The Lukens Estate

Here's the house we've been talking about. I wasn't planning to post these shots. I want to get across the street and get up high on something to shoot over the fence. From this low vantage point I don't think you get the magnificence of this big ol' Victorian pile.

According to Thal Armathura of Avenue to the Sky--a blog all about Lake Avenue--this was once the Lukens Estate. Thal's been embellishing my Lake Avenue posts all week with his vast knowledge of Pasadena history. (The Lukens Estate is actually on El Molino, but the entrance lane used to be Locust Street, starting all the way over on Lake Ave.)

Quoting Thal from Wednesday's comments: "The long time present owner and restorer of the Luken's Estate, Roger Kislingbury, is a legend in Pasadena, and I'll present his story in a near future update on Avenue to the Sky...Roger is a friend and most recently he was the owner of the Old Pasadena De Lacey's Club 41, but the whole story of his adventures in Pasadena will be forthcoming...He has worked really hard to restore the Luken's Estate...He is a master of historic preservation and historic recreation. The Mecca Room, Art Deco magnificence, in Old Pasadena on Colorado next to the 99er Bar, he restored with such finesse, we were astounded."

I look forward to Thal's post about Kislingbury.

Theodore Parker Lukens was the first Pasadena Real Estate developer and a two-term Pasadena mayor (1890-92 and 1894-96). He was many other things, too, including a conservationist who whose nickname was "the Father of Forestry" for good reasons. The Wikipedia article about Lukens is an eye-opener, considering our recent momentous fires in the San Gabriel Mountains. There's also a great old picture of the house, which was designed by Harry Ridgeway and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lukens was one of Pasadena's earliest citizens, extremely active in civic life, a promoter of natural causes and a friend of John Muir. He even promoted the establishment of Oak Grove Park, for which I'm grateful. He's buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena. After reading about him I like him so much I think I'll go pay my respects.

Heritage Square: Idyll Worship

This building may seem familiar to Pasadena residents as the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church. Of course if you know Lincoln Avenue you know it's no longer there. The church is now a denizen of Heritage Square Museum in Montecito Heights. And it's okay that the stained glass window is covered in this photo because--well, keep reading.
The cornerstone of the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church was laid in 1897 and the church opened for services in April of 1898. Information about the architecture is at the museum's website. The church was moved to Heritage Square in 1981 to make way for a modern post office at Lincoln and Orange Grove.
Now do you remember?

(If you go a couple of blocks south of the post office to the very end of Lincoln Avenue where it meets the 210 freeway, you'll see a couple of older properties. If you squint a bit and shut the freeway noise from your ears, you can get an idea of what that part of Pasadena was like a hundred years ago when the church was new.)

In yesterday's post about Heritage Square Museum I said you can tour almost all of the buildings there. You can't go inside the Lincoln Avenue Church just yet because there are funds to be raised and work to be done to restore it. A building has to be taken apart to move it, and although the church is back in one piece you can see from the ceiling there's still much to be done. You can even make a donation to the museum to help in the effort.
Brian Sheridan, Director of Development and Communications for the museum, told me the church windows will have to be replaced. The current windows aren't the originals. They're temporaries that were put in by a Hollywood production company when the church was used for a movie set.

Do you believe I was so star-struck by Heritage Square itself I didn't think to ask which movie?

12:50 PM
POST UPDATED!
Brian just sent me this photo of an original window. What do you think? Worth restoring, eh?

Heritage Square: Enchantment

The Hale House.

When John and I were first dating we once stopped by the Heritage Square Museum. It was closed, but we always meant to go back. A peek down the quiet avenue was a glimpse into history.

Every time I drive by on the Pasadena Freeway and see the Victorian spires peeking out over the rooftops of Montecito Heights, I wonder: What's in there? Last Sunday I found out. If I were allowed only one word to describe what's in there, I would say "enchantment."

Heritage Square Museum is a mini-neighborhood of eight buildings, all built between 1876 and 1899 and all moved from their previous locations. (Plus there's a pretty cool old train car.) The five houses, one train depot, one carriage barn and one church are in different phases of preservation. Some are fully restored and furnished, some are still being studied and planned, almost all can be toured. Most of them are examples of Victorian and Edwardian architectural styles now rare in southern California.
Close-up of the train car, a recent museum acquisition.

Originated in 1969 as a haven for the last two remaining structures from Bunker Hill, Heritage Square Museum serves "to preserve, restore and interpret" structures that were saved from demolition and transported to this spot. Three of them (the Longfellow-Hastings Octagon House, the Carriage Barn and the Lincoln Avenue Methodist Church) are from Pasadena.
Looking toward the Valley Knudsen Garden Residence from the porch of Hale House.

