THE MISSION CANDIES BUILDING - LAKE WASHINGTON VILLAGE

The Missions Candies Company had a chain of candy stores in Southern California in the 20's and 30's

This is how the Mission Candies Building looked in the 1970's before the big decline

By landmarking the historic building and restoration, we hoped to bring back to Lake Washington Village an ambiance similar to State Street in Santa Barbara which Lake Washington Village once had

A recent night view of the Mission Candies Building with Pinocchio's Pizza in the midground

Notice the tables with linen tablecloths and many flowers

Here with this posting I'm in synch with Petrea at Pasadena Daily Photo. I took the nighttime shots of the Mission Candies Building, with Pinocchio's Pizza, a couple of weeks ago as I've been interested in this building since Armen's family wanted to relocate their restaurant to it from the previous building location about half a block to the south.

This historical building was almost altered beyond recognition when the Pinocchio's Pizza family bought the property and proposed to modernize the facade. Luckily, we were able to designate the building as a local Pasadena landmark and convince Armen and his family that it would be far cheaper for them, and much better for the community, to restore the historic building. I've been speaking to Armen all along and recently told him how nice the building and the restaurant looks, especially with the tables with linen tablecloths on the sidewalk, even if no one sits there, it looks elegant. The original idea was to help bring back the lost ambiance of the Lake Washington Village area, and I think Armen and his family have done it! We congratulate them!

The following is a history of the Mission Candies Building:

Landmark Application Report

For the: “Wood’s Building/Mission Candies Building”, 1445/7/9 North Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91104 (March 1, 2005)
Physical Description:

This is a one story large “Mission Revival Style” corner commercial building stuccoed with a tiled shed roof on the street facades. The building has three storefronts along North Lake Avenue, each with distinctive “Spanish Baroque Corbeled Arch” styled window openings along with original period transom windows. The original glazed tile bulkhead remains on most of the façade of the building. Some modifications appear to have been made to the entrances of the three store bays, although the structure retains most of its outstanding historic character.

The building has a very prominent siting, being located on a rising northwest corner of the busy North Lake Avenue corridor, and the structure dominates its location.

Significance:

ACCORDING TO THE CITY'S 1987 HISTORIC RESOURCES INVENTORY, “This structure is significant as one of the most intact and sophisticated of the remaining 1920’s commercial buildings along this portion of Lake Avenue, and is an attractive example of a small Spanish Colonial Revival “Mission Revival” commercial structure.”

This building appears to be the last and best remaining example in Pasadena of this iteration of a Southern California common commercial storefront building of the 1920’s, in its siting and simplicity, built in the Spanish Colonial Mediterranean Revival Style, also known in the 1920’s as the “Mission Revival Style”, a style which was very connected with the tourist booster mythology of Southern California and the old California Missions. Various authors, including Kevin Starr, California State Librarian Emeritus, have covered this Southern California architectural phenomenon which swept the area when in 1915 the “Save the Old California Missions” movement was started, along with the “Good Roads” movement, by the Southern California Auto Club as a tourist development action and the Panama-California Exposition, showcasing 17th and 18th century Spanish architectural designs, opened in San Diego’s Balboa Park.

This building also has a strong association with the landmark eligible Washington Theatre. The Washington Theatre was under construction for nearly five years (1919-1924), with the unavailability of tractors to assist in construction delaying the project, and the opening of the theater was further postponed until North Lake Avenue and Washington Boulevard were able to be asphalted in 1925. The builder of the “Wood’s Building/Mission Candies Building”, Henry Wood, a prominent local realtor, had the opportunity to develop his lot, located at the intersection of Rio Grande Street and North Lake Avenue on the northwest corner, to be a complimentary business and entertainment location to coincide with the biggest ever opening in the Lake Washington Village neighborhood, the grand opening of the magnificent Washington Theatre movie palace. The Washington Theatre was marketed in the local papers as a greater Pasadena destination, with the reasoning of why not see first run movies away from the crowds on Colorado Boulevard. The “Wood’s Building/Mission Candies Building” benefited from this Washington Theatre advertising campaign.

The building has been the home of a number of small neighborhood businesses, and also housed the local post office for a number of years, and also served the Washington Theatre pre- and after-show crowd from its opening in 1925 and the Mount Lowe tourist trade from 1925 to 1936. The “Rio Grande Confectionery” and later the successor “Albert Sheetz Mission Candies Fountain and Shop” served tourists traveling up to Mt. Lowe and returning. There were no other locations located on North Lake Avenue leading up to the Mount Lowe Railway which offered freshly made candies.

The siting of this building is unique for the area in that it is situated on a northwest corner with the façade wrapping around from the west to the north. This building has been a very visible local and touristic landmark for more than 80 years at this location.

This building is located near a former Pacific Electric car stop for trolleys heading to Altadena, Rubio Canyon, the Great Incline and the Mt. Lowe Alpine Tavern Hotel. The Mt. Lowe Alpine Tavern was located on the mountain directly above the terminus of North Lake Avenue and was a popular destination for weekend outings and as a local and national tourist destination. The incredible Mount Lowe mountain railway, which at the height of its popularity was Southern California's outstanding tourist magnet, attracted more visitors at the time then Yosemite or Catalina. It offered one of the world's most spectacular rail trips with disaster seeming ready to strike at every turn of the car wheels, yet so expertly engineered that in all the years it operated not one accident occurred. It was the realized dream of Professor T. S. C. Lowe., the first U.S. Union Army balloon aviator during the Civil War, inventor and one of the most prominent Pasadena residents, investors and boosters.

The Alpine Tavern was also a well visited destination watering hole during Prohibition (1919 to 1933), since the Tavern was cut off from the rest of the city when the last train left in the evening until the trains began running in the morning. This made the Alpine Tavern safe for the imbuing of spirits and other nefarious activities during the nighttime hours. Also, businessmen, attending meetings at the Alpine Tavern Hotel and then being stranded on the mountain after the last train had departed, were known to have telephoned their wives informing them they would have to spend the night at the Tavern, giving them a good excuse for an evening of unbridled and uninterrupted entertainment in this veritable mountain fortress! The aforementioned confectionery located in the “Wood’s Building/Mission Candies Building” would have been the only place in North Pasadena on the way up to the mountain to obtain freshly made candies in gift boxes, which would have been appropriate gifts for a romantic rendezvous.

