I was going through boxes of old stuff that's been collected from my ancestors in preparation for an archiving session. I don't remember ever having seen this particular book of pictures of Pasadena. It was interesting for me to come across it in my dad's family archives because my grandfather was in on the real estate boom in Southern California around the turn of the 20th century. He dabbled in land surrounding Los Angeles, but spent most of his time on the Mojave Desert around Lancaster and Palmdale. I had never seen anything in his stuff about Pasadena, although he did retire to La Cañada, next door to Pasadena in the 1930s. My mom's side of the family settled in Pasadena in the 1920s, so this predates their arrival and indeed must have been something my grandfather collected.
Here is the transcription of the paragraph at the front of the little book, maintaining the spelling and usage:
Pasadena,
famed for its beauty and climate, enjoys a particularly favored location for development along lines of artistic beauty. It lies within four miles of the Sierra Madre mountains, nine miles from Los Angeles, and thirty miles from the Pacific Ocean, with numerous beach resorts within easy reach. In midwinter, a day's itinerary may include a sleigh ride in the mountains, a feast of oranges picked in the valley, and a dip in the ocean surf. There are flowers in profusion throughout the year, and on New Year's Day, when the eastern states are in the icy grip of storms and blizzards, Pasadena celebrates with its annual Tournament of Roses, beginning with a morning parade of gaily decorated equipage and floats and terminating in an afternoon of sports at Tournament Park, where, on a half mile track, the famous four-horse Roman chariot races are the feature of the day. Pasadena has 32,000 inhabitants, 16 schools, 2 colleges, 39 churches, a public library with two branches, and a five-acre children's playground. There are three large hotels and many excellent smaller ones. Fourteen prominent clubs prosper in the city, including the Annandale Country Club, which has the finest golf course in the west. One of the most notable scientific institutions of the world, the Carnegie Solar Observatory, is located at the summit of Mt. Wilson, above Pasadena. Among the places of interest are Orange Grove avenue, famous for its "three miles of millionaires" and the magnificent sunken gardens of Adolphus Busch, comprising over 50 acres of terraced lawns.
Slideshow
You can either click the arrows or drag the pictures right or left to go through the pages of the little book. If you're at a larger monitor instead of a phone I suggest you click on the first picture. From there a full-sized slideshow will open on your monitor and the image will advance every 7 seconds.
