🇺🇸 Pasadena is a city in The Verdugos region of Los Angeles County, California. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural centre of the San Gabriel Valley. With its substantial downtown area, observers consider it as either a suburb of nearby Los Angeles, or as a significant urban centre in its own right.
Pasadena is known for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade. It is also home to many scientific, educational, and cultural institutions, including Caltech, Pasadena City College, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Fuller Theological Seminary, ArtCenter College of Design, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Ambassador Auditorium, the Norton Simon Museum, and the USC Pacific Asia Museum.
1History: Indigenous history The original inhabitants of Pasadena (from the Tongva language name "Pasakeg-na") and surrounding areas were members of the Native American Hahamog-na tribe, a branch of the Tongva Nation. They spoke the Tongva language (part of the Uto-Aztecan languages group). Native Americans had lived in the Los Angeles Basin for thousands of years. Tongva dwellings lined the Arroyo Seco in present day Pasadena and south to where it joins the Los Angeles River and along other natural waterways in the city.
The native people lived in thatched, dome-shape lodges and lived on a diet of acorn meal, seeds and herbs, venison, and other small animals as well as trading for ocean fish with the coastal Tongva. They made cooking vessels from steatite soapstone from Catalina Island. The oldest transportation route still in existence in Pasadena is the old Tongva foot trail, also known as the Gabrielino Trail, that follows the west side of the Rose Bowl and the Arroyo Seco past the Jet Propulsion Laboratory into the San Gabriel Mountains. The trail has been in continuous use for thousands of years. An arm of the trail is also still in use in what is now known as the Salvia Canyon.
1Spanish era The Spanish first colonized the Los Angeles Basin in the 1770s as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, building the San Gabriel Mission and renaming the local Tongva people "Gabrielino Indians", after the name of the mission. Today, several bands of Tongva people live in the Los Angeles area.
1Mexican era In 1821, Mexico became independent of Spain and California came under control of the Mexican government. In 1833, the mission lands were secularized and most of the lands in California were granted to private Mexican citizens in the form of ranchos. Present-day Pasadena was divided between Rancho San Rafael (lands west of the Arroyo Seco extending to present-day Burbank in the north-west to Glassell Park in the southwest), Rancho del Rincon de San Pascual, (present-day central Pasadena, Altadena, and South Pasadena), and Rancho Santa Anita (present-day east Pasadena, Arcadia, and Monrovia). Rancho del Rincon de San Pascual was so named because it was deeded on Easter Sunday to Eulalia Perez de Guillén Mariné of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel.
1American era Prior to the American conquest of California in 1848, the last of the Mexican owners of Rancho del Rincon de San Pascual was Manuel Garfias who retained title to the property after statehood in 1850. Garfias sold sections of the property to the first Anglo settlers to come into the area: Dr. Benjamin Eaton, the father of Fred Eaton; and Dr. S. Griffin. Much of the property was purchased by Benjamin Wilson, who established his Lake Vineyard property in the vicinity. Wilson, known as Don Benito to the local Indians, also owned the Rancho Jurupa (Riverside, California) and was mayor of Los Angeles. He was the grandfather of WWII General George S. Patton, Jr. and the namesake of Mount Wilson.
In 1873, Wilson was visited by Dr. Daniel M. Berry of Indiana who was looking for a place in the country that could offer a mild climate for his patients, most of whom suffered from respiratory ailments. Berry was an asthmatic and claimed that he had his best three night's sleep at Rancho San Pascual. To keep the find a secret, Berry code-named the area "Muscat" after the grape that Wilson grew. To raise funds to bring the company of people to San Pascual, Berry formed the Southern California Orange and Citrus Growers Association and sold stock in it. The newcomers were able to purchase a large portion of the property along the Arroyo Seco and on January 31, 1874, they incorporated the Indiana Colony. As a gesture of good will, Wilson added 2,000 acres (8 km²) of then-useless highland property, part of which would become Altadena. Colonel Jabez Banbury opened the first school on South Orange Grove Avenue. Banbury had twin daughters, named Jennie and Jessie. The two became the first students to attend Pasadena's first school on Orange Grove.
At the time, the Indiana Colony was a narrow strip of land between the Arroyo Seco and Fair Oaks Avenue. On the other side of the street was Wilson's Lake Vineyard development. After more than a decade of parallel development on both sides, the two settlements merged into the City of Pasadena.
1Resort town The popularity of the region drew people from across the country, and Pasadena eventually became a stop on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which led to an explosion in growth. From the real estate boom of the 1880s until the Great Depression, as great tourist hotels were developed in the city, Pasadena became a winter resort for wealthy Easterners, spurring the development of new neighborhoods and business districts, and increased road and transit connections with Los Angeles, culminating with the opening of the Arroyo Seco Parkway, California's first freeway. By 1940, Pasadena had become the eighth-largest city in California and was widely considered a twin city to Los Angeles.