The interurban railway of the Pacific Electric Company brought the ``Big Red Cars'' to North Lake Avenue in 1902, in which crowds of hikers would arrive early on Saturday morning bound for the local canyons to the north. Come Sunday evening the reverse migration would occur. At its peak in the year 1921, when 160,930 passengers were carried, Mt. Lowe cars operated from Pasadena to Altadena via North Fair Oaks, Mariposa, and North Lake including via North Lake from Colorado Boulevard. Another nearby local tourist destination was the home and gardens of noted local botanist and Southern California Missions booster Charles Francis Saunders, located at 580 North Lake Avenue, located just south of Orange Grove Boulevard, which was visited by many traveling on the Pacific Electric cars going up and down to the mountains.
The hiking era came to a close soon after the Angeles Crest Highway was opened in 1936 and the automobile began to dominate people's lives. Roads were driven into the San Gabriel Mountains and few people ventured more than a few hundred yards from their automobiles. The number of visitors today is probably a few percent of the number who came in 1921.

The North Lake Pacific Electric Line was extremely busy until shortly before its abandonment in 1941. The “Wood’s/Mission Candies Building” saw its fortunes decline after the closing of the Mount Lowe tourist attraction in 1936, the opening of Angeles Crest Highway into the mountains also in 1936, the ending of trolley traffic in 1941, the onset of World War II and the general availability of automobiles and cheap gasoline for the common man. The building of a new local post office on Washington Boulevard near to Washington Park dealt another blow to the “Wood’s/Mission Candies Building”.

Maintenance became ever more infrequent afterwards and the building at present is vacant and in need of refurbishment to bring it back to its original splendor. This building is truly indicative of its time and place and has been a beautiful embellishment to Lake Avenue for more than eighty years. With proper restoration, the “Wood’s/Mission Candies Building” will adorn its corner once again with an ambience and style which will draw clientele from its entertainment counterpoint and stylistic bookend, the Washington Theatre.

History:

This building was constructed in 1925 by Henry Wood, a prominent Pasadena realtor, using a local contractor by the name of Willard R. Bell, who is listed as living at 1640 E. Mountain at the time. Mr. Wood, whose real estate office was located at 1458 North Lake Avenue and home was located at 867 Rio Grande Street, was always looking for good investment opportunities, and when the Washington Theatre on Washington Boulevard opened, just around the corner from Mr. Wood’s lot on the northwest corner of Rio Grande Street and North Lake, Mr. Wood saw his good fortune in the lot being located in a rapidly developing business node on the long stretch of Lake Avenue located at Washington Boulevard.

Mr. Wood and his contractor Mr. Bell pulled a construction permit, on March 31, 1925, for a one story commercial property to be built of brick in the “Mission Revival Style”, matching the style of the Washington Theatre, to be located at the property to be addressed “1445 - 7 - 9 N. Lake”, at a cost of “$8,900”, with a purpose of “Stores”, with a total of “3 Rooms”, with a lot “91.89 feet by 70 feet”, with a size of building being “60 feet by 70 feet”., with the front of the building being erected on the “Front” of the lot, with the highest point of the roof being “18 feet”, and the height of the first floor joist above curb level or surface being “13.6 feet”, the character of the ground being “Clay”, the material of the foundation and cellar walls is to be made with is “Concrete” and the material the upper walls will be made with is “Brick”. There are no buildings within 30 feet of the proposed structure as of the building permit issuance date.

“The Rio Grande Confectionery” (A.C. Powell, owner, Always a Large Variety of Ice Creams, Candies, Cigars, Stationery, Toilet Articles and Fountain Service, 1445 N. Lake Avenue, Phone Sterling 4214) was domiciled in the southerly shop bay in 1927, “The Wycoff Verrinder Company” (Musical Instruments, 1447 N. Lake Avenue) was domiciled in the middle shop bay in 1927, and the “United States Post Office, Station C, North Pasadena, California” was domiciled in the northerly shop bay at 1449 North Lake Avenue, also in 1927. Carrying along the "Mission" theme, we find the "Mission Bell Beauty Shop" of L.C. Clow located just to the north at 1454 North Lake Avenue.

In 1937, we find “The Albert Sheetz Mission Candy Company” located at 1445, the I.M. Flamholtz Barber Shop located at 1447, and the Post Office Station C still located at 1449 North Lake. The “Albert Sheetz Mission Candy Company” was particularly well known in Southern California from the 1920’s on, with locations in all the major tourist destination cities such as its home city of Santa Barbara, and Hollywood, Santa Monica and, of course, Pasadena. Albert Sheetz Mission Candy Company locations offered “Fountain Service, Fine Foods, Pastries, Ice Cream, and Mission Candies”.

Historical Context:

Lake Avenue began in the 1860’s as a burro path connecting Benjamin Wilson’s Lake Vineyard Ranch, whereupon Wilson’s Lake was located on the site of present day Lacy Park in San Marino, with the mountains to the north. Known at various times as the Lake Vineyard Road and Prospect Road, Lake Avenue was served by a horse-drawn rail line and eventually by the Pacific Electric railcars before automobiles finally dominated the street.

Though many early visitors and tourists have traveled North Lake for business or pleasure, such as Henry Ford to test his latest automobile models on North Lake’s steep grade, the area’s residents have been among its primary users on weekdays. Residential development extended north up Lake at the beginning of the century, first to Villa Street and then throughout, and beyond the city limits. Commercial development followed the residents and the annexation on North Pasadena in 1904. By the 1920’s, the Lake/Washington intersection was an important retail center serving nearby residents.

Zoning has permitted a gradual transformation of North Lake Avenue. At the end of the nineteenth century, it was a road running through large tracts with citrus trees, fruit trees and vineyards. The large properties were subdivided to accommodate more homes, but residences dominated the entire length of the avenue until the 1920’s when commercial nodes at Villa, Orange Grove and Washington were created. In the early 1920’s, when zoning districts were established citywide, North Lake Avenue was designated residential with commercial development being limited to Maple Street, Villa Street, Orange Grove Boulevard and Washington Boulevard. The residential zoning allowed bungalow courts and four family flats in addition to single-family housing.

In 1930, commercial uses were permitted to extend from Orange Grove Boulevard to Maple Street, at the southern end of North Lake Avenue, and between Claremont Street and Elizabeth Street near the northern limits, to serve the growing number of people with automobiles. By the 1960’s, the residential area between Claremont and Orange Grove was zoned for neighborhood commercial uses, and during the 1980’s more intense commercial uses were permitted in the portion between Mountain and Orange Grove. Many of the residential structures in the neighborhood commercial portion have been retained, although some have been adapted for commercial uses. The zoning has remained substantially the same since the mid-1980’s although many auto related uses such as gas stations and auto repair garages have been replaced with other retail and service uses.