The original Bunker Hill buildings are no longer there. Just seven months after they were moved to Heritage Square they burned in a vandal's fire. (I encourage you to enjoy the Bunker Hill links. They are amazing.)

I took 271 photos on my tour. I'll post more over the next few days. I promise not to post them all.

How many times have you driven by Heritage Square Museum and wondered? Just go. Be enchanted. And I recommend you take a date.
Part of a collection of antique manhole covers at the museum.

Model Library

This model of the early Pasadena Public Library is encased in glass in the lobby of Pasadena's present main library on Walnut Street. Wei mentioned it yesterday in the comments, beating me to the punch! A plaque below the model reads:

"Model of 1887 Pasadena Public Library built to scale from original stone. With copper shingles, gutters, downspouts, and real glass windows, donated by builder, Rex Petty, to Pasadena Public Library."

The model seems to have been made in the late 1950's, a guess I made from a 1958 headline I found from the Pasadena Star-News. (I was unable to locate the article.)

See yesterday's post for a photo of what remains of this building: the main archway that led to the front door. Then head on over to the library! We have a terrific library system in Pasadena, with our great central library and wonderful neighborhood branches. And it's free.

Arch History

The City of Pasadena was incorporated in 1886 and a library was built ASAP. The only fragment that remains of the original building is this arch that still stands at the corner of Raymond and Walnut. According to the plaque inside the arch, Pasadena's "first free public library" was erected in the 1880's. From 1890 to 1927, the library looked like this post card; the arch above is the one facing you at the center of the card in the link. The palm trees to the left in the post card must be the ones that rise above Raymond Avenue today, to the left of where I stood while taking the picture.

Soon the city's needs grew greater than the old building could accommodate, and the Central Library we use today was built in 1927 to replace this one. But it was the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake that rendered the original unsafe. Renovations were deemed too expensive, and the old library was finally razed in 1954. Imagine what it must have looked like after twenty years of waiting for its fate.

The dedication inside the archway says: "This entrance arch, restored in 1955 by the City of Pasadena, at (sic) request of the Pasadena Historical Society, is dedicated to the memory of Pasadena pioneers who in early and difficult days established here a public library as an expression of reverence for literature and art. Their spirit, symbolized in this remaining archway, lives on."

The city's Landmarks page explains why the monument is closed to the public. "Severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and subsequently fenced in."

However, that doesn't explain why this piece of Pasadena's heritage has been allowed to fall apart, brick by brick, in the 15 years since the Northridge quake. I asked our illustrious Public Information Officer, Ann Erdman, if any preservation efforts were underway. She told me it's "listed in our capital projects budget, but listed as unfunded at this time. It would require grant funding and/or private funding to do the restoration."

I understand that. The world is in a financial crisis, and despite Pasadena's reputation as a wealthy city, we're not exempt. Programs for jobs, kids, families--in other words, people--take precedence now.

In the meantime, our little arch falls apart. If my spirit were symbolized in a crumbling ruin I'd be an angry spirit indeed. How do you feel about this old arch? Is it worth preserving, even in these times?

The Teacher from Kansas

This is a first for this blog. This photo wasn't take in Pasadena. It was taken in Coolidge, Kansas in 1932.

Today's my father's 92nd birthday - would have been, had he stuck around. I miss him.

Fathers are different now than they were when I was growing up. Or maybe they're different in southern California than they are in Illinois. Or maybe life is different. Or all of the above. My father, and the fathers I remember from the 50's and 60's, had to support families on their own. That's how it was done. Now society's limits are less stringent.

My father grew up in western Kansas. He was already the teacher in the one-room schoolhouse by the time he was 16. (He's pictured there above with three - yes, three - of his pupils.) He moved on to be a ranch hand and a bus driver for a while before he became a U.S. Marine. After WWII he married my mother, then went to school with a passion: got his BA, Master's and PhD in rapid succession. Soon he was a teacher again.

He worked. He must have done other things, but what I remember is that Daddy went to work early in the morning and came home late. Time with him was precious and rare.

Now I see fathers with their kids all the time. They enjoy the parks together or the farmer's market. They walk in the neighborhoods of Pasadena, holding hands and teaching things to each other. It seems men have more freedom now to be not just providers but good fathers, too.

The best moments I remember with my father are when we were riding horses or playing guitars or telling corny jokes - when he was being the ranch hand from western Kansas.

