Old Town Pasadena
Encyclopedia
Old Pasadena is the original commercial center of Pasadena
, a city in California
, United States
that arose from one of the most prosperous areas of the state, and had a latter day revitalization after a period of decay. Old Pasadena is often referred to as Old Town Pasadena or just Old Town.
Old Pasadena began as the center of an enlighted "Athens of the West" that gave rise to Caltech
, JPL
, as well as Beckman Instruments, Aerojet
and numerous other industrial giants. The area also housed, schooled and provided stomping grounds for numerous famous and infamous free thinkers, poets, artists and rapscallions such as General George Patton
, Alexander Calder
, Upton Sinclair
, L. Ron Hubbard
, Jack Parsons, Albert Einstein
, Bobby Fischer
and David Lee Roth
. It was also the home to Andy Warhol
's west coast debut, the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art (one of the earliest and best modern art museums in the country, now the Norton Simon Museum
), and before that a center of suffragist and pacifist movements, and other liberal causes. By the late 1940s, the area was blighted by flop houses, seedy bars and pawn shops. It later became a hippie
mecca with head shops, adult bookstores and massage parlor
s. By the late 1980s, urban renewal was in full swing with the trendy set.
Old Pasadena is now a designated historic district of the Pasadena
Charter defined by its boundaries 1) to the North, Holly Street from Fair Oaks Avenue to Arroyo Parkway; 2) on the East, Arroyo Parkway south to Green Street, jogging one half block west to the old Santa Fe RR right-of-way and continuing 3) South to encompass the Old Train Station and Central Park, then north on Fair Oaks to De Lacey Street, then west to Pasadena Blvd.; 4) on the West by Pasadena Blvd. north to Union Street, back to Fair Oaks Boulevard. and north to Holly Street.
The Historic Old Pasadena District was chartered in 1980 as a means of revitalizing the oldest part of Pasadena which had fallen derelict though not abandoned, but was for all intents and purposes economically and commercially dead. By this charter, a strictly controlled redevelopment was able to be established with federal tax incentives to qualifying investors. Under strict guidelines, buildings were able to be stripped of old paint, revealing some of the finer—as well as some of the roughest—of early brickwork fasciae. All renovations or remodeling came under the scrutiny of a city commission which approved materials, colors and styles, most of which were to reflect the period of 1925 to 1940, the time after which these buildings had lost their appeal.
The Old Pasadena Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places
in 1983.
were established. Barney Williams
had opened his general store on the Northwest corner. It served as the main supplier for the town as well as the post office when mail came up from Los Angeles
.
On the Southwest corner was the Grand Hotel. This was replaced by the Dodsworth Building in 1902 and that building now houses the popular Cheesecake Factory.
Modern attempts to ascertain the location to which the school was moved was all but lost. But the block of Fair Oaks, Colorado Boulevard, Raymond Avenue, and Green Street were somehow always referred to as the "schoolhouse block." The location was discerned by interpolating the texts from several historical accounts. Hiram Reid in his History of Pasadena, 1895, states that the schoolhouse was "moved several feet east to a frontage on Raymond 500 feet north of a line parallel to the north wall of the Post Office building." Another book shows that in 1895 the Post Office was in the Morgan Block just north of Kansas Street (Green Street). Then Reid's book says "A beautiful new edifice stands there now." He was speaking of the Van der Vort building built in 1894. That's where the schoolhouse ended up. Eventually that building was sold to someone who moved it away for a residence, and a new Wilson School was built somewhere miles outside of Old Pasadena later.
In 1887 one Mr. E. C. Webster began construction of a hotel on the southeast corner of Raymond Avenue and Kansas Street (1929 Green St.) When he was unable to complete the job, a newcomer to the area, Colonel G. G. Green, took over the construction and finished the Green Hotel, which opened in 1888.
Green was a friend of Mr. Andrew McNally, a prominent printer from Chicago who had moved West and made his home in Altadena. McNally had invited Green to come out and join him in this new community. Together Green and McNally invested heavily in the short-lived Altadena Railroad, which provided them private sidings at their residences and which Green rode daily to the construction site of his new hotel. Green and Andrew McNally were next door neighbors on Mariposa Street just west of Lake Ave. The McNally home
still stands and the old Green Carriage house remains and can be seen from the rear parking lot of the Altadena Library. The old Green carriage house is currently occupied as a residence.