THE VIEW OF ECHO MOUNTAIN & MOUNT LOWE FROM MY LIVING ROOM

Echo Mountain below Mount Lowe, December 10, 2009

Snow on Mount Lowe, December 10, 2009

The recent snow dusting on our venerable mountain tops brings to mind the lost history of our once international tourist destination: The Mount Lowe Railway to the Clouds via Echo Mountain and the Great Incline!


Tourists from 1893 to 1936 were continually heading to Altadena, Rubio Canyon, the Great Incline and the Mt. Lowe Alpine Tavern Hotel. The Mt. Lowe Alpine Tavern was located nestled in a canyon above Echo Mountain in a crow's flight above the terminus of North Lake Avenue and was a popular destination for weekend outings and as a local and national tourist destination. The incredible Mount Lowe mountain railway, which at the height of its popularity was Southern California's outstanding tourist magnet, attracted more visitors at the time then Yosemite or Catalina. It offered one of the world's most spectacular rail trips with disaster seeming ready to strike at every turn of the car wheels, yet so expertly engineered that in all the years it operated not one accident occurred. It was the realized dream of Professor T. S. C. Lowe., the first U.S. Union Army balloon aviator during the Civil War, inventor and one of the most prominent Pasadena residents, investors and boosters.

The Alpine Tavern was also a well visited destination watering hole during Prohibition (1919 to 1933), since the Tavern was cut off from the rest of the city when the last train left in the evening until the trains began running in the morning. This made the Alpine Tavern safe for the imbuing of spirits and other nefarious activities during the nighttime hours. Also, businessmen, attending meetings at the Alpine Tavern Hotel and then being stranded on the mountain after the last train had departed, were known to have telephoned their wives informing them they would have to spend the night at the Tavern, giving them a good excuse for an evening of unbridled and uninterrupted entertainment in this veritable mountain fortress!


The interurban railway of the Pacific Electric Company brought the ``Big Red Cars'' to North Lake Avenue in 1902, in which crowds of hikers would arrive early on Saturday morning bound for the local canyons to the north. Come Sunday evening the reverse migration would occur. At its peak in the year 1921, when 160,930 passengers were carried, Mt. Lowe cars operated from Pasadena to Altadena via North Fair Oaks, Mariposa, and North Lake including via North Lake from Colorado Boulevard. Another nearby local tourist destination was the home and gardens of noted local botanist and Southern California Missions booster Charles Francis Saunders, located at 580 North Lake Avenue, located just south of Orange Grove Boulevard, which was visited by many traveling on the Pacific Electric cars going up and down to the mountains.


The hiking era came to a close soon after the Angeles Crest Highway was opened in 1936 and the automobile began to dominate people's lives. Roads were driven into the San Gabriel Mountains and few people ventured more than a few hundred yards from their automobiles. The number of visitors today is probably a few percent of the number who came in 1921.


The North Lake Pacific Electric Line was extremely busy until shortly before its abandonment in 1941. Altadena and North Pasadena saw its fortunes decline after the closing of the Mount Lowe tourist attraction in 1936, the opening of Angeles Crest Highway into the mountains also in 1936, the ending of trolley traffic in 1941, the onset of World War II and the general availability of automobiles and cheap gasoline for the common man.


In the above photographs you can see Mount Lowe peak, formerly Oak Mountain, and renamed by the leaders of Pasadena in 1893 in honor of Professor Lowe and his accomplishment of building a seemingly impossible mountain railway. In the Echo Mountain photograph it is possible to see the concrete retaining wall and stairway (the light spot in the middle) from the top of the Great Incline where millions of tourists over the years had their souvenir photo taken as they arrived at Echo Mountain, just as cruise ship passengers still have their souvenir photograph taken today upon disembarkation in distant ports.

Theme of the Day - Waiting.......

Yes, the animals are always waiting for us. But, these enigmatic characters are always up to something on their own. These are the hardwood floor dusters of Normandie Cottage, at least two of them. The third chose not to be photographed.


I'm sure they are daydreaming - waiting for the next delicious meal.



They never seem to tire of the same breakfast and dinner; they'll eat it with gusto no matter. And always I'm thankful for a hungry cat, because a cat which isn't hungry is not feeling well!

LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF MOUNT LOWE - UP LAKE AVENUE!

After the last rain the clover is beginning to sprout again and the elves and mushrooms are about. When I turn around and look towards the mountains I see Echo Mountain and Mount Lowe, actually visible from my bedroom and living room windows! This shot epitomizes my interests: historic architecture, Colonial Revival Moderne style, 1950's sports cars, czecho-germanic-anglophile culture, travel, trees and blue sky thinking.

Normandie Cottage is a lot of work to keep running, being 1924 vintage and my having so little time at the moment to give it attention. The 1958 Austin Healey 100-6 is also a lot of work to keep running, as well. As a matter of fact, trying to keep myself running, vintage 1950, is a lot of work.

Some of us still believe and hope we might bring back this part of town to what it was almost a hundred years ago. A small group of enthusiasts actually believe we may see the reconstruction of the Mount Lowe Incline Railway and the reinstallation of trolleys up and down Lake Avenue, taking tourists to a rebuilt Mount Lowe Alpine Tavern hotel at Crystal Springs, all this happening within the next 20 years or so.

First we must have a grand reopening of the restored Washington Theatre and the establishment of a Lake Washington Village Arts District. All good things take time. Let me know if you want to get involved to bring back the economic vitality of the old tourist days. Up Lake Avenue can be a vacation destination for all once again, as it once was.

LAKE AVENUE'S LOST WOODBURY CREEK AND LONE PINE RANCH TODAY.

As promised, I recently took some photographs of Woodbury Creek and the former Lone Pine Ranch, all near the intersection of North El Molino Avenue and Atchinson Street, just west of North Lake Avenue.

The first photo shows the entrance pillar to Lone Pine Ranch on the northwest corner of El Molino and Atchinson, and this is apparently the location that one person remembers having a corral back in the 1950's still, which had smelly runoff into the creek. The original house appears to still be on the lot nearest to the intersection with the rest of the lot having apparently been subdivided for other homes starting in the 1950's and later. Atchinson wasn't put through to El Molino until sometime around 1907 and and the original ranch home in Craftsman style was built around 1903, so originally the ranch had a large area with Woodbury Creek running northwest to southeast through its parcel, where the corral would have been, most likely behind the house to the west on Atchinson, making a slope into the creek.

