Yesterday On Colorado Blvd.

photo by Terry Griest

Sometimes, if we're lucky, Terry Griest checks the blog when I've posted a photo taken in Old Town Pasadena. You may remember Terry: she did an in-depth study of our historic, once-scary (now up-scale) shopping district at the beginning of its dramatic upheaval/restoration. What she created is a rare treasure, and I'm so grateful when she shares it with us.

Compare today's photo to yesterday's.

Terry says:
"I didn't have much in my little 1984 report and no oldy-old photos, just this one from '84 when you could buy 'meat for home freezers,' and 'select your own' 'beef bundles' (yum) from the Beef Baron where you can now buy leather goods. Hmm.

"Here's the only info I have:

"...we come to 33-45 West Colorado, another Spanish Colonial relating well to others on the block. This facade is actually a 1929 [the year they widened Colorado] unification of several small structures built in 1895. Typical Spanish elements are the central arched entrance, red tile roof, and wrought iron grille work which was, until recently, covered by signs. Once the first Pasadena telephone company in 1901, Bennett and Haskell once again offered their own baroque version of the Spanish colonial style."

This is a lot of information! And now, thanks to Terry Griest, it's available on the web.

Happy New Year, the Pasadena Way

photo by John Sandel

Please do click on this panorama to enlarge it. John took it with his iPhone inside the Rosemont Pavilion last night, while volunteers and professionals worked feverishly to finish a dozen Tournament of Roses parade floats.

Actually, not feverishly. Fever implies heat and it was chilly in there. But they were working hard. It is estimated that 80,000 volunteer hours will go into this year's Tournament of Roses parade and festival.

Thanks to our friend Terry Griest, a white-suiter and sometime PDP guest photographer, we were treated to a VIP tour. We didn't have to wait in long lines and were were able to get down on the main floor of the pavilion to see the floats up close.

The panorama gives you an idea of the enormity of the place and the work going on there, but it's only an idea. The Rosemont Pavilion houses 12 floats; there will be 47 floats in Saturday's parade. Every surface of the floats is decorated with organic matter, from flowers to coffee beans to kidney beans to carrots. I was intrigued by a plant called "silver leaf," used to decorate the shining armor of a knight on the Bayer company's "Camelot" float.

Here's our tour guide David (thus the term, "white-suiter"). When you see this eagle in the parade it will be at the head of a float ridden by Native American singers and dancers of tribes from all over the United States. And it won't be wearing that plastic shower cap.

If you're camping out on Colorado Blvd. tonight, stay safe and warm, ya nuts!

Here's a photo of how things looked at about 2:00 this afternoon along Colorado Blvd. John was driving and I shot this out his window. Things were just beginning to get a little insane.

Happy New Year from Pasadena!

Deja View

I know. You're thinking I posted this photo the other day. I don't blame you.

Look again. Since I took last Sunday's photo on May 1st, the Crown City Loan And Jewelry "Money To Loan" signs have been removed on both the Colorado Blvd. and Raymond Avenue sides of the building. According to one commenter on that post, that signage has been up since the 1970's.

The older lettering--"For Values," above, and I'm not sure what, below--has suffered in the intervening years. So has the black grid, which I'm going to guess was once clear glass.
I suppose I would have noticed this eventually, but what drew me to Old Town this time was Terry Griest, PDP's Bay Area designer friend, who was in Pasadena for a short family visit. She saw the changes and emailed me, so I ran over to get a shot. This time I actually stopped into the pawn shop. I had never been there before. Nice girls don't go to pawn shops, or something like that.

Well. This is Pasadena after all. Our pawn shop is not your creepy, greasy TV kind of pawn shop but rather a bit upscale. Sunlight streams in through big windows, gleaming on all sorts of cool stuff including jewelry, guitars, rare coins, power tools and three beautiful, antique cash registers. I asked the woman behind the counter about the changes to the facade and she said the plan is to remodel the building to its original appearance. When I told her I thought that was pretty cool, she said she thought so, too. She was excited about it.

I haven't read anything about this in the Pasadena Star-News or on the Pasadena Heritage website. But restoration of one of Pasadena's oldest Greene and Greene buildings, and, according to this 2006 article by Janette Williams, the only commercial building the favorite sons ever designed, is worth getting excited about.

