Drive - yourself Colorado Boulevard
Route 66 Googie Tour
Get your kicks on Route 66 with a drive down historic Colorado Boulevard that includes three distinguished Googie-style buildings. This tour can be taken at any time and provides descriptions of some of our best commercial-designed mid-century architecture in Pasadena.
PRESERVATION PASADENA PART 1: MARVELOUS MID-CENTURY MODERN ARCHITECTURE 1945 -1977
Tour Instructions:
Begin your tour at the east side of town on Colorado Boulevard and Michillinda Avenue. Drive west along E. Colorado Boulevard. There will be places to see on both sides of the street. Even number addresses will be on your left (south) and odd number addresses will be on your right (north )
There are a few locations listed in the tour that are not directly on Colorado Boulevard. Those locations are indicated in italics. You may choose to drive past those locations or remain on Colorado Boulevard for the duration of the tour.
Historic Route 66 in Pasadena: Known as Colorado Street until 1958, Colorado Boulevard runs between Orange Grove Boulevard, west of Old Pasadena, and east to Michillinda Avenue, where it becomes Colorado Street in Arcadia. US highway 66 (Route 66) was created in 1926. It would go through many changes in its alignment over the course of the years, which included a drive over the Colorado Street Bridge into Eagle Rock, and another route heading south through South Pasadena. When the Los Angeles freeway system was born with the Arroyo Seco Parkway in 1940, Route 66 was aligned along it. Soon more freeways and the Interstate highways would cover the region and by 1964 Route 66 would begin to be replaced across San Gabriel Valley. This tour will guide
you down the east parts of Pasadena’s historic Route 66 and highlight some of the significant buildings from the period as well as other historical buildings, signs, and areas of interest.
Googie Architecture: Along Route 66 in Pasadena, we have examples of Googie architecture. Googie has been described as Modernism for the masses. With its swooping lines and organic shapes, the style attempted to capture the playful exuberance of postwar America. Named for the John Lautner-designed Googie’s Restaurant in Los Angeles, the style was widely employed in Southern California’s roadside commercial architecture of the 1950s, including coffee shops, bowling alleys, car washes, and even churches.
Will you know them when you see them? There are special character-defining features to alert you to Googie style:
• Organic, abstract, and parabolic shapes
• Sweeping and soaring lines
• Expressive rooflines, including butterfly, folded-plate, and gravity-defying cantilevers
• Clear expression of materials, including concrete, steel, stucco, cement, glass block, plastic, and plywood
• Large expanses of plate glass
• Thematic ornamentation, including tiki and space age motifs
• Primacy of signage, including the pervasive use of neon
Be on the lookout for these features along the route.
1.) Beneficent Financial
3858 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1951 per Assessor
There is a decorative breezeblock wall covering the entire building. These decorative blocks became popular in the 1950s and fell out of fashion by the 1970s. They were used in both residential and commercial buildings for privacy and shade but still allow for air circulation. They came in several different decorative patterns.
2.) El Rancho Motel
3853 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1950 per Assessor
This motel has been in continual operation since 1950. The decorative block half-walls delineate the driveway.
3.) The Original Tops
3838 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1977 per Assessor
The Bicos Family's original coffee shop was founded in 1952 on Colorado Boulevard. From a coffee shop to a bustling walk-up window, to a fast food restaurant, they have been a mainstay of Pasadena.
4.) Pasada Motel
3625 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1959 per Assessor
Another one of the few remaining vintage Route 66 motels in town. The neon sign is original This motel has the distinction of being a film location for the 2016 Horror/Thriller movie Neon Demon starring Keanu Reeves, Elle Fanning and Christina Hendricks. It is rated R.
5.) Hi-way Host Motel
3474 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1956 per Assessor
This interesting sign is not listed as a designated sign and as of the writing of this script there is little information found about this location. We include it as a potential significant property and hope to include it on future tours. If any of our tour-participants know more we would appreciate you sharing with Pasadena Heritage.
6.) Rusnak/Audi car dealership (Originally Gwinn’s Restaurant and Drive-In Demolished 1992)
2915 E Colorado Blvd. 91107
Designed in 1947 or 1949 and ran until Mr. Gwinn’s death in 1972
Architects: Harold Bissner and Harold Zook
“One of Pasadena’s Finest Restaurants,” this restaurant was built for Floyd Gwinn, a restaurateur, who would become mayor of Pasadena from 1964-1966. Harold Zook, in his self-published photo book says of Gwinn’s Restaurant, “Floyd Gwinn was a great client. I had an introduction to the food industry and given a free hand to design a drive-in restaurant.” Zook and Bissner operated a practice in Pasadena between 1947 and 1948.
You may turn right on Sunnyslope Avenue to visit another Pasadena property of significance, or continue on Colorado Boulevard to stop #7.
The Swanson and Peterson Furniture Factory
1916 E. Walnut St./96 N. Sunnyslope Ave. 91107
Built in 1929
Architects: Swasey and Hayne
David Swanson and Erik Peterson were carpenters who contributed to the Craftsman Movement and to some of Greene & Greene’s greatest commissions.
The firm was frequently featured in Architectural Digest. There are dozens of custom furniture pieces attributed to the firm, primarily in the mid50s but stretching into the early 1960s. The firm also produced furniture designed by Kem Weber for Walt Disney Studios in 1939, with tables selling recently as collection pieces. Their ability to adapt their furniture-making style and recognition from Architectural Digest allowed the Swanson and Peterson company to stay in business for decades at this location.