The next photos show the storm drain which passes under Atchinson just west of Madison, and then the natural creek is visible, although channelized, as it passes further south. A Craftsman era home is built on the lot directly to the west and the lot slopes down to the creek, allowing this seemingly one story bungalow actually to have a substory with windows below the street level. Sorry the pictures don't show the situation too well, but there is a lot of shrubbery and if you look closely you'll see the substory in a couple of the photos. All of the creek photos are looking south off of Atchinson towards the house located on the southside of Atchinson just west of Madison.

If you're in the area, take a look at this in person. It is truly amazing and can't be covered over by the city since the house has a substory below the street level!

If you have any stories about our lost Woodbury Creek, please comment.

BOB'S BIG BOY RETURNS TO LAKE AVENUE, PASADENA - WAS 77 NORTH LAKE AVENUE, NEW LOCATION 899 EAST DEL MAR AT SOUTH LAKE AVENUE

THIS IS THE BOB'S BIG BOY ON COLORADO BLVD. IN EAGLE ROCK IN THE 1950'S AND A SIMILAR DESIGN TO THE ONE IN PASADENA LOCATED AT 1616 EAST COLORADO WHERE THE PCC SHATFORD LIBRARY NOW STANDS, THE SW CORNER OF BONNIE AND COLORADO


BOB'S BIG BOY AT 77 NORTH LAKE AVENUE, IN EXISTENCE FROM LATE 196? TO 198?, NOW COCO'S RESTAURANT

THIS IS BOB'S BIG BOY RESTAURANT IN RANCH STYLE WHICH WAS OWNED MY MARRIOT AFTER THE CHAIN WAS SOLD BY THE CREATOR BOB WIAN IN 1967, AND MARRIOT CONVERTED MANY LOCATIONS LATER TO COCO'S, WHICH THIS LOCATION IS TODAY

Bob's Big Boy restaurant is coming back to Pasadena as of November 2009! This is hard to believe after so long an absence, but considering there were four locations in Pasadena and Eagle Rock, not operating necessarily all at the same time, maybe it's not suprising that Bob is coming back.

The same owner of the famous Toluca Lake landmark location just happens to own the Baja Fresh on Del Mar just east of South Lake Avenue. Baja Fresh is now closed and there is a banner hanging outside with the Big Boy saying he's coming back! For those of us old enough to have known Bob's during its heyday, this is a welcome situation, especially for Lake Avenue.

Bob's had a number of locations in Pasadena. The first was located at 1616 East Colorado Blvd., built in 1953 and designed by architect S. David Underwood. This was located on the SW corner of Bonnie and Colorado, however the property has been taken over by Pasadena City College, after being eventually surrounded by the campus, and the restaurant was about where the Shatford Library now stands. This Bob's location had become a Greek restaurant after Bob's had moved into their new abode at 77 North Lake Avenue in the late 1960's, and the 1953 Googie style building was demolished without further adieu prior to the building of the new library in the 1990's, much to the regret of the space age architectural aficionados who also love the Saga Motor Hotel across the street which still stands.

A concurrent location in the 1950's through the 1980's? was located at 3130 East Colorado, across the street from Fedco now Target on the SW corner of Northrup and Colorado. This location was demolished in 1982. Also, in the 1950's probably through the 1970's? the Bob's location at 1803 Colorado Blvd. in Eagle Rock, the historic photo at the top of this entry, was in operation, with a miniature golf course located on the property just west of its parking lot. The things we used to have!

Well, I hope there are a few others of you out there with fond memories of Bob's Big Boy, also in Pasadena, and hope you are excited to maybe even have Car Nights on the weekends behind the new location in the parking lot on South Lake Avenue. We can hope for some more good memories on our own "Avenue to the Sky!" It's great when it's not all past tense, as memories go!

LOURDES OF THE WEST, 1879 NORTH LAKE AVENUE

Photo is dated December 25, 1939. "Lourdes of the West" was built in 1939 as "an exact replica of the beautiful and historic Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, on the grounds of St. Elizabeth's Church in Altadena where it is attracting thousands of war anchored tourists, who are choosing the colorful Southern California vacationland in lieu of Europe this year. Photo shows the grotto at Altadena which encases statues of "Our Lady of Lourdes, the Virgin" and St. Bernadette, the little shepherdess to whom the Virgin appeared on 18 occasions, once commanding her to scratch the ground with her foot, where a healing spring burst forth, from which waters the spring at the foot of the "Lourdes of the West" has been created." It was built partly out of lava and greeted 300,000 visitors in nine months.

This is a magical place and recently renovated including the two garden entrance way gates which have "Lourdes of the West" in illuminated cut out letters in the decorative metal archway overhead. The St. Elizabeth of Hungary parish hosts an old time family festival in October on a Saturday evening where wonderful food and classic fair rides and games are hosted. Not to be missed; look for the banner advertising this coming festival at the southwest corner of New York Drive and North Lake.

At night, the flickering votive candles in the grotto give an eerie but peaceful feeling to the contemplative. One of several hidden gardens on Lake Avenue and a spot for reflection.

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1757 NORTH LAKE AVENUE LANDMARK

Here we have another Pasadena official landmark on North Lake Avenue, the French gothic style inspired Westminster Presbyterian Church designed by famed Pasadena architect Sylvanus Marston in 1925 as he was part of the Marston, Van Pelt and Maybury architectural firm which existed from 1922 to 1927, after Marston spent time in France during World War I, where he received inspiration from the French cathedrals. This is surely the most French European of cathedrals in Pasadena and it has a grand rose window on its south side, a sublime interior and a magnificent tower which can be seen for miles around. One could feel almost like being in Paris' Notre Dame during the Christmas Eve candlelight service in this wonderful treasure of a space.

This building has been used for filming a number of times including 1953 big screen version of the War of the Worlds where the church is seen silhouetted with Martian multi-colored blasts behind it. It was recently used for the 2008 Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie where it stood in for a German Catholic cathedral with its roof bombed and missing courtesy of CGI.

Truly a structure of magnificence on Lake Avenue. The photo is from 1939. With the undergrounding of the utilities on Lake Avenue we have very much enhanced the beauty of the street from that aspect. This gives us hope for the future that we might still be able to make major aestethic improvements to our boulevard. The ornamental streetlights are the same on this stretch from Woodbury to Howard that have been here since the 1920's. Someone thought it wise to remove the remaining ornamental light posts from Howard to the city center and replace them with much inferior light standards during the 1970's. We were lucky to replace the ornamental light standards once more from Howard to the 210 bridge in recent times, albeit they are just single headed rather than double headed.