The new Green Hotel
was a mammoth 6-story edifice that faced Central Park on South Raymond, just north of the original Victorian Pasadena Train Station, where trains stopped on their way between Chicago and Los Angeles. That station was replaced by the current station, in the Southwestern style.
In 1898, Green built an even more impressive Mediterranean style hotel on the opposite side of Raymond. The first became referred to as the annex, and the second became the winter home for some of the most prominent magnates of industry in the Eastern United States. The two buildings were connected by a bridge across Raymond, and a tunnel under it. Guests arriving by train would pass through the annex, to the second floor, and be trammed across the bridge. In the main residence they would simply retire to their suites. The luggage would follow via the tunnel.
Many of the servants and attendants of the guests were forced to find quartering in the adjacent buildings. In 1902 the Green had a wing built along Kansas (now Green Street) to the P. G. Wooster Block, home of Throop University, (forerunner to Caltech). This was all run as the Hotel Green.
In 1924 the Hotel converted to all residential apartments. The original building (annex) was razed to its first floor. All that is left of that original hotel is a portico on the corner of Raymond and Green. The building is now owned by Stats Floral Supply. In 1970 the government's HUD
project acquired the 1902 wing and separated the buildings into the Green Hotel on Green and the Castle Green on Raymond.
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In 1887, a Chicago
land speculator by the name of Morgan built a three story block next to the site of the County Jail. In 1895, John Woodbury built a modest office building for himself which he shared with Jared S. Torrance
. This building was replaced by the Marsh Block in 1902 which took up the whole corner lot of Raymond and Kansas south of the Morgan. In 1894 Van der Vort constructed the building that still bears his name at 32 S. Raymond. In 1889, Robert MacComber built the MacComber block on the northwest corner of Raymond and Kansas. In 1906 Braley built his bike manufacturing building which eventually became his Oldsmobile dealership.
Doty Block/Mikado Hotel/The Hotel Carver
:
In 1887 a three story Victorian red brick building with bay windows and a turret on the southeast corner was constructed at 107 South Fair Oaks on the northwest corner at Dayton Street. It was named the "Doty Block" and housed a stage coach or carriage showroom. In later years it became The Mikado Hotel serving the Japanese American Community. It became a freight depot for the Pasadena and Los Angeles Railroad, which later became part of the Pacific Electric Railway
. Above the second floor windows on the south wall can be seen the faint lettering "Pasadena and Los Angeles" that advertised that service. In the 1940s it became Pasadena's first Black-owned hotel, The Hotel Carver
when it was purchased and operated by Percy Clark and his sons Percy Jr., Robert, and Littleton. In the basement was a prominent jazz club known at one point as The Onyx Club and later as The Cobra Club. In 1970 the hotel was sold and the building was converted to artist and performance studios. Over the next fifteen years hundreds of artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and filmmakers rented space at The Hotel Carver
. The building was most well known during this period for The John Bull English Pub operated by Danny and Denise Sharp, and for the quirky word mural by Paul Waszink on the north wall that said "My people are the people of the dessert," said T.E. Lawrence, picking up his fork. Several art shows were held in the third floor ballroom and other parts of the building. In 1985 the artists were evicted and the building closed. The 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake caused the collapse of building immediately to the north of The Carver and caused a large section of bricks on the top of the North wall to fall to the ground taking out part of Waszink's T.E. Lawrence mural. Following the earthquake, the north wall was re-bricked and the building remodeled and earthquake retrofitted, as part of the general re-development of Old Town.
Robertson Motors built an auto factory just south of the Green Hotel Annex. That now stands as Fishbeck Furnishings.
In 1911 City Hall occupied a building at Union and Fair Oaks. Since then City Hall moved several times, and the building was lost, only to be replaced in 2003 by a quasi replica now known as the Container Store. The California National Guard
used several buildings about Old Pasadena before they built The Armory on Raymond above Holly. The old brick building on Holly across from the senior center was a National Guard motor depot.
In 1929 Colorado Street (now Colorado Boulevard
) was widened on the north side and many of the elaborate Victorian faces of the buildings were lost to reconstruction and replaced with more contemporary and less costly frontages. An additional 14 feet in width was added to Colorado Street as a result. In 1929 Kansas Street was widened and renamed Green Street. Union and Holly Streets were part of a city gateway that were to lead toward City Hall (1933) from the statue and flag at Orange Grove and Colorado Blvd. The whole plan was scaled down, but the streets were put in.
