home
environment for the benefit of the child
and the family.
HISTORIC PASADENA
160
Pacific Clinics, in providing a broad array
of behavioral health services to Southern
California, strives toward a simple goal: give
clients what mental illness takes away—living
life to the fullest potential as a community
member. Although today the Clinics provides
more than a quarter of a million service hours
to 7,000 clients among a population of 3 million
people in 60 cities, Pacific Clinics began
humbly as the Pasadena Child Guidance
Clinic in the 1920s. The non-profit organization
has not only grown over the decades but
has evolved to meet the emergent needs of a
changing, expanding community.
Founded in 1926, the Pasadena Child
Guidance Clinic’s initial focus was on severely
emotionally disturbed children attending the
public schools of the city. The clinic did not
have it’s own offices until 1942 when the City
Board of Directors designated a small building
at 40 East Dayton in Central Park that had
served previously as a tool shed and soup
kitchen. From this modest space, the clinic
provided care to 175 children in 1943.
During and after World War II, the clinic
demonstrated what would become characteristic
flexibility when faced with treating children
fearful of bombing or families struggling
to reconfigure with the return of the
father/soldier. The minutes of a 1946 Clinic
Board Meeting describe the war-related cases
and refer to treatment approaches involving
the entire family—a collaborative process also
characteristic of the Clinics in the decades
since the war. Flexibility and evolution have
led the Clinics to broaden not only how it
serves but also whom it serves.
Just under one half of the clients of Pacific
Clinics are children. The Clinics help families
with at-risk youths, those suffering from biologically-based
disorders like schizophrenia,
depression, extreme hyperactivity, and attention
deficit disorder as well as those who are
in its programs because of physical, emotional,
and sexual abuse or other forms of deprivation.
The approach in all programs concentrates
on family involvement in order to create
a stable and supportive home environment for
the benefit of the child and the family. The
range of programs and services for adults,

seniors, the homeless, and children is impressive
and represents the collaborative efforts of
many community organizations coordinated
by Pacific Clinics.
The Clinics works hand-in-hand with the
Pasadena Unified School District on a number
of programs including the Oak Knoll Day
Treatment Center which offers school-based
day treatment for children ages 8-18 to help
them modify their behavior so they can stay in
school. The Day Treatment program provides
children referred by the County Department
of Mental Health with special education and
therapeutic counseling in conjunction with
the PUSD. Additional after school services are
offered to children and teens from the Clinics
and at the Community Outreach Center of
Pasadena. In Rosemead, Pacific Clinics works
with local school districts to provide programs
tailored to the multi-cultural behavioral
needs of the San Gabriel Valley through
the Asian Pacific Family Center. Familias
Unidas is similarly designed to serve the
Latino community.
In every program Pacific Clinics coordinates
or provides, no matter how many clients
the program may serve, the uniqueness of
each client is never forgotten. “Pacific Clinics
helps individuals and families by identifying
their needs and including them in developing
a personal program of care,” says Susan
Mandel, Ph.D., president and CEO of Pacific
Clinics since 1980. The insistence on characterizing
clients as “consumers” rather than
patients establishes a relationship that emphasizes
mutual participation—collaboration
with clients, families, and other organizations
is the Pacific Clinics approach.
In 1981, Pasadena Child Guidance Clinic
became the Pasadena Guidance Clinic and in
1987 the name changed to Pacific Clinics
reflecting the growing scope of the Clinics’
concerns. A natural progression from serving
children was to seek out ways to benefit families.
Pacific Clinics’ Family Service Center is a
community health service offered in collaboration
with the Community Health Alliance of
Pasadena (CHAP) to help children, adults,
older adults and families who are suffering
from emotional distress. Families turn to the
Center when the problems of adolescence
become uncontrollable, a family member is
dealing with depression, an aging parent is
suffering severe memory loss or any of the
myriad possible aspects of mental distress that
can tax a family’s ability to cope. The Center
responds with counseling, medication services,
substance abuse education, and other
services including referrals and follow-up.
Some of a community’s citizens needing
mental health services have no address of
their own and try to make their way on the
streets. For these people there is
Passageways. Financed by the Department of
✧
Top: Teens at risk of gang involvement learn
alternatives through Pacific Clinics’ school
based programs in Rosemead.
Below: Children playing on slide at Day
Treatment. “Young children with social
and psychological difficulties learn to
play together in Pacific Clinics’ Day
Treatment programs.”
QUALITY OF LIFE
161

✧
Top: The nationally recognized Pacific
Clinics Institute offers classes and publishes
a training manual. A Pacific Clinics’ client
did the painting on this publication.
Below: Over the decades, Pacific Clinics
has expanded to include many locations
including this newest facility which will
serve Monrovia, east of Pasadena.
HISTORIC PASADENA
162
Housing and Urban Development and managed
by Pacific Clinics, the Passageways program
brings a number of homeless services
under one roof with a characteristically cooperative
approach. Working with Union
Station, the police, the Public Health
Department and the AIDS Service Center,
Passageways functions in a dual role of
administering to human needs and facilitating
transition from destitution to a life more
fulfilling. The help offered may be a place to
shower and a way to recover one’s health
and/or counseling to help find a job. The
Clinics sponsors a Project Outreach van that
actively seeks individuals who could benefit
from these services.
And there is more. Pacific Clinics is
involved in preventative programs like
“Healthy Start” which helps families, children
and schools successfully work out behavioral
problems before they become serious.
Furthermore, the Clinics respond in crises
like earthquakes, fires, floods, and street violence
involving local neighborhoods and
schools or in community businesses. Such
wide involvement in diverse activities has
made Pacific Clinics an attractive place for
training and education and has led to the creation
of the Pacific Clinics Institute.
The Pacific Clinics Institute was created in
1996 for two reasons according to Director
Christopher Amenson, Ph.D. “One was now
that we have 350 staff at the Clinics, there are
lots of training needs internally. Second, we
have numerous requests from individual
providers and other agencies who want us to
train them because we’re seen as a leader in
the field.” Students and working professionals
come to Pacific Clinics for state-of-the-art
training in the fields of behavioral health.
For more than three decades, the Clinics’
intern training program has been providing
unique experience for students in professional
community-based mental health work collaborating
with local colleges and hospitals.
There are programs for students working on
a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, a Master’s
in Social Work or Art Therapy, or a Doctorate
in Clinical Psychology. The thirty-odd positions
are eagerly sought by students from all
over the country who are drawn to the
Clinics’ reputation as an innovative provider
of quality community services.
In addition to the human impact on the
citizens it serves, Pacific Clinics is an efficiently
run organization always keeping an
eye on itself looking for ways to improve. Of
its annual $30 million budget, 83% goes to
services directly benefiting clients. No one is
ever turned away for inability to pay. The
majority of the funding is from government
contracts for specific services, but an important
element of the budget comes from private
or corporate donation. The donations finance
innovative approaches to community behavioral
health needs and are essential to the
intellectual vitality of the organization. Pacific
Clinics is an organization proud of its record
of success and service and continues developing
better ways to reach and help one more
person struggling with a behavioral problem.

For all of its tranquil setting and peaceful
feel, Fuller Theological Seminary has been
characterized by its president as “the restless
seminary,” a place where students wrestle
with the big issues of faith and life and calling.
The multidenominational seminary is also
restless in the sense that, in the half-century
of its existence, Fuller has become one of the
largest, most respected centers of Christian
scholarship and evangelism in the world. This
was the mission of the seminary as envisioned
by its founders in 1947.
In the 1940s, Charles E. Fuller was a regular
Sunday guest in the homes of 20 million
Americans via his nationwide radio broadcast,
The Old Fashioned Revival Hour. The beloved
evangelist became determined to establish a
seminary in Pasadena, “a research center for
evangelical scholarship” to train men and
women for ministry, mission, and evangelism
that “should be the best of its kind in the
world.” “I am not an educator,” Fuller
wrote in 1946. “I must have the help of
men of like vision.” He found his man
in Harold Ockenga, the esteemed theologian-pastor
of Park Street Church in
Boston, and the two cofounded Fuller
Theological Seminary.
One year later, in 1947, 39 young
men gathered for Fuller Seminary’s
first semester. The Craven Estate on
Orange Grove Boulevard, an elegant
mansion, had been acquired for
classes, but a zoning dispute forced the
men to assemble at Lake Avenue
Congregational Church, where they
had to sit on children’s chairs in the
kindergarten room. On presumably
more appropriate furniture, classes
continued exclusively at the church
until 1953, when the seminary purchased
Ford Place, Pasadena’s first
upscale subdivision that is now home
to the seminary. The purchase was wise
not only for the lovely homes that
remain in use on the campus, but
because Charles Fuller chose a spot
near City Hall where no freeway would
ever impinge upon the seminary.
Today an international, multiracial,
and multidenominational group of
1,600 men and women attend classes on
Fuller’s Pasadena campus. The seminary is like
a theological university offering master’s and
doctoral-level education in three schools:
Theology, World Mission, and Psychology.
Since world-class scholars have always been
attracted to Fuller, the faculty in all three
schools are leaders in their fields. The School of
Psychology was the first non-university-based
school of its kind to be accredited by the
American Psychological Association. Total
enrollment on all campuses—including those
in Arizona, Colorado, and Washington, as well
as California—numbers 3,800 students from as
many as 125 denominations and 80 countries.
Today, as it was at its inception, Fuller
remains firmly rooted in the core tenets of
evangelical Christian faith: the centrality of
Jesus Christ, the authority of Scripture, the
power of the Holy Spirit, and a commitment
to share the gospel throughout the world.
FULLER
THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY
✧
Top: Dr. Harold Ockenga, Dean Harold
Lindsell, Dr. Charles Fuller, and Dr.
Hutchins discuss floor plans for the
administration building.
Bottom: Seminary President Richard Mouw
enjoys talking with students and visitors to
the Fuller campus in central Pasadena.
QUALITY OF LIFE
163

WILLIAM CAREY
INTERNATIONAL
UNIVERSITY
HISTORIC PASADENA
164
From the quiet heart of a North
Pasadena neighborhood, William
Carey International University
reaches persons spread all over the
world engaged in the important
work of international development.
The university, located on
the former campus of Pasadena
(Nazarene) College, takes the lead
in research and implementation of
methods to cross cultural boundaries
in efforts to improve the
quality of life in third world communities
in ways that are appropriate
to those communities. Men
and women already involved in
international development work
can seek higher education through
William Carey often without leaving
the field; some may never even
see the campus.
William Carey International
University was founded by Ralph
Winter in 1977. Winter, a graduate
of Caltech and a native of
South Pasadena, had spent his life
as a scholar and missionary and
had become a professor at Fuller
Theological Seminary when he
began to look at the work of missions
in a different way. First, he
saw that although there were Christian missions
in every country of the world, still there
were cultural and ethnic boundaries within
many countries that left many peoples
untouched. Secondly, Winter saw that
through the efforts of international development
(both religious and secular) communities
could be transformed. Lastly, and importantly,
Winter chose an anthropological
approach to international development that
concentrates on working within the existing
culture rather than attempting to change it
into something foreign.
The name chosen for this new university
belonged to a man who personified this
approach to international development and
lived nearly 200 years ago. William Carey
was a brilliant Englishman who dedicated his
entire life to the people of India. He mastered
local languages, catalogued local wildlife and
plants, and founded one of the oldest colleges
in India. The college at Serampore offered
higher education to all castes and creeds. The
aim of the college was not to Anglicize the
Indians but to provide them with the best of
their own literary and historical knowledge
so they could communicate as educated
Indians with educated persons from other
cultures. The term “international development”
did not exist for William Carey, but he
lived the concept.
Although sprung from the Christian
missionary movement, William Carey
International University is not a religious
school. It is a public benefit corporation
authorized by the State of California to
confer Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts
and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in
International Development. WCIU professes
that international development be approached

wholistically by addressing social, cultural,
religious, educational, economic and technical
issues with a broad view. In the field, the voluntary,
non-governmental organizations working
cross-culturally and engaged in such
integrated development are the ones that form
WCIU’s constituency. Persons doing such
work form a major part of the university’s student
population and extended faculty.
Among the unique features of WCIU is the
way individuals working in the field can pursue
higher education while still in the field. A
prospective master’s student must find a mentor
nearby and have access to a library with
the necessary materials. Upon application to
the university, the administration reviews the
credentials of the mentor and library and
admits the student if university standards are
met. A Ph.D. student in the field also must
find a qualified committee and library, but
could earn the degree having
never set foot in Pasadena. The
majority of the students of WCIU
are off campus.
The small size of the student
population reflects another unique
aspect of WCIU; it is a “laboratory
school” dedicated to experimentation
and helping other schools
with innovation. Small size facilitates
the university’s ability to try
new things. Whatever knowledge
is gained is offered to other institutions
in hope that all organizations
involved in international development
can move ahead together.
University curricula are available
for use by other colleges with
which WCIU seeks to network in
the spirit of cooperation. The flow
of education goes two ways.
WCIU currently receives
information from scores of voluntary
associations and training
centers involved in development.
Voluntary, non-government organizations
are responsible for
roughly 70% of the work of international
development having
founded, for example, over half
of the colleges and hospitals of
Africa and Asia. Cooperative arrangements
with some of these organizations provide
diverse opportunities for cross-cultural
experience, field research, and career placement.
WCIU students may be referred to
like-minded training centers and professors
in Korea, England, or Costa Rica, for example,
while students from those and other
countries may enroll in WCIU’s field-based
graduate programs.
“We are interested in any kind of cross-cultural
communication problem. It doesn’t make
any difference to us where people are,” says
Ralph Winter, who is Chancellor of WCIU,
having served two terms as president. William
Carey International University remains true to
this sentiment in the way that it remains closely
engaged with those doing the work of international
development, exchanging education
and reaching across cultural barriers.
✧
William Carey International University is
based in Pasadena. However, its students
are located around the world, using
resources supplied by the university along
with local libraries and computer access.
QUALITY OF LIFE
165

GUARDIAN
AMBULANCE
It was not long ago that Los Angeles
County was home to numerous private ambulance
services. Today, there are only a few of
those companies left and Guardian
Ambulance Service remains one of the only
family-owned services in the area. “The key is
treating people with dignity,” says company
founder Larry Smith, who takes pride in the
business he developed.
Larry Smith is a Pasadena native who has
seen the city undergo numerous changes. As
a young man, he had no idea that he would
one day contribute to that era of change.
After attending area schools, Larry married
Patricia Dunne, a Pasadena native and
Registered Nurse, who shared his strong
belief in helping those less fortunate.
Together they raised five children and more
than 30 foster children. After years of working
as a paint specialist in the automobile and
interior design industry, Smith was forced to
change careers at the age of forty-five due to
work related health problems. A seeming disaster
at the time, he now calls this forced
experience “one of the best things that ever
happened to me.”
Smith went to work at Huntington
Memorial Hospital, first in food services and
later in the physical therapy department. As a
therapist, he learned the value of establishing
a rapport with patients and their families, and
began to see the need for personalized service
✧
Top: Guardian Ambulance founder, Larry
Smith and wife, Patricia, a Registered
Nurse. Both are natives of Pasadena.
Right: When a Guardian ambulance
arrives, the patient can be sure of receiving
personalized care with the respect he or she
deserves. Serving Pasadena since 1986.
HISTORIC PASADENA
166

in the healthcare industry. In the early 80’s,
Smith began his involvement with a nonemergency
transportation company and soon
became head of Operations. Six years of managing
dial-a-ride and wheelchair vans gave
Smith the experience he needed to start his
own ambulance service, which he aptly named
Guardian. The company, which started with
one ambulance and two employees, was established
around the belief that people should
always get more than they expect with the
respect that they deserve. A distinctive
emblem that resembles angel wings and the
hand-crocheted green and whites “granny
blankets” stand as the company hallmarks that
healthcare is more than textbook medicine.
Today, the company offers a variety of services
including Basic Life Support, Advanced
Life Support, Critical Care Nurse Staff, and
Long Distance Transports. Over the years,
Guardian has employed hundreds of
Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics
and Nurses who have assisted in its tremendous
growth. While Guardian responds to all
areas in Los Angeles County, it is and always
will be a Pasadena based service. Over time,
the goal of preserving a family-owned business
which gives back to the community has
been passed on to all of the Smith children;
sons Randy and Chris and daughters
Suzanne, Jennifer, and Melinda. They have all
contributed to the success of the company
with their individual strengths that include a
tenacious work ethic and a fervent faith in
God. This faith was passed on to them by
their grandmother, Catherine Dunne, and
parents whose vision laid the foundation.
Guardian Ambulance continues to provide
the personalized service for which they are
known and emphatically state they have no
intention of ever becoming a big conglomerate.
They remain committed to serving the
people of Los Angeles County, carrying out
the promise of their motto: “Tender loving
care-one patient at a time!”
✧
The sons and daughters of Larry and
Patricia have contributed to Guardian’s
growth and excellence. Top (left to right):
Chris and Randy. Bottom (left to right):
Jennifer, Suzanne, and Melinda.
PHOTO COURTESY OF O’CONNELL PHOTOGRAPHY.
QUALITY OF LIFE
167