More to come on the towers of Lake Avenue

LAKE AVENUE COLUMBIA SCHOOL, SE CORNER OF LAKE AND WALNUT

Views of the Columbia Grammar School, established on the east side of Lake Avenue just south of Walnut Street in 1895. The school was one of two built to relieve the rapidly growing enrollments, but the new eight-room building was not ready for students in September as anticipated; it was Christmas vacation before classes were opened. By 1898 new rooms were added to help meet the need for additional facilities. One of the first kindergartens was established at Columbia School in 1901, and the following year a new kindergarten building was constructed on the school grounds. The school was discontinued at the end of the school year 1930-31 and the property was sold.

The building was demolished and the Farmer's Market complex was built on the site and today Ralphs market is located here. A shame again to lose such a beautiful building on Lake Avenue. Hopefully, the present non descript Ralphs building will be demolished and something worthy of this grand corner will take its place.

Corners should be respected in our city. The recent adoption of citywide design guidelines will make sure this will happen. Thanks, Moule and Polyzoides, and thanks to Stefanos, particularly.

LAKE AVENUE SNOW, JANUARY 11, 1949

This photo shows the heaviest snow which has fallen in Pasadena in the 20th century, on January 11, 1949, when 6" fell on Lake Avenue and 12" higher up in the foothills. This picture was taken from the Santa Fe railroad track crossing between Maple and Curson, what is now in the middle of the 210 Freeway, looking north to Maple, with the original Lake Avenue Congregational Church sanctuary on the Northwest corner of Maple and Lake, with its steeple hidden in the low lying mist.

The Fox Market, a well known market on the Southwest corner of Maple and Lake is just across from the Lake Avenue Congregational Church. None of these buildings exist anymore due to the construction of the 210 Freeway.

Notice the historic street light fixtures which had a high mast in the middle to support the cross wires for the Pacific Electric Short Line overhead catenary above the track which was in the middle of Lake all the way up to Altadena, but were removed by this time.

The 210 Freeway divided Pasadena even more than the railroad tracks had before it. Now instead of being on the other side of the tracks, the rest of Pasadena is on the other side of the freeway, without the connection of the Pacific Electric trolleys or the lure of the mountains which at one time proved more irresistible to tourists than now. At least our mountains are not as congested with people as they once were and it's possible to wander the trails without seeing many hikers from out of the area and most everyone is local, especially during the week.

Will we ever see such a snow again? Will we ever have such main street architecture on Lake Avenue again? When we were planning the North Lake Avenue Gold Line Station, we had proposed the bridge where it's located to be more like the Rialto Bridge in Venice, with room for shops and businesses. The North Lake 210 Freeway Bridge was widened, but no provision for shops and businesses was built into the structure. Perhaps this will happen in the future. Could you imagine a flower shop, a newstand, a tobacco shop on this bridge? More unlikely things have happened. If we can imagine a great bridge like the Rialto in Venice, we can have one here, also.

UNION BANK PLAZA, CORDOVA TO DEL MAR, SOUTH LAKE AVENUE, 1965

This is the architectural model of the Union Bank Plaza under construction in 1965 on the westside of South Lake Avenue between Cordova and Del Mar, which was to eventually include an eight-story office tower, hotel medical complex, a pedestrian bridge over Cordova connecting to the next block to the north. Most of this was built as designed; it was known later as the Jacobs Engineering Complex for a very long time, being named after its major tenant, and Union Bank moved away in the 1990's. William L. Pereira and Associates were the architects of Union Bank Plaza and this photo is dated 6.13.65.

The building of this complex took out many single family homes in this block that had survived on South Lake into the 1960's, with a few still surviving even longer, such as the Craftsman home housing the Japanese owned " Lake Florist " just south of what was the Wells Fargo Bank Tower at Green and Lake and just north of what is now Smitty's Restaurant. " Port O' Call " high end gift shop, a Pasadena intstitution, was located in a large Craftsman home farther down on Lake directly across from Continental Burger. Both these homes have been demolished in the meantime to make room for new developments. One home which still remains is where the speakeasy style bar " Magnolia " is located, just south of the Mobil Station at San Pascual and Lake, sharing the space with Heller & Company coin dealer, a business which I have never seen open in the last twenty years. The front of the bungalow is covered over with retail box construction, but you can see the house from the area of the gas station or from inside " Magnolia " where a tree grows in front of the bar.

The one story 1960's modernistic bank building on the northwest corner of Cordova and Lake was demolished in the 1990's and the entire south end of the block is now covered with new development. Many notable 1960's buildings in the South Lake Shopping and Financial District have been threatened with demolition or significant alteration, erasing interesting architecture on this stretch of Lake Avenue.

LAKE AVENUE'S LOST CREEK ... WAS KNOWN AS WOODBURY CREEK IN THE NORTH, WILSON'S OR MILL CREEK IN THE SOUTH

Amazing how so many natural features of our landscape can be rendered invisible over time and pass from memory as generations live and die or move away. Waterways, streams, creeks, springs, lagoons, ponds, lakes were always a part of our natural landscape, even in the arid San Pascual Rancho. As the area became ever more settled, these water features were either depleted or in the way. Also, many water features appeared to be less permanent, since in the summer they may have withered away with seemingly little trace, but in winter and spring reappear with a vengance which sometime resulted in death and destruction of those who built too close or in the way of nature.

Lake Avenue's own water course, known as Woodbury Creek in the north and Wilson's Creek or Mill Creek in the south, has been known since the 1920's as the East Side Storm Drain. Beginning in the alluvial soil of the western edge of the Woodbury Ranch in Altadena and coursing down Santa Rosa, traveling through the Washington Park Arroyo, crossing from west to east of Lake Avenue at Orange Grove Boulevard, forming a lagoon behind Charles Francis Saunders' home and continuing south between Lake and Wilson, finally emerging from El Molino Canyon just north of the El Molino Viejo, flowing through the Old Mill, and finally filling Kewen Lake , also known as Wilson's Lake, the flowing stream of Lake Avenue still flows, now channelized in concrete as the East Side Storm Drain, but suffering the decapitation of its southward flow south of Maple by the intrusion of the Foothill Freeway ditch, a veritable Grand Canyon of the present age.

Hopefully, we can restore this scenic lost waterway for future generations of Pasadenans and its wildlife to enjoy. More unlikely things have happened. Woodbury ... Wilson's ... Mill Creek , the flow from the mountains to the lake. These are dreams of nature restored and appreciation of paradise lost, with hope for its rediscovery and reinstatement.

