Real Estate Primer

I read a lot of blogs (too many or not enough, I haven't decided). One I particularly enjoy is Pasadena Real Estate With Brigham Yen. Brigham is full of ideas and enthusiasm for a better Pasadena. He regularly posts about what's going on real estate-wise in town.

I took today's photo from a window in one of the offices of the Pasadena Professional Building at Union and Madison. This empty lot on Union St. is part of the Fuller Theological Seminary Campus. Here's a link to a view from the rooftop when the Herkimer Arms still stood there. That's City Hall in the background.

What's happening with the lot? As usual, Brigham has the scoop. When Fuller Theological Seminary removed the Greene & Greene-designed Herkimer Arms (not destroyed, thanks to preservation efforts, but relocated to Raymond just north of Maple), the Fuller Worship Center was supposed to go in. If you want to know why building hasn't begun, read Brigham's post. After all, it's his scoop.

Guess Where I Am

Hint: Ben posted about it recently. In fact, the very day of Ben's post, I was in the very building he mentioned, visiting the dashing Dr. Ferrante, super-podiatrist!

I know what you're thinking: great minds think alike. What? You weren't thinking that about the coincidence of me being in the building Ben was posting about? Oh. You were thinking you've never heard the words "dashing" and "podiatrist" in the same sentence. Whatevs.

I'm on the roof of the Pasadena Professional Building, looking west down Union Street. The Professional Building stands gracefully at the intersection of Union and Madison Avenue, just as it has since it was built in 1925 (two years before City Hall). The official address is 65 N. Madison. The building has an interesting history, some of which I learned while I was there. I'll post more about it in the coming days.

Actually, the building hasn't always stood at Madison and Union. It used to stand at Madison and Herkimer; Union Street was once called Herkimer Street. Now I know how the Herkimer Arms got its name. That's the square white building in the lower center of this photo, the only extant apartment building designed by Greene and Greene and slated to be moved to a new location in the near future. Just beyond the Herkimer, with the aquamarine trim, is the brand new David Allan Hubbard library of the Fuller Theological Seminary, another of Ben's great recent posts. Further west on Union you see All Saints Episcopal Church and Pasadena City Hall. I don't know what those two huge buildings center right are called. Does that make me a bad person? Don't answer that.

More to come about the Professional Building and its early 20th century super-doctors. They didn't fly, but they built a mighty nice building.