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Tag: Throwback Thursday by Rick Thomas
Throwback Thursday | The Mission Street Markets
Today, we shop for groceries at Trader Joe’s, Vons, Pavilions, Bristol Farms, and Grassroots Natural Market. Back in the day, however, local residents frequented...
Throwback Thursday | Field of Dreams at Local Pasadena Ballpark
Baseball has long been a favorite in the communities bordering the Arroyo Seco. Ball clubs were first organized based on local employment. The Raymond...
Throwback Thursday | Famous Firsts in South Pas History
In this week’s Throwback Thursday, we will honor four “famous firsts” in South Pasadena history. They are quite remarkable concerning the relative small size...
Throwback Thursday | Famous Women in South Pasadena History
Apostle of the Cacti
Minerva Hoyt
Minerva Hamilton Hoyt was a South Pasadena socialite whose infant son died, and she felt compounded loss after her husband,...
Throwback Thursday | The Other Bridge
In a couple of weeks on July 18th, the historic Colorado Street Bridge will close to automobiles for its annual bridge party. In perfect...
Throwback Thursday | Swami Vivekananda Visits South Pasadena
Swami Vivekananda was a well-known spiritual leader in India during the late 1800s and early 1900s. He traveled to America in 1900, staying at...
Throwback Thursday | The South Pasadenan
In 1893, George W. Glover founded South Pasadena’s first successful newspaper, South Pasadenan.
He ran the paper for 15 years during the fledgling municipality’s formative years....
Throwback Thursday | Revisiting Our Racist Past
There was a time in our not-so-distant past when racism prevented or restricted American citizens of color from employment opportunities, property ownership, access to...
Throwback Thursday | Brown Boys Were Local Heroes
Brothers Jason and Owen Brown were veterans of the anti-slavery fight who homesteaded on a hillside plateau near the Arroyo Seco. In 1885, they...
Throwback Thursday | World Famous Lion Farm in El Monte
Gay’s Lion Farm in El Monte was a popular local area tourist attraction from 1925 to 1942, located at the southeast junction of Peck...
Throwback Thursday | Heritage Lost: South Pasadena’s Orange Tree City Seal and Orange Blossom...
The city of South Pasadena was founded in 1888 during the agricultural citrus boom in Southern California. The area was once abundant with orange...
Throwback Thursday | The Fight
This week’s feature concludes our look back at our city’s unique 125-year history at the “crossroads” of a myriad of competing public transportation and...
Throwback Thursday | The Arroyo Seco Parkway
The Arroyo Seco Parkway was opened on December 30, 1940, becoming the first freeway in America west of the Mississippi. It became a vital...
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena: A Transportation Corridor
By the 1920s, South Pasadena had become a major transportation corridor between Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley. South Pasadena had five separate...
Throwback Thursday | The Rise of Personal Motorized Mobility
At the turn of the century, gasoline-powered motors fit easily into beefed-up frames of bicycles and horse-drawn carriages. And within a decade, motorized bicycles...
Throwback Thursday | California Cycleway in 1900
During the late 1800s, Horace M. Dobbins was listening to the crazed bicycle public. When Dobbins started the California Cycleway Company in 1897, he...
Throwback Thursday | Bicycle Crazy Pasadena 120 Years Ago
In 1898, hundreds of bicycles paraded down Colorado Boulevard in a show of force to impress city officials and planners that road improvements and...
Throwback Thursday | Former First Lady Garfield Dies Here 100 Years Ago This Month
After a disgruntled office seeker assassinated President James A. Garfield, Lucretia Garfield was forever known as the “widow of the martyred President.” Her popularity...
Throwback Thursday | When Dr. Sun Yat-sen Visited South Pasadena
South Pasadena resident Charles Beach Boothe code-named “Red Dragon,” in effect, was treasurer of a revolution raising over 9 million dollars for the cause....
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena’s First Fighters Were Tree Huggers
Before South Pas residents were known as “freeway fighters,” they earned their chops fighting the city to protect its trees. On August 18, 1950,...
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena’s Beloved Rialto Theater
The once thriving Blockbuster Video is today a Blaze Pizza and its kitty-corner neighbor – the city’s historic centerpiece Rialto Theater – is now...
Throwback Thursday | The Solar Motor
The Cawston Ostrich Farm was the site of the world’s first successful experiment using a solar-powered motor for commercial use. Aubrey Eneas selected Cawston’s...
Throwback Thursday | Will You Be My Valentine?
Tourists visiting the Cawston Ostrich Farm in South Pasadena enjoyed posing for photos with “ostrich couples” such as the popular comic strip characters, Jiggs...
Throwback Thursday | South Pasadena’s World-Famous Ostrich Farm
Edwin Cawston, English adventurer and world traveler, was one of the first to realize there was big money to be made ostrich farming in...
Throwback Thursday | Feathers of Stage and Screen
In 1927 the Franchon & Marco’s vaudeville show featuring the Sunkist Beauties performed at the Rialto theater in South Pasadena. The ostrich farm in...
Throwback Thursday | First Passenger Air Service in America
In 1913, Roy Knabenshue began the first passenger air service in America by taking paying customers of the Raymond Hotel in South Pasadena in...
Throwback Thursday | Winter Paradise
The discovery of gold and later “black gold” (oil) drew large numbers prospectors and opportunity seekers to California. Locally, ranching and agriculture helped the...
Throwback Thursday | California Bound
In 1900, stories about the west were published and first-hand accounts were reported back to residents on the east coast, causing many to leave...
Throwback Thursday | New Year’s Day 1892
On Tournament of Roses Day in South Pasadena, 1892, guests are seated in Thaddeus Lowe’s personal tallyho at the grand entrance of the Royal...
Throwback Thursday | Rose Bowl Edition
The first New Year’s Day football classic at the Rose Bowl was played in 1923. The Tournament selected the teams that year, Penn State...