Old Pasadena today is mostly a business district with some mixed use. It now boasts a shopping mall
, upscale restaurant
s, a movie theater
, nightclubs, shops, posh outdoor café
s, pubs, and comedy club
s. Hence, the nightlife is very active in the area and it remains a popular tourist attraction
for locals and out-of-towners alike. Most of the buildings also have offices and apartment
s on the upper floors.
Old Pasadena is connected to Downtown Los Angeles
via the Metro Gold Line light rail. The Del Mar Station
is two blocks south of Colorado Blvd, while the Memorial Park Station
enters from Holly and Arroyo Parkway. The Norton Simon Museum
is located at Orange Grove and Colorado Blvd. Pacific Oaks College
Eureka campus is located at Fair Oaks Ave. and Eureka St., the very north end of old Town Pasadena. On New Years Day the Tournament of Roses Parade travels through Old Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard
. The spectacle draws on average 1.5 million spectators each year, thousands of whom camp out on the route in a 24-hour vigil to have the best view of the parade.
ArtPerformance offers free concerts on multiple stages throughout Old Pasadena. This annual outdoor music event showcases emerging and nationally recognized talent in conjunction with PasadenART Weekend, a three day citywide event.
Two street intersections in Old Pasadena, Colorado/DeLacey and Colorado/Raymond, use the Pedestrian scramble
system, like those in Tokyo
, on the strip in Las Vegas
, or on Rodeo Drive
in Beverly Hills.
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, a city in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that arose from one of the most prosperous areas of the state, and had a latter day revitalization after a period of decay. Old Pasadena is often referred to as Old Town Pasadena or just Old Town.
Old Pasadena began as the center of an enlighted "Athens of the West" that gave rise to Caltech
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, JPL
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...
, as well as Beckman Instruments, Aerojet
Aerojet
Aerojet is an American rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Rancho Cordova, California with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange, Gainesville and Camden, Arkansas. Aerojet is owned by GenCorp. They are the only US propulsion company that provides both solid rocket...
and numerous other industrial giants. The area also housed, schooled and provided stomping grounds for numerous famous and infamous free thinkers, poets, artists and rapscallions such as General George Patton
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...
, Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
, L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
, Jack Parsons, Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
, Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
and David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth
David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality. Roth was ranked nineteenth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Singers of All Time....
. It was also the home to Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's west coast debut, the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art (one of the earliest and best modern art museums in the country, now the Norton Simon Museum
Norton Simon Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is an Art Museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known by the names: the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum.-Overview:...
), and before that a center of suffragist and pacifist movements, and other liberal causes. By the late 1940s, the area was blighted by flop houses, seedy bars and pawn shops. It later became a hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
mecca with head shops, adult bookstores and massage parlor
Massage parlor
A massage parlor is a business where customers can receive a massage. Sometimes the term is synonymous with brothel as the term "massage" may be used as a euphemism for paid sexual favours....
s. By the late 1980s, urban renewal was in full swing with the trendy set.
Old Pasadena is now a designated historic district of the Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
Charter defined by its boundaries 1) to the North, Holly Street from Fair Oaks Avenue to Arroyo Parkway; 2) on the East, Arroyo Parkway south to Green Street, jogging one half block west to the old Santa Fe RR right-of-way and continuing 3) South to encompass the Old Train Station and Central Park, then north on Fair Oaks to De Lacey Street, then west to Pasadena Blvd.; 4) on the West by Pasadena Blvd. north to Union Street, back to Fair Oaks Boulevard. and north to Holly Street.
The Historic Old Pasadena District was chartered in 1980 as a means of revitalizing the oldest part of Pasadena which had fallen derelict though not abandoned, but was for all intents and purposes economically and commercially dead. By this charter, a strictly controlled redevelopment was able to be established with federal tax incentives to qualifying investors. Under strict guidelines, buildings were able to be stripped of old paint, revealing some of the finer—as well as some of the roughest—of early brickwork fasciae. All renovations or remodeling came under the scrutiny of a city commission which approved materials, colors and styles, most of which were to reflect the period of 1925 to 1940, the time after which these buildings had lost their appeal.
