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 | Kaldi’s: The City’s First Bank and So Much More
The South Pasadena building located on the corner of Center Street and Diamond Avenue was originally built as the city’s first bank in 1904....
Throwback Thursday | Film and TV Stars of South Pasadena
Over the last half-century, South Pasadena’s small-town charm has made it a favorite Hollywood backlot for film, TV, and commercial photo shoots.
Ray Bradbury produced...
Throwback Thursday | Historic Bridge at Devil’s Gate
The narrow passage in the upper Arroyo Seco was referred to as Devil’s Gate by early Pasadena residents because the profile of a devil’s...
Throwback Thursday | The Great Hiking Era
During the first half of the 20th century, the local mountains were alive with hikers, health and adventure seekers – much like today. The...
Throwback Thursday | Burn! Burn! Burn!: The Raymond Hotel’s Historical Firestorm
On Easter Sunday in 1895 (124 years ago this week), South Pasadena’s Raymond hotel went up in flames. It was the most massive single-structure...
Throwback Thursday | Wood! Wood! Wood!
The Raymond required massive amounts of lumber and a small army of skilled craftsmen to complete the final construction phase.
Wood was a plentiful natural...
Throwback Thursday | Henry Dreyfuss: Designer for Humanity
The celebrated American industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss maintained his primary residence and west coast design studio in South Pasadena.
Dreyfuss gave the world the Hoover...
Throwback Thursday | Murals Celebrate South Pasadena’s Rich Heritage
South Pasadena is a small city with a storied past. Several owners of commercial property – rental housing and retail establishments – have commissioned...
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena Feathers of Stage and Screen
South Pasadena’s Cawston Ostrich Farm (1896-1935) was world famous for several reasons: selling feathers direct to consumers at wholesale prices (mail order and retail),...
Throwback Thursday | Picnics in the Arroyo
“How about a picnic in the arroyo?” You don’t hear that much anymore. But 100 years ago, the naturally wooded and sometimes flowing stream...
Thousands of Butterflies Take to the Skies
With the break in the onslaught of recent storms, monarch butteries and painted ladies are taking full advantage of the warm sun. The black-veined...
Throwback Thursday | Home of the World’s Largest Bird: Cawston Ostrich Farm
Edwin Cawston courted the early-20th-century public's fascination with exotic foreign creatures when he began raising ostriches, for more than the use of their feathers...
Throwback Thursday | The Wonders of Busch Gardens
Imagine a place where the sun shines year round. The air is dry. And the sandy, smooth-stoned wash seems dryer still, most of the...
Throwback Thursday | Then Came Motorized Bicycles
During the late 1800s, bicycles were all the rage. That changed seemingly overnight with the advent of the gasoline-powered motor.
Over 100 Pasadena residents rode...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Throwback Thursday | Anatomy of a Craftsman Take Down
Today, the Monterey Townhomes at 1200, 1202, 1204 on Monterey Road marks the spot of a massive “take down” of craftsman homes (Gates Place)...
Throwback Thursday | Local Historic Tea Houses
Tea houses were popular 100 years ago much the way coffee houses are today.
The Japanese tea house at Cawston Ostrich Farm in South Pasadena...
Throwback Thursday | First Thanksgiving at The Raymond: A Holiday Pictorial
The Royal Raymond in South Pasadena celebrated its grand opening 132 years ago this month.
The following pictorial of images from that time include the...
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena: Building the ‘Royal Raymond’ Resort Hotel
Completion of the first major resort hotel in San Gabriel Valley was far from certain when Walter Raymond’s father (Emmons Raymond) visited the construction...
Throwback Thursday | Walter Raymond Gentleman of the Old School
Walter Raymond managed a successful travel agency in Boston, then turned California hotel man. His two hotels on a hill in South Pasadena were...
Early Flying Machines Historic Firsts
First American Air Meet (Dominguez Field)
The first air meet in America took place at Dominguez Field near present-day Cal State University Dominguez Hills.
Aircraft of...
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena: Trailblazing to the Stars
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a testament to the diverse nature of the Arroyo Seco. For over a half century JPL has captured...