REASONS TO
BELIEVE
For decades, if not centuries, the worlds of
science and Christianity have seemed to be
separate camps viewing one another with
suspicion and, at times, scorn. Many judged
that the tenets of Scripture were incompatible
with the discoveries and conclusions of
Scientific Method. Reasons to Believe, a nonprofit
organization founded in Pasadena, is
dedicated to reconciling the communities of
church and science by demonstrating ways
that scientific discoveries substantiate rather
than refute Scripture and point to the existence
of the Creator.
Fascinated by the stars and the heavens
from the time of his boyhood in Canada,
Hugh Ross pursued a personal journey of
inquiry about the universe that resulted in
his Christian faith. Ross’ boyhood passion
for astronomy led to his adult education
with the study of physics at the University of
British Columbia and an eventual Ph.D. in
astronomy from the University of Toronto. A
research fellowship at Caltech brought Ross
to Pasadena in 1973. Desiring to grow spiritually,
Ross joined a Sierra Madre Bible
study group.
The presence of a Caltech science scholar at
Bible study meetings struck some of the congregation
as odd, at least at first. Feeling the
gap between technically trained academians
and lay churchgoers, Ross began to share
his observations and conclusions as a scientist
that reinforced Biblical concepts and assertions.
In the small, personal arena of
local Christian groups and the academic community,
Ross helped bring the church closer to
scientists and some scientists closer to the
church by asserting the “objective reasons for
belief” he found in science. The schism
between the intellectual community and
Christian evangelicalism, which Ross had
never understood, began to vanish under the
light of knowledge.
Ross, encouraged by Caltech colleagues,
shifted from merely participating in Bible
study classes to leading classes where
scientific discoveries were presented and
scientific challenges were welcomed. The
concept is simple: Christian belief has nothing
to fear from knowledge; in fact, greater
knowledge supports firmer belief. By 1976,
Ross was a Minister of Evangelism at the
Sierra Madre Congregational Church offering
a “Paradoxes” class on Sundays that
encouraged debate and exploration–a scientific
process encouraged under the banner
of a church.
Ross’ book, The Fingerprint of God, carried
his approach and message beyond the horizons
of Pasadena and around the world
HISTORIC PASADENA
168

in 1989. Since the second edition was
published in 1991, the book has sold
more than 100,000 copies. The book reconciles
scientific and biblical cosmologies
through chapters such as “Transcendence
and Quantum Gravity” and “The Expanding
Universe.” Ross’s wife, Kathy, who had
been an English instructor at Pasadena City
College, edited the book. Other books
have followed, including The Creator and
the Cosmos in seven languages, Creation
and Time, Beyond the Cosmos, and The
Genesis Question.
The burst of discoveries that prompted the
writing of his first book led Ross to found a
ministry called Reasons to Believe in 1986.
Donations, book revenues, and the honoraria
Ross receives for speaking engagements
around the world sustain the non-profit organization.
The organization has grown from
Ross and a few volunteers operating out of
the spare rooms of a church to a staff of 22
persons occupying several offices in
Glendora. The staff includes a full-time scientist
(in addition to Ross) who concentrates on
new developments and discoveries in the life
sciences. Reasons to Believe hopes to add
more scientists to the staff to deal with the
vastness of knowledge and new discoveries
that invariably support the assertions and
truth of Scripture.
Organizations of individuals who value
and support Reasons to Believe have begun
to spring up around the country and
beyond. Reasons to Believe is only just
beginning to prepare guidelines and bylaws
to establish homegrown groups in
Alabama, Texas, and Colorado as chapters
of the organization. International branches
exist in Africa, Australia, Canada, Japan,
and New Zealand. The excitement generated
by Reasons to Believe points to even
wider media involvement and increased
public participation.
Reasons to Believe has its roots in
Pasadena’s rich religious and scientific communities
and is pleased to remain attached to
the city through a Skeptics Forum held
bimonthly at the University Club. Those
who attend the forum are invited to raise
questions and challenge assertions in what
can best be described as an intellectual freefor-all.
Furthermore, the organization maintains
an address in Pasadena because of the
city’s recognition worldwide. It is partially
due to the unique qualities of Pasadena’s
diverse intellectual community that this dialogue
between evangelicalism and science
began here. That dialogue has taken on the
name Reasons to Believe and is spreading to
church halls and institutions of learning
across the country and around the world.
QUALITY OF LIFE
169

HILLSIDES
HOME FOR
CHILDREN
✧
Deaconess Evelyn Wile poses with the
children on the stairs of the original
Home established in 1914.
HISTORIC PASADENA
170
Nestled in the rolling hills of the San Rafael
Heights adjacent to the Church of the Angels
lies the modern vision of an extraordinary
woman, Deaconess Evelyn Wile. Hillsides
Home for Children was originally called the
Church Home for Children and was proposed
to Episcopal Bishop Johnson in 1913 by
Deaconess Wile. She received the Bishop’s
permission and blessing, but there was no
extra money in the diocese budget. Funds
would have to be raised through donations.
Undaunted and filled with faith in God,
Deaconess Wile set about establishing the first
“cottage style” orphanage in Southern
California. “I am confident that this could be
begun in a small way and worked up to great
things,” she wrote in those early years.
The cottage style approach to a children’s
home sought to set up a home-like residence
with small groups of children occupying each
dwelling and only a few sleeping in the same
room. This was a big step away from the dormitory
style warehouses that were the most common
form of orphanage at the turn of the century.
After a few years at 500 East Avenue 28, the
present location on Avenue 64 was acquired in
1915 and by 1918 there were two cottages on
the pastoral site providing homes for 15 boys
and 15 girls. Some of the children were orphans,
some came from broken homes, and some came
from families too poor to support them. “When
we once get them, we want to keep them as long
as we can, sending them to public school and
training them at home to be useful, good citizens,”
states a report for the year 1920.
The infirmary wing of the Administration
Building was built in 1922, and the whole
structure, still in use today, was completed in
1926, the year Deaconess Wile died. In 13
years she had seen her plans and hopes come
to fruition and laid the foundation for an
organization that continues to lead in the area
of children’s concerns. Today, the cottages on
the 17 acres of Hillsides and satellite homes in
the community accommodate 67 children,
and the campus includes a school, auditorium,
pool, library, a recreation center, and
treatment services facilities. Hillsides is also
the home of outreach services that serve the
community beyond the campus. The mission
of the home has remained the same but the
times and the needs of children have changed
over the decades.
Resident children on the campus today are
referred by government agencies and have usually
suffered severe abuse. The re-creation of a

safe and peaceful home-like atmosphere is
essential for these children, but they also
require more. Each young resident is assigned
a social worker and is exposed to a wide variety
of educational, therapeutic and enrichment
programs that aid in recovery from trauma and
development of the skills, habits and confidence
to live their lives. The average stay for a
child is 18 months. Hillsides also has two satellite
group homes in Altadena and Pasadena
that provide treatment and develop independent
living skills for a dozen teenagers.
Beyond its serene campus, Hillsides reaches
into the community to help families in trouble
through the Family Center on Villa Street in
Pasadena. “We always felt that had there been
earlier intervention many of these children never
would have been placed in residential care,” says
Family Center Director Sylvia Levitan. The center
provides mental health programs for children
ages 6 to 20, a Trauma Recovery Program for
young sexual abuse victims, and the Family
Support Program that prevents neglect by providing
families with links to educational, medical
and childcare services. As a further preventative
measure, the center’s Families Together
Program and various elementary and middle
schools in the Pasadena Unified School District
provide counseling, parenting classes, and
neighborhood problem-solving sessions.
Hillsides also offers a Family Preservation
program that sends specially-trained therapists
into troubled homes to help solve the
problems that threaten to break families up.
These therapists have gone into some of the
area’s more notorious apartment complexes
and housing to help families make a safer
environment for the children living there. The
outreach programs serve more than 550 families
and nearly 2,000 children each year. The
Home is also involved in community-based
services in Echo Park, Silver Lake and
Altadena as well as Pasadena.
Originally, funding for the Church Home
for Children came exclusively from churches
and individuals. The devout Deaconess Wile
would often pray aloud in public for the
needs of the Home, which would then almost
magically appear through donation. Today,
three-quarters of Hillsides’ funding comes
from government contracts and referral, while
the remaining quarter comes from private
resources. In 1998, the budget of Hillsides
was nearly $7 million, of which less than 10%
went to administration costs, and more than
80% went into the services the Home provides.
The Deaconess’ dream has grown. “We
are preserving the best about our roots in
making our children safe,” says Executive
Director John Hitchcock. “At the same time
we stay on the cutting edge, looking for new
ways to help better the lives of all children.”
✧
Above: The senior girls’ cottage, the
Administration building and the senior boys’
cottage serve as a backdrop for this photo
taken in 1954.
Below: Two new cottages were dedicated in
1999. These major facilities are part of an
$8 million capital improvement effort
undertaken by Hillsides.
PHOTO COURTESY OF STUDIO 1501 PHOTOGRAPHY.
QUALITY OF LIFE
171

BETHANY
HOME
HEALTH
CARE
✧
Top: Bethany Home Health Care is a family
business. (Left to right) Myrna Barinaga,
R.N., M.S.Ed, co-founder and director of
patient care services; daughters Vena
Impala, administrator-Moreno Valley office;
Stella Barinaga, PHN, R.N., nurse
supervisor; Leon Barinaga, Jr., co-founder
and administrator; and Leon Barinaga III,
billing manager.
Right: Myrna Barinaga’s expertise in the
nursing field and nursing education
combined well with husband Leon’s abilities
as an attorney and administrator to
establish Bethany Home Health Care
in 1990.
HISTORIC PASADENA
172
Bethany Home Health Care was founded
by Leon L. Barinaga, Jr. and his wife Myrna in
1990 and has grown into a thriving and very
respected provider of home healthcare.
Bethany specializes in meeting the needs of
patients requiring assistance after discharge
from the hospital, persons suffering from
Alzheimer’s or paralysis, the elderly in need of
home assistance, the chronically ill or disabled
or those faced with terminal disease
who wish to remain at home. The care provided
is always respectful of the dignity, values
and specific needs of each patient.
Although the history of Bethany is not
lengthy, the story behind it is uniquely
American. Leon Barinaga came from Dipolog,
Zamboanga del Norte in the Philippines and
attended Silliman University where he received
his law degree in 1957. Myrna Pilpa Barinaga
graduated as a nurse from the same University
two years later and the marriage of the two
young people would prove in time to also be a
union of unique skills for creating Bethany
Home Health Care. The Barinagas moved their
family to Southern California in the 1960s and
eventually settled in Pasadena. With Leon’s
skills as an attorney and Myrna’s expertise in
medical care, Bethany was started in 1990 and
swiftly became one of the fastest growing home
healthcare agencies in the Southland.
Today, Bethany’s East Colorado office has a
staff of eight with a field staff comprised of 31
visiting nurses and annual revenues of more
than one million dollars. Bethany also serves
Moreno Valley with a smaller office at 11441
Heacock offering a full range of home healthcare
services. It is a state-licensed, Medicare
certified and JCAHO accredited organization
that accepts all people who need care regardless
of age, race, sex, religion, sexual preference,
mental or physical handicaps.
A staff that is carefully screened and
insured who is also multi-lingual to meet the
variety of needs in the field provides the services.
Skilled nurses assist physicians in plan-

ning and carrying out home care programs.
Physical therapists help patients rehabilitate
muscles or relieve pain through massage,
exercises and training with assistive devices.
Occupational therapists help improve and
restore independent functioning. Home
health aides assist patients with personal care
and the activities of daily living such as
bathing, feeding, meal preparation, exercise
and other tasks difficult for the in-home
patient. Medical social workers identify needs
related to a patient’s illness and acts as an
advocate in obtaining community services.
Administratively, Bethany takes pride in
simplifying the paperwork for patients when
they are being referred or when they must
deal with research and claims. A single telephone
call to the office and the staff there will
seek out the proper authorization to provide
care. Once under Bethany care, the patient
can rely upon the staff to research the available
health coverage and to process all
claims—in short, to handle all the paper
work. Bethany is comprehensive in the service
it provides to patients both medically and
administratively.
With the business established and a success,
the Barinaga family suffered a sad loss in
1998 when husband, father and grandfather
Leon Barinaga, Jr. passed away. Leon, or Jun
as he was known to his many friends, was a
devout Christian and Deacon of the Altadena
Baptist Church. His devotion to Silliman
University led to his co-founding of the SU
Alumni Association of Southern California,
eventual membership in the Silliman North
American Alumni Fund and its efforts at
fundraising to provide incentive awards for
outstanding faculty.
“Deliberate, thoughtful, gentle in manner;
a true gentleman in the best sense of the
word. Such persons are gems who make life
brighter for the rest of us.” So wrote Agustin
A. Pulido, President of Silliman University on
hearing of Barinaga’s death. He was well
known in the community as a leader himself,
as well as mentor and counselor to young
leaders. Leon “Jun” Barinaga’s legacy is his
family and a business that reflects the finest
aspects of his own personality—thoughtful
kindness and caring.
✧
Top: Leon (Jun) Barinaga, Jr. (1933-1998).
A dapper man, such dignity, propriety,
uncommon courage, such unconditional
respect for brother man, for sister, for
work associate, for next-door neighbor,
for friend, for stranger at the door.
POEM BY LETICIA CATACUTAN JUE.
Below: A Bethany staff photo from 1995
with the Barinagas at center.
QUALITY OF LIFE
173

ARIA
MONTESSORI
SCHOOL
HISTORIC PASADENA
174
On lovely Euclid Avenue among the familiar
trees and homes of an earlier Pasadena,
Aria Montessori School carries on a tradition
of children’s education that began in 1913.
The 72 young students at Aria trace letters,
teach themselves about the world and how to
take care of themselves by using the materials,
kid-sized tables, and kid-level windows and
shelves that were built into the classrooms in
1916. May Davies opened the school in 1913,
embraced the Montessori Method in 1915
and named the school The Children’s House.
May Davies was an innovator in children’s
education who trained at the Pratt Institute in
Brooklyn, New York. In Pasadena, her husband
Augustus Davies converted a hayloft into
a classroom so May would be able to open a
kindergarten class. Her first class was comprised
of her son, Elton, and a little girl named
Marion Harwood. In 1915, May had learned of
the brilliant success of the Montessori method
with poor children in Rome and took classes
from Dr. Maria Montessori when she visited
the United States that year. By 1918, there
were more than 74 young students at The
Children’s House.
May Davies was an avid student of educational
techniques but she remained a proponent
of the Montessori method. “Her choice
of the Montessori method was made for a
number of reasons,” recollected her son Elton,
“the strongest was her greater respect for the
Montessori concept of freedom. It seemed to
her based on a more accurate understanding
of a child’s nature and needs.” In his letter
recalling his early days in Pasadena, Elton further
writes, “My mother carried on the fourfold
work of school administration, teaching
(which she always put first), teacher training,
and talks to parents... displaying devoted perseverance,
creative imagination, and common
sense. Her greatest qualities, however, were
her spiritual insight and integrity, and her
penetrating philosophical approach to educational
methods and problems.”
Elton Davies returned to the site of his
childhood in 1986. He was shocked to find
the school his mother founded at 693 South
Euclid still operating out of the same buildings
his father had constructed. He saw children
using the drawers for materials that he
had used, they were learning letters by running
their little fingers over sandpaper cutouts
and numbers using spindle boxes, beads
and blocks just as May Davies had taught.
JoAnn Aria, current owner of the school,
recounts how the children listened raptly as
Elton Davies told them about the cows that
once grazed nearby and how he chased the ice
wagon as a youth. May Davies, 80, died in
1947 two weeks after completing a summer
session, but her legacy lives on at Aria
Montessori.

JoAnn Aria is the fifth owner of the school
that has continually been open as a Montessori
School since 1915. Nine teachers guide 72
students ages 3 to 5 in the four traditional
areas of Montessori education. The Practical
Life area encourages focus, coordination and
caring for self and the environment. Sensorial
exercises help a child to discriminate senses
using colors, scents and shapes to teach the
skills of categorization. Mathematics skills
develop from the use of concrete concepts and
items like grouped beads or blocks with dots.
Finally, language skills are also encouraged
through the use of hearing, seeing and touch
exercises to build vocabulary; 70-80% of the
five-year-olds leave school able to read.
The key to the Montessori approach is that
none of the children are forced. Children
progress at their individual rates and are
encouraged to follow their natural desire to
learn, work and concentrate. It was a revolutionary
approach in 1915; it is very effective
today. Elton Davies voiced what May Davies
might think if she could visit Aria Montessori
today. “Both my parents, my mother especially,
would be happy,” Elton wrote after his
visit. “Thanks for what you have achieved—
are achieving here.”
✧
Opposite, top: May Davies and her young
son, Elton, who was one of the first students
at The Children’s House.
Opposite, middle: May Davies (left)
welcomes Dr. Maria Montessori (right),
and her interpreter (center) to the school
in 1917.
Opposite, bottom: Students in the 1930s
learn through individual activities using
bells, number rods and a sorting exercise.
The materials and child-sized furniture
were a Montessori innovation.
Top, left: One of the earliest homes in the
area, the Davies house (now school) under
construction in 1911.
Top, right: Aria Montessori School, The
Children’s House today.
Left: A recent class of children display the
sandpaper cutouts that help them learn the
alphabet through sight, sound, and touch.
QUALITY OF LIFE
175

PACIFIC OAKS
COLLEGE AND
CHILDREN’S
SCHOOL
✧
Top: Pacific Oaks College Administration
and Classroom Building.
Below: A teacher and students at the Pacific
Oaks Children’s School, circa 1950.
HISTORIC PASADENA
176
The unusual combination found in the
name Pacific Oaks College and Children’s
School reflects the unique evolution that has
formed an extraordinary institution. The
roughly 1,000 college students on the Pacific
Oaks campuses and 200 young students at the
Children’s School in Pasadena are the latest
beneficiaries of education that values the individual
in the tradition of the Quakers who
founded the schools in the early 20th Century.
What is today the Children’s School began
as the La Loma House for orphans in 1906
founded by sisters Ada Mae and Imelda Brooks
on California Avenue. The Brooks sisters created
Pasadena’s first kindergarten and primary
school in 1909, and, in 1912, teachers were
being trained at the school that took the name
Broadoaks. From early on, the school, which
has become Pacific Oaks, has performed the
dual role of educating children and the educators
of children.
Quaker involvement began with Broadoaks’
affiliation with Whittier College that finally
acquired the school from the retiring Brooks
sisters in 1930. Whittier faculty was already
involved in the Broadoaks B.A. program for
teachers. In 1945, seven Quaker families purchased
the Broadoaks property and opened the
Pacific Oaks Friends School as a place where
children were valued as individuals, listened to
seriously, and encouraged to believe in the
value of their own ideas. Very little time passed
before Pacific Oaks again became a place where
teachers trained. Philosophically inclusive and
non-discriminatory, the Quakers of the school
were joined by non-Quakers over the years
finally reaching the point where Pacific Oaks
could no longer be strictly called a Quaker
school. Even so, the essence of Quaker values
is still an indispensable part of Pacific Oaks.
While many still see Pacific Oaks as primarily
a children’s school, elsewhere it is seen
as primarily a college. In addition to the main
college campus located in the beautifully preserved
homes on Orange Grove, Pacific Oaks
has affiliations in Seattle, Oakland and Visalia
as well as offering courses on-line to students
around the world. Among many achievements,
the college played an essential role in
training the first wave of educators for the
Headstart Program in 1965. Pacific Oaks was
also the pioneer in Assessment By Life
Experience (ABLE) which is a method of
evaluating mature individuals’ life experience
and assigning appropriate college credit to
that experience.
The average student at Pacific Oaks is a
working person in her thirties seeking a graduate
degree in human development hoping to
pursue work in education, human services,
and/or counseling. From its beautiful campuses
in Pasadena and beyond, Pacific Oaks
College and Children’s School is building
upon its tradition of educating children and
adults with an emphasis on the individual.