RECENT PROPOSAL OF THE REVIVAL OF THE PASADENA SHORT LINE - LAKE AVENUE RED CARS OF THE PASADENA-ALTADENA REGIONAL TROLLEY SYSTEM

All that's old is new again. Here is an introduction to the Pasadena-Altadena Regional Trolley System, a proposal which has been in the works for the last year and has been the recipient of some generous consultancy work, which we hope shows in the thoughtfulness of the proposal. The idea is to link the city by trolley going east from Old Pasadena on Green Street to PCC and then return traveling west on Union Street, than using the old Union Pacific Right of Way now on Caltrans property along the 210 Freeway outer edge and travel up behind Muir High School, travel east on Woodbury which has a median strip, travel north on Fair Oaks which is wide and fairly calm on this section, turn east on Mariposa, which is wide and calm, turning south on Lake Avenue going south to connect with the Union Green Street loop in the City Center.

This will link the greater city with historic trolleys as seen by the large San Francisco loop from the Presidio to Fisherman’s Wharf to the Market District presently in service. In conjunction with the Pasadena Arts Bus System, this would give a world class city, Pasadena, world class public transportation. The City of Pasadena does well with national and international tourism around the New Year’s Holiday; let us embark on a bold step to continue this green revenue stream of tourism the entire year, as was once the case in Pasadena’s proud history.

By making Pasadena a world class all year tourist destination, expanding our number of museums (the proposed JPL/NASA Space and Aeronautics Museum and the proposed Museum of the New World, for example) and other touristic venues and events (Pasadena as a possible venue for an upcoming World Fair and/or Olympic Games), it will allow us to truly make the City of Pasadena the center of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Science, and Natural Wonders of the West, truly the Athens of the West as envisioned by our City Father George Ellery Hale.

Downtown Los Angeles is planning the same idea as seen in the LA Times July 31, 2009. Street trolley gaining steam in downtown Los Angeles
11:40 AM July 31, 2009
Transportation planners are considering three different routes for a proposed street trolley that would run through downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Street Car Inc. has been working with city officials and downtown property owners on the trolley concept, which is designed to connect the sprawling city center. It comes as officials are working on a plan to revive the movie palaces along Broadway, which is where the streetcar would run. Here are the proposed routes:
-- Option 1: The streetcar would run from Bunker Hill to the South Park area, running by Disney Hall and the Music Center, then on Broadway and Hill Street. It would then veer west on Pico Boulevard to Figueroa Street, hitting the Convention Center, Staples Center and L.A. Live.
-- Option 2: This route is somewhat shorter, with a smaller run along Figueroa.
-- Option 3: This route would not go as far south, ending at 11th Street.
Downtown boosters have hailed the trolley system as a way of getting visitors and workers around within the area.
The trolley would be the centerpiece of an effort to turn Broadway into the theater and dining district. Government officials and private developers have earmarked nearly $40 million, hoping to pull the gentrification that has swept much of downtown into the district's main commercial area. They envision many of the movie facades giving way to a live theater district forming on the street, with a trolley car system running down its center.
-- Shelby Grad

Be sure to click on the different routes link in the above to see what LA is planning.

The interurban railway of the Pacific Electric Company brought the "Big Red Cars'' to North Lake Avenue in 1902, in which crowds of hikers would arrive early on Saturday morning bound for the local canyons to the north. Come Sunday evening the reverse migration would occur. At its peak in the year 1921, when 160,930 passengers were carried, Mt. Lowe cars operated from Pasadena to Altadena via North Fair Oaks, Mariposa, and North Lake including via North Lake from Colorado Boulevard. Another nearby local tourist destination was the home and gardens of noted local botanist and Southern California Missions booster Charles Francis Saunders, located at 580 North Lake Avenue, located just south of Orange Grove Boulevard, which was visited by many traveling on the Pacific Electric cars going up and down to the mountains.

The hiking era came to a close soon after the Angeles Crest Highway was opened in 1936 and the automobile began to dominate people's lives. Roads were driven into the San Gabriel Mountains and few people ventured more than a few hundred yards from their automobiles. The number of visitors today is probably a few percent of the number who came in 1921.The North Lake Pacific Electric Line was extremely busy until shortly before its abandonment in 1941. The businesses saw their fortunes decline after the closing of the Mount Lowe tourist attraction in 1936, the opening of Angeles Crest Highway into the mountains also in 1936, the ending of trolley traffic in 1941, the onset of World War II and the general availability of automobiles and cheap gasoline for the common man. We hope the trolley on Lake Avenue can be put back in order to bring the tourist trade life blood we have been missing since 1936.

SOUTH LAKE IN 1965, LOOKING NORTH FROM DEL MAR

Another view of South Lake Avenue looking northward from the south side of the intersection at Del Mar, on the sidewalk in front of Bullocks. Again, with the 1920's monumental seven-story Italian Renaissance Revival Style Security Pacific bank building on the southeast corner of Colorado and Lake in the distance, but closer than the last view. The Security Pacific bank building was apparently demolished after it was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and the present unremarkable building was erected. It's possible to just make out the projecting vertical neon sign which said Security Pacific Bank on the east facade of this magnificent building. We are missing the beautiful and artful neon signs of Pasadena's past. Here we have a Thunderbird parked at the curb and a Buick whizzing down South Lake, with a Corvair going upstream. Notice the shoe store on the northeast corner of Del Mar and Lake, much more attractive than the way the building looks now.

SOUTH LAKE IN 1965, LOOKING NORTH FROM MIDBLOCK TO DEL MAR

A view of South Lake Avenue looking northward from the crosswalk in front of Bullocks Department Store, in 1965. Del Mar is the next cross street intersection, with the 1920's monumental seven-story Italian Renaissance Revival Style Security Pacific bank building on the southeast corner of Colorado and Lake in the distance. The Security Pacific bank building was apparently demolished after it was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and the present unremarkable building was erected, which is now (2009) slated for demolition for the New Hotel Constance Project (more on Hotel Constance, SW corner of Mentor and Colorado later). Stores seen are Haggarty's , Blums and Barker Bros. Furniture, with an MG sports car in the foreground and pedestrians crossing in the crosswalk.

NORTHLAKE MARKET, 250 NORTH LAKE AVENUE

Here we have the "Northlake Market" located at North Lake and Locust Street, southeast corner, and equipped by the Henslee Corporation as it was new in the 1920's. The building still exists as the Lighthouse Christian Bookstore, but has been unfortunately altered over the years. Perhaps the building can still be restored back to its beautiful Art Deco style look? Less likely things have happened.

