Goodbye, Church of the Angels

Behind the Church of the Angels a crypt is built into the hillside beneath the rectory. Kelly, who guided me through the church last week, wasn't quite sure of the crypt's history. No mention is made of it on the church's website. Someone out there may know.
The story goes that Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Robert Campbell-Johnston were buried there together, at least for a time. But Pasadena zoning laws don't allow burials, so the bodies were eventually moved. This may or may not be the case.**
Web research turned up very little, except an intriguing bit from Brompton Cemetery in London. Click on the link and scroll to the caption under the third photo.
'Alexander Robert Campbell Johnston
Who served many years in China
Under H.M. Foreign and Colonial Offices.
He died at San Rafael Ranch, Los Angeles
January 21st 1888 aged 75
In beloved memory
This stone is erected by his widow and children
Also to the memory of
Frances Ellen Campbell-Johnston
His beloved wife
Who died at 84 St. George's Sq. London
November 21 1893 Aged 56'
It could be them. And it doesn't say they were buried there. Did she die so soon after he did? Did she spend so little time admiring the chapel she'd built?
I tried looking into the crypt. It's not like you can tell if anyone's there.
It's their place. It was made for them. I hope they were allowed to stay.*

 
**1/26/2012: Much later! Update on this crypt: 
*It was not made for them.
In a book called "Within the Vale of Annandale" by Donald W. Crocker, a relatively rare but not impossible-to-find book first published in 1968, there's a short chapter about the church with pictures, very interesting, pp 38-42.
On page 40, Crocker says the "...memorial vault which was later added to the church...bears the remains of two of the Campbell-Johnston sons, Alexander Napier and Augustine, and Augustine's wife, Alice."
The book was "A Fund Raising Project of Scout Troop 35." It's an entertaining history of the southwest side of Pasadena, and Garvanza. I found it by searching online sellers.

Pasadena's Black History

Pasadena celebrates Black History Month with a parade and other festivities, as many cities do. African Americans have been settling in this area since the early twentieth century, and Pasadena claims many famous sons. Daughters, too.

Jackie Robinson and his brother Mack Robinson attended Muir High School and Pasadena City College. Both were star athletes, but there was more to them than athletic prowess, as this monument across from City Hall suggests. Inscriptions on the backs of the heads highlight what they did and, more importantly, who they were: civic-minded men who continue to inspire all who come after them, not just African Americans.

Before our eyes, African Americans are making history one wouldn't have thought possible just a few short years ago. The world knows about Barack Obama, but you may not have heard that today, Karen Bass was elected to be the next Speaker of the California Assembly. She's the first African American woman to hold that position in the nation. Alas, she's from Los Angeles, not Pasadena. Damn.

Some day there won't be a need for Black History Month because Black History will simply be thought of as Our History. But for now there's plenty of cause to celebrate.

Thanks to Palm Axis for this information: The 1997 Pasadena Robinson Memorial was created by African American artist John Outterbridge (of Los Angeles) and the team of Ralph Helmick and Stuart Schechter.

Defenders Parkway

If I want new shots on the blog, I can't take the same route home every day. I'll run out of things to photograph, and everyone in the blogosphere will know where I live.

So I meant to turn left and turned right instead. I parked when I saw what looked like a gravestone next to a condo building at a busy intersection. That's just not right.

But it isn't a grave. On City Hall's website, this marker is described thusly: "Granite Monument - Unknown who placed it or when it was erected." Very mysterious. Maybe "the mothers of the defenders of the flag" felt that was identification enough. We can narrow down the placement date to sometime after 1917 and before, say, 1945, or I daresay there'd be another date etched into the stone.

The Parkway, a cement footpath, starts at the southwest corner of Colorado and Orange Grove Blvds. and takes you to the Colorado Street Bridge. If you enlarge the photo below, you can see the globes of the Bridge lamps in the distance.