PASADENA
ATHLETIC
CLUB
The opening of the Pasadena Athletic Club
in October of 1926 was a major event that covered
the front page of the local paper. The towering
building at the corner of Green and Los
Robles was designed by Marston, Van Pelt &
Maybury, architects of Caltech’s Athenaeum,
and boasted four floors of apartments above
the main facility which had a pool with diving
platform, squash courts and a gymnasium.
Built with membership sales, the club thrived
until the Depression when its doors closed in
bankruptcy. It reopened in 1940 as a family
business when J. Randolph “Randy” Richards
acquired the property.
In 1942, the Army asked Richards if he
could provide a private club for officers in the
area. A beautiful lounge and dining room
were built in the basement of the building
that the Army used through 1946. When the
Army left, the dining room and lounge (converted
to a nightclub) opened to the public
offering music five evenings a week. The
Pasadena Athletic Club became a key gathering
spot for Pasadenans.
Many children and young people of the
post-war period hold fond memories of
Coach Bud Lyndon who was the club’s athletic
director and swimming coach. In addition
to his way with the young, Lyndon coached
Olympic divers John McCormack, Richard
Connor, two-time medallist Sammy Lee, and
four-time Olympian Juno Stover.
The building succumbed to progress when
it was demolished for the downtown mall
development in 1977. In that same year, the
Pasadena Athletic Club opened in its new
location at 25 West Walnut with a few flourishes
preserved from the original structure.
The dragon flag holders and the front doors
are from the original building as are the
stained glass windows over the lobby, a chandelier,
and a few gargoyles favored by
Richards that snarl down from the covered
parking entrance. Richards and his wife
Marge moved into one of the condominiums
over the new facility.
At the new club, Randy was joined by his
son Mark, who managed the club until his
untimely death in 1986. Presently the club
is managed by Mark’s brother, John, who has
been the sole manager since Randy Richards
passed away in 1996. The new Pasadena
Athletic Club has open membership and
welcomes members of all age groups. The
facilities include weight training and cardiovascular
equipment, 25-meter Olympic
pool, half court basketball, tennis, racquetball-handball
courts, childcare, whirlpool,
sauna and steam rooms. The personable staff
provides a variety of group fitness classes
and individualized instruction in sports and
fitness activities.
“Many families have been members for
more than twenty years,” says John Richards.
“It’s a quiet family operation with a special feeling
of stability and community.”
✧
Top: The Pasadena Athletic Club at 25 West
Walnut, where members enjoy swimming,
court sports, weight and cardiovascular
training and much more.
Bottom: The original Pasadena Athletic
Club at Los Robles and Green designed by
Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury.
QUALITY OF LIFE
177

PLANNED
PARENTHOOD
OF PASADENA
✧
Top: Elizabeth Calleton, president/CEO,
and Marjorie Leisure, RNP, lead clinician,
outside the Pasadena headquarters of
Planned Parenthood of Pasadena.
Right: Katherine Gillespie, chair of the
board of directors, and Dr. Drew Pinsky,
recipient of the “Birds and Bees” Award for
his work on sexuality education, at the 65th
Anniversary Luncheon of Planned
Parenthood of Pasadena.
HISTORIC PASADENA
178
It started in 1933 as a Mother’s Clinic
administering to 200 women associated with
the Women’s Hospital in Pasadena and by 1998
had grown to a substantial Non-profit
Corporation serving 8,000 patients with medical
services and more than 50,000 other community
members with educational services.
Planned Parenthood of Pasadena currently
employs 32 persons in the offices at 1045
North Lake Avenue and has an annual budget
of nearly 1.5 million dollars. But the beginnings
of the operation back in the Great
Depression were on a much smaller scale, even
if the basic goals have remained the same.
The “well baby” clinic staffed by women
volunteers in 1933 was dedicated to helping
new mothers. Dr. Clarence Gamble donated
$3,000 to 14 of the volunteers who wanted to
respond to the cry for help raised by some of
the new mothers who were deeply worried that
their families, overburdened by too many children,
might flounder. Dr. Gamble’s donation
founded the Mother’s Clinic which counseled
women on methods of birth control.
In 1951, the clinic became affiliated with
Planned Parenthood which had been founded
by Margaret Sanger in 1916. When the hospital
closed in 1956, Planned Parenthood moved to
a modest bungalow on Fairmont Avenue; seven
years later a burgeoning patient load dictated
the move to the larger facility on Lake Avenue
with satellite clinics in Monrovia and Azusa.
Planned Parenthood has always offered
services to anyone in need who has come to
their doors. Their belief is in the fundamental
right of each individual to manage his or her
fertility regardless of income, age, background
or residence. Further, Planned Parenthood
holds that self-determination in reproductive
matters will enhance quality of life and strong
family relationships
Among the services offered are first
trimester abortions and sexual counseling for
teens, both are sometimes controversial. “No
more than 5% of our budget goes to abortion
services. Our main business is prevention,”
says CEO Elizabeth Calleton. “Teenagers come
to us after they have become sexually active,
this is a place to come for reliable counseling.”
Tens of thousands of people have benefited
from the education programs offered
through the clinics where counselors
provide the knowledge to help men
and women make responsible choices.
Planned Parenthood also recognizes
the efforts of others in the field
of education, they bestowed their
first Birds and Bees Award to Love
Line’s Dr. Drew for his work in educating
listeners and viewers on the
radio and MTV.
In addition to state and federal
funding, Planned Parenthood relies
on the community it serves for more
than a quarter of its annual budget—
a local partnership that has been sustained
for 65 years.

Thousands of people who spent their
childhood in Pasadena carry cherished memories
of youthful adventures at the Tom
Sawyer Camps. And more memories by the
thousands are being created every year at the
camp by boys and girls who spend their summer
days swimming, building secret forts and
exploring unspoiled, rugged countryside just
a few miles from the Rose Bowl. Opened in
1926, Tom Sawyer Camps was a pioneering
endeavor that remains one of the oldest camp
programs in Southern California.
The camp has always been a family-run
operation starting with Bill and Al Schleicher
who opened the first camp for boys in Laguna
Beach. Fear of submarine attacks along the
coast in 1942 forced a move off the beach and
finally, in 1944, to Pasadena’s Oak Grove
Park, where Tom Sawyer opened as a day
camp. It remains at that location today
although it was acquired by Sally and Mike
Horner in 1973 after Bill Schleicher passed
away. The camp began including girls in the
1950s and preschoolers in 1968. Today the
camp, which is accredited by the American
Camping Association, offers programs for
children ages 3 to 14.
A long-time area resident recalls fondly
his days at Tom Sawyer Camps in the late
1930s as filled with “adventure, humor, and
enthusiasm.” He tells of the great fun of storytelling
and being “enthralled with their
tales of shipwrecks, pirates, explorers and
the like.” He describes activities much like
“flag” which was and is the time of gathering
in the morning and late afternoon by all the
groups at camp to tell stories, boast of deeds,
and sing songs. Like Mark Twain’s characters,
campers at Tom Sawyer have always been
encouraged to fill their days and then tell
their own tales. The boy from the 1930s
would be at home with the boys and girls in
camp today.
Another popular adventure remembered
from the past by many was a trip down the
Lower Colorado River on rafts made of lashed
together railroad ties. Nowadays, the water
adventure is a trip out to Catalina Island
Camps, another famous old camp acquired by
the Horners in 1992. Sally and Mike’s son
Tom, who spent 25 years as a camper and
staffer at Tom Sawyer, directs the camp with
his wife Maria. Tom’s sisters, Sarah and
Virginia, are directors at Tom Sawyer Camps
and Tom Sawyer Camps Too! which recently
opened in Arcadia.
Annually, more than 1,200 kids enjoy the
Tom Sawyer Camps experience. They are
picked up in vans by counselors in the
morning and ferried to a place that will build
character, confidence and memories. And it’s
all fun. The kids are ferried home again at
the end of the day, often muddy, sometimes
dusty from a new trail but always anxious to
share a story from another day at Tom
Sawyer Camps.
TOM SAWYER
CAMPS
✧
Below: Founder Bill Schleicher, at left,
with campers gathered for “flag” in the
1950s. These same trees shelter flag
assemblies today.
Bottom: At Tom Sawyer Camps, kids
play hard, get dirty and come home tired
and smiling.
QUALITY OF LIFE
179

SEQUOYAH
SCHOOL
✧
A Sequoyah education challenges the
mind, nurtures the heart, and celebrates
human dignity.
Sequoyah School Mission Statement
HISTORIC PASADENA
180
“Sequoyah is where I would have
wanted to go to school... a place where
students are challenged to think and
question, where teachers and administrators
get excited about the students,
and Sequoyah is a place where everyone
discovers and acknowledges each
of us is gifted in a different and special
way.” Those words come from the parent
of a student at the Sequoyah
School, a unique educational institution
serving students from the ages of 5
to 14.
Founded as an alternative to standardized
classroom teaching, Sequoyah
opened in 1958 with eight students.
Soon after opening, the school moved
to its current location at the corner of
California and Pasadena Avenue, site of
the former Neighborhood Church. In
these historic buildings and beneath
the huge campus trees, 169 students
learn through exploration as part
of a diverse community of fellow
students, faculty, and families. Student
exploration also leads to paths that are
off-campus through Sequoyah’s camping
program, community involvement and even
cross-border visits to Mexico.
The world of Sequoyah begins with the
classroom. Each class is a community of 22 to
25 students whose ages span two or three
years guided by two or more teachers. Multiage
groupings allow children to move at their
own pace and encourage broad circles of
friendship. Younger groups have two full-time
teachers while the older grades have a head
teacher joined by specialists in science, math,
and language arts. The faculty also includes
instructors in Spanish, art, music, and drama.
Most importantly, learning is not reduced to
individual subjects. Rather, the curriculum is
integrated so that teachers encourage children
to make connections between one discipline
and another.
Beyond the classroom, students explore
the community through activities such as
museum visits or field study of the Arroyo
Seco Watershed. Hiking and camping, essential
parts of the Sequoyah experience, encourages
self-reliance and cooperation while
broadening a student’s understanding of natural
history, science, and indigenous culture.
Camping destinations have included the
Grand Canyon, Owens Valley, Mesa Verde,
and the Mexican Baja Peninsula where students
use their Spanish interacting with local
residents as well as enhancing their grasp of
Meso-American history.
There is much more to a Sequoyah School
education, and a vital aspect of development
is encouraging good citizenship. No school
goes to greater lengths to enroll a student
body reflective of the community’s diversity
than Sequoyah. The broadest spectrums of
race, economic class, and physical ability are
represented on campus. This microcosm of
the community is itself a little community
where mutual respect, cooperation and sharing
are a matter of course.
To sum up Sequoyah, the words of another
parent, “My child comes home tired, covered
in paint, with ink marks all over his hands and
sand in his shoes. This is how we know it has
been another great day at Sequoyah, where the
students are challenged to think, question,
and discover the art of learning.”

U.S. CENTER
FOR
WORLD MISSION
“Welcome to the U.S. Center for World
Mission!”
This greeting first emanated from the
USCWM at its founding in 1976, a time when
most people thought the days of new missionary
work were coming to an end. The
Christian church had been established in all
the countries of the world, and conventional
thinkers began to conclude that the mission
had been largely accomplished. However, a
different man saw beyond the traditional conception
of the world as simply divided into
countries and realized there were whole peoples
within the boundaries of countries who
because of language, culture, tribe, or race
were excluded from hearing the Good News.
A visionary named Ralph Winter established
the Center to facilitate efforts to reach beyond
these newly perceived boundaries and touch
these “hidden” or unreached peoples.
The USCWM is a non-profit cooperative
mission center, a loosely structured consortium
of organizations mutually involved in providing
support, training, research, and publication
services to established missions throughout the
world trying to introduce the life and message
of Jesus Christ to all peoples. As an interdenominational
Protestant order, the Center is
the site of the enthusiastic cooperation of
Christians across a broad spectrum from
Presbyterians to Pentecostals.
Located at 1605 East Elizabeth Street in
Pasadena, the Center is home to nearly 70
agencies located in several buildings. When
Ralph Winter, along with his wife and colleague
Roberta, decided to start the Center, it
was comprised of just a few rented offices on
the campus of the Pasadena Nazarene College.
When the college moved to San Diego, Winter
made a bold move to purchase the campus
with little financial backing. As life-long scholars
and missionaries, the Winters followed
their faith.
“Risks are not to be evaluated in terms of
the probability of success, but in terms of the
value of the goal,” said Winter when the financial
future of the Center was still very much in
doubt. With the help of mostly small donations
from Christians across the country, the
USCWM made the final payment for the campus
in 1988.
As the Center has grown, it has helped missionaries
throughout the world “cut paths” and
“build bridges” where before there were only
obscure barriers. The USCWM invites
Pasadenans to learn more about the Center’s
work and organization by coming to a weekly
Community Night meeting. The number is
(626) 797-1111 for information and a friendly
voice bidding, “Welcome to the U.S. Center for
World Mission!”
✧
USCWM Founder Ralph Winter and his
wife, Roberta.
QUALITY OF LIFE
181

HISTORIC PASADENA
182

BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
Pasadena’s construction, financial
institutions, and energy industries
shape tomorrow’s skyline, providing
working and living space for
Pasadenans and fuel for the state.
✧
Craig House, East Villa Street, Pasadena by Eva Scott Fenyes. In the early years of the twentieth century, Eva
Scott Fenyes painted a series of watercolors documenting historic buildings of Southern California. This picture of
L’Hermitage, the adobe ranch house of James Craig (now on Monte Vista Street), depicts the oldest house that still
stands in Pasadena.
COURTESY OF THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM, LOS ANGELES. PHOTO BY VERONICA TAGLAND.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
183

PARSONS
CORPORATION
✧
Top: Since the mid 1970’s, Pasadena
has been the home to Parsons corporate
headquarters.
Below: The Great Belt East Bridge in
Denmark (under construction in this photo),
is the world’s longest air-spun bridge,
engineered by Parsons.
HISTORIC PASADENA
184
If the world were actually a “global
village,” Parsons Corporation might be
best described as one of the village’s key
engineers, keeping the systems of the
village functioning with an eye to its
future needs. However, the world is
actually a vast, diverse place with rapidly
developing needs in the areas of
transportation, power, aviation, the
environment, infrastructure, and petroleum/chemical
engineering. Parsons is a
corporation comprised of more than
11,000 employee-owners with a worldwide,
brilliant reputation in each of
these fields of endeavor. Headquartered
in Pasadena, this global corporation also
maintains a committed involvement in
the local community.
The corporation is named for Ralph
M. Parsons, who founded the business
in 1944 following a joint venture with Steve
Bechtel and John McCone to build and operate
shipyards, aircraft modification centers,
oil refineries, pipelines, and a number of
other defense facilities during World War II.
The first Parsons offices were located in
downtown Los Angeles. When World War II
ended, the company grew into an engineering
and construction firm heavily involved in
government projects. As the Modern Age
became the Space Age, Parsons Corporation
developed a reputation in both the public
and private sectors as a can-do company able
to meet the diverse challenges of a world
rapidly transforming itself. Parsons built the
launch pads at Cape Canaveral; created environmentally
safe refineries on Alaska’s North
Slope; and engineered the construction of
the world’s longest air-spun suspension
bridge in Denmark.
Through acquisition and incorporation of
other world-renowned companies, Parsons
has augmented its capabilities and extended
the corporation’s collective history back to
1893. The acquisition or founding of ten companies
by Parsons has expanded to include
more than 11,000 employees in nearly 400
offices worldwide. A unique aspect of Parsons
that explains the special character of this vast
workforce is that the employees are also the
owners of the company. Parsons is the largest,
100 percent employee-owned corporation of
its kind in the world. Pride of ownership,
pride in the company’s achievements, and
personal interest in the success of Parsons
makes dealing with the engineers, builders,
managers, receptionists—all of Parsons’
employee-owners—a special experience.
“Sense of family” is an often-heard characterization
when the people who comprise Parsons
Corporation describe the workplace.
Accurately describing the spectrum of
projects completed by Parsons is a daunting

task. If you have flown in a jetliner, chances
are you have touched down at one of the 400
airports worldwide that was built or
improved by Parsons. Many metropolitan
commuters, notably riders on the award
winning Washington D.C. rapid transit
system, use systems engineered and
managed by Parsons. Hydroelectric power
stations and state-of the-art refineries
providing safer, less expensive energy to
communities in Korea, Venezuela, and
around the world are designed by Parsons.
“We firmly believe that we must be in the
business of providing professional, technical,
and management solutions to our customers’
most challenging problems,” says Chairman
and CEO Jim McNulty. When a customer has
a special, never-before-seen problem, Parsons
is frequently turned to for an innovative
solution. For instance, the U.S. government
has decided to restore Kahoólawe Island, part
of the Hawaiian Islands, for use by the native
population. The problem: the island has been
used as a bombing and gunnery target for
decades, is surely sprinkled with unexploded
ordnance, and no one has “demilitarized”
such a site before. The solution: Parsons
Corporation providing and executing technical
solutions to one-of-kind problems in ways
that are efficient and effective.
The world was horrified by television
images of the near wholesale devastation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina during the ethnic
wars that wracked the former Yugoslavia.
USAID Municipal Infrastructure and Services
Program turned to Parsons to restore electric
power, water supply, sanitation, shelter,
schools, and other public services. Today, television
images would show a war zone being
transformed. “USAID has been extremely
pleased with the aggressive and forward looking
approach that Parsons has taken in helping
to reconstruct Bosnia and Herzegovina’s
war-torn infrastructure. In the first year, over
25 percent of Bosnia’s citizens have received
electrical power, 20,000 people were enabled
to go back to work, 8,000 students returned
to school and almost 300,000 people have
potable water,” wrote Craig Buck, USAID
Director in praise of Parsons’ “commitment,
teamwork, and drive.”
Teamwork is a key word in the Parsons
approach to every project. All projects small
and large draw on the expertise of the entire
organization that is linked, worldwide, by a
real-time, global computer network.
Relationships with clients become true partnerships
in search of the best approach to
each individual project. The majority of
Parsons’ business is from returning customers,
testimony to the company’s strong
commitment to their clients. Teamwork also
goes beyond the office and client relationship.
Parsons is frequently engaged to coordinate
activities between various companies or agencies
in cooperative efforts.
✧
Above: Parsons is restoring Kahóolawe
Island by demilitarizing an island used for
decades as a bombing and gunnery target.
Below: Parsons engineered the award
winning multi-billion dollar Washington
Metropolitan Area Transit Authority rapid
transit system including over 100 miles of
railway and 86 stations and terminals.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
185

