Throwback Thursday | Burn! Burn! Burn!: The Raymond Hotel’s Historical Firestorm

Easter Sunday, 1895 – The Raymond succumbs to a massive firestorm!

PHOTO: California Historical Society | SouthPasadenan.com News | The Raymond hotel fire on Easter Sunday, South Pasadena (1895)

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 resort hotel was a glowing ember from one of its two dozen chimneys. The enormous amount of lumber used to build The Raymond became the fuel that unleashed a hellfire blaze unmatched to this day.

Fortunately, there was no loss of life.

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Before and After Images

PHOTO: Pasadena Museum of History | SouthPasadenan.com News | BEFORE FIRE – The Raymond hotel, South Pasadena (1995)
PHOTO: Pasadena Museum of History | SouthPasadenan.com News | DURING FIRE – The Raymond hotel on fire, South Pasadena (Easter Sunday, 1995)

Note: Before and after photos above are from the point of view near the Oaklawn Bridge and War Memorial Building (today).

PHOTO: South Pasadena Public Library | SouthPasadenan.com News | BEFORE FIRE – Columbia Street with The Raymond in the background, South Pasadena (1895)
PHOTO: Pasadena Museum of History | SouthPasadenan.com News | DURING FIRE – Columbia Street with The Raymond on fire in the background, South Pasadena (Easter Sunday, 1895)

The Raymond hotel photo above was taken by A.C. Vromans who was coming up from the Arroyo Seco with camera equipment in his carriage. He pulled his carriage alongside Columbia Street in South Pasadena and began taking a series of spectacular photographs of the “Royal Raymond” engulfed in flames and shrouded by smoke.

PHOTO: Pasadena Museum of History | SouthPasadenan.com News | The Raymond hotel fire, South Pasadena (Easter Sunday, 1995)
PHOTO: California Historical Society | SouthPasadenan.com News | The Raymond hotel fire, South Pasadena (Easter Sunday, 1995)

Firestorm!

A closer view shows guests standing with their belongings gazing at the enormous blaze.

PHOTO: South Pasadena Public Library | SouthPasadenan.com News | Aftermath of The Raymond hotel fire, South Pasadena (1895)

The devastation was total. Only a couple of chimneys were left standing. Ironically the spark that ignited The Raymond was a glowing ember from one of the two dozen chimney stacks. Now, these blacken brick columns stand as eerie reminders of the cause of the devastation.

PHOTO: Pasadena Museum of History | SouthPasadenan.com News | Pasadena Fire Department on 35 W. Dayton Street, (Today, Firehouse Recording Studios)

The newly outfitted Pasadena Fire Department was woefully ill-equipped to battle the all-consuming intensity of The Raymond hotel blaze. The fully-trained professional firefighters were no match for the largest single structure fire in Pasadena history.

PHOTO: South Pasadena Public Library | SouthPasadenan.com News | South Pasadena, California (1895)

The City of South Pasadena with Raymond Hill in the background (without the iconic hotel on Raymond Hill) was taken shortly after the fire. Notice that our city had become a thriving citrus growing community.

PHOTO: Pasadena Museum of History | SouthPasadenan.com News | The Raymond hotel grounds after the fire, South Pasadena (1898)

Walter Raymond recovered some insurance money from the fire but not enough to rebuild the hotel. Instead, Raymond built a pavilion over the original hotel site and invited the public to enjoy the grand views of the mountains and the surrounding orchards and quaint city of South Pasadena. The hilltop had once again become a meeting place where dancing, food, and drink were plentiful.

Note: Walter Raymond refused to give up his dream. In 1901, he built a new hotel from the ground up with a generous loan from his friend R.T. Crane who was a frequent guest of the hotel.

Throwback Thursday is written and produced by Rick Thomas

 


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.