Locust Street on the westside of Lake was the driveway for the Theodore Lukens' Estate, which still exists at the terminus of Locust at North El Molino as the most amazing Victorian Gingerbread mansion in Pasadena complete with hitching post and riding mount stone in the front parkway. Theodore Lukens was a Pasadena civic and business leader and outstanding conservationist, founding the research station at Henninger Flats, and Mt. Lukens was named after him. Also, he is known as the "Father of Forestry." More to come on Lukens and the Lukens' Estate, which originally had an address on North Lake Avenue where the Locust driveway begins, but is now listed at 267 North El Molino Avenue.

Pasadena Mental Health Center, 1495 North Lake Avenue

Again, we have another official Pasadena City Landmark on Lake Avenue, the large Craftsman style " Breiner House " designed by famed Pasadena architect Cyril Bennett and built in 1914, located in the Lake Washington Village area on North Lake Avenue. The Breiner House is prominently located on the Northwest corner of Ladera Street and North Lake Avenue and has been occupied by the Pasadena Mental Health Center for a number of years. Cyril Bennett is well known for having designed many major landmark buildings in Pasadena such as the Civic Auditorium and the Pasadena Playhouse, as well as a large number of other notable structures in the area.

ROMA ITALIAN DELI & GROCERY, 918 NORTH LAKE AVENUE AT MOUNTAIN

Here are a couple of historic photos from Roma Italian Grocery from the 1950's when it was located in an old house at the same location where it is located today, albeit in a more modern building.

CHARLES FRANCIS SAUNDERS' HOME, 580 NORTH LAKE AVENUE

One of the still existing major landmarks on North Lake Avenue is the home of Charles Francis Saunders, named Ah-Tshi-Quah-Nah, at 580 North Lake Avenue, which was, along with its gardens, a major tourist attraction in Pasadena during the great hiking era which existed from the early 1900's through the early 1930's. Charles Saunders (1859-1941) moved to Pasadena in the early part of the 2oth century.


His contributions were as an author, naturalist and collector, who practiced and promoted ideals of the Arts and Crafts Movement and also promoted the beauty and allure of the Southwest. He was responsible, along with Charles Lummis, for fostering interest in restoring the deteriorating California missions and reestablishing the El Camino Real.


Charles Francis Saunders was born in Bucks County Village, Pennsylvania in 1859 and moved to California in 1906. While he was a resident of Pasadena he became a noted author and naturalist, writing numerous books on topics of the California missions, California and Southwestern flora and fauna, and Native Americans. His books were widely read, from his first book, “In a Poppy Garden,” published in 1904 through his last, “Western Wild Flowers and Their Stories,” published in the late 1930’s. Many of his books were published in multiple editions and are still in print today. He collected Southwestern Native American pottery, basketry and other items and his wife, Mira Culin Saunders, donated his collection after his death to the Southwest Museum.

His home is a designated local landmark of Pasadena and looks much the same as it looked in Saunders' day, although the gardens have gone to rough and the creek, Wilson's Creek, and lagoon behind the house have been channelized in concrete. Still one can see how residential, bucolic and garden-like North Lake Avenue was, by the remnants of many bungalows between the commercial nodes located at the major cross streets. The home was almost destroyed, after having an interior fire in the 1980's and facing a long period of abandonment. It was restored by the new owner in 2005.

RALPHS SUPERMARKET, 171 TO 181 NORTH LAKE AVENUE

Here is additional information from the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1931 showing the layout of the Ralphs Supermarket a few doors down from the gas station which was on the SW corner of Lake and Walnut. Look at the footprint of the magnificent entrance tower to parking off of Lake. It is painful to lose such a beautiful building. Notice the Pacific Electric double track in the middle of Lake Avenue. Do you remember when there was a gas station practically on every corner? Times change.


At this time the Columbia Grammar School of the Pasadena Unified School District was on the SE corner of Lake and Walnut, which was sold by PUSD in the ensuing years and the Farmer's Market was constructed and later partially demolished leaving what is now Ralphs Supermarket.


Ralphs certainly lost a wonderful home on Lake Avenue in Pasadena when they moved out of this Spanish Colonial Revival style temple. Most likely this building was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake leading to its demolition shortly thereafter, the fate of many unreinforced masonry buildings, both after the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and the 1971 Sylmar earthquake. Seismic reinforcement would have been a much better option in hindsight.

Ralphs Supermarket on North Lake Avenue was originally located in a wonderful Spanish Colonial Revival style building which was on the Southwest corner of Lake and Walnut and ran from 171 to 181 North Lake Avenue, including a tower and an ornamental driveway entrance gate. The beauty of the architecture in this part of Pasadena from the 1920's to the end of the 1940's is beyond our present day conception.

Alas, the Ralphs Supermarket moved into the non-descript former Farmers Market location across the street on the Southeast corner of Lake and Walnut in the late 1960's when the new Pasadena Mutual Savings Building in a modern style was built on the site of the former Ralphs Supermarket, it being also now demolished for the present IndyMac Bank building. So many demolitions and reconstructions, but nothing will be built to match the beauty of the Spanish Colonial Revival style buildings of this pictured Ralphs Supermarket building on North Lake Avenue or the previous post of the Security Pacific Bank tower building on the Southeast corner of Lake and Colorado. We do not seem to be progressing toward beauty as far as architecture is concerned on Lake Avenue in Pasadena. This is what makes historic preservation all the more important, when we learn what we've lost, we know we need to preserve the beauty which still exists.

Bullocks Pasadena - Elegant Shopping and Living Come to Lake Avenue

When Bullocks Department Stores expanded to Pasadena in 1947 with their "Store of Tommorow", it changed South Lake Avenue, a previously residential neighborhood with homes lining both sides of the street just north of the wealthiest Pasadena neighborhood "Oak Knoll" and wealthy San Marino, into the locus of elegant shopping in Pasadena. The Pasadena Bullocks was designed in a cruise ship style by renowned architect Welton Becket. Becket's goal was to create unity both "inside" as well as "outside" of the building and to achieve an atmosphere of a "home" or an "exclusive country club".

THE PASADENA OAK KNOLL LINE AND THE NORTH LAKE AVENUE LINE - LAKE AVENUE RED CARS OF THE PACIFIC ELECTRIC

Lake Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, views from the same spot 1907 and 1947; both buildings, the Lake Avenue Methodist Church and the Security Pacific Bank which replaced it, have been demolished. Hopefully, someday we will have a worthy replacement for such a major intersection on the main street of Pasadena.