✧
Top, left, right: Through USAID, Parsons
has helped reconstruct Bosnia and
Herzegovina’s war-torn infrastructure. This
effort includes restoring electrical power,
sanitation, water, shelter, schools, and
transportation systems. Shown here are
before and after photographs of the interior
of a school building.
Bottom: Parsons provided the planning and
construction management necessary to build
Yanbu, a self-sufficient city in Saudi Arabia.
The city includes a port, airport, hospital,
schools, housing, recreation,
telecommunications, water and sewage
systems, and a refinery.
Opposite, top: Parsons provides engineering,
procurement and construction management
services for Exxon’s clean fuels grass roots
project at the Benecia, California refinery.
Opposite, bottom: Parsons designed the
restoration of the graceful Colorado Street
Bridge, a designee in the National Register
of Historic Places.
The Yanbu project, the creation of an
industrial port city on the desert shore of the
Red Sea, was an unprecedented challenge that
the Saudi Arabian government placed into the
hands of Parsons Corporation. In 1977, 500
men arrived at the barren, waterless spot on
the Saudi west coast to build a camp for 1,900
men who built a village to support the rise of
a new city. Parsons’ planning, construction,
and supervision of the efforts of people from
40 countries speaking 50 different languages
gave rise to a city of more than 40,000. This
effort produced refineries, a port, infrastructure
to desalinize water, sewer systems, electrical
power, housing for workers, schools for
their families, bakeries for their bread, trees to
shade the new avenues and all the aspects of
a modern, livable city. This city materialized
on ground so harsh even Bedouins seldom
pitched their tents there. Today, over twenty
years later, billions of dollars have created a
jewel on the Red Sea.
Parsons moved to Pasadena in the early
1970s in order to centralize offices that were
sprawled all over downtown Los Angeles. The
three-building complex on Walnut Street predates
the restoration of Old Town Pasadena,
but the impact of the company on the economy
of the area was and is significant. Although
Parsons is a global company, it is very involved
in the community of Pasadena. In the early
1990s, Parsons designed the restoration of the
graceful Colorado Street Bridge that spans
the Arroyo Seco. The rehabilitation included
HISTORIC PASADENA
186

GROWTH OF CAPABILITIES
Parsons Corporation has grown to
include specialized capabilities in a
number of market sectors. Our expertise is
enhanced through internal development
and acquiring leaders in the industry.
1944
The Ralph M. Parsons Company:
Engineering, Procurement, Construction
Services for Government, Petrochemical,
and Infrastructure Clients
seismic reinforcement, roadbed replacement,
restoration of the original seating bays, and
reproduction of the original balustrade and
distinctive light standards from 1913. Parsons
is also involved in a number of civic activities
including sponsoring golf tournaments to benefit
cancer research; holiday parties for abused
and abandoned children; and educational
after-school programs for children. Parsons’
dedication to the Pasadena community led the
Pasadena Chamber of Commerce to name
Parsons Corporation the Corporate Citizen of
the Year in 1999.
Parsons Corporation is indeed a remarkable
organization—owned by the employees,
engaged in important projects both large and
small around the world, and anxious to anticipate
and exceed customer expectations. As
large as the corporation is, it operates with the
keen senses of entrepreneurship.
McNulty speaks about what he calls the
heart and soul of Parsons: “Over the years
our employees have established Parsons’
reputation through their technical competence
and a true concern for the needs
of our customers. The requirements and
expectations may change, but the competence,
attitude and motivation of Parsons’
employees will not. They are the best in
the business!” For more information about
Parsons Corporation, please visit our website
at www.parsons.com.
1977
De Leuw, Cather & Company:
Transportation Planning, Design,
and Construction
SIP, Inc.: Petroleum and Chemical
Design and Engineering
1978
Parsons Construction, Inc.: Construction
Services
1981
Engineering Science, Inc.: Environmental
Consulting Services
1985
Harland Bartholomew and Associates:
Urban, Regional, and Military Planning
Barton-Aschman Associates: Traffic
Engineering and Transportation Planning
The C.T. Main Corporation: Power and
Industrial Engineering
1988
Steinman Boynton Gronquist & Birdsall:
Bridge Design and Engineering
1990
Parsons Development Co.: Project
Development and Financing
1995
Gilbert/Commonwealth Inc.: Power
Plant Design and Nuclear Facility
Decommissioning
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
187

CLIFFORD
ASSOCIATES
✧
Right: Clifford Associates founder, A. M.
Clifford, 1881-1969, who was the first
person in America to call himself
an “Investment Counselor and
Financial Analyst.”
Below: A. M. Clifford published several
pamphlets and booklets defining the new
profession of Investment Counseling.
HISTORIC PASADENA
188
“The purpose of investment counsel is to
provide society with an avenue through which
can be obtained competent, disinterested and
impartial advice upon investment securities
and investment problems.” This definition of
the investment counselor did not originate
with Webster but with Arthur M. Clifford who
not only founded what has become Clifford
Associates but also conceived the very idea of
investment counseling in 1915.
Fresh out of Yale, Clifford joined the
St. Louis brokerage firm of Simon, Brookmire
& Clifford in 1904. Within a few years, the
young man undertook the task of evaluating a
public utility company, Union Electric, in
which a great many S.B.&C. customers had
invested heavily. Clifford was able to anticipate
a significant and eminent devaluation to
Union Electric stock and saved his clients a
drubbing in the market. This early lesson in
the value of in-depth analysis as a means to
successful investment had a profound impact
on A. M. Clifford.
Clifford moved his family to Pasadena in
1911 when his wife developed tuberculosis.
He dealt in stocks and bonds from a Los
Angeles office until 1915 when Mrs. Robert
Bliss who was seeking financial advice
approached him. Mrs. Bliss had inherited a
$30 million fortune from her husband, the
creator of Fletcher’s Castoria. From this time
forward, Clifford took the title of “Investment
Counselor and Financial Analyst,” the first
person in America to do so. By 1921,
Clifford’s high sense of propriety led him to
cease acting as a broker-dealer to guarantee
impartiality while advising his growing number
of clients.
“It is the function of the investment counselor
to classify, estimate and appraise investment
risk upon a sound basis and thus substitute
an intelligent estimate for the haphazard
methods generally pursued. Having done this,
he should advise his clients of the conclusions,
opinions and recommendations resulting from
his analytical research.” Clifford published
these words and the definition above in 1925
within a booklet entitled The Investment
Counselor. Over the years, the methods of
impartial, detailed research and analysis have
continued to serve Clifford clients well.
In December of 1928, Clifford wrote his
clients about his suspicions regarding the stock
market and his belief that the country had lost
its sense of financial equilibrium. He advised
his clients to get out of the market. Most of
them did and avoided the devastating losses of
the 1929 crash. After World War II, Clifford
predicted that deficit spending and the attendant
inflation would offset the economic
depression that usually followed American
wars. He foresaw the post-war boom.
With the success of Clifford’s firm, an
industry was spawned. Again, A. M. Clifford
took the lead and became the moving force to
organize the profession through the creation
of the Investment Counsel Association of
Southern California. ICASC instituted principals
of conduct and other guidelines in its
1937 constitution where Clifford’s signature is
first among the founding membership. The
ISASC became a model for similar associations
around the country and maintained its
identity until merging with the Investment
Counsel Association of America, which serves
as industry spokesman from its headquarters
in Washington D.C.
In 1933, Clifford’s son Henry joined the
firm and, after serving in the war, became a
partner along with James Gamble. Joined by
other associates in the 1950’s, the firm took on
responsibilities involving estate planning, living
trusts, and working with clients’ attorneys
to minimize income and inheritance taxes.

After 42 years in the business, Clifford retired
in 1957. In 1968, A.M. “Tony” Clifford II
joined the firm as the third generation of his
family to enter the investment counseling profession.
Henry’s brother Alfred Clifford, a wellrespected
mathematician, helped devise a
methodology by which price risk could be
roughly measured. Family involvement in the
business ended amicably in 1992 when concerns
about increasing government oversight
of advisory firms led Tony Clifford to give up
the investment counseling business and open
a separate operation where he could serve a
few long standing clients as trustee.
James B. Fox, III joined Clifford Associates
as president in 1986, beginning a period of
steady growth. As in 1928, Clifford Associates
research and analysis anticipated another
major economic event and advised clients to
avoid committing funds to an overvalued
market in August 1987. Two months later the
market crashed again. The names of individuals
at Clifford Associates have changed over
the years, but the methods and results are
consistent. This continuity has served multiple
generations of clients well. The firm’s oldest
continuous family relationship goes back
to 1931 and is now represented by the third
and fourth generation family members.
The main office of Clifford Associates relocated
from Los Angeles to Pasadena in the
early 1980s and is presently located at 200
South Los Robles Avenue. Many members of
the firm are now Pasadena residents and participate
in a wide variety of community and
philanthropic activities.
Today, Clifford Associates manages hundreds
of millions of dollars for their clients
located all over the world through a variety of
traditional services and expertise in new areas
as well. A proprietary fund provides clients
with investments in non-U.S. companies. The
firm manages endowments, planned giving
assets, foundations and selected employee
retirement plans in addition to accounts for
individuals and families.
“Our basic fundamental investment
approach has proven to be successful over a
long period of time. We just don’t believe there
has been a fundamental change in valuing
investments,” says Fox. “We stay with our
proven approach using technological improvements
to facilitate our analysis and management
efforts.” True in 1915, true today.
✧
(Left to right): James B. Fox, III,
Clifford Associates; Dr. Robert Skotheim,
president, Huntington Library; and
Maye Albanez, Clifford Associates review
the Library’s investment report.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
189

MCG
ARCHITECTURE
✧
Top: The restoration of the Ritz-Carlton
Huntington Hotel and Spa won a Gold
Nugget Grand Award. In addition to work
on the main building, MCG added a porte
cochere to the hotel and renovated eight
historic cottages on the grounds.
The architectural landscape of the future is
being shaped nationwide by a firm whose
home and history are firmly rooted in
Pasadena. Every day more than 15 million
shoppers, theatergoers, and workers visit a
destination designed by MCG Architecture. In
Pasadena, the firm’s ability to preserve the
best of the past while suggesting the
dynamism of the future can be seen in the
new entertainment complex at 88 West
Colorado that evokes the spirit of Old
Pasadena, in the restoration of the Ritz-
Carlton Huntington Hotel or the conversion
of the I. Magnin Building on South Lake
Avenue. Versatility is a hallmark of MCG.
Now a national firm with offices in
Pasadena, Irvine, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas, San
Francisco, New York, Long Beach, Cleveland,
San Diego, and Denver, MCG was founded by
Robert Ainsworth in 1927. Ainsworth provided
custom residential design for many of the
grand, high-end houses constructed in South
Pasadena and San Marino during the 1930’s
and 1940’s. The firm has always been an
evolving business and the first significant
change came in the 1950’s when MCG began
designing grocery stores. In the ensuing
decades, MCG grew rapidly into national
prominence designing retail and commercial
spaces, hotels and entertainment centers.
Where there is rich history, MCG preserves it.
Where there is no history, MCG creates one.
MCG’s design and architectural staff members
have created more than one billion
square feet of architectural space and are
presently at work on 500 projects nationwide.
Even so, the element of personalized service
remains. “We offer the traditional one on one
Above: CEO Frederick J. “Rick” Gaylord
joined the firm in 1967 as a junior designer.
Gaylord is a fourth generation Pasadenan
and great-grandson of prominent architect
Charles W. Buchanan.
Right: Building new with respect for the
traditional, 88 West Colorado features
arches, balconies, and distinctive
cornice elements, reflecting Pasadena’s
architectural treasures.
HISTORIC PASADENA
190

elationship of a small shop combined with
the strength of a firm of 200 professionals,”
says CEO Frederick J. “Rick” Gaylord. The
personal approach works; 85 percent of
MCG’s projects are for repeat clients.
Identified nationwide for such projects as
the distinctive and fun Fashion Outlet of Las
Vegas at Stateline, the elegant campus-style
Zaremba Management office complex in
Cleveland and more than 300 grocery stores,
MCG points proudly to its work in Pasadena.
MCG designed the Pasadena Target, the first
two-story outlet in the chain. More recently, the
conversion of the historic I. Magnin Building on
South Lake Avenue into a 40,000-square foot
Borders Books Music & Café meant preserving
the building’s Late Art Moderne style while
accommodating the client’s particular needs.
This project won a Pasadena Beautiful award for
its contribution to the city’s built environment.
The extensive Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel
renovation won a Gold Nugget Grand Award
from the Western Builders Conference.
As a business, MCG has taken steps to
insure a future that is even richer than its past.
This starts with great client relations and ultimately
depends upon ongoing stability. The
transition in name from McClellan/Cruz/
Gaylord to MCG Architecture reflects an evolution
from older traditions to a new tradition
of a firm whose future rests on the achievements
and reputation of the firm as a whole
rather than the name of a few partners.
The unique blend of modern strength and
traditional, personal service insures MCG
Architecture’s growth as an innovative design
firm that adapts to the needs of business and
community. MCG will continue to fashion
the spaces that invite people to shop, gather,
and enjoy themselves in Pasadena and
around the nation.
✧
Top, left: Converting the historic I. Magnin
Building into a Borders Books Music & Café
meant preserving the Late Art Moderne
style of architecture of both the building’s
interior and exterior.
Top, right: Influenced by the dynamic
advertising of the center’s high-fashion
retailers, MCG used striking 75-foot
billboards and a brightly colored exterior for
the Fashion Outlet of Las Vegas at Stateline.
Left: Art Deco style recalls the glamour of a
movie house of a bygone era at the MCGdesigned
Pacific Theatres multiplex at
Northridge Fashion Center.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
191

WISEGUYS
When Ray Kwong hit the brakes and felt
the backend of his bicycle sliding out from
under him, he knew he’d taken the turn way
too fast. And as the youngster screamed, partly
a warning to unsuspecting pedestrians but
mostly in panic, he knew he was going to go
down hard, get grounded for at least a year
and be banned from the back lot of
Paramount Pictures forever.
But as the bike sliced through the busy
street on a collision course with an oncoming
catering truck, a pair of huge hands
effortlessly plucked Ray off, rescuing him
from harm. The part-time studio courier
found himself looking up at the towering
figure of The Duke, on the lot for a prerelease
screening of “True Grit.” John
Wayne, with “cowboy” co-stars Robert
Duvall and Dennis Hopper looking on, gave
Ray a simple piece of advice: “Kid, don’t
play with matches.”
Thirty-something years later, Ray isn’t
moving any slower, but he heeds that
curious advice. Maybe that’s why he and
his wife Liz bought Pasadena’s original
firehouse, located in Old Town, at 35
Dayton Street—a half block from the
historic Hotel Green. National headquarters
for WiseGuys, the couple’s integrated marketing
firm; the building was built in 1889
and is one of Pasadena’s oldest landmarks.
Historically, the completion of the firehouse
marked a great leap forward in city fire protection.
Only the year before, a tragic inferno
saw the deaths of three young brothers, the
sons of Caroline Beaton, whose lives might
have been spared had the fire brigade
responded faster.
Before the Dayton firehouse was put into
service, fire rigs and equipment were kept in
a separate location from the horses that drew
them. The new station accommodated men,
horses and equipment under the same roof
for the first time. Trained to race from their
open stalls right into their traces, horses
could be harnessed to the rigs in a matter of
seconds after an alarm was sounded. The station
set a new standard for fire protection
and provided exemplary service to Pasadena
for many years.
The year 1920 heralded Babe Ruth’s
move to the New York Yankees, the birth of
the National Football League and the first
win of Bill Tilden’s remarkable decade dominating
men’s tennis. In Pasadena,
Prohibition was in full swing, and with
the fire department’s move to larger digs
on Fair Oaks, the Old Firehouse was
transformed into one of the San Gabriel
Valley’s premiere nightspots—The
✧
For the record, WiseGuys is a provider of
integrated marketing services that include
marketing research, strategic planning,
advertising, database marketing, ethnic
marketing, digital communications, public
relations and sales promotion. Its clients
include Pacific Bell Wireless, Sun
Microsystems, California Federal Bank,
workseek.com, LoansDirect.com, BumbleBee
Seafood, and ABC Television.
Pasadena’s finest with their 1889 Rose
Parade entry.
HISTORIC PASADENA
192

Casablanca Bar—a speakeasy where bluebloods,
laborers, con men, grifters and flappers
alike could bend an elbow and enjoy a
little bootleg. The building’s four firepoles
were removed and the top floor was converted
into a grand ballroom with an ornate
bar that ran nearly the length of the structure.
The speakeasy was raided so often by
the local constables that its owners dug out
a network of tunnels under and away from
the Old Firehouse, for quick, unobserved
departures by wealthy patrons.
The stock market crash of 1929 ushered
in the Great Depression years, which saw
businesses closing their doors, factories
shutting down, banks failing, and one out
of every four Americans losing their jobs.
In Pasadena, the Golden Age was over.
The erstwhile tourist center and winter
resort for the rich was no more, and
when people could not part with even a
buck for a stiff drink to ease the pain,
the Old Firehouse speakeasy gave way to
a VFW Post featuring a barbershop
that offered a haircut, shave and manicure
for a nickel.
World War II turned the city around, with
the Old Firehouse and many Pasadena hotels
converted to military command headquarters.
In the years since, the building has been
home to one of Southern California’s largest
florists (long time Pasadenans might remember
Preble’s), an adjunct of Ambassador
College, and for much of the past twenty
years, a warehouse with several small offices
on the top floor. It was during this time that
the Old Firehouse was used as a set for
dozens of movies and television shows, featuring
such stars as Nick Nolte, Anne Heche,
Tracey Ullman, Albert Brooks, Shelley Long,
Drew Carey, Adam Arkin, Mark Harmon,
and Hector Elizondo.
Today, the renovated Old Firehouse is a
marriage of past history and cutting edge
design. The exterior has been painstakingly
restored to reflect its original look and feel,
while the interior office and meeting spaces
are a medley for the millennium of 110-yearold
brick, teak, titanium, rubber, steel, concrete,
and glass. From a design perspective,
you might best describe the environment as
“inner city tech.”
Most importantly, with an eye towards the
building’s rich heritage, you’ll find fire fighting
paraphernalia circa 1889 throughout the
building—from eagle helmets, leather water
buckets and fire axes to an impressive collection
of firemen’s badges and even a real fire
truck (c. 1970). To top it off, a firepole has
been reinstalled that leads down from Ray’s
office to the lobby. (As of this writing, he has
yet to try it.)
✧
Engine Company No. 1 with The West’s first
motorized firetruck, circa 1902.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
193

✧
Top: Edward C. Turrentine, award winning,
nationally recognized designer.
Bottom, left: Original plaster ornamentation
on the ceiling and frieze embellishes a
timeless dining room with flowers by
Jerry Palmer.
Bottom, right: The ballroom in this
Pasadena residence features a sweeping iron
staircase, 18th century reproduction
pilasters, and flowing draperies that aspire
to the 28-foot ceiling.
EDWARD C.
TURRENTINE
INTERIOR
DESIGN, INC.
Many of the finest homes in Pasadena and
the nation bear the mark of leading interior
designer, Edward C. Turrentine. Working
from the studio of his building at 70 North
Raymond, Turrentine has gathered numerous
awards, international acclaim and editorial
coverage in many magazines such as Town &
Country, Better Homes and Gardens, House and
Garden, Bon Appetit, and Southern California
Home and Garden. That he owns the building
on Raymond and others in Old Pasadena
reflects Turrentine’s early belief in the rebirth
of the historical part of Pasadena and his dedication
to the city.
A native of El Paso, Texas, Turrentine grew
up in a way uniquely suited to developing a
designer’s talents. His mother was a fashion
designer, Trudy of Texas, and his father was a
contractor who remodeled homes. Edward is
a graduate of Woodbury College in Los
Angeles (today Woodbury University in
Burbank—Turrentine is on the board) and
refined the skills he had already developed.
As a student, he was selected to design the
interior of the Formica Exhibition at the New
York World’s Fair. After college, Edward and
his wife, Patty opened a drapery and design
business in Covina.
This first business venture was cut short
when Edward was drafted in 1966 and sent to
Vietnam. After distinguished service, Edward
was reunited with Patty when he was rotated
to Monterrey, California for the final year of
his military commitment. Remaining in the
Bay Area, the Turrentines found interesting
work restoring and remodeling the historic
local homes and thought of staying near San
Francisco. A letter from a former Los Angeles
client brought them back to the Southland for
a drapery job and they never left Pasadena
again. “The trees, the community feeling, the
beautiful, established houses—it feels like
home.” By 1978, the Turrentines had moved
into their current home on Grand Avenue
with their two daughters, Glynis and Tannis.
HISTORIC PASADENA
194

