Altadena Nursery, 1968 N. Lake Avenue, Becomes a Ditch

I really think we're going backwards on North Lake in Altadena.  Here we have a nice vintage design perfect mixed use building with lots of parking and room for additional buildings and the new owner/developer decides to build a mega development on the site.  

With the recent sale of the Webster's Complex and the Hill and Washington Apartment Complex to Mike Balian, we may be in for additional nasty surprises.

Fortunately, due to diligent neighbors in Pasadena, the Hill and Washington Apartment Complex in Pasadena has been found by the Pasadena Historic Preservation Commission to be landmark designation eligible.  That means Mike Balian must preserve the facade of the historic building, but he may build on the surrounding asphalt parking area to the limit allowed by the Pasadena Zoning Code.

Pasadena has been somewhat more successful in retaining and preserving buildings on the North Lake Corridor than Altadena/L.A. County.  Stay tuned for more developments, and heaven help Altadena...

Here something interesting which is related from Wikipedia:  In 1880, Capt. Frederick Woodbury, and his brother, John Woodbury of Marshalltown, Iowa, purchased 937 acres (3.79 km²) known as the Woodbury Ranch. John Woodbury established the Pasadena Improvement Company in 1887, with a plot plan of residential development referred to as the Woodbury Subdivision. They contacted Byron O. Clark, who established a nursery in the foothills in 1875, and had since moved away. He called his nursery "Altadena Nursery", a name he coined from the Spanish "alta" meaning "upper," and "dena" from Pasadena. Woodbury asked if he could use the name "Altadena" for his subdivision and Clark agreed.