Update 5/26/10:
I heard from Robert Montano, the Project Manager at Pasadena's
Economic Development Division. He says:

"As background to your post, the Owners, helped by a façade grant from the City of Pasadena’s Redevelopment Department are embarking on a façade restoration of the Kinney Building – the only Greene and Greene commercial building. The “Black Grid” is actually a panel of purple glass tiles frequently used in transom windows as can be seen at 55 E Colorado (above the future Intelligentsia and existing Foot Locker), just around the corner.

No one was certain as to the condition of the building when we started out, so needless to say, we are pretty happy to find so much original character in place. We have a long way to go until completion, but are very excited about starting down the path."

I know there's an online photo of 44 E. Colorado, but I couldn't find it today. But this post about Pop Champagne Bar from Fightin' Mad Mary shows the same kind of transom windows, just around the corner from the Pawn Shop.

Crown City Jewel

Someone once told me the Pawn Shop at the corner of Colorado Blvd. and Raymond Avenue was one of the oldest buildings in town. But I hadn't known until I took the Pasadena Heritage Old Town Walking Tour that it was designed by our famous local brothers, Charles and Henry Greene.

Today's first photo was taken by Terry Griest, looking toward the building from the southeast. Terry has contributed several photos to the blog, all taken in Old Town in 1984 for a college report. Aren't we glad she saved them?

Built in the late 1800's, the Kinney-Kendall Building was at first the home of Metcalf's Pharmacy and Charles Gardner's Dry Goods. I don't know how long it's been a pawn shop, but the online reviews for Crown City Loan & Jewelry are positive, and I see "over 50 years experience."

My first photo was taken looking directly north, across Colorado Blvd.

Here's a closer look on the Raymond Avenue side of the building. I've messed with my photos a little, removing shadows so you can see the details.

I told Terry I think the difference between our photos is that it looks like the Kinney-Kendall building had received a new paint job in 1984 and it's still sporting that same paint job today.

Here's something cool: I found the plans for the building online.

I Say Dodworth, You Say Dodsworth?

Yesterday's photo of the Dodworth Building was different from today's in many ways.

Yesterday's photo was taken by me in 2010, looking at the north face of the building on Colorado Blvd. Today's photo was taken by Terry Griest in 1984, looking at the building from the northeast. Terry's our graphic designer friend from the Bay Area who used to live in Pasadena. I'm so glad she continues to check in here. In the 1980's she did a thorough study of Old Town for a college project, took a lot of pictures and saved them. Terry has contributed to the blog twice before. Lucky for us!

About today's photo, Terry says,
"Here's what I wrote in 1984:
'Originally classical when built in 1902, it was twice remodeled, most recently after the 1929 street widening. What exists now is a combination of the original Classic style of the arched entrance on Fair Oaks, some Spanish Colonial in the tile roof and ornamentation, and even some Moderne in the slim vertical pilasters.'
I think that is college-essay-speak for 'superfluous details.'
I never noticed until today that the Cheesecake Factory spot used to house a T.V. rental joint. Only 25¢ a day!"

The 1929 remodel refers to a time when many buildings along the Old Town stretch of Fair Oaks lost their facades for the sake of widening the road.

This structure's been cleaned up nicely since the '80s. This is my recent shot of the eastern face of the building, which I grabbed as we scurried by on the Pasadena Heritage Old Town Walking Tour. I wonder what the interior's like.

I'm still not sure if the building is the Dodworth or the Dodsworth and I'm not the only one. Google (scroll to the map) and Wikipedia both have it as Dodsworth, as did my guide on the Tour.

It's one of Pasadena's venerable architectural treasures no matter what you call it.

Update, 10/26/10: I happened to notice as I drove by the other day, that the sign painted on the door says "The Dodsworth Building." So go figure. 

A Corner in Time

Just because I couldn't find much information about the old Owl Drug Store building online yesterday doesn't mean the information isn't out there. It means I don't get to spend as much time at the library as I'd like to.

But thankfully, other people can. Sometimes I'm lucky and the information comes to me from Pasadenamanians both past and present who are happy to share photos and can't stand it when I come up short. (Thank goodness for them.) Three (count 'em, three) people sent photos for today's post. Let's do a chronology.

Dale Trader sent a bunch of historical shots; the top one is looking south on Fair Oaks across Colorado in 1890. At the top right you can see the dome of the original Victorian building that graced the northwest corner.