Edward C. Turrentine Interior Design made
an immediate impact by being selected a participant
in the Pasadena Showcase House of
Design for 15 consecutive years. He has been
named in the Who’s Who in Interior Design, his
work has appeared in Who’s Who in Interior
Design’s International “100 Designers’ Favorite
Rooms,” and he has been a frequent guest on
local and national television shows. Recently,
Turrentine has won awards for Best
Restoration of a Historic Property in San
Diego’s Gas Lamp Quarter for the Bitter End
Restaurant. Locally, Turrentine designed the
interior for J.J.’s Restaurant, which was chosen
Best Restaurant in Pasadena for 1998.
Turrentine’s concern about the historic
beauty of the city led him to become a founding
member of the Pasadena Central
Improvement Association (PCIA) which was
formed in 1980 to initiate the revitalization of
Old Town Pasadena. The members of the PCIA
saw the beauty beneath the squalor in the
seedy Fair Oaks area and sought to preserve it.
They persuaded local developers and property
owners of the potential in restoring the area
and included them in the association. The
PCIA was instrumental in the adoption of a
historic conservation zoning overlay, planning
for adequate parking, and encouraging new
businesses all the while functioning as a free
enterprise organization with very little government
support. Edward Turrentine was president
of the association in 1984 and 1985.
From the beginning, Turrentine was
willing to gamble on the future of the area,
himself. The Turrentines, in partnership with
the Shapiro Family Trust, purchased the
building at 35 North Raymond as home for
the Pasadena Design Center. “Everybody
thought we were crazy to buy property here,”
says Turrentine.
Even so, they also purchased the former
telephone company building at 70 North
Raymond. Turrentine rebuilt the collapsing
floors, tore away ugly, modern renovations
and let in the sun to shine on the space which
has become home to the Turrentine Studio
and his Design Center Fabrics and Antiques.
Edward’s involvement in Pasadena extends
further than Old Town. He still participates in
the Showcase House as a loaning merchant,
he has been a float judge for the Tournament
of Roses Parade and has offered his home for
city functions. Patty Turrentine was president
of the San Marino Junior Alliance and a
founding member of Children’s Burn
Foundation benefiting the Grossman Burn
Center. She has also organized benefits for the
City of Hope among her many activities.
In what has become a fashionable area of
Pasadena, one of the most delightful stops is a
stroll through the beautiful antiques that
Turrentine has assembled at 70 North
Raymond. The timeless elegance of the items
beneath the high ceilings speaks eloquently of
the man who works upstairs and whose style
has influenced homes and businesses across
the country as well as the neighborhood right
outside of his door.
✧
Turrentine designs emphasize architectural
details. Glass block skylights illuminate a
conservatory with an arched ribbed ceiling.
A mural adds depth.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
195

SEISMIC
SAFETY
✧
Right: A vote of confidence by the ultimate
earthquake authorities. Seismic Safety was
the contractor of choice for the retrofit of
earthquake center.
Below: This 1911 Pasadena craftsman
home, owned by Ed Sylvis, has an arroyo
stone foundation made earthquake
survivable by procedures recently designed
by Seismic Safety.
In 1954, a Cal Tech engineering
professor began hypothesizing on the
benefits of more securely fastening his
home to its foundation to strengthen it
against possible earthquake damage.
In an earthquake, the foundation of a
home rides like a boat on a rough sea
of rolling soil and rock. If the house
was not securely attached, mightn’t it
slide off like the deck of a ship not fastened
to its hull? He contacted
Pasadena contractor Ed Sylvis and
they developed these notions into a
process for bolting homes to their
foundations. Sylvis did the work of
bolting the professor’s house and soon
was contacted to do the same for virtually
all the engineering and earth science
professors at the famous college. Seismic
Safety/Ed Sylvis Construction was born.
Sylvis, who still runs Seismic Safety,
worked not only on improving the techniques
of seismic safety but also on building a reputation
as a singularly reliable contractor living
by the motto, “We always have and always
will give you more than we promise.” He
assembled a work force of clean, polite and
capable construction men who show up on
time and work hard. Often Sylvis follows up
his workers and crawls into the work area
beneath a home to check the bolts and inspect
the job himself. It is a regular practice to
install more bolts than needed to pass government
inspection to insure the reputation
upheld by that motto.
In the beginning, there was some skepticism
about the necessity of anchoring a building
to the foundation. A neighbor of Sylvis
was convinced the work was unnecessary
until the 1991 Sierra Madre Quake caused his
house to shift 1 1/4 inch and sheared almost
every pipe in the building. Ed’s company
HISTORIC PASADENA
196

saved the house and retrofitted it with anchor
bolts to keep it secure for the next quake. The
next quake could be a big one. Southern
California (according to Cal Tech scientists)
experiences a temblor of 7+ on the Richter
scale on an average of roughly every 135
years. The last one was in 1857.
A further recommendation for Seismic
Safety can be found in the persons and organizations
that have contracted Sylvis to reinforce
their homes and buildings. For starters,
the U. S. Geological Survey Offices and the
Southern California Earthquake Center at Cal
Tech are recent retrofit projects. The homes of
Cal Tech earthquake specialists Lucy Jones
and Kate Hutton, often consulted on
Southern California Television, have been
reinforced by Seismic Safety as has the historic
Batchelder House owned by Dr. Robert
Winter, noted architectural historian. These
are but a few of the thousands of structures
made more secure by Seismic Safety.
The insurance industry and lending institutions
have turned a keen eye to earthquake
damage prevention and are driving the
demand for retrofitting and reinforcing existing
structures. Furthermore, realtors use the
fact that a home has been fortified as a selling
point. The increased demand for the kind of
services Sylvis invented has seen the rise of
many competing businesses some less
reputable and reliable than others have.
Sylvis founded and was executive director
of the Southern California Association of
Residential Retrofit Professions, an organization
that monitors local and statewide guidelines
that set seismic safety standards and
professional ethics. The company’s attachment
to the community is reflected in its
membership in Pasadena Heritage, Altadena
Heritage, L.A. Conservancy, and the
Monrovia Old Home Group.
A proud part of the community and
providing a service that will help sustain
it through the decades to come, Seismic Safety
is a Pasadena original. Built on a solid reputation
for honesty and first rate service, the
company Ed Sylvis founded has another
motto that typifies his philosophy, “Your safety
and my word promise a future for both.”
✧
Top: Seismic Safety founder and president,
Ed Sylvis.
Left: Seismic Safety installs “anchorage
plates” to keep a home securely fastened to
its foundation. Thousands of Pasadena
homes have been so treated.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
197

PIERCE
PRECISION
SHEET METAL,
INC.
✧
Left: Donald Pierce, founder of Pierce
Precision Sheet Metal, which he opened in
1957. His death in 1997 saddened
hundreds of friends and business associates.
Right: David Pierce learned the business
from his father and has been president of
Pierce Precision since 1989.
HISTORIC PASADENA
198
As a young man of 21, Donald Pierce left
college and his job as a tap dance instructor in
Ohio and came to Southern California in
1941. He had friends in Pasadena and hoped
to find a new line of work on the West Coast.
Good with his hands as well as his feet, Don
found a job working with metal. He also met
and married Dorothy Hall who ten years earlier
had moved to Pasadena with her family
from Arkansas. His legacy today is the solid
family business, Pierce Precision Sheet Metal,
which he founded in 1957.
After serving in the Navy as an aviation
metalsmith in San Diego during the war,
Pierce worked at McDonald Douglas for several
years before he started accepting sheet
metal projects on his own time. At first, he
did the work at night in a friend’s machine
shop before making the leap to entrepreneurship
in 1957 and opening his own business.
With a loan from his father-in-law, Harry Hall,
Don purchased a small office building on
North Allen adjacent to the old Romana
Bakery Building. Business was good and the
loan was repaid within a year. Over the years,
Pierce Precision has expanded to include what
had been the bakery building and the parking
lot behind it.
Pierce Precision Sheet Metal is a shop that
makes prototype parts, one-of-a-kind parts or
items requiring small quantity runs. The word
“precision” in the company name refers to the
kind of work the shop does meeting specifications
to within a margin of ± .005 of an inch.
Pierce Precision sheet metal parts have met
the rigorous demands of various aeronautical
firms and NASA. In fact, a Pierce Precision
part is on the Moon buggy used by Apollo
astronauts and another is on the Voyager
space probe which is now further from Earth
than any other manmade object. In addition
to the work done for NASA, The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, and Boeing, Pierce
Precision has developed more earthbound
projects like parts for labeling machines, seismographs,
and hundreds of other customers.
An interesting aspect of the Pierce
Precision Sheet Metal story is that its growth
and success have come without need for
advertising. The company has grown through
word of mouth and succeeded on the reputation
of the man who founded it. Don Pierce
lived by the idea that “if you treat the other
guy right, he’ll treat you right.” The reputation
for honesty, integrity, and first rate work
that Pierce Precision enjoys has brought business
to their doors, and the customers who
have come usually stay. Another interesting
aspect of the business is that Don Pierce
made a conscious decision to keep it a certain

size in order to preserve the fine reputation it
had acquired.
“He was interested in something more than
just making money,” recalls Pierce’s daughter,
Donna Pierce. “He loved his work,” remembers
Dorothy Pierce. Don’s son David Pierce, who
now runs the company, observes that
his father “was happy to keep the business
small so he could run it his way. And he always
made sure his employees made a good living.”
Don refused offers to merge or form partnerships
with larger companies and has consistently
kept just under twenty employees at
work. He saved money in good times so he
would not have to lay people off in the occasional
slow periods of business. Half of the
employees at Pierce Precision have been there
for more than twenty years, which says a lot
about the workplace Don Pierce created.
In 1968, when David showed interest in
joining the business, Don had him start in the
sanding and grinding shop. Don’s reasoning
was simple: “How can you bid a job if you
don’t know how to build it?” Father and son
became “very best friends” in the process of
David rising to take the reins of the business.
David became president in 1989. Well beyond
the age of retirement, Don still came into the
office and took an active part in the enterprise
he had so lovingly created.
Don Pierce passed away in January of
1997. More than 200 people attended
his funeral—family, friends, and business
acquaintances who all felt like friends of
Don Pierce. In 1996, Don’s grandson,
Michael Brown, began a path similar to
David’s—he is the third generation to
begin working in the shop sanding and
grinding and learning the business from
the ground up. Pierce Precision Sheet Metal
remains a thriving business and proud
legacy of Don Pierce.
✧
A precision part typical of Pierce, meeting
specifications to with a margin of .005 of
an inch. Pierce Precision parts have been
used on spacecraft and Air Force One.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
199

L.A.
STEELCRAFT
✧
Top: Stanley A. Germain (1906-1994),
one-time Ford mechanic, farmer and
liquid fertilizer distributor who purchased
L.A. Steelcraft in 1948.
Below: Renderings of the renovated L.A.
Steelcraft Building located at 1974 North
Lincoln Boulevard.
HISTORIC PASADENA
200
If you have been in Southern California for
very long chances are you have sat at an L.A.
Steelcraft table, watched children play on
a Steelcraft playground slide or watched a
ballgame from their bleachers. Over the last
fifty years, sturdy L.A. Steelcraft tables, playground
equipment and other items have
found their way into places as diverse as
Muscle Beach, Santa Anita Racetrack,
Cleveland Elementary School and John Muir
High School right down the street from the
business office in Pasadena.
L.A. Steelcraft was a small fabricating company
making swingsets and slides for the
backyard when Stanley A. Germain purchased
it in 1948. Germain was a self-made man who
had started in life as a Ford mechanic during
the Roaring Twenties before trying farming
and the liquid fertilizer business. He did well
enough to retire young but decided to get
back into business by purchasing L.A.
Steelcraft which was located across the street
from its current location at 1974 North
Lincoln Avenue. From 1948 until the early
1970s, Germain nurtured the small business
and built a reputation for manufacturing safe,
durable products for schools, industry, parks
and playgrounds. The once tiny company
called L.A. Steelcraft has expanded to include
45 loyal employees with gross revenues in
excess of four million dollars.
Today, L.A. Steelcraft makes customized
obstacle courses (including the one at the Los
Angeles Police Academy), all the equipment
that might be found on athletic fields and
courts, outdoor steel/fiberglass tables and a
new generation of versatile play structures.
The company developed the Thoreson Fitness
Course System with world class decathlete
Dave Thoreson for school children. These
courses challenge kids to improve their motor
skills and speed as they tackle fun obstacles
like log jumps and balance beams. Hundreds
of schools use the Thoreson system because
the courses are flexible enough that any student,
including the disabled, can find ways to
enjoy and benefit from the program.
The current company president, James D.
Holt, and eight other national playground
companies presidents, were the founding
members of I.P.E.M.A. (International Play
Equipment Manufacturers Association) which
has come together with over 50 other manufacturers,
citizens groups and educators to
develop and publish the American Standard
for public playground equipment, “ASTM
Designation: F 1487” and provides input to
the US Consumer Product Safety Commission
regarding their publication, “Handbook for
Public Playground Safety.”
School districts, recreation and park services,
non-profit and private consumers trust
L.A. Steelcraft because their products are
durable and because their commitment to
safety and service is paramount.

Founded in 1922 as an answer to a
demand for quality workmanship, Lytle
Roofing remains a reliable, high-quality
company after seventy-seven years in the
business. Dispatching crews from Walnut
Avenue, Lytle Roofing still does metal,
tile, composition, and hot build-up tar
roofing but has also expanded into airconditioning,
sheet metal work and renovation.
The company bases its reputation on
high-profile work done for homeowners and
institutions such as Huntington Memorial
Hospital, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and
Huntington Library.
John W. Lytle was an Iowa farmer who
moved to Pasadena at the urging of his son
who saw opportunities for self-made men.
Lytle was scornful of the roofing work he saw
in the area and opened his own business.
Lytle ran his company for 33 years before selling
to his son-in-law, Terry Chambers in
1955. Business boomed, but Chambers, destined
for an eventual career in the Nixon and
Reagan presidential administrations, sold the
company in 1959 to three workers: Carl
Outzen, Fred Hanson, and Ralph Paglia. Gary
Outzen bought his father’s share in 1980 and
became sole owner in 1985.
Gary Outzen is a very hands-on manager
who makes bids, dispatches crews, and often
drives crews to job sites. In the years of
working with his father and since buying
Lytle Roofing, Gary feels like he has been on
most of the roofs in the Pasadena area. He
says the business is so well known that
advertising is a distant second to word-ofmouth
in providing customers. In the years
before taking over the Lytle Roofing, Outzen
spent time renovating older homes, and he
has added that service to the diverse capabilities
his company offers. His sons, Tim and
Tod, worked at Lytle before opening contracting
businesses of their own.
Lytle Roofing has always had a Walnut
Avenue address with the original location
being at the Sierra Madre intersection. In
1958, the business moved to the Daisy intersection
before settling in the present location
at 2948 East Walnut in 1970. Lytle Roofing
regularly employs approximately 35 people
with crews working an area extending out to
all of Southern California and beyond to
Arizona, Nevada, and even Texas. Founded as
an answer to a demand for quality workmanship
in 1922, Lytle Roofing has continued to
build its reputation for 77 years.
LYTLE
ROOFING
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
201

PAINEWEBBER
✧
Below: Already a strong national firm,
PaineWebber opened its first office in
Pasadena in 1947 on Green Street.
Bottom: Today, PaineWebber occupies the
sixth floor at 200 South Los Robles, just
across Cordova from a previous location.
HISTORIC PASADENA
202
PaineWebber serves the investment and
capital needs of more than two million
clients worldwide, including individuals,
institutions, state and local governments,
and public agencies. PaineWebber combines
state-of-the-art business and investment
acumen with an unrivaled reputation for
outstanding research and client service.
PaineWebber & Company was founded in
Boston in 1880 and was very involved with
the capital requirements of the burgeoning
American West. The firm unified with another
eastern firm of long standing, Jackson &
Curtis, in 1942 and opened an office in
Pasadena in 1947.
One of the first Pasadenans to visit the
office of Paine, Webber, Jackson & Curtis on
Green Street was Vera Cleaver who was
delighted to resume a relationship with the
firm she had begun in St. Paul, Minnesota in
1925. On her hundredth birthday, the retired
podiatrist credited her financial success to
“the good advice provided all these years by
PaineWebber.” She remains one of the firm’s
most long-standing clients.
The PaineWebber Pasadena office has, of
course, grown over the years. At its twenty
year anniversary in 1967, manager Hugh
Wilson remarked, “We started here in a
cracker-barrel with only one stockbroker
and a secretary.” The original broker was
Gerald E. Medsgar. To mark the difference
from those early days, Wilson pointed
proudly to the office’s use of the “Scantlin
Board” which electronically displayed stock
prices and Quotron microcomputers that
helped speed transactions. In the years
since Americans landed on the moon,
PaineWebber has remained on the cutting
edge of advanced technology.
Today, PaineWebber is an independent,
full-service firm with a leadership position in
individual and institutional businesses and a
reputation for outstanding research and quality
client service. In the current complex
financial environment, PaineWebber combines
the expertise of 7,033 highly trained
financial advisors—40 in Pasadena—with a
suite of online services to deliver customized
investment solutions to its clients. One of the
firm’s 307 branches nationwide, the Pasadena
office manages $1.5 billion of client assets
under the direction of branch manager,
Donald L. Gorsch. The firm employs more
than 18,000 people and manages $384 billion
of client assets.
The PaineWebber Pasadena office maintains
an in-depth, personal focus attuned to
each client’s long- and short-term investment
needs. At PaineWebber, information is taken
and given in context, ideas are developed that
achieve financial objectives, and a standard of
advice is provided that has the firm’s clients
saying, “Thank you, PaineWebber.”