The first of the great hotels to be established in Pasadena was the Raymond (1886) atop Bacon Hill, renamed Raymond Hill after construction. Pasadena was served by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway at the Santa Fe Depot in downtown when the Second District was opened in 1887. The original Mansard Victorian 200-room facility burned down on Easter morning of 1895, was rebuilt in 1903, and razed during the Great Depression to make way for residential development. The Maryland Hotel existed from the early 1900s and was demolished in 1934. The world-famous Mount Lowe Railway and associated mountain hotels shut down four years later due to fire damage. Three hotel structures have survived, the Green Hotel (a co-op since 1926), the Vista Del Arroyo (now used as a Federal courthouse), and a residential tower of the Maryland at 80 North Euclid Avenue (a co-op since 1953).
The American Craftsman era in art and design is well represented in Pasadena. The architectural firm Greene and Greene developed the style; many of its residences still stand. Two examples of their Ultimate bungalow are the masterpiece Gamble House, of which public tours are available, and the Robert R. Blacker House, both designated California Historical Landmarks and enrolled on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
1Contemporary The Second World War proved to be a boon to Pasadena as Southern California became a major staging area for the Pacific War. High tech manufacturing and scientific companies made the city their home, a trend which continued in the decades following the war, notably with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Tetra Tech and Ameron International.
In the 1950s, Pasadena saw a steady influx of people from the Southern United States, especially African-Americans from Texas and Louisiana. Pasadena also began hosting a large immigrant community, particularly from China, Japan, Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Italy, Armenia, and India.
The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, founded in 1884 in New York, opened its Pasadena campus in 1974. However, in 2001 the conservatory moved from Pasadena to Hollywood. Training actors for the stage in a two year program, the conservatory was the first school in the United States to offer professional education in the field of acting. Point Loma Nazarene University was located in Pasadena for many years before relocating to San Diego County, and retained the names Pasadena University and Pasadena College.
In 1969, the Pasadena Unified School District was desegregated, though the issue would continue to be fought in court for a decade. A year later, the 210 Freeway was built along a newly chosen route. The freeway's construction was controversial, as it caused the demolition of over a thousand homes, many historic, and many claimed that the route was designed to cut off the city's less wealthy neighborhoods.
Downtown Pasadena became dangerous in some parts and deserted in others, and incidences of murder and arson skyrocketed. Old Pasadena faced destruction as plans for new high-rise developments were drawn up, though they were mostly stopped by increasingly active preservation advocates. Pasadena suffered demographically as many residents decamped for the nearby suburbs or the Inland Empire, causing an overall decrease in population. Despite these setbacks, many local artists and hipsters moved in to take advantage of low property values. Their legacy can be seen today in the Doo Dah Parade which began in 1976.
In 2014, several arrests were made involving an embezzlement scheme which stole money from the UUP. The amount is estimated to be $6.4 million.
1Geography The greater Pasadena area is bounded by the Raymond Fault line, the San Rafael Hills, and the San Gabriel Mountains. The Arroyo Seco, a major geographic feature and home of the Rose Bowl, flows from headwaters in Pasadena's towering Angeles National Forest greenbelt in the San Gabriel Mountains.
1Economy According to the City's 2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city include: 1 Jet Propulsion Laboratory; 2 California Institute of Technology; 3 Huntington Memorial Hospital; 4 Kaiser Permanente; 5 Pasadena City College; 6 Pasadena Unified School District; 7 City of Pasadena; 8 Bank of America; 9 Art Center College of Design; 10 Hathaway-Sycamores; 11 Western Asset; 12 The Langham Huntington Hotel; 13 Parsons; 14 AT&T; 15 Rusnak Pasadena; 16 Pacific Clinics Administration; 17 Avon Products.
Other companies based in Pasadena include Avery Dennison, Cogent Systems, Idealab, Inter-Con Security, Goldstar Events, Jacobs Engineering Group, Green Dot Corporation, Tetra Tech, Wesco Financial, OpenX, Stark Spirits Distillery and Wetzel's Pretzels. The Los Angeles-area office of China Eastern Airlines is located in Pasadena.
1Shopping and dining Old Town Pasadena spans 21 blocks downtown. It boasts shops and a wide variety of restaurants, nightclubs, outdoor cafés, pubs, and comedy clubs. "One Colorado" features renovated historic architecture that attracted the new retail stores and restaurants. This development filled vacant buildings and was the impetus of the revitalization of Old Town on Colorado Boulevard. Paseo Colorado is an upscale shopping mall designed to be a modern urban village. An open-air mall that covers three city blocks, Paseo Colorado is anchored on the west end by upscale grocery store Gelson's (recently closed), on the east end by Macy's (also closed) and Arclight Cinemas centres the middle portion of the mall. Another shopping district is located in the South Lake Avenue neighborhood. On Lake Avenue, a Macy's department store and furniture gallery is in a registered California historical landmark. The building was originally designed and built as the fourth Bullock's department store in the mid-1950s (the last freestanding store they constructed).