To make this a true Pasadena photo post, here's a shot (below) that reminds me of my father. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's a lonely picture. I think it must be lonely to go through life striving to provide and only rarely letting your softer side show. Perhaps that's not how he felt. My father died so long ago my memory is clouded. Perhaps I'm just missing him, and wishing that if we could, we'd walk together in the neighborhoods of my childhood, holding hands and teaching things to each other.

Veterans Day

It was originally called Armistice Day, named for the armistice between the allied nations and Germany that went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, ending World War I. (Ah yes, "the war to end all wars.") President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day a holiday in America the following year.

It's still celebrated in France as Armistice Day and in England both as Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. In the United States it has morphed into Veterans Day. The change was made in 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to commemorate the soldiers who fought in World War II. Since then, we've acquired more veterans to honor, and honor them we do.

Here's a good gloss on the history of Veterans Day. Eisenhower proclaimed that public buildings would display the American flag. Banks and government offices close at 11:00 a.m. Speeches are given. Wreaths are lain on graves.

But veterans are still with us, thank goodness, and today we honor the living. Business goes on as usual in lots of places. Maybe that's thanks to those vets.

Altadena's First Water Park

Some of you may remember Case, who first commented on my post about Cinema 21 on Washington Blvd. As a kid, Case lived behind the Cinema in a 1920's bungalow long since torn down. Case shared his story with us on my September 24th post, and many of you asked for pictures of his bungalow.

He didn't have photos of the bungalow, but he did have this one of a different house, which came with another bit of local history:

"This one is the ~Ranchero Modurne~ on Wapello & Tonia in Altadena, where we moved to in 1959. As I have been told, the Pool used to be a Public Pool of sorts, and the house was built about 25 years [after the pool was built]. Being the first owners, the day we moved in, there were 20-30 neighborhood kids & their parents in the pool.... and in the House, and using the bathroom, and making Sandwiches in the Kitchen, and even storing Beer & Sodas in the Fridge, leaving puddles of water everywhere! Of course, the pool you see in the pic is the rebuilt one we put in many years latter. The original pool had rounded corners that sloped gently to the bottom. You could actually run water down the deep end corner when the pool was being filled, and slide down it into the bottom on your bottom with a cool splash. Pasadena's First Water Park! Eventually, the public got it drummed into their heads that the pool was no longer "Open". Especially when we started charging them! Ha Ha... And Yes, that's Snow on the Gabriels!"

Case, thanks for a great story and a fun photo to go with it.

A Curious Case

I've been a Pasadena resident for almost three years. Before that I lived in Van Nuys for two years and before that I lived in Altadena for a couple of years. (Nothing personal, but my stint in Van Nuys made me eager to get back over to this part of the world ASAP.) I have a total of five years' experience living in the Pasadena/Altadena area. It isn't much, in the grand scheme.

So I love hearing from someone like Case, who recently added comments to my April 14th post about the faded Cinema 21 movie palace on Washington Blvd. :

"I lived in a House right behind this theater back in the 70's," says Case. "The back door exits were in a Deep stairwell that us kids used to drop water balloons into from our yard. Sometime a frisbee or ball would go into the dimly lit well, and we would have to be brave to retrieve it, as we were sure it was Haunted !"

Here's a shot of that stairwell for you, Case.

"The inside of the Theatre was Art Deco," Case continues, "with lots of Gold Gilting on Purple Velvet. Paisleys were everywhere ! I hear my 1920's Bungalo homestead was torn down about 10 years ago. Anything go up in it's place ? There used to be an old septic tank in the backyard that made a Beautiful Lemmon tree put out football sized fruit. Or at least it seemed that way to a 10 year old !"

As a little bonus today I have one shot of the lot behind the building. The stairwell pictured above is directly beneath the fire escapes seen in the photo below. If Case could drop water balloons into the stairwell from his back yard, it looks like nothing's gone up to replace that 1920's bungalow. Seems a shame. Why tear something down only to leave a vacant lot?

Now I wonder: what's all that lumber lying around by the stairwell?

Got $7.733 Million?

Pasadena has a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Just one. And it's on the market.

It's called "La Miniatura," and it's considered one of Wright's masterpieces, according to this article. That can be good or bad for me, should I decide to buy it. For instance, I wouldn't want tourists lining up in my driveway and peeking around my fence every day. But the house is tucked away in a ravine above the Arroyo Seco. It looks lovely and quiet from the street, and unless you're willing to trespass, you can only peek onto the grounds. Click the article link above and scroll to the bottom for more photos.

