Rick Thomas
Author Rick Thomas is the former museum curator and vice-chair of education for the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation. He served on the South Pasadena Natural Resources Commission, helping to maintain a strict policy protecting the city’s great old-growth trees. Using touchstone photographs from his own collection—one of the San Gabriel Valley’s largest accumulations of historical images and artifacts—as well as national, state, and local historical archives, Thomas provides a window to his city’s past and an understanding of why its preservation is so important.
Throwback Thursday | Everybody Loves the Raymond
In 1892, Professor C. F. Holder addressed Valley Hunt Club members announcing, “In New York, people are buried in snow. Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let’s have...
Throwback Thursday | The Greatest Supercross in History!
The NFL’s Super Bowl XIV was held at the Rose Bowl on January 20, 1980, between the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburg Steelers. Pittsburgh beat L.A. 31-19 for their second straight NFL Championship.
However, did...
Throwback Thursday | The Norton Simon is Born
In January 1968, the Reed House at Orange Grove and Colorado sat behind a protective barrier at Carmelita Park while being demolished.
In 1969, the Pasadena Art Museum opened to the public. The art museum...
Throwback Thursday | Altos de Monterey
In 1962, South Pasadena’s Community Redevelopment Agency offered lots for auction in the Monterey Hills with a starting bid of $20,000.
Altos de Monterey is the city’s last major redevelopment project. All downtown redevelopment initiatives...
Throwback Thursday | The Magnificent Ostrich Feather Plume
Edwin Cawston, English adventurer and world traveler, was one of the first to realize there was big money to be made ostrich farming in America. With nearby Pasadena winter tourism at an all-time high,...
Throwback Thursday | U.S. Women’s Soccer Success Has Local Roots
On Sunday, the U.S. women’s national soccer team won back-to-back World Cup soccer titles continuing their unpreceded success in the sport.
U.S. women’s soccer team record:
Four FIFA World Cup (1991, 1999, 2015, 2019)
Four...
Throwback Thursday | Fourth of July of 1912 Is Picnic Extravaganza!
Census figures for South Pasadena in 1910 show a population of 4,659. And on July 4, 1912, nearly the entire city’s population turned out for an epic picnic celebration that wasn’t matched again for...
Throwback Thursday | The Ride of a Lifetime!
In 1897, Edwin Cawston opened his ostrich farm to the public in South Pasadena near the banks of the Arroyo Seco. The Cawston Ostrich Farm sold factory-direct ostrich feather products such as fans and...
Throwback Thursday | When Arroyo Seco Parkway Became “Arroyo Speedway”
The Arroyo Seco Parkway was opened on December 30, 1940, becoming the first nonstop “freeway” west of the Mississippi. The highway’s original “sunken garden” design drew inspiration from the East-coast parkways.
As vehicle technology improved,...
Throwback Thursday | The Day TR Came to Town
On May 8, 1903, after a short address at Pomona College that morning, President Theodore Roosevelt traveled to South Pasadena for lunch at The Raymond.
Roosevelt accepted an invitation to tour California only after confirming...