TEMO A.
ARJANI &
CO.
Temo A. Arjani & Co., a firm of Certified
Public Accountants, opened in Pasadena in
1987 and has quickly earned a national reputation
through excellent service and the creation
of innovative tax software that has set a
new standard in the field of Charitable
Remainder Trusts. The office at 301 East
Colorado serves a variety of clients through
development of tax strategies, tax planning and
return preparation, business consulting and
forensic accounting. Many clients come to the
firm for their expertise in the areas of international
tax and trust and estate tax matters.
Temo Arjani, managing partner, was born in
Zanzibar, East Africa, and went to college in
India, the land of his mother and father. He
joined a Big-5 firm, Arthur Andersen, in
Philadelphia in 1967. In the course of twenty
years, Arjani worked on complex tax matters
dealing with corporate acquisitions, mergers,
and international tax planning. He was transferred,
as a partner, to Los Angeles in 1979 and
back to India in 1985. After taking early retirement,
Arjani opened his own firm in Pasadena
in 1987. Gretchen Hooper joined as partner in
1988 after a career in Arthur Andersen’s Los
Angeles office followed by tax work at a prominent
entertainment corporation. She has developed
a strong reputation in matters of estate
and trust taxes as well as tax issues faced by
wealthy families.
As the firm became more involved with
Charitable Remainder Trusts—private trusts
set up to benefit institutions and organizations—they
learned there was no user-friendly
computer program to help navigate the
often-complex tax forms. The firm hired a
software expert and created the 5227 Tax
System (named for the number on the main
federal tax form) which is both sophisticated
and easy to use. The software, considered the
best available, has since been licensed to over
a hundred organizations including universities,
religious foundations, banks, and other
accounting offices across the country. The
success of the software raised the profile of
the firm, and many major corporations have
come to rely upon Temo A. Arjani & Co. to
handle all of their tax work.
Today, Temo A. Arjani & Co. employs 13
accountants offering the knowledge and experience
of a big firm with attention to responsiveness
and accessibility that a more personalsized
office facilitates. The combination of
experience and efficiency at the firm generates
the ability to perform valuable services at
reduced costs. Furthermore, success has not
bred complacency: “In this business, you must
keep growing or else you will stagnate,” says
Arjani. “We have an excellent staff, and we
keep pushing for new clients by giving consistent
top service.”
✧
Left to right: Teri Higby, William R. Hall,
Jr., Frances Zuniga, James McGinnis,
Gretchen Hooper, Brian Glascott, Temo A.
Arjani, Richard Leitz, Jeremy Monohan,
Lisa Godon, Kathy Brink, Katherine
Espinoza, and Wendell Young.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
203

PROVIDENT
INVESTMENT
COUNSEL
✧
Robert Kommerstad, chairman of the board
of Provident Investment Counsel.
HISTORIC PASADENA
204
Provident Investment Counsel located at
300 North Lake Avenue in Pasadena,
California, evolved from a predecessor growth
management firm founded in 1951. Two entrepreneurs,
Robert Gillete and Bernard (Bun)
Johnson founded the original partnership. Mr.
Johnson remained with the firm until his retirement
in 1999. In 1963, Robert Kommerstad
joined the partnership and to date, more than
thirty-five years later, is still providing leadership
as Provident’s chairman of the board.
In 1973, the partnership formed a subsidiary
known as Provident Investment Counsel, Inc.,
which became incorporated in 1976 and eventually
merged with the partnership to become
Provident Investment Counsel, in 1980. In
February of 1995, Provident became an affiliate
of United Asset Management. Leadership at
Provident Investment Counsel today is provided
by its seven inside managing directors:
Robert Kommerstad, director; Larry Tashjian,
CEO; George Handtmann, CIO; Thomas
Condon, marketing; Jeff Miller, relationship
management; Brown Windle; and Tom
Mitchell, all of whom are long-term professionals
at the firm. Throughout this evolution, the
growth style of investment management that
has become synonymous with Provident
Investment Counsel has remained constant.
Provident Investment Counsel is closely
tied to its historic roots in Pasadena through
community involvement. In addition to his
responsibilities as chairman of the board,
Kommerstad, a retired member of the
Tournament of Roses Association, has various
outside interests such as serving as the
Chairman of the National Big Brother and Big
Sisters of America, a Board member of the
Greater Los Angeles Big Brothers, serving on
the Board of Directors of Mellon/1st Business
Bank of Los Angeles, the Board of Trustees of
the Law School of the University of Minnesota,
and is a member of the Board of Visitors at the
Graduate School of Business at UCLA.

With Pasadena roots reaching back to 1891,
Palermo, Barbaro, Chinen & Pitzer with its
predecessors is the oldest law firm in the city.
For more than a century, the attorneys who
have comprised the firm have led the way in
local legal organizations including the founding
of the Pasadena Bar Association while
maintaining a time-proven reputation for
integrity and acumen. The lawyers at Palermo,
Barbaro, Chinen & Pitzer offer a broad range of
expertise in areas as diverse as estate planning,
probate, tax, civil litigation, personal injury,
business, real estate and family law. The firm
name has changed from time to time to reflect
the names of its partners, including Merriam,
Rinehart & Merriam; Rinehart, Merriam,
Parker & Berg; Parker, Berg, Lord &
Soldwedel; and Parker, Berg, Soldwedel,
Palermo & Kincaid. Its reputation for quality
legal service has remained constant.
Judge J. H. Merriam opened the original
office at 42 East Colorado and was joined
by his son, Ralph T. Merriam, and Jay D.
Rinehart in 1917 to form Merriam, Rinehart &
Merriam. Merriam was an active, respected
political and civic leader who served as Justice
of the Peace of Pasadena Township and helped
organize the Pasadena Bar Association. Both
Merriams, elder and younger, practiced for
more than forty years with the firm setting
high standards for community activity and
legal work.
During the Merriam era, Harvey M. Parker
and J. Harold Berg joined the firm and practiced
for over sixty and fifty years, respectively,
with the firm. Former partner, Fred W.
Soldwedel, practiced with the firm for 35
years. Other past partners of the firm include
Otho G. Lord (retired probate commissioner)
and Ronald D. Kincaid. Today, from their
offices on the seventh floor at 301 East
Colorado, the attorneys at Palermo, Barbaro,
Chinen & Pitzer carry on the tradition of quality
legal services and community involvement.
Quality legal service is assured because of
the firm’s tradition of recruiting attorneys with
established reputations. Peter R. Palermo was
an estate and gift tax attorney with the Internal
Revenue Service before joining the firm in
1965. Philip Barbaro, Jr. joined in 1988 after
eight years of practice in real estate, business
and personal injury law. Richard L. Chinen
brought 12 years of experience in civil litigation
and family law when he joined the firm in
1995. The most recent partner, Gloria Scharre
Pitzer, brought 20 years of experience specializing
in trust, estate, and conservatorship matters.
Associate Attorney Patricia A. Rigdon,
primarily works in family law and civil litigation.
Clients attracted to the firm by an individual
attorney benefit from the shared expertise
of all attorneys in the firm.
“This firm started as a general practice firm
which now offers specialized services in a variety
of areas” says Palermo. Throughout its history,
the firm has chosen to remain relatively
small in order to ensure a high standard of
attention to each client. The breadth of expertise,
concern for clients and the outstanding
reputation that has sustained the firm for more
than a hundred years promises a solid future
for Palermo, Barbaro, Chinen & Pitzer.
Managing Partner Palermo states, “I think we
are well situated for the next century.”
✧
PALERMO,
BARBARO,
CHINEN &
PITZER, LLP
Standing (left to right): Richard L. Chinen,
Peter R. Palermo, and Philip Barbaro, Jr.
Seated (left to right): Gloria Scharre Pitzer
and Patricia A. Rigdon.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
205

EPT
LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURE
✧
The Fillmore City Hall.
HISTORIC PASADENA
206
EPT Landscape Architecture, Planning,
and Urban Design has provided award-winning
landscape architectural and planning
services for over 37 years. EPT is committed
to regularly exceeding the founding partners’
original vision of excellence in landscape
architecture through the implementation of
sensitive design with precise execution on a
broad spectrum of landscape projects. EPT’s
purpose, of bringing inspiration to all who
experience their work, continues to be reinforced
through learning from the past while
forging, energetically and enthusiastically, forward.
The hands at EPT have shaped many of
the public spaces of Pasadena.
The letters EPT stand for the names of the
founding partners, Robert Eriksson, Owen
Peters, and Dave Thoms who united in 1962
with an office on Colorado Boulevard. The
early work of EPT was mostly residential and
quickly broadened to include churches, banks
and schools. Over the years, the firm would
count the Pacific Asia Museum, Caltech, and
Pasadena City College among their clients. In
the 1990’s, EPT has undertaken projects as
high profile as the Pasadena Playhouse
District and the redesign of the Pasadena
Civic Center/Midtown District. And though
the primary focus has shifted away from residential,
EPT is still sought by large residential
estates looking for the “timeless yet innovative”
touch of one of Southern California’s
premiere landscape architecture firms.
As the original partners retired, EPT went
through a period of self-analysis and reconsideration
of what form the continuing business
would take. Today, four principals head
EPT: Nord Eriksson, Jeff Chamlee, Ric
Vanderwood, and Matthew Hall. The firm has
emerged from its period of transition even
more dynamic and focused than ever.
The creative talents and technical skills
of EPT’S staff enable the firm to offer a
wide range of services to clients in both the
public and private sectors. Some of these
services include Master Planning, Site
Planning, Conceptual and Schematic Design,
Construction Documents, Construction
Administration, Post-construction Evaluation,
and long-term Maintenance Planning.
EPT employs a staff of more than 40 technical
and administrative persons in their
offices at 1214 East Green Street in Pasadena
and 31872 Camino Capistrano in San Juan
Capistrano. The staff size is perfect in that
EPT can handle any size project, small or
large, without losing the personal touch of
collaboration with a client. As they continue
looking to the future, EPT remains committed
to setting the standards of advancement, further
exemplifying their mission of premiere
landscape architecture.

Maginnis, Knechtel &
McIntyre, one of the largest
locally owned CPA firms in
Pasadena, began with the union
of three small firms in 1972.
That convergence of a dozen
accountants has grown into a
full-service CPA firm with a
wide range of clients that
includes individuals, small
businesses, $100 million corporations,
estates, trusts, and nonprofit
organizations. MKM has
developed a strong reputation
for integrity and know-how in a
league with the biggest firms
but with the individualized
attention clients expect from a
leaner, smaller firm.
In the more than quarter-century of its
existence, MKM has carefully recruited the
best accountants to form a staff of over twenty-five
committed professionals. To maintain
a high level of personal attention, one of the
firm’s partners oversees each engagement
and is easily accessible to all clientele. “Our
principal focus in client relationships is on
providing excellent service on a timely
basis,” according to the partners of the firm.
MKM provides traditional tax services with
one of the largest tax staffs in the San Gabriel
Valley. They offer high-level planning services
to minimize personal and business taxes,
estate and gift tax planning as well as preparation
of all necessary tax returns for individuals,
corporations, partnerships, non-profit
organizations, trusts and estates. Businesses
also rely on MKM for audits and reviews of
financial statements, business planning and
computerized business accounting services.
The accountants of MKM emphasize the
firm’s consulting services provided for
individuals and businesses. MKM can assist
business owners to improve profitability and
to increase the value of their businesses by
applying special expertise and software to
study and implement operational improvements.
MKM’s tax department advises individuals
with high net worth on effective
strategies in personal finance and retirement
planning as well as income and estate taxes.
The methods and technology employed by
MKM are state-of-the-art.
The firm has not only been part of the
economic fabric of Pasadena since 1972 but
also the social environment. Members of
the firm are involved in a number of community
activities such as the Tournament
of Roses Association, Boy Scouts of America,
Rotary International, Kiwanis and the
Associates of Caltech. The team members at
Maginnis, Knechtel & McIntyre feel fortunate
to be located in Pasadena and are
happy to do their part in the community.
MAGINNIS,
KNECHTEL &
MCINTYRE
CERTIFIED PUBLIC
ACCOUNTANTS AND
✧
CONSULTANTS
Top: The partners of Maginnis, Knechtel &
McIntyre. Back row (left to right): Gerald E.
Cunha, Arthur J. Thielen, Howard G.
Hovivian. Front row (left to right): Kenneth
R. Hemming and Elliot L. Shell.
BUILDING A GREATER PASADENA
207

RAY WILSON CO.
✧
Above: Universal City Walk, Universal City,
California.
Top, right: Ronald Reagan Federal
Building and U.S. Courthouse, Santa
Ana, California.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SIBYLLE ALLGAIER,
HELIPHOTO.
Below: Japanese American National
Museum, Los Angeles, California.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DIONE BENSON,
THE CAPTURED IMAGE.
HISTORIC PASADENA
208
In the same year, 1885, that the first
American skyscraper rose ten stories over
Chicago, one of Southern California’s oldest
and most reputable construction companies
opened for business in the unlikely place of
Fergus Falls, Minnesota. What is today Ray
Wilson Co. began as C. W. Wilson & Sons
building barges for The Great Lakes canal
system. When railroads replaced much of
the barge traffic in the north, the Wilsons
moved to Southern California where their
roots settled deep.
Since moving to Southern California in
1901, four generations of Wilsons have
built a company known widely for its
tradition of high quality construction, versatility
and integrity. Ray Wilson Co. built
barracks and harbor facilities in San Pedro
during the First World War and has continued
doing work for the government ever
since. The Ronald Reagan Federal Building
and U.S. Courthouse in Santa Ana is the latest
product of Ray Wilson Co.’s long-standing
relationship with public sector entities;
USC, UCLA, and the Department of Defense
have all been clients.
In the 1970s, under the direction of Ray
Wilson, Jr., the company broadened its
involvement in the private sector and saw its
annual volume of business rise to $75 million.
Pasadena’s Gateway Plaza and the office
buildings at 35, 155 and 300 North Lake are
all Ray Wilson Co. projects as are Hawaii’s
Surf Rider Hotel, the Century City
Condominiums and the Japanese American
National Museum in Los Angeles. Parking
structures, wastewater treatment facilities
and the Hollywood and Vine Metro Stations
also represent the breadth of what Ray
Wilson Co. can do.
Clients return to Ray Wilson Co. When
MCA was developing the famed Universal
City Walk, they knew the contractor would
have to be able to respond to the special
demands of creating an entirely new
architectural language. Ray Wilson Co.
would be a natural candidate for such a job,
but what sealed the deal was the previous
experience MCA had with Ray Wilson Co.
while building a parking structure. “We
pride ourselves on hiring and retaining people
with integrity, motivation and character,”
says Eric Wilson, the fourth generation of
Wilsons and vice president of operations.
“The success of this company is built on
maintaining the trust and loyalty of our
clients and sub-contractors. People like
working with us.”
The company moved to Pasadena in 1987
attracted by the history, culture and business
climate. Since then, Ray Wilson Co. has
embraced the abundant business opportunities
and quality of life that Pasadena offers.
But the company is not content to rest on its
past accomplishments. Instead, Ray Wilson
Co. continues to grow and adapt to new challenges
and technologies, while it redefines
itself as an innovator willing to push the envelope
of possibilities in the industry.

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Burchard, J. and A. Bush-Brown. The Architecture of America. Boston, 1961.
Buwalda, John. Geology of the Raymond Basin. Pasadena, 1940.
Cartland, Earl F. Study of Negroes Living in Pasadena. MA thesis, Whittier College, 1948.
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Hulburd, David. This Happened in Pasadena. New York, 1951.
Johnston, Bernice E. California’s Gabrielino Indians. Los Angeles, 1962.
Koiner, C. W. History of Pasadena’s Municipal Light and Power Plant. Pasadena, 1925.
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Makinson, Randell. Greene and Greene. Salt Lake City, 1977.
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Raymond, Arthur E. A Gentleman of the Old School. Pasadena, 1983.
Rhoades, William L. The History of the Famous Sierra Madre Villa Hotel. Unpublished. Sherman Library. Corona Del Mar, California.
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Robinson, John W. The San Gabriels. San Marino, 1977.
Rose, Leonard J., Jr. L. J. Rose of Sunnyslope. San Marino, 1959.
Saunders, Charles F. The Story of Carmelita. Pasadena, [1928].
Seims, Charles. Mt. Lowe: The Railway in the Clouds. San Marino, 1976.
Seims, Charles. Trolley Days in Pasadena. San Marino, 1982.
Streatfield, David C. California Gardens: Creating a New Eden. New York, 1994.
Thorndike, Ralph. Your City. New York, 1939.
Weber, Francis J., ed. The Pride of the Missions. Los Angeles, 1979.
Winter, Robert. The California Bungalow. Loa Angeles, 1980.
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REFERENCES
209

