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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 | 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 his plays at James and Lissa Reynolds’ Fremont Centre Theater....
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 face appears on the cliff at the right.
In the photograph...
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 contemporary writer and local historian, John W. Robinson refers to...
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 fire in San Gabriel Valley history.
The “spark” that ignited the...
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 resource during the late 1800s. The mill operations of the...
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 vacuum cleaner, Bell telephone, Honeywell thermostat, John Deere Model A...
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 artists to paint murals that celebrate its rich cultural heritage.
These...
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), major Southern California tourist attraction, and home of the world’s...
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 bed was a popular destination for family gatherings.
Family picnics in...
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 orange butteries are filling South Pasadena skies by the thousands.
If...
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 in the clothing industry.
When Cawston brought the enormous, flightless, African...
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 time. Magnificent rugged mountains rise above the arroyo in 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 their bicycles down Colorado Street to demonstrate for more cycle-friendly...
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...
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) in the late-1960s. I should know, I once lived on...
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 was a favorite.
Visitors of the ostrich farm were treated to...
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 newly-constructed resort hotel, culminating in a Grand Dedication Ball held...
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 site during a rainstorm in the winter of 1885. While...
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 vital to the prestige and early development of the region....
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 every design filled the sky for 11 days at the...
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 the public’s imagination for its exploration of space and the...