This photo, of the same building, is labeled "First National Bank Building NW Corner Fair Oaks and Colorado 1900."

This one was taken in 1910. I think we're looking east from West Colorado Street. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's the one Ann Erdman sent from the City's USC digital archives. If this photo was indeed taken in 1926 as its label states ("1926 Colorado Street Post-Parade"); if we're looking west on Colorado Street at Fair Oaks; if the information I had yesterday is correct and the Victorian burned down in 1929; then Owl Drug was in the Victorian at this corner pre-fire.

That might be a run-on sentence. Let's move on.

Here's another from Dale. Taken in 1930, a mere four years after the one above it. We're looking north on Fair Oaks and you can see the square, "Zig Zag Modern" building that replaced the Victorian. Owl Drug still occupies the corner property.

Here--just for fun and because I'm being chronological--is a business map of Colorado and Fair Oaks. Dale sent a larger section and I cropped it so we can look at the corner. This is circa 1950; around this time, post World War II, the neighborhood was already run down.

Dale says, "Another Owl Drug Store was located just east of the Security Bank Building on the SE corner of Marengo and Colorado; when the Plaza Pasadena Mall was built they preserved the facade only and now in the Paseo it is still just a parking entrance false facade. "

Last but certainly not least, a piece de resistance from Terry Griest. You remember Terry: she sent some great photos back when we were studying the Doty Block. She has a treasure trove of Old Town photos from the mid-1980s thanks to a project she did while a student at Cal State Long Beach.
This ought to bring back memories for some of you. Pascal Jim mentioned this shop in his comment yesterday.

This is the building we have today, though it's been considerably spiffed up. I'll get to Old Town asap and see if I can match this position and snap a shot for you.

Thank you Ann, Dale and Terry so much for your contributions today. Even if no one saw this post but me I'd be thrilled to have a fuller understanding of time's progression in this little corner of my world.

Earth Trembles, As Does Memory

This week we've been talking about the Doty Block, a building at the corner of Fair Oaks and Green Street in Old Town Pasadena. Yesterday, Margaret and Trish asked if the mural that once graced the north face of the building had at one time been only partially visible.

I'm coming up on my fourth year in Pasadena. A lot happened before my time. But Terry Griest, a San Francisco Bay Area graphic designer who grew up in Pasadena, experienced the 1987 Whittier Narrows earthquake while living on South Orange Grove Blvd. And she kept the clippings.

It was a pretty serious quake:
(All three clippings are from the 10/2/87 issue of the Star-News.)

It just so happens that Terry also studied the Doty Block as part of a photo essay for a class called "The City as an Art Resource," at Cal State Long Beach. She created the essay in the mid-1980's, when Old Town was in transition from "scary part of town that you didn't tell your mother you were visiting after dark" (her words, K!) to the shopping mecca it is now.
Terry didn't think this 1984 photo she took was any big deal, but to me it's amazing. I'd never before seen a photo of the mural in context. I'd never seen the garage next door, only an enticing glimpse of the brick work along the top, in a black & white photo (see yesterday's post). I just love it.

I also love this shot from 1887:
Terry says it's "a photocopy of a photocopy." But you can see the turret that was once on the southeast corner, and the bay windows that faced out on Fair Oaks. Sweet.

I blog about Pasadena because I enjoy it. If only I didn't have to make a living! But I can't always run out to the library or the Pasadena Museum of History every time I want to research a post. I'm limited to what I can find on the web, and believe it or not, the web is limited. It doesn't have every photo, and it doesn't have personal memories.

So it's incredibly rewarding when PDP visitors get involved. The posts from yesterday and the day before (and tomorrow) wouldn't have been possible at all without Loren Roberts of Hearken Creative. Additional links in the comments really rounded out the information. And Terry Griest's contributions today are really outstanding. This participation in the conversation about our home town is extremely gratifying, and I can't thank you all enough.

I've also received a few emails this week from people who voiced their feelings about the Old Town they remember from before the changes. I'm only beginning to understand what an upheaval that must have been. I only know Old Town as it is now and I love it, not because I'm a shopper (I'm not) but because I love well kept old buildings. But knowing me and my love for old things with a little bit of dirt on them, I think I would have loved Old Town just as much before.

Maybe even more.