INDEX
A
Aachen, Germany, 80
Acker, Stephen, 98
Acurangna, 9, 13
Adams, Walter S., 55
Adamson, Sofia, 99
Addams, Jane, 60
African Methodist Episcopal Congregation, 49
Afro-American State Council, 49
Aidala, Thomas, 98
Aleupkingna, 9
Alexander, Christopher, 98
Alhambra, 37, 43, 51, 94
Alice Coleman Batchelder Music Collection, 86
Aliso Creek, 7
All Saints Church, 93, 111
Allen, Robert S., 74
Allendale, 86
Alpine Tavern, 44, 45
Alta, 11, 15
Altadena, 15, 20, 28, 37, 54, 78, 82, 104, 113, 122
Amateur Athletic Union, 70
Ambassador Auditorium, 100
Ambassador College, 100
Ambassador Cultural Foundation, 100
American Friends Service Committee, 93
American Garden Club, 122
American Medical Association, 117
American Mercury, 73
American Society of Landscape Architects, 121
Anaheim, 17
Anderson, Carl, 80, 89
Anderson, Hugh, 82
Andrews, Dana, 85
Antelope Valley, 78
Antigua, Guatemala, 111
Aoki, T., 82
Aoki, Tsura, 82
Arcadia, 12, 112
Armory Center for the Arts, 99
Arroyo Park Committee, 119
Arroyo Seco, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 28, 29, 33, 37, 38,
42, 50, 51, 56, 62, 64, 70, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 105,
106, 108, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 123, 124, 125
Arroyo Seco School, 60, 90
Arroyo Vista Guest House, 40
Art Center College of Design, 99, 113
Art Institute of Chicago, 63
Art Loan Exhibition, 24, 33, 45
Associated Charities, 60
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, 32
Atlantic Monthly, 25
Automobile Club of Southern California, 56, 57, 78
Avery, Stanton, 113
Avon Products, 86
Azusa, 98
B
Bacon Hill, 31, 40
Bacon, Henry Douglas, 40
Baker, John, 19, 21
Bakewell & Brown, 59, 65
Baldwin Hills Village, 111
Baldwin, E. J. "Lucky", 7, 12, 27
Baldwin, Roger, 73
Ball, Benjamin, 17
Baltimore, David, 100, 101
Banbury, Jabez, 20, 21
Banbury, Thomas, 40
Bandini House, 105
Bandini, Arturo, 29, 59, 106
Bandini, Helen Elliott, 54
Bandini, Ralph, 59
Bangs, Emma C., 40
Barber House, The, 125
Barlow, Fred, Jr., 124
Bashford, Katherine, 122, 123, 124, 125
Batchelder, Ernest, 53, 54, 125
Battle of the Roses, The, 42
HISTORIC PASADENA
210
Bauer, Harry J., 124
Bauhaus School, The, 86
Baur, John, 26, 27
Baxter Art Gallery, 99
Beadle, George, 89, 100
Bear Creek Canyon, 8
Beaudry, Prudent, 19, 29
Belloli, Jay, 99
Bennett, Cyril, 109
Bennett, Edward, 62
Bennett, Parsons and Frost, 63, 64, 65
Berg, Mrs. Sidney, 103
Bergstrom, Bennett, and Haskell, 64, 71, 112
Bergstrom, Edwin, 71
Berkeley, 73, 103
Berlin, Germany, 38
Berry, Daniel M., 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 33, 115, 116
Better Government League, 74
Beverly Hills, 122, 123
Big Bear, 88
Biltmore Hotel, 111
Bissell, Eleanor, 66
Bixby House, The, 111
Blacker House, The, 106, 113
Blacker, Robert R., 56, 106
Blair High School, 90, 98
Blick, Joseph J., 107
Block-Aid Work Committee, 75
Bogard, Bill, 93
Bohr, Niels, 80
Bonesteel, General, 82
Boom of the Eighties in Southern California, The, 35
Boone, Henderson, 48, 49
Boston, Massachusetts, 26, 27, 31, 34, 47, 53, 63, 115
Boulder Dam, 112
Bourne House, The, 126
Bowen Court, 107
Bradley, Mary, 94
Brehm, Leslie Green Huntington, 11
Brehm, Mrs. James, 124
Brenner, Milton, 74
Bresee, Phineas, 53
Bridge Hall of Physics, 112
Bridge, Norman, 56
Bridges, Amy, 31, 35, 36, 37, 38, 40
Bristol, Albert O., 19, 21
Broadway, 77
Brooks, Mrs. E. W., 119
Brooks, Noah, 54
Brookside Park, 51, 76, 119
Brookside Plunge, 49, 50, 70, 89, 98
Brown Trail, 28
Brown University, 67
Brown, Benjamin, 7
Brown, Gilmor, 66
Brown, Herbert F., 44
Brown, Jason, 28
Brown, John, 26, 28
Brown, Owen, 28
Browning Club, The, 54
Bryn Mawr, 122
Buff & Hensman, 113
Bullock’s Pasadena, 83, 125
Burbank, 12
Burchard, John, 109, 110
Burdette, Clara, 52, 62
Burnham, Daniel, 62, 63
Busch Gardens, 117, 118, 120
Busch, Adolphus, 47, 117
Busch, Lily, 118
Bush-Brown, Albert, 109, 110
C
Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez, 8
California Colony of Indiana, 17, 20, 29
California Fair Employment Practices Commission, 89
California for Health, Pleasure and Residence, 17
California Gardens, 115
California Institute of Technology, 19, 24, 47, 53, 56, 59,
63, 79, 80, 81, 86, 88, 89, 98, 99, 100, 101, 111, 112,
113, 121
California State Board of Architecture, 105
California State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, 89
California Supreme Court, 34
California-Panama Exposition, 62
Caltech Associates, 79
Cambridge School of Domestic and Landscape
Architecture, 122
Campbell-Johnston Family, The, 29
Campbell-Johnston, Alexander, 103
Campbell-Johnston, Mrs. Alexander, 103
Campfire Girls, 91
Carlton Hotel see Hotel Carlton
Carmel, 54
Carmelita, 22, 25, 57, 64, 66, 86, 116, 120
Carnahan, Silas, 48
Carnegie Institution, 55
Carnegie, Andrew, 63
Carr, Ezra, 22
Carr, Jeanne, 21, 22, 23, 25, 39, 116
Carr, Seaborn, 48, 49
Carr, William J., 52, 82
Carradine, John, 85
Catalina Island, 8, 47
Central Pacific Railroad, 33
Central Park, 50, 77
Central School, 32
Century, 25
Cézanne, Paul, 86
Chalet, The, 44
Chamberlain, Bessie, 77
Chambers, Harold C., 68
Charleville, John W., 74
Charlton Flats, 78
Chicago, Illinois 19, 26, 32, 41, 44, 47, 54, 60, 61, 63,
103, 104, 105, 113, 121
Chicago White Sox, 76
Chihuahuaita, 60
Chilao Flats, 78
Chinese-American Vegetable Cooperative, 33
Ching, Francis, 99
Chippewa, The 7
Choi, Irene, 99
Church of the Angels, 95, 103
Church, Thomas, 125
Cincinnati, Ohio, 106
Citrus Fair, 24
City Beautiful Association, 62
Civil War, The, 15, 26, 48, 49, 93
Clapp, Jennie, 23
Clapp, William, 19, 23
Claremont, 112
Clark, Alson, 54, 66, 111, 112
Clark, Stephen Cutter, 71
Clarke, Mrs. Clinton, 85
Classical School for Boys, 71
Cleveland School, 91
Cloisters, The, 113
Clune’s Theatre, 53
Coate, Roland, 110, 111, 124, 125
Cobb, Lee J., 85
Cogswell, William F., 26, 27
Cogswell, William G., 27
Cole, Rick, 95, 98
Coleman Chamber Music Association, 53
Coleman, Alice, 53
Collier, Jennie, 25, 26
Colorado, 103
Colorado River Aqueduct, 68
Columbia Hill, 23
Columbia Hill School, 24
Columbia Hill Tennis Club, 43
Columbian Exposition, 61
Comanche, The, 8
Community Redevelopment Agency, 87, 88
Conger, Orville H., 22, 25
Cooley, Mrs. W. E., 37
Coolidge, D. W., 47

Corbitt, William, 12
Córdoba, 10
Cornell University, 23, 103, 122
Cornell, Joseph, 86
Cornell, Ralph, 120
Corning Glass Works, 80
Cottrell, Edwin, 73
Council, Lucile, 122, 123
Coward, Noel, 66
Coxhead, Ernest A., 103, 104, 106
Craig, James, 15
Cram, Ralph Adams, 110
Crane, Richard T., 41
Crank, James F., 27, 31, 32
Crank, Mary Agnes, 29
Cravens, John, 117
Croft, Thomas, 19, 20, 21
Cross, A. W. S., 111
Crowley, John, 94, 98, 99
Cruzado, Father Antonio, 7, 9
Crystal Springs, 44
Cub Scouts, 91
Cukor, George, 123
Culbertson, James, 54
Cultural Heritage Commission, 97
D
Dabney Court, 112, 121
Damon, George, 62
Daniel Webster School, 71
Daniels, Gertrude Potter, 54
Daughtery, R. L., 77
Davis, Charles E., 124
Davis, William Heath, 7, 12
Dawson, Robert, 74
Day, Clarence, 120
Dean, Francis, 125
Del Mar, 20
Delbruck, Max, 89, 100
Dent, Wiley Chafee, 48
Denver, Colorado 27
Deppe, Ferdinand, 10
Devil’s Gate, 7, 13, 15, 19, 22, 42, 78, 119
Dewey, John, 44
Dibblee, Albert, 12
Dickinson, Emma, 68
Diggers, The, 122
Dirac, Paul, 80
Disabled Veterans of the American Legion, 118
Dispensary, The, 91
Dobbins, Dorothy, 57
Dobbins, Horace, 38
Dobyns, Winifred Starr, 115
Doo Dah Parade, 94
Dorking, England, 103
Draves, Victoria, 83
DuBois, W. E. B., 48
Duchamp, Marcel, 86
Dumbarton Oaks, 121
Dumke, Glenn, 35
Dunbar Hospital, 89
Durand, Mrs. J. B., 66
E
Earley, Thomas, 51
Easton, Louis B., 106, 107
Eaton Canyon, 12, 15, 23, 28, 81
Eaton Falls, 12, 28
Eaton Wash, 60, 76
Eaton, Benjamin S., 14, 15, 18, 19, 23, 24, 28
Ebright, Peggy, 86
Echo Mountain, 43, 44
Echo Mountain House, 44
Eckbo, Garrett, 125
Eddy House, 105
Eddy, Arthur Jerome, 105
Edison Electric Company, 51, 52
Edna P. Alter Memorial Association, 60
Einstein, Albert, 80, 83
Einstein, Elsa, 83
El Centro De Acción Social, 91
El Molino Viejo see Old Mill,The
El Monte, 14
El Prieto Canyon, 48
Elliott, Helen, 18, 59
Elliott, Thomas Balch, 17, 18, 19, 20, 29, 59
Ellwood, Craig, 99, 113
Emery, Frank, 123
Enterprise, The, 48, 49
Evanston, Illinois, 73
Everett House, The, 107
Explorer, 100
F
Fair Oaks, 86, 87, 88
Fair Oaks Businessmen's Association, 88
Fair Oaks Ranch, 14, 15, 18, 32
Fairbanks, Douglas, 110
Fairmont, 20
Farquhar, Robert, 111
Farrand, Beatrix Cadwalader Jones, 112, 121
Farrand, Max, 121
Farwell, Arthur, 53
Feininger, Andreas, 86
Feynman, Richard, 88, 99
First Church of Christ Scientist, 53, 55
First Methodist Episcopal Church, 54
First Presbyterian Church, 75
Fleming House, 105
Fleming, Arthur, 54, 56, 63, 79, 105, 120
Fletcher, Calvin, 18, 20
Flintridge Riding Academy, 70
Florida, 17
Font, Father Pedro, 9
Foothill Freeway, 96
Ford, Tod, Jr., 120
Forman, Ed, 80
Fowler, William A., 96, 100
Fraser, Robert, 117
Freeman, Robert, 66
Fremont School, 60, 91
Friends of the American Way, 82
Friendship Baptist Church, 49
Fujii, Frank, 120
Fulton, Robert, 74
Furlong, R. M., 33
G
Gabrielinos, The, 7, 8, 9, 11
Gamble House, The, 106
Gardner, Halbert P., 74
Garfias, Manuel, 14
Garfield School, 38, 60, 61, 90, 91
Garfield, Mrs. James A., 57
Garner, George, 89
Gartz, Kate Crane, 54, 113
Gartz Court, 97
Gates chemistry Laboratory, 47
Gaut,. Helen Lukens, 54
Gearhart, Frances, 7
Gehry, Frank, 113
Gell-Mann, Murray, 89, 98
Giddings, Eugene, 28, 29
Giddings, Jennie Hollingsworth, 24, 28
Gila River, Arizona, 82
Gill, Irving, 113, 122
Glaser, Donald, 88
Glen Rosa, 116
Glendale, 12
Goldberger, “Murph,” 98
“Good Ship Thrift, The”, 57
Goodhue, Bertram, 53, 63, 112, 122
Goslin, Willard, 89, 90
Göttingen, Germany, 80
Grace Hill, 104
Grace Nicholson Building, 98, 99, 107
Graham, Donald, 25, 26
Graham, Margaret Collier, 25, 26
Graham, Martha, 85
Graham, Willard, 99
Grand Coulee Dam, 112
Grant, Ulysses S., 26, 27
Great Depression, The, 73, 76, 77, 78, 85, 111, 112
Great Migration, The, 48
Green Hotel see Hotel Green
Green, George G., 41
Green, Lewis M., 41
Green, Perry M., 21, 25, 32
Greene & Greene, 103, 113
Greene, Charles, 104, 105, 106, 107, 122, 125
Greene, Henry, 104, 105, 106, 107, 122, 125
Grey, Elmer, 56, 65, 105, 107
Griffin, Edna, 89
Griffin, John S., 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21
Grinnell, Elizabeth, 54
Grogan, Alexander, 15
Growth Management Initiative, The, 98
Guggenheim Aeronautics Laboratory, 80, 81
Guillen, Eulalia Pérez de, 12, 14
Gutenberg, Beno, 80
H
H. L Thompson House, The, 111, 112
Hale Solar Laboratory, 121
Hale, George Ellery, 47, 53, 54, 55, 56, 63, 64, 66, 80,
85, 112
Hale, Harold, 77
Hall, Peter, 74
Hamilton, Arthur L., 74, 78
Hammer, Armand, 98
Hanson, A. E., 115
Harbert, Elizabeth Boynton, 54
Harbor Hills, 111
Harper’s Ferry, 28
Harris, Roy, 53
Harrison, Benjamin, 41, 42
Harrison, William, 89
Harvard University, 18, 55, 115, 122
Hastings Ranch, 23, 86
Hastings, Charles Cook, 24
Hastings, Charles H., 23
Hawkey, Phil, 93
Hayes, Rutherford B., 41
Heckman, Jo, 93
Heineman, Alfred, 52, 107
Heineman, Arthur, 107
Hertrich, William, 68, 120, 121
Hicks, Corinne Bush, 89
Highland Park, 12
Hillcrest, 14
Hillier, Edward B., 74
Hillmont, 104
Hindry House, The, 107
Hinds, Sam, 66
Hispanic Society, The, 59
History of Pasadena, 29
History of the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, 17
Hokan, The, 7
Holden, Chris, 93, 94, 95
Holden, William, 85
Holder, Charles F., 24, 26, 29, 42, 47, 54, 108
Hollingsworth, Henry, 24
Hollingsworth, Lawson D., 24, 104
Holliston Avenue Methodist Church, 54
Holmes, Henry J., 33
Holmes, Joseph, 48, 49
Home Owner’s Protective Endeavor, 88
Hopi, The, 8
Hopkins, Mark, 27
Hopkins, Una Nixon, 54
Hotel Carlton, 33, 34, 35
Hotel Green, 38, 39, 41, 44, 53, 63, 69, 70, 71, 76, 77,
104
Hotel Maryland, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71, 76, 77, 81, 109, 120,
121
Hotel Raymond, 31, 34, 35, 37, 38, 40, 41, 43, 60, 68,
69, 70, 76, 77, 105, 120
Hotel Rubio, 44
Hubbard, Elbert, 106
Hubbard, Honor, 106
Hull House, 60
Hunt & Grey, 105, 106, 111, 112
Hunt, Mrs. Myron, 57, 75
Hunt, Myron, 56, 64, 66, 68, 69, 70, 74, 75, 76, 99, 105,
106, 107, 110, 115, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125
Hunt, Virginia Pease, 74
Huntington Hospital, 91
Huntington Hotel, 63, 68, 69, 70, 71, 75, 77, 82, 86, 120
Huntington Library and Art Gallery, 7, 63, 82, 105, 106,
113
Huntington, Collis P., 27
Huntington, Henry, 11, 37, 54, 63, 68, 105, 106, 120,
121
Huntington, Howard, 106
Hutton, A. W., 19
Indiana Colony, 19, 24, 29
I
INDEX
211