The Old Pasadena Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1983.
Fair Oaks and Colorado Boulevard
Old Pasadena has at its center the postal zero/zero intersection of all Pasadena, Fair Oaks Avenue (N-S) and Colorado Boulevard (E-W). It was here that the first of the businesses of the original Indiana ColonyIndiana Colony
The Indiana Colony is the first white settlement of the area known today as Pasadena, California. It was incorporated as such on January 31, 1874, by a settlement of Hoosiers seeking fairer weather following the exceptionally cold winter of 1872–73. The settlers met in the home of Dr...
were established. Barney Williams
Barney Williams
Barney Guillermo Williams is a Canadian rower. He was educated at Upper Canada College, the University of Victoria and then at Jesus College, University of Oxford where he was President of the Oxford University Boat Club.He won a gold medal at the 2003 world championships in Milan, Italy and a...
had opened his general store on the Northwest corner. It served as the main supplier for the town as well as the post office when mail came up from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
On the Southwest corner was the Grand Hotel. This was replaced by the Dodsworth Building in 1902 and that building now houses the popular Cheesecake Factory.
Schoolhouse Block
In its infancy, the Indiana Colony was a quiet farming community centered around Orange Grove Avenue, about a half mile west of Fair Oaks. Fair Oaks just south of Colorado Blvd. was a fine place to build a school, a gift from Benjamin "Don Benito" Wilson. Simply called the Fair Oaks schoolhouse, it soon became exposed to the bustling activity of the developing center of town. Fearing for the safety of children, the council of city fathers sought to move the schoolhouse, but its benefactor, Mr. Wilson had died and his estate was willed to family members still living in the area. The council sought permission from the family with a proviso that they would move the building immediately now for the benefit of the children, and build a finer new school somewhere outside the Old Pasadena area soon thereafter.Modern attempts to ascertain the location to which the school was moved was all but lost. But the block of Fair Oaks, Colorado Boulevard, Raymond Avenue, and Green Street were somehow always referred to as the "schoolhouse block." The location was discerned by interpolating the texts from several historical accounts. Hiram Reid in his History of Pasadena, 1895, states that the schoolhouse was "moved several feet east to a frontage on Raymond 500 feet north of a line parallel to the north wall of the Post Office building." Another book shows that in 1895 the Post Office was in the Morgan Block just north of Kansas Street (Green Street). Then Reid's book says "A beautiful new edifice stands there now." He was speaking of the Van der Vort building built in 1894. That's where the schoolhouse ended up. Eventually that building was sold to someone who moved it away for a residence, and a new Wilson School was built somewhere miles outside of Old Pasadena later.
Castle Green
Green was a friend of Mr. Andrew McNally, a prominent printer from Chicago who had moved West and made his home in Altadena. McNally had invited Green to come out and join him in this new community. Together Green and McNally invested heavily in the short-lived Altadena Railroad, which provided them private sidings at their residences and which Green rode daily to the construction site of his new hotel. Green and Andrew McNally were next door neighbors on Mariposa Street just west of Lake Ave. The McNally home
Andrew McNally House
The Andrew McNally House in Altadena, California was the home of Andrew McNally, co-founder and president of the Rand McNally publishing company. The Queen Anne Style house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places....
still stands and the old Green Carriage house remains and can be seen from the rear parking lot of the Altadena Library. The old Green carriage house is currently occupied as a residence.
The new Green Hotel
Hotel Green
Historical information with regards to the fire that brought the old Hotel Green wooden structure down, is credited to the book Haunted Houses of Pasadena by Michael J. Kouri, a well known historian and Parapsychological Investigator....
was a mammoth 6-story edifice that faced Central Park on South Raymond, just north of the original Victorian Pasadena Train Station, where trains stopped on their way between Chicago and Los Angeles. That station was replaced by the current station, in the Southwestern style.
In 1898, Green built an even more impressive Mediterranean style hotel on the opposite side of Raymond. The first became referred to as the annex, and the second became the winter home for some of the most prominent magnates of industry in the Eastern United States. The two buildings were connected by a bridge across Raymond, and a tunnel under it. Guests arriving by train would pass through the annex, to the second floor, and be trammed across the bridge. In the main residence they would simply retire to their suites. The luggage would follow via the tunnel.
