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 | The Great Race: Flying Machine Vs. Car!
For Throwback Thursday this week, we celebrate “The Great Race” from Los Angeles to South Pasadena, pitting automobile against flying machine on February 12, 1905 (114 years ago this week).
Before The Great Race in...
Throwback Thursday | Winters at The Raymond
With the snow level the lowest it has been in our local mountains in years, I am reminded of the magnificent image of The Raymond in South Pasadena 130 years ago.
During the late 1800s,...
Throwback Thursday | Remembering Pasadena Hero Jackie Robinson (100th Birthday Celebration)
I’m not concerned with you liking or disliking me. All I ask is that you accept me as a human being. – Jackie Robinson
In the Arroyo Seco, there is a historic baseball field named Jackie...
Throwback Thursday | Keepsakes from Cawston Ostrich Farm
Don’t Leave South Pas without One!
The salesroom and gift shop of the Cawston Ostrich Farm (1896-1935) was ideally located mid-way between Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley; easily accessible by established steam and electric...
Throwback Thursday | Pasadena’s Historic Memorial Flagpole
Today, the 1927 War Memorial Flagpole stands at a pocket park on the northeast corner of Colorado and Orange Grove. Barely noticeable today as motorists zoom by or sit at the broad intersection waiting...
Throwback Thursday | Prof. T.S.C Lowe’s Railway to the Clouds
Thaddeus Lowe built a magnificent “railway to the clouds” in our local San Gabriel Mountains (known as Sierra Madre Mountains) to reach his resort hotels on Echo Mountain (Echo Mountain House and Chalet) and...
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena’s Three Rose Parade Floats
Since 1892, South Pasadena has entered a self-build “float” in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Our city also has the distinction of having not one, not two, but THREE floats entered at the same...
Throwback Thursday | Unusual Moments in Rose Bowl History
During the Rose Bowl’s first few years, things did not go quite as planned or as hoped for the California player Roy Riegels.
Gloomy Gus Gets Revenge (1923 Rose Bowl Game)
The first New Year’s Day...
Throwback Thursday | Edwin Cawston vs. Santa Claus: Who Received the Most Mail?
During the holiday season, Edwin Cawston boasted: “I receive more mail at my ostrich farm in South Pasadena than Santa Claus at the North Pole.” He was correct of course. Cawston received mail requests...
THROWBACK THURSDAY | Corner of Pasadena and Sycamore (Cawston Ostrich Farm)
Many people thought Edwin Cawston was crazy when he traveled halfway around the world to acquire ostriches from South Africa to start a feather fashion business on the banks of the Arroyo Seco in...