Security Pacific Bank building on the southeast corner of Colorado Boulevard and Lake Avenue, Pasadena Anno 1947, with the Pacific Electric Oak Knoll Line tracks

Lake Avenue Methodist Church on the southeast corner of Colorado and Lake Avenue, Pasadena Anno 1907, with the Pacific Electric Oak Knoll Line tracks


The northernmost end of the Lake Avenue lies at the very foot of the Cobb Estate in Altadena and immediately accesses Las Flores Canyon and the Sierra Madre mountains. The first resident of Las Flores Canyon was the Forsyth Ranch. The ranch was sold in 1919 to Mr. Cobb who had an enormous estate which filled the lower reaches of Los Flores Canyon and the large ornamental entrance gates, driveways, botanical plantings, house foundations and reservoir can still be seen. Las Flores Canyon was also known for its small and short-lived gold mine and also as a hideout for the notorious Californio bandit of the early American period, Tiburcio Vasquez. The Cobb Estate was deeded to the United States Forest Service as a free growth Arboretum in 1967.



In the days of the Pacific Electric Red Car service in Pasadena and Altadena (1902-1941), South Lake Avenue was on what was known as the Oak Knoll Line and North Lake Avenue was on the North Lake Avenue Line. Oak Knoll Avenue is the street on the lower end of Lake Avenue which transitions north with a slow curve to the right and then back to the left coming up from San Marino and the former Lake Vineyard Ranch. The Pacific Electric Red Cars came up from a switch on the Huntington Drive line below the famous hotel of the same name. The Oak Knoll Line connecting with the North Lake Avenue Line at Colorado Boulevard was a shorter way from this part of Pasadena to get to Lake and Mariposa in Altadena without having to ride the circuitous route up Fair Oaks Avenue. In 1914 a spur on the short line was built across Mendocino Street from Lake Ave. to Allen St. and the development of Country Club Parks. The line was put there to access the new development and the Altadena Country Club and Golf Course and the airfield located there.



Pacific Electric car stops for trolleys were located all along Lake Avenue heading to Altadena, Rubio Canyon, the Great Incline and the Mt. Lowe Alpine Tavern Hotel. The Mt. Lowe Alpine Tavern was located on the mountain directly above the terminus of North Lake Avenue and was a popular destination for weekend outings and as a local and national tourist destination. The incredible Mount Lowe mountain railway, which at the height of its popularity was Southern California's outstanding tourist magnet, attracted more visitors at the time then Yosemite or Catalina. It offered one of the world's most spectacular rail trips with disaster seeming ready to strike at every turn of the car wheels, yet so expertly engineered that in all the years it operated not one accident occurred. It was the realized dream of Professor T. S. C. Lowe., the first U.S. Union Army balloon aviator during the Civil War, inventor and one of the most prominent Pasadena residents, investors and boosters.





The Alpine Tavern was also a well visited destination watering hole during Prohibition (1919 to 1933), since the Tavern was cut off from the rest of the city when the last train left in the evening until the trains began running in the morning. This made the Alpine Tavern safe for the imbuing of spirits and other nefarious activities during the nighttime hours. Also, businessmen, attending meetings at the Alpine Tavern Hotel and then being stranded on the mountain after the last train had departed, were known to have telephoned their wives informing them they would have to spend the night at the Tavern, giving them a good excuse for an evening of unbridled and uninterrupted entertainment in this veritable mountain fortress! The businesses near the Pacific Electric stops in Pasadena and Altadena on the way up to the mountain were places to obtain appropriate gifts for a romantic rendezvous.





The interurban railway of the Pacific Electric Company brought the "Big Red Cars'' to North Lake Avenue in 1902, in which crowds of hikers would arrive early on Saturday morning bound for the local canyons to the north. Come Sunday evening the reverse migration would occur. At its peak in the year 1921, when 160,930 passengers were carried, Mt. Lowe cars operated from Pasadena to Altadena via North Fair Oaks, Mariposa, and North Lake including via North Lake from Colorado Boulevard. Another nearby local tourist destination was the home and gardens of noted local botanist and Southern California Missions booster Charles Francis Saunders, located at 580 North Lake Avenue, located just south of Orange Grove Boulevard, which was visited by many traveling on the Pacific Electric cars going up and down to the mountains.



The hiking era came to a close soon after the Angeles Crest Highway was opened in 1936 and the automobile began to dominate people's lives. Roads were driven into the San Gabriel Mountains and few people ventured more than a few hundred yards from their automobiles. The number of visitors today is probably a few percent of the number who came in 1921.The North Lake Pacific Electric Line was extremely busy until shortly before its abandonment in 1941. The businesses saw their fortunes decline after the closing of the Mount Lowe tourist attraction in 1936, the opening of Angeles Crest Highway into the mountains also in 1936, the ending of trolley traffic in 1941, the onset of World War II and the general availability of automobiles and cheap gasoline for the common man. We hope the trolley on Lake Avenue can be put back in order to bring the tourist trade life blood we have been missing since 1936.

THE WASHINGTON THEATRE, 845 E. WASHINGTON BLVD., LAKE WASHINGTON VILLAGE

THE WASHINGTON THEATRE

The Washington Theatre was operated by Fox for years and was later used as a venue for Spanish-language and finally, adult films. The architects were Clarence L. Jay, Henry M. Patterson, and was built in the area popular style of Spanish Colonial Revival in 1924, with a delayed opening in 1925 due to Washington Blvd. not being paved until that time. The theater has a single screen auditorium with 900 seats, apartments on the east end, office space on the second floor front, and retail spaces on the ground level flanking the entrance foyer. An ArtCraft Theatre Organ was installed in the Washington in 1926 with blower serial number 19198. There are only eight ArtCraft organs on record; all were very small, and none are known to have survived. From the July 31, 1937 issue of Boxoffice Magazine: "A thirty-day shutdown has been ordered for the Washington Theatre, Pasadena. Crown City Theatres, operating the house, has planned a $20,000 improvement budget, which will include a new floor, marquee, seats, and other items." $20,000 in 1937 was an enormous sum.

Ralph's Five and Dime, 1289 North Lake Avenue, Lake Washington Village

Ralph's Five and Dime building was around from the 1920's until the City of Pasadena decided it had to go after the Whittier Earthquake knocked down a number of brick buildings in Pasadena. I shopped at this dime store many a year, it had a lot of old stock, items from the 1950's were still there in the 1970's and 1980's, it was absolutely charming. Pasadena tore it down and put up a parking lot. We hope to get some buildings rebuilt facing North Lake on the perimeter of the ugly parking lot, just where this 5 and 10 and other great buildings used to be located. It's called "Edge Repair" in PlanningSpeak, and it has been proposed for Lake Washington Village revitalization. Stay tuned and support your local merchants, at the Five and Dime Lake Washington.