Alice Millard, one of Pasadena's early arbiters of taste, paid $17,000 for the house when it was built for her in 1923. It was an expensive home in its day.

The house is called "La Miniatura," but I think I'll have room for all my stuff in 4,000 square feet. Maybe not. You know how things accumulate.

White Sky

While on the Colorado Street Bridge for the July 19th festival I took this photo of the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals Building, another Pasadena icon everyone loves to photograph. The building originally opened in 1903 as the Vista Del Arroyo Hotel, thus beginning its fascinating history.

I'm not sure if the rooftops in the foreground are of condos or a private home. We called it "Casa de Escher." Click on the shot below to enlarge it and get a better idea of why.

None of this explains the color of the sky.
While on vacation I might not be able to respond to comments as quickly as I'd like to, so please bear with me, or bear without me, or just bear.

Saint Andrews Catholic Church: the Tower

The tower of Saint Andrews Catholic Church, built in 1927, is one of Pasadena's most-photographed landmarks. Ben has a very cool shot of it, which I hesitated to link to because I mentioned in the comments I thought it was part of the funeral home next door. Well, that was back in the days when I wasn't perfect.

Wikipedia's article about Saint Andrews says "The architect, Robert Montgomery, and the church's pastor, Msgr. McCarthy, both traveled to Italy studying early Byzantine architecture to find inspiration for the new church." They found inspiration in Saint Sabina's basilica in Rome, which was built in 432 A.D. A photo I'll show you tomorrow bears a good resemblance.

Mrs. Campbell-Johnston's Wishful Thinking

When I first got to Church of the Angels last week Kelly, my guide, was finishing a conversation with friends and said I could go on in. I had never been there before and didn't know what to expect. When I walked into the small chapel I saw this window and gasped a little.

Kelly's husband, The Scout, got a much brighter picture of the window. It's posted at Kelly's blog, West Coast Grrlie Blather. Maybe the window glows differently at different times, like we all do, according to the sun. (Maybe The Scout's a superior photographer, which he is.) But I saw the the nave around me in darkness and the window aglow.

Click on the photo above to enlarge it and you can read the inscription at the bottom. The window, made in London in the late 1800s, shows an Easter motif: "He is risen..."

This is said to be one of the "finest examples" of stained glass in America. I don't know who says it, but I do know it knocked my socks off. Seriously. I was wearing socks when I got there, but I couldn't find them when I left.

Tomorrow, our last installment of Church of the Angels: the crypt.

Memorial to Love

The Church of the Angels looks large from the outside, but Kelly, my tourguide, told me it holds only about 130 people "tightly packed." In part, the church was meant to be a place of worship for the people of the village of Garvanza, now the section of Los Angeles surrounded by South Pasadena, Highland Park, Eagle Rock and Pasadena.

But mainly this church was built by Mrs. Alexander Robert Campbell-Johnston as a memorial to her husband. She had the the means to demonstrate her love in a most impressive way. Expensive appointments abound; in the photo you can see the red pressed brick of the walls and beginnings of the upper redwood beams. The lectern resembling the Archangel Michael was carved in Belgium from a solid piece of a bog oak tree more than 400 years old. The baptistry, with a figure of Italian marble holding a font of Mexican alabaster, was a gift from the workmen who built the church. (I'm saving the stained glass window for tomorrow.)

In front of the church, a stone sundial in a heart-shaped setting is a memorial to Mrs. Campbell-Johnston, donated by her sons. And over the years, the congregation has maintained the whole place with care.

Money made the place impressive, but it's the love that makes it special.

Then and Now: Church of the Angels

It's a bit of a thrill to find an old photo, taken from a spot you can get to, then go see what the shot looks like today. I've wanted to try it for a long time.

Pasadena's Church of the Angels is a good place to start. It's the oldest church in Pasadena (built in 1889), rich in history and still active today. It appears in films and TV from time to time.

My friend Bob Goldstein used to be a docent at Pasadena Heritage and probably still would be, had he not moved away from southern California. He loved that volunteer position and relished giving tours of Pasadena's historical neighborhoods. Bob took his post card collection with him, but he's shared some good scans with me. He sent tour information, too—I still haven't perused it all. There'll be more "Now and Then" installments, thanks to Bob.

There'll also be more pictures of Church of the Angels in the next few days, thanks to Kelly. She showed me around her beloved church and read to me about its history. A beautiful old building is a treasure, an old church a quiet mystery. When you and your friend have that to yourselves, it's a special kind of blessing.

