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South Pasadena’s Cawston Ostrich Farm (1896-1934) was not a typical farm or zoo-like playground, but akin to a modern-day amusement park that rivaled the top Southern California attractions of that time – Santa Catalina’s Avalon Bay, Busch Gardens, Mt. Lowe Railway, Venice of America canals, and Gay’s Lion Farm in El Monte.
Described as “one of the strangest sights in America” visitors took a tour of South Pasadena’s world-famous feather factory, witnessed attendants riding ostriches, attended feeding spectacles where ostriches swallowed whole oranges, and enjoyed quiet time at the Japanese Tea House and semi-tropical gardens.
At the height of Cawston Ostrich Farm’s success, the facility sold ostrich feather fashion items by mail order at direct-to-consumer prices.
Cawston retail stores soon opened in many of the major cities in America, including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
At the Cawston Los Angeles store, round trip excursion tickets to the ostrich farm in South Pasadena cost 25 cents and included free admission to the farm.
Cawston Ostrich Farm installed a new salesroom and gift shop at the corner of Pasadena Ave. and Sycamore Ave. (Today – Ostrich Farm Lofts).
From downtown Los Angeles, visitors took the South Pasadena car marked “Cawston Ostrich Farm.”
In the 1920s souvenir sales are brisk at the South Pasadena’s ostrich farm store. Every trinket imaginable had the Cawston mark on it: pocket mirrors, pocket knives, watch fobs, letter openers, paperweights, toothpick holders, match safes, hand-painted plates, tape measures, buttons, spoons, trays of every shape and size, and more.
Premium ostrich feather fans fill the glass cases. Stuffed baby ostriches are visible on the upper shelf behind the counter.
East coast tourists are encouraged to leave the name and address of a friend back home. Cawston will send them three souvenir postcards and an illustrated Cawston catalog.