Many of the servants and attendants of the guests were forced to find quartering in the adjacent buildings. In 1902 the Green had a wing built along Kansas (now Green Street) to the P. G. Wooster Block, home of Throop University, (forerunner to Caltech). This was all run as the Hotel Green.
In 1924 the Hotel converted to all residential apartments. The original building (annex) was razed to its first floor. All that is left of that original hotel is a portico on the corner of Raymond and Green. The building is now owned by Stats Floral Supply. In 1970 the government's HUD
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government...
project acquired the 1902 wing and separated the buildings into the Green Hotel on Green and the Castle Green on Raymond.
Other prominent buildings
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
land speculator by the name of Morgan built a three story block next to the site of the County Jail. In 1895, John Woodbury built a modest office building for himself which he shared with Jared S. Torrance
Jared Sidney Torrance
Jared Sidney Torrance was an American real estate developer, best known as the founder of Torrance in southwest Los Angeles County, California.-Southern California:...
. This building was replaced by the Marsh Block in 1902 which took up the whole corner lot of Raymond and Kansas south of the Morgan. In 1894 Van der Vort constructed the building that still bears his name at 32 S. Raymond. In 1889, Robert MacComber built the MacComber block on the northwest corner of Raymond and Kansas. In 1906 Braley built his bike manufacturing building which eventually became his Oldsmobile dealership.
Doty Block/Mikado Hotel/The Hotel Carver
The Hotel Carver
The Hotel Carver is a three story Victorian Building with full basement at 107 S. Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, California. It was built in the late 1880s as part of the Doty Block in the Old Town Pasadena district. According to sources at the Pasadena Museum of History, it originally was a...
:
In 1887 a three story Victorian red brick building with bay windows and a turret on the southeast corner was constructed at 107 South Fair Oaks on the northwest corner at Dayton Street. It was named the "Doty Block" and housed a stage coach or carriage showroom. In later years it became The Mikado Hotel serving the Japanese American Community. It became a freight depot for the Pasadena and Los Angeles Railroad, which later became part of the Pacific Electric Railway
Pacific Electric Railway
The Pacific Electric Railway , also known as the Red Car system, was a mass transit system in Southern California using streetcars, light rail, and buses...
. Above the second floor windows on the south wall can be seen the faint lettering "Pasadena and Los Angeles" that advertised that service. In the 1940s it became Pasadena's first Black-owned hotel, The Hotel Carver
The Hotel Carver
The Hotel Carver is a three story Victorian Building with full basement at 107 S. Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, California. It was built in the late 1880s as part of the Doty Block in the Old Town Pasadena district. According to sources at the Pasadena Museum of History, it originally was a...
when it was purchased and operated by Percy Clark and his sons Percy Jr., Robert, and Littleton. In the basement was a prominent jazz club known at one point as The Onyx Club and later as The Cobra Club. In 1970 the hotel was sold and the building was converted to artist and performance studios. Over the next fifteen years hundreds of artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and filmmakers rented space at The Hotel Carver
The Hotel Carver
The Hotel Carver is a three story Victorian Building with full basement at 107 S. Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, California. It was built in the late 1880s as part of the Doty Block in the Old Town Pasadena district. According to sources at the Pasadena Museum of History, it originally was a...
. The building was most well known during this period for The John Bull English Pub operated by Danny and Denise Sharp, and for the quirky word mural by Paul Waszink on the north wall that said "My people are the people of the dessert," said T.E. Lawrence, picking up his fork. Several art shows were held in the third floor ballroom and other parts of the building. In 1985 the artists were evicted and the building closed. The 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake caused the collapse of building immediately to the north of The Carver and caused a large section of bricks on the top of the North wall to fall to the ground taking out part of Waszink's T.E. Lawrence mural. Following the earthquake, the north wall was re-bricked and the building remodeled and earthquake retrofitted, as part of the general re-development of Old Town.
Robertson Motors built an auto factory just south of the Green Hotel Annex. That now stands as Fishbeck Furnishings.
In 1911 City Hall occupied a building at Union and Fair Oaks. Since then City Hall moved several times, and the building was lost, only to be replaced in 2003 by a quasi replica now known as the Container Store. The California National Guard
California National Guard
The California National Guard is the component of the United States National Guard in the U.S. state of California. It comprises both Army and Air National Guard components and is the largest national guard force in the United States with a total authorized strength of 22,900 soldiers and airmen...
used several buildings about Old Pasadena before they built The Armory on Raymond above Holly. The old brick building on Holly across from the senior center was a National Guard motor depot.