Mills Place

Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena is lined with great shops. My favorite places to explore, though, are the nooks and crannies—the alleys off the Boulevard. But don't think dark and dangerous. If these shoppers had turned right they'd have found clothing boutiques, two restaurants and a spa.

The historical marker on the right edge of this picture says, "Mills Place: Named for Alexander Fraser Mills, a nurseryman who planted a citrus grove on 7 1/2 acres at the northwest corner of Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue in 1878. Mills Place was originally named 'Ward Alley.' In 1885, a fire at this site destroyed a laundry establishment owned by Chinese settlers." (The plaque was donated by Pasadena Heritage.)

I took a few pictures in Mills Place the other day. We'll do a little series over the next few days.

Bungalow in a Box

It's legal to take photos from the street, but I feel awkward taking pictures of peoples' homes. I'd feel weird if I saw someone taking a picture of my house. Go to Google Maps, type in your your address and click on "street view," and you'll know what kind of weird I'm talking about. So I was lucky when I found the owner of this house pulling into his driveway, because I wanted a photo of his home and I wanted his permission to take it.

This house, in Pasadena's Bungalow Heaven, is special because it was made from a kit. Kit houses were popular in the 1920s, and Pasadena sports several good examples. (There's one on my block; according to the owner it was ordered from a Sears catalogue.) The one you see here is from Pacific Ready-Cut Homes. It was built in 1924 and first used as a model by the Gregg and Beaman Company, distributor of the kits in Pasadena.

Here's an article by Rosemary Thornton about kit houses. The first picture looks like the house above. Thornton co-authored a book about kit houses with Dale Patrick Wolicki. (You can try Pasadena Public Library, too.)

When ordering your kit, you could choose from among several home styles. The kit came with everything you needed: doors, windows, wood, cabinets— even light fixtures. And instructions, of course.

The homeowner I spoke to yesterday said he'd had his house bolted to the foundation, and he was going to do some work on the roof. Show me a southern California house where that never happens, kit or no kit.

Inside the Cinema

I posted about Cinema 21 April 14th. Here's an additional photo I took that day, as I tried to see into the depths of the building with my camera.

Ancient ruins transport my imagination; I fantasize about the people who built, lived and worked in them thousands of years ago. When I look at a ruin like Cinema 21, which isn't ancient but merely old and tired, my imagination works in a different way. I don't think so much of those who once went there, but of what it would be like to fix it up if I could.

More photos here.

Safe House

For a couple of years now, the fate of the Herkimer Arms has been hotly debated. The only apartment building designed by the famed Greene and Greene architects, poor old Herkimer was destined to be either moved or demolished, and it sure looked like it was going to be the latter.

At the last minute, Heritage Housing Partners and saved the day. The building will be moved and converted to condos - expensive ones. According to some, that was the only way to pay for the project. Fine, I say. Better than tearing it down. I think plenty of folks around here will pay good money to own a piece of Greene & Greene.

Then again, we have yet to see what depths the California housing market can reach. But that's another story.

Kudos to Pasadena Heritage for keeping the spotlight on this and other endangered structures, and to Heritage Housing Partners for being the deus ex machina.

Thanks to Ben for asking in the comments section: for now, you can still see the Herkimer Arms at its original location, 527 Union Street.

Showplace

"She was a showplace when I moved here back in 1955," said a man who spotted me taking pictures at the Food4Less parking lot. I wanted to get Cinema 21 from every angle.

The North Lake Village Business Assn. Website says Cinema 21 (originally the Washington Theater) was designed by Clarence Jay of Altadena & built in 1925 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. They also say "the building is scheduled to be renovated."

Since it was the Washington Theater, Cinema 21 has gone through several incarnations. In its later years, according to this thread, it showed Spanish films and finally adult films. By 2003, along with the theatre and (apparently illegal) shops, the Cinema 21 building housed 34 families and some toxic mold in its upper apartments. The city evacuated and relocated the people. They weren't as kind to the mold.

At the Food4Less parking lot, a security guard told me people are always poking around Cinema 21. He said a guy last week was talking about buying it to fix it up as a theatre for neighborhood kids. I hope the building isn't too far gone. Someone has already tried but the graffiti, the broken windows and the "Stop Work" order posted in the box office window tell me progress to rescue this old "showplace" is slow. Or nonexistent.

Ben, over at The Sky is Big in Pasadena, posted a nice shot of the front of the theatre back in February. I've posted a few others at Overdog. I got a bit of spam there this morning so I've enabled comments moderation for now. I'll moderate and post as quickly as I can.