
Why are we gazing across a parking lot at the back of a building? Isn't this
Busch Gardens Traces Week on PDP?
Why, yes it is. And this is the biggest trace of
Busch Gardens, or actually of the Adolphus and Lilly Busch homestead, still standing in Pasadena. This building, on Arlington Drive near Fair Oaks, was once the Busch stables. It was moved from its original location behind the
Busch mansion at 1021 S. Fair Oaks in 1910.
That was a hundred years ago. It would be a huge undertaking even now.
Don't you just love this stuff?

Here's the view from Arlington Drive. The stable is the larger building at the rear. I don't know what it's being used for now. The building in front has a sign on it that says "the Mews." I couldn't find it online. It might be a private home.
Just to get my facts straight: I took furious (though unfortunately not copious) notes during Michael Logan's lecture May 22nd, and I thought he said these were once the John Cravens stables (the
Cravens Estate, which still stands, would have been close to the Busch home). But in Logan's own article in the May issue of
Cottages and Bungalows magazine, the building is referred to as "Busch stables." One thing is certain: this building isn't listed as a Pasadena Designated Historic Property, and it should be.
Grab a copy of the magazine if you're interested in seeing this building in its original location. I haven't found a photo on the web but there's one in the article, a charming stroll through the gardens back in the day as imagined by Logan, who can picture them as clearly as a photograph.
Update, 6/12/10:
In an email from a person who lived in "the old barn at 55 Arlington" from 1987-1997, she said:
"It is divided into apartments now. I lived there for almost 10 years and loved it. It takes earthquakes very well (Northridge quake). I was told by
the owner at that time (Stan Stanislawsky - whose son is an accountant in
Pasadena) that it was the Busch barn and the apartment complex next door - to the west - were the chicken coops. The coops are apts also and also
very quaint! The barn should be on an historical registry. I moved out at the end of 1997. I don't know who owns it now."