In 1929 Colorado Street (now Colorado Boulevard
Colorado Boulevard
Colorado Boulevard is a major east–west street in Southern California, United States. It runs from Griffith Park in Los Angeles east through Glendale, the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Arcadia, ending in Monrovia...
) was widened on the north side and many of the elaborate Victorian faces of the buildings were lost to reconstruction and replaced with more contemporary and less costly frontages. An additional 14 feet in width was added to Colorado Street as a result. In 1929 Kansas Street was widened and renamed Green Street. Union and Holly Streets were part of a city gateway that were to lead toward City Hall (1933) from the statue and flag at Orange Grove and Colorado Blvd. The whole plan was scaled down, but the streets were put in.
Old Pasadena today
Pasadena’s downtown declined between 1930 and 1980, but it has since been revived as “Old Pasadena,” one of Southern California’s most popular shopping and entertainment destinations. Dedicating parking meter revenue to finance public improvements in the area since 1993 has played a major part in this revival.Old Pasadena today is mostly a business district with some mixed use. It now boasts a shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
, upscale restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s, a movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, nightclubs, shops, posh outdoor café
Café
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...
s, pubs, and comedy club
Comedy club
A comedy club is a venue, typically a nightclub, bar, or restaurant where people watch or listen to performances, including stand-up comedians, improvisational comedians, impersonators, magicians, ventriloquists and other comedy acts...
s. Hence, the nightlife is very active in the area and it remains a popular tourist attraction
Tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
for locals and out-of-towners alike. Most of the buildings also have offices and apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s on the upper floors.
Old Pasadena is connected to Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
via the Metro Gold Line light rail. The Del Mar Station
Del Mar (LACMTA station)
Del Mar Station is an at-grade light rail station in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system. It is located off of Del Mar Boulevard between Raymond Avenue and Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, California. The station is served by the Gold Line....
is two blocks south of Colorado Blvd, while the Memorial Park Station
Memorial Park (LACMTA station)
Memorial Park Station is a below-grade light rail station in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system. It is located at Holly Street and Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena, California...
enters from Holly and Arroyo Parkway. The Norton Simon Museum
Norton Simon Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is an Art Museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known by the names: the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum.-Overview:...
is located at Orange Grove and Colorado Blvd. Pacific Oaks College
Pacific Oaks College
Pacific Oaks College is located in Pasadena, California, United States. Pacific Oaks College is a higher education institution that has full & part-time undergraduate and graduate students throughout Pacific Oaks' California campuses as well as online...
Eureka campus is located at Fair Oaks Ave. and Eureka St., the very north end of old Town Pasadena. On New Years Day the Tournament of Roses Parade travels through Old Pasadena on Colorado Boulevard
Colorado Boulevard
Colorado Boulevard is a major east–west street in Southern California, United States. It runs from Griffith Park in Los Angeles east through Glendale, the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Arcadia, ending in Monrovia...
. The spectacle draws on average 1.5 million spectators each year, thousands of whom camp out on the route in a 24-hour vigil to have the best view of the parade.
ArtPerformance offers free concerts on multiple stages throughout Old Pasadena. This annual outdoor music event showcases emerging and nationally recognized talent in conjunction with PasadenART Weekend, a three day citywide event.
Two street intersections in Old Pasadena, Colorado/DeLacey and Colorado/Raymond, use the Pedestrian scramble
Pedestrian scramble
A pedestrian scramble, also known as a 'X' Crossing , diagonal crossing , scramble intersection , and more poetically Barnes Dance, is a pedestrian crossing system that stops all vehicular traffic and allows pedestrians to cross an intersection in every direction, including diagonally, at the same...
system, like those in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, on the strip in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, or on Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive
Rodeo Drive of Beverly Hills, California is a shopping district known for designer label and haute couture fashion. The name generally refers to a three-block long stretch of boutiques and shops but the street stretches further north and south....
in Beverly Hills.
External links
Sources
- Hiram Reid, History of Pasadena, out of print, rare book, 1895.
- Pasadena City Hall, Hall of Records and Office of Cultural History
- Pasadena Museum of History