1Rose Bowl Flea Market The Rose Bowl Flea Market is a large swap meet that involves thousands of dealers and tens of thousands of visitors in and around the grounds of the Rose Bowl. The merchandise on display ranges from old world antiques to California pottery to vintage clothing. The flea market has been held every second Sunday of the month since 1967.
1Museums and galleries Pasadena is home to a number of art museums and public galleries, including the Norton Simon Museum. The museum's collections include European paintings, sculpture, and tapestry; sculpture from Southern Asia; and an extensive sculpture garden. The museum also has the contemporary art collection of its predecessor, the Pasadena Museum of Art, which focused on modern and contemporary art before being taken over by Simon in the early 1970s.
Preserving and sharing the rich history and culture of Pasadena and its adjacent communities is the Pasadena Museum of History. Located on a campus of 2 acres (8,100 m²), it has gardens, a history centre, the Finnish Folk Art Museum, the Curtin House, and the Fenyes Mansion, a 1906 Beaux Arts-style architectural residence and a Pasadena Cultural Heritage Landmark.
The Pacific Asia Museum, with a garden courtyard in its centre, features art from the many countries and cultures of Asia. The nearby Pasadena Museum of California Art (recently closed) hosts changing exhibitions of work by historical and contemporary California artists. The Armory Center for the Arts has an extensive exhibition program as well as serving as a centre for art education for all ages. Art Center College of Design offers exhibitions at its Williamson Gallery, as well as frequent displays of student work. Pasadena City College has an art gallery that shows work of professionals as part of their annual artist-in-residence program, as well as exhibiting work by students and faculty.
The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, with painting and sculpture galleries, is adjacent to Pasadena in the city of San Marino. The innovative Kidspace Children's Museum is located in Brookside Park.
1Pasadena has a population of over 141,029 people. Pasadena also forms one of the centres of the wider Los Angeles metropolitan area which has a population of over 13,310,447 people. Pasadena is the #262 hipster city in the world, with a hipster score of 2.9971 according to the Hipster Index which evaluates and ranks the major cities of the world according to the number of vegan eateries, coffee shops, tattoo studios, vintage boutiques, and record stores.
To set up a UBI Lab for Pasadena see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
Twin Towns, Sister Cities Pasadena has links with:
🇸🇳 Dakar-Plateau, Senegal 🇫🇮 Järvenpää, Finland 🇯🇵 Kasukabe, Japan 🇩🇪 Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany 🇯🇵 Mishima, Japan 🇰🇷 Paju, South Korea 🇯🇵 Shizuoka, Japan 🇦🇲 Vanadzor, Armenia 🇨🇳 Xicheng, China🇵🇰 Abbottabad 34.15
🇺🇸 Woodlands Hill 34.168
🇺🇸 North Hollywood 34.174
🇺🇸 Woodland Hills 34.177
🇺🇸 Rancho Cucamonga 34.106
🇺🇸 San Bernardino 34.105
🇺🇸 Monterey Park -118.133
🇺🇸 Bellflower -118.117
🇺🇸 Montebello -118.1
🇺🇸 Pico Rivera -118.083
Locations Near: Pasadena -118.135,34.1464
🇺🇸 San Gabriel -118.083,34.1 d: 7
🇺🇸 Alhambra -118.133,34.067 d: 8.9
🇺🇸 Rosemead -118.083,34.067 d: 10.1
🇺🇸 Arcadia -118.033,34.117 d: 10
🇺🇸 Monterey Park -118.133,34.033 d: 12.6
🇺🇸 Glendale -118.25,34.133 d: 10.7
🇺🇸 East Los Angeles -118.167,34.033 d: 12.9
🇺🇸 El Monte -118.031,34.071 d: 12.7
🇺🇸 Los Angeles -118.25,34.05 d: 15.1
🇺🇸 Montebello -118.1,34 d: 16.6
Antipodal to: Pasadena 61.865,-34.146
🇫🇷 Saint-Pierre 55.478,-21.342 d: 18459.7
🇫🇷 Le Tampon 55.515,-21.278 d: 18454.6
🇲🇺 Mahébourg 57.7,-20.407 d: 18433.3
🇫🇷 Réunion 55.532,-21.133 d: 18440.3
🇫🇷 Saint-Benoît 55.713,-21.034 d: 18437
🇲🇺 Curepipe 57.517,-20.317 d: 18418.8
🇲🇺 Vacoas-Phoenix 57.493,-20.3 d: 18416.4
🇲🇺 Port Mathurin 63.417,-19.683 d: 18399.6
🇲🇺 Centre de Flacq 57.718,-20.2 d: 18411.5
🇲🇺 Quatre Bornes 57.479,-20.266 d: 18412.4