Indianapolis, Indiana, 14
Institute of Aeronautical Sciences, 81
International City Managers’ Association, 61
Italian Villas and Their Gardens, 121
J
Jackson, Fred W., 74
Jackson, Helen Hunt, 25, 26
Jacobs, Allan, 98
James, George Wharton, 54
Japanese Union Church, 82
Jarvenpaa, Finland, 83
Jawlensky, Alexej von, 86
Jeffers, Robinson, 54
Jenkins, James J., 77
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 80, 81, 83, 86, 100
John Birch Society, 93
John Muir High School, 71, 91
John Muir Junior High School, 52
Johnson, Joseph, 54
Johnson, Mrs. Albert Sidney, 15
Johnson, Reginald D., 110, 111, 120, 122
Johnston’s Lake, 19
Jory, Victor, 85
JPL see Jet Propulsion Laboratory
K
Kamansky, David, 99
Kaufmann, Gordon, 110, 111, 112, 122
Kawai, Toichiro, 82
Kee, Yuen, 24, 33
Kellogg Laboratory, 81
Keswick Dam, 112
Kewen’s Lake, 11
Kimball, Nathan, 17
Kinneloa, 21, 22, 23, 27
Kinney, Abbot, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
Klee, Paul, 86
Koiner, C. Wellington, 51, 61, 67, 74, 75, 83
KPSN, 67, 71
Ku Klux Klan, 48
Kuranaga, F. T., 82
Kurtz, Cynthia, 93
L
L’Hermitage, 15
La Canada, 78
La Casita del Arroyo, 75
La Miniatura, 112, 113, 122
La Mirada, 110
La Misión del Santo Arcangel San Gabriel de Los
Temblores, 9
La Pintoresca Hotel, 43, 120
La Pintoresca Park, 120
La Quinta, 112
La Solana Inn, 104
Lacy Park, 7, 12
Laguna Beach, 7, 122
Laguna Hotel, 122
Lake Vineyard Ranch, 12, 15, 21, 24, 43
Lake Vineyard Water Company, 50
Lamanda Park, 14, 60, 64, 86, 91
Las Casitas, 28
Laughlin Park, 122
Lauritsen, Charles C., 80, 81
Lawrence, T. E., 95
Lee, George E., 74
Lee, Sammy, 82, 83
Legge, Charles, 45
Leupp, Francis, 55
Lewis, Edward B., 101
Liberty Loans, 57
Library Association, The, 45
Library Park, 50
Lichtenstein, Roy, 86
Lily, Busch, 117
Lincoln, Abraham, 26, 54, 55
Linda Vista, 37, 86, 90, 113
Linda Vista School, 9
Linnard, Daniel Moore, 68, 69, 70, 76, 77
Lippincott, J. B., 50, 103
Lipscomb, William N., 89
Literary Society, The, 25
Little Cloister, The, 113
Little Santa Anita Canyon, 28
Live Oak Park, 20
HISTORIC PASADENA
212
Locke, Mrs. R. C., 26
Locke, Seymour, 104
London, England, 22, 83
Long Beach, 106
Los Angeles, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32,
34, 37, 38, 44, 47, 48, 50, 54, 56, 57, 59, 61, 71, 73, 75,
76, 77, 78, 82, 83, 85, 87, 89, 94, 101, 105, 111, 113,
117, 122
Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad, 31, 32
Los Angeles Basin, 7, 8, 78
Los Angeles County, 7, 8, 12, 33, 57, 85, 94
Los Angeles County Arboretum, 7, 12
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 33
Los Angeles Fire Department, 69
Los Angeles House, The, 31
Los Angeles Philharmonic, 54
Los Robles Ranch, 11, 41
Lowe, Thaddeus S. C., 43, 44, 117
Ludwigshafen, Germany, 83, 96
Lummis, Charles F., 54
Lutes, John, 74
Lutyens, Edwin, 111
M
Macpherson, David J., 43
Malina, Frank, 80, 81
Mannheim, Jean, 54, 110
Marcus, Rudy, 100
Marengo Ranch, 40
Mariné, Fruto, 14
Mariné, Juan, 12, 14
Markham, Henry H., 45
Mars Pathfinder, 100
Marston, Sylvanus, 91, 107, 110
Marston, Van Pelt & Maybury, 96, 106, 109
Maryland Hotel see Hotel Maryland
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 55, 56, 104, 105,
110, 111
Mather’s Department Store, 95
Matthews, J. M., 41
Maybeck, Bernard, 106
Maybury, Edgar, 107
Mayo, Morrow, 73, 93
McAdoo, Carrie, 48
McCall's, 86
McFarland, J. L., 43
McGroarty, John, 71
McIntyre, Donald, 93
McKinley School, 71, 90
McMillan, Edward D., 88
McMurray, Donald, 110, 111, 112
McNally, Andrew, 104, 110
Memorial Park, 50, 90
Merriam, Frank, 76
Merrill, Paul W., 77
Merritt, Elizabeth Lawrence, 45
Merritt, Hulett, 85
Merton, Robert, 100
Mester, Jorge, 100
Metropolitan Baptist Church, 49
Metropolitan Water District, 68
Mexican Central Council, 91
Mexican Revolution, 59
Mexican-American War, 14, 15
Meza, Jesús, 73
Micheltorena, Manuel, 14
Midwick Country Club, 43, 70
Millard, Alice, 112
Millikan, Robert, 47, 56, 66, 79, 80, 82, 85, 89
“Millionaires’ Row”, 47, 85
Mills Place, 32
Mische, Emil T., 118, 119
Mishima, Japan, 83, 96
Mission Playhouse, The, 10
Mission San Carlos Borromeo, 10
Mission San Fernando, 9
Mission San Gabriel 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 27
Mission San Juan Bautista, 124
Model Grocery, 74
Monk Hill, 7, 15, 32
Monk Hill School, 38
Monk, Henry G., 15, 29
Monrovia, 76
Montclair, New Jersey, 73
Montecito, 115
Morgan, Julia, 64
Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 80, 100
Morris Dam, 68
Morris, William, 44
Morrison, Fannie, 66
Morse, Wellington, 122
Mossbauer, Rudolph, 88
Motherwell, Robert, 86
Mount Lowe: The Railway in the Clouds, 43
Mountain View Cemetery, 37
Mt. Auburn Cemetery, 115
Mt. Lowe Railway, 43, 45, 54, 70
Mt. Vineyard, 15
Mt. Wilson, 43, 54, 55
Mt. Wilson Observatory, 38, 55, 63, 80
Mud Springs, 32
Muir, John, 25, 27, 28
Municipal Golf Course, 68
Municipal Light Department, 61, 65, 67
Muscat, 19, 29
Mutual Savings and Loan, 86
Mutual Savings Building, 125
N
National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, 48, 50, 90
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 86
National Old Trails Route, 56, 57
Navy League, The, 57
Nay, Edward O., 74, 79
Nebraska, 48
Neff, Wallace, 103, 110, 111, 126
Negro Tax Payers’ and Voters’ Association, 50
Neighborhood Church, The, 91
Nelmes, Thomas, 116, 117
Neutra, Richard, 88
Nevada, 103
New York, 57, 73, 75, 80, 81
New York Evening Post, 22
Nicholson, Grace, 65, 66
Nobel Prize, The, 80, 86, 88, 89, 96, 98, 100, 101
Nordhoff, Charles, 17
North Pasadena Water Company, 51
Norton Simon Museum of Art, 99
Noyes, Alfred, 47
Noyes, Arthur Amos, 56
O
O’Neill, Eugene, 66
Oak Knoll, 7, 68, 105, 106, 111, 124
Oak Park, 103
Oakland, 22, 37
Oberlin College, 121
Occidental College, 54, 88, 113, 121
Office of Civilian Defense for Southern California, 77
Old Mill, The, 7, 11, 12, 68, 70, 117, 118, 124
Old Pasadena National Register Historic District, 97
Oldenburg, Claes, 86
Oliver, Bob, 96
Oliver, Robert H., 85, 86
Olmsted, Frederick Law, 115
Olson, Culbert L., 77
Olympics, The, 75, 76, 82, 83
One Colorado Project, The, 97
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 80
Orange Grove Reservoir, 9
Orbison, Robert V., 67, 73, 74, 77
Orton School, 71
Osheroff, David, 100
Ostoff House, The, 111
Our Lady of Guadalupe, 59, 60
Outdoor Art Association, The, 61
Overland Monthly, 25
Owen, Robert, 48
Owens Valley, 86
Owens, Jesse, 89
Oxford University, 122
P
Pacific Bible College, 53
Pacific Electric, 37, 80, 117
Pacific-Asia Museum, 99
Paddock, Charles, 77
Page, Henry Markham, 37, 42
Painter Hotel, The, 37, 43, 80
Pala, 42

Palace Car, 34
Palm Springs, 112
Palmetto, 116
Palomar, 63, 80
Palomar Mountain, 80
Panama-Pacific Exposition, 62
Parent-Teacher Association, 62
Paris, France, 38
Paris, Opera, 64
Parker Dam, 68, 112
Parker School, The, 33
Parker, Eleanor, 85
Parker, Millard M., 24, 33, 44
Parsons, John W., 80
Pasadena Academy, 44
Pasadena Art Alliance, 99
Pasadena Art Institute, 63, 86, 116
Pasadena Art Museum, 86, 98, 99, 116
Pasadena Association, The, 74
Pasadena Athletic and Country Club, 70
Pasadena Athletic Club, 76, 83, 96, 107
Pasadena Block-Aid Committee, 75
Pasadena Board of Directors, 73
Pasadena Board of Education, 90
Pasadena Board of Trade, 39, 47, 57, 62, 78
Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, 59, 62, 64, 78, 82, 86,
88
Pasadena Chronicle, 31
Pasadena City Board, 63, 64
Pasadena City Council, 93
Pasadena College, 53
Pasadena Community Playhouse, 65
Pasadena Community Playhouse Association, 66
Pasadena Council of Women’s Clubs, 83
Pasadena Country Club, 43
Pasadena Daily News, 47
Pasadena Fire Department, 29
Pasadena Garden Club, 75, 119, 122, 123
Pasadena Hall, 56
Pasadena Heritage, 97, 113
Pasadena High School, 38, 52, 71, 89, 91
Pasadena Historical Museum, 99
Pasadena Historical Society, 99
Pasadena Hospital, 60
Pasadena House, The, 31, 32
Pasadena Junior Chamber of Commerce, 78
Pasadena Junior College, 82
Pasadena Labor News, 74
Pasadena Library and Village Improvement Society, 24
Pasadena Manufacturing Company, 31
Pasadena Music and Art Association, 54
Pasadena Planning Commission, 85
Pasadena Playhouse, 85, 89, 99
Pasadena Preventorium, 61, 75
Pasadena Promotion Board, 47
Pasadena Public Library, 52, 64, 66, 86, 104, 105, 122
Pasadena Realty Board, 37, 62
Pasadena Redevelopment Agency, 94, 96
Pasadena Residents in Defense of the Environment
(PRIDE), 98
Pasadena Settlement House, 60
Pasadena Star-News, 43, 67, 73
Pasadena Symphony, 100
Pasadena Vocational School, 71
Pasadena Water Company, 50
Pasadena Water Department, 51
Pasadena: Its Early Years, 37
Patton, George S., 54
Pauling, Linus, 86, 89
Payne, Theodore, 70, 120
Peck, George, 54
Peck’s Bad Boy, 54
Pérez, José, 14
Perkins and Stern, 13
Perkins, Constance, 88, 113
Perkins, Mrs. Gilbert, 106
Peters House, The, 107
Phillips, James, 89
Pickering, E. C., 55
Pickering, William,100
Pickford, Mary, 110
Pine Canyon Dam, 68
Playbox, The, 66
Playhouse School, 85
Plaza las Fuentes, 101, 113
Plaza Pasadena, 94, 96, 106
Plessy v. Ferguson, 48
Polk, Willis, 59, 63
Polytechnic School, 71, 95
Pomological Society, The, 25
Pomona College, 107
Popenoe/Childs House, The, 111
Porter, A. O., 21
Poynton, Dorothy, 76
Prairie School, The, 105, 122
Prickett, Charles, 66
Prince Brothers Feed and Fuel, 48
Prince, Charles, 48
Prince, Frank, 48
Prince, William, 48, 49, 50
Princeton University, 121
Printmakers Society of California, 7
Prisk, Charles, 73
Proposition 13, 93
Proposition 14, 88
Prospect Mount, 15
Prospect Park, 37, 107, 113
Public Works Administration, 76
Pulliam & Matthews, 113
R
Rainwater, Leo James, 89
Ralph M. Parsons Corporation, 96
Ramona, 25
Rancho San Pasqual see San Pasqual Ranch,
Rancho San Rafael see San Rafael Ranch
Rancho Santa Anita, 15
Rand-McNally, 104
Ranney, Mary, 71
Raymond and Whitcomb Excursions, 34
Raymond and Whitcomb Travel Agents, 27, 31
Raymond Avenue School, 60
Raymond Basin, 7, 50
Raymond Dike, 7, 9, 12, 15
Raymond Hill, 7, 29, 31, 35, 41, 77
Raymond Hotel see Hotel Raymond
Raymond Theater, 109
Raymond, Emmons, 35, 40
Raymond, Walter, 34, 35, 40, 41, 77
Real Estate Exchange, 36, 37
Red Box, 78
“Red Cars,” The, 37
Red Cross Ambulance Corps, 57
Redmont, 15
Reed , McClellan, 74
Reid, Hiram, 29, 34, 36, 45
Reid, Hugo, 11, 12, 15
Reid, Victoria, 11, 12
Reservoir, The, 25
Reyes, Stephen, 91
Rhoades, William Porter, 27
Richard, Isaac, 94, 95
Richter, Charles, 80, 85
Ridgway, Hamilton, 31, 103, 104
Ripley, Clinton B., 31, 103
Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel, 7
Robinson, Charles Mulford, 62
Robinson, Jackie, 89
Robinson, John W., 28
Robinson, Mack, 89
Robinson’s, 86
Rocha, Rogerio 9
Rockefeller Foundation, 80
Roehrig, Frederick Louis, 103, 104, 105, 106, 110
Rolph, James, Jr., 83
Rome, Italy, 42
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 76
Roosevelt, Theodore, 52, 118
Rose Bowl, The, 67, 69, 74, 75, 76, 80, 98, 119
Rose Villa Ranch, 52
Rose, Guy, 54
Rose, Leonard, Jr., 12
Rose, Leonard, Sr., 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 27, 116
Rose, Richard, 95
Rose’s Sunny Slope Brandy, 13
Rosemeade, 14
Rosenbaum, Moritz, 24
Rover, 100
Rowland, Francis F., 42
Royal Raymond, The see Hotel Raymond
Royce, Stephen, 69
Ruppel, Fritz, 124
Ruskin, John, 44
Russ, Nellie, 52, 53
Russell, Newton, 94
Rust, Horatio N., 26
S
Sacramento, 13
Salazar, Michael, 98
San Bernardino, 7, 17, 18
San Clemente, 7
San Diego, 17, 42, 53, 62, 80, 113, 117, 122
San Fernando, 17
San Fernando Valley, 56
San Francisco, 12, 15, 27, 29, 40, 62, 63, 82, 97, 103,
117
San Gabriel, 12
San Gabriel Canyon, 68
San Gabriel Mission see Mission San Gabriel
San Gabriel Mountains, 7, 27, 28, 64
San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24,
29, 31
San Gabriel River, 50
San Gabriel Valley, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 22, 26, 27,
29, 32, 56, 59, 86, 87, 115
San Marino, 9, 11, 105, 121, 123
San Marino High School, 9
San Nicholas, 7
San Pasqual Ranch, 7, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22
San Pasqual School District, 35
San Pedro, 111
San Quentin, 74
San Rafael, 86
San Rafael Heights, 64
San Rafael Ranch, 12, 29, 43
San Rafael Winery, 19
Santa Anita, 18
Santa Anita Race Track, 81, 112
Santa Anita Ranch, 9, 12, 13, 17
Santa Barbara, 7, 55, 103, 110, 111, 115, 123
Santa Catalina, 7, 9
Saunders, Charles, 122
Savoy Theater, 66
Scherer, James A. B., 54, 55, 56, 57
Scheyer, Galka, 86
Schumann-Heink, Madame, 118
Scofield House, The, 110
Scott Methodist Episcopal Church, 49
Scott, Randolph, 85
Scott, Reuben, 48, 49
Scoville, C. B., 54
Scribner’s Monthly, 25
Scripps College, 112
Sears, Fred, 38
Sears, Roebuck & Co., 75
Seims, Charles, 43
Selznick, David O., 123
Senate Bill No. 481, 94
Sepúlveda, Enriqué, 14
Serra, Father Junipero, 9
Serra, Richard, 86
Settlement House Association, 91
Sexson, John A., 71
Shakespeare Club, The, 62
Shasta Dam, 112
Shawn, Ted, 118
Sheldon Reservoir, 9
Shellhorn, Ruth, 125
Sheraton Corporation, The, 86
Shimanouchi, Y., 82
Shockley, William, 88
Shorb, James De Barth, 15, 19, 22, 27
Shupe, N. J., 77
Sierra Madre College, 24
Sierra Madre Villa Hotel, 14, 22, 26, 27, 32, 40
Simon, Norton, 99
Sinclair, Mary, 54
Sinclair, Upton, 54, 73, 76
Sisitcanongna, 9
Smith & Williams, 91, 113
Smith, Apollo M. O., 81
Smith, George Washington, 115
Smith, Whitney, 113
Snowball, McDougall, 43
INDEX
213

Solomon, Daniel, 98
Sommerfeld, Arnold, 80
Sonora, 59
Sorver, Edwin, 57, 64
South Orange Grove Association, 85
Southern California Edison, 51
Southern California Gas Company, 65
Southwest Protective and Improvement Association, The, 85
Spangler v. Board of Education, 91
Spanish-American Alliance, 91
Sperry, Roger W., 100, 101
Sphinx Ranch, 32
St. Andrew’s Catholic Church, 53
St. Denis, Ruth, 118
St. Francis Court, 107
St. Louis, Missouri, 104
St. Luke Hospital, 79
St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, 111
Staats House, The, 107
Stafford, E. H., 43
Stanford Research Institute, 86
Stanford University, 38, 49, 73
Stanton, Jess, 71
Stanton, Sally, 77
Stanton, William, 104
State Board of Forestry, 23
State Employment Relief Administration, 76
Stern, Robert A. M., 94, 113
Stevens, Frank D., 34
Stewart, Albert, 74
Stickney Memorial School of Fine Arts, 54
Stickney, Susan, 54
Stone, Edward Durell, 125
Stoneman, George 11
Stoneman, Mary 11
Stork, Willis, 95
Stuart Pharmaceutical Building, 125
Stuart Pharmaceuticals, 86
Sunken Gardens, The, 117, 118
Sunny Slope, 12, 13, 14, 17, 22, 27
Sutton, Mary, 50
Swan, James, 104
Swift House, The, 111
Switzer’s Camp, 78
Switzer’s Falls, 28
Sylvan Square, 20
Sylvia, Queen of Sweden, 96
T
Takei, Esther, 82
Talmadge, Thomas, 110
Tech Square, 88
Temin, Howard M., 89
The Health Seekers, 26
Thiene, Paul, 119, 122
35th Division, United States Army, 77
Thompson-Glickman, Loretta, 93, 94
Thorndike, Ralph, 73
Thorne House, The, 110
Throop College of Technology, 56
Throop Hall, 56, 112
Throop Institute, 56
Throop Memorial Universalist Church, 44
Throop Polytechnic Institute, 44, 54, 55, 56, 62, 71
Throop University, 24, 44
Throop, Amos G., 44, 45
Thum, William, 51, 118
Tierney, Lennox, 99
Titleyville, 60
Tod Ford, Jr. House, The, 111
Tolman, Richard, 80
Tongva, The see Gabrielinos, The
Topanga Canyon, 7
Torrington Place, 104
Tournament of Roses Association, 43, 62, 67
Tournament of Roses, 24, 42, 49, 73
Tournament Park, 67, 70, 117
Town Club, 111
Townes, Charles, 88
Toypurina, 10
Tulare, 81
Turner, Edson, 33
Twain, Mark, 55
U
U.S. Forest Service, 78
U.S. Revenue Office, 34
U.S. Supreme Court, 90
University of California, 22, 71
University of California at Berkeley, 38, 122
University of Chicago, 56, 80, 121
University of Illinois, 122
University of Michigan, 49
University of Southern California, 55
University of Wisconsin, 22
Unjust Competition Act, 52
Urban Design Advisory Committee, 98
V
Valley Hunt Club, 29, 42, 54
Van Pelt, Garrett, 107, 110
Van Pelt, Helen, 122
Vawter, Mrs., 21, 22
Vedder, William H., 50, 51, 118
Verdugo, Jóse María, 12
Vermont, 22
Vista del Arroyo Hotel, 69, 70, 71, 120
Volstead Act, The, 68
Von Kármán, Theodore, 80, 81
W
Wadsworth, Hiram, 63
Walker, Francis J., 74
Walker, Patrick, 74, 77
Wallace, Joseph, 31
War Savings Stamps, 57
Warhol, Andy, 86
Warner, Jack, 123
Washington Elementary School, 71
Washington Junior High School, 71
Washington Park, 120
Washington School, 15, 90
Washington State University, 67
Waterhouse, William, 51
Waverly, 20
Webster Hotel, 40, 41
Webster, E. C., 33, 34, 40, 41
Weight, Martin H., 50
Wentworth Hotel, 68
Westridge School, 71
Wharton, Edith, 121
Wheat, Frank, 99
Wheat, Nancy, 99
White House, The, 26
Whittaker, James T., 89
Whittier Narrows, 9, 51, 95
Whittlesey, Charles, 68
Wight, Peter B., 103
William Wilson Building, 107
Williams College, 111
Williams, Barney, 31, 104
Wilson Lake, 7, 12
Wilson School, 38, 52
Wilson, Benjamin D., 11, 12, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24,
28, 29, 35, 116
Wilson, Helen Van Pelt, 122
Wilson, John, 97
Wilson, Kenneth, 100
Wilson, Phoebe Wall, 98
Wilson, Robert D., 89
Wilson’s Lake, 43
Wimbledon, 50
Wise, William J., 74
Wolfskill, William, 12
Women’'s Civic League, 62
Women’'s Hospital, 91
Woolworth’s Department Store, 77
Wooster, Philander G., 36
Wopschall, C. G., 77
Works Progress Administration, 76, 77
Workshop, The, 66
World War I, 57, 59, 79, 109, 110, 117
World War II, 77, 78, 80, 81, 85, 89, 91, 111, 113, 118
Wright, Frank Lloyd, 105, 108, 110, 112, 113, 122
Wrightwood, 78
Y
Yale Bowl, The, 68
Yale University, 121
Yoch, Florence, 112, 122, 123, 124
Yocum, John D., 29
Yosemite Valley, 23
Young, Charles, 115
Young, Robert, 85
Yount, George, 9
Your City, 73
Yudell, Moore Ruble, 113
Z
Zalvidea, Father José María de, 10, 11
HISTORIC PASADENA
214