Principal architect McNeal Swasey worked under Myron Hunt and served as the project manager for the Huntington Library. His best known building in Pasadena is the Constance Hotel, also on this tour.
The building had certain advantages over previous locations including the sawtooth roof, substantial electricity and a sprinkler system. It is an excellent example of an early 20th century industrial daylight factory, which relies on ample glazing and natural light to provide a good working environment while saving on electricity cost.
To return to Colorado Boulevard, turn around in the Home Depot parking lot and go back south on Sunnyslope. Turn right on Colorado Boulevard to continue the tour.
7.) Ace-Hi Motel
2870 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1947 per Assessor
Now called the Ace Motel, the façade has changed a bit compared to this early postcard, but the layout of the motel remains. It is unclear when the decorative block screen wall was added. The 12-unit Ace-Hi Motel is the oldest motel still in existence on E. Colorado Boulevard. The vintage sign is still here. In the late 50s you got amenities like pay TV, a telephone, and a pet free room for as little as $5.00 per night.
2818 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Googie - built in 1962
Architects: Den Neuman & Associates
This motel was restored to its original Googie architecture in 2016 but with a modern touch. This is a two-story L-shaped stucco structure in "Space-Age" design. The roof on the main portion of the hotel projects out to cover the second floor walkway, which in turn shelters the first floor sidewalk. Four outward thrusting, side-by-side gables edge the roof on the Colorado Boulevard side of the office structure. A carport extends to the east on the second floor level and is angled like an airplane wing in upward flight. The midway support for this carport is another wing in vertical position.
A wide bank of small, pale sky blue, mosaic tiles across the second floor front of the office
building forms the background for the Astro Motel sign. The plastered portions of the hotel are painted white, while the wooden doors to the rooms, the roof and gable edgings and the wingshaped support are painted orange. Den Neuman and Associates of La Crescenta created this design for Astromotels, Inc. of Glendale. A second similar motel also stands on Colorado Boulevard in Glendale.
The motel chain opened in 1964 and was part of a chain that spanned California, Utah and Arizona and even reached Kansas. There are several on Route 66: the Barstow Astro and the Winslow Arizona Astro, another one in Kingman and one in San Bernardino
9.) La Casa Inn (Originally Swiss Lodge)
2800 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Googie - built in 1961
Architects: Erlee Construction Company
Original owner: Hyatt Chalet Motels Inc.
The historic A-frame office building has colorful glass to entice travelers along Route 66 In 1961 Pasadena saw the first of two adjoining motels in "fantasy" designs. The Erlee Construction Company of Studio City built this complex for the Hyatt Chalet Motels Inc. It is a two-story Ushaped structure in a "story Book Swiss" style, executed in stucco with colorful wooden trim. A modified mansard roof (concealing a flat, gravel roof) covers most of the building. Decorative wooden brackets support the orange painted, outward sloping mansard.
It was a Hyatt Chalet built in 1961. This design dates back to 1960 when Hyatt planned to build some 200 similar motels by 1966. They became the Hyatt Lodges, a new division within the company. Compare it to some of the extant motels of this chain, also on Route 66: the Needles Inn (Needles CA) and the Hyatt Chalet Motel in Albuquerque New Mexico.
10.) Denny’s 2627 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Googie – Built in 1963
Architects: Armet & Davis
Builder: Hy Kaplan Construction
Denny’s 1957, originally Danny’s before the popular chain Coffee Dan’s threatened to sue, has Googie design essentials – the prototype design includes boomerang-shaped roofline, balanced on natural pylons, it is asymmetrical, and has a sign blended into the design, and broad glassy frontage.
One of the most prominent practitioners of Googie architecture, the firm of Armet and Davis created many of Los Angeles’ most innovative postwar commercial structures, gaining international acclaim for their restaurants and coffee shops.
Established by Louis Armet and Eldon Davis in 1947, the prolific firm “established Coffee Shop Modern as a major popular modern style,’’ wrote Alan Hess in the seminal book, Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture.
Credited with the design of over 4,000 Googiestyle restaurants, Armet and Davis designed prototypes for large restaurant chains such as Denny’s and Bob’s Big Boy that were used to develop the restaurants throughout the U.S. and abroad.
11.) Pasadena City Church (Originally The Colorado Theatre)
2588 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Opened: 1949
This building was originally the Colorado Theatre. It opened on January 7, 1949 with Hans Holt in “The Mozart Story.” The auditorium was constructed with a Lamella wood roof, similar to a Quonset Hut style. All seating was on a single floor. Laemmle Theaters most recently operated it until it 2001 when Laemmle built a multiplex west of Lake Avenue on Colorado.
The current owners, Pasadena City Church, did some major rehabilitation work and revealed the architecture of the auditorium.
justly named as a California Cultural Historical Landmark, which cleared the way for its installation above 2490 East Colorado Boulevard. Today and everyday since 1951, The Original Whistle Stop’s famous sign welcomes patrons and guests.
It is because of the Whistle Stop’s persistence about their sign that the city did a survey and created a new category of protection for historic neon signs. “Neon signs were popular throughout the United States between 1920 and 1960. Pasadena has many examples from this period, the earliest of which dates back to 1926 (the Bekins Storage Company Sign at 511 South Fair Oaks Avenue). The City has surveyed these signs on two occasions for the purpose of protecting them as significant components of the City’s history and development.”
As you continue down Colorado you will note one of the only Historic Route 66 signs at the corner of Eloise and Colorado Boulevard, just past Car Star Auto Body.
13.) Walgreens
2376 E Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 2010 per Assessor
12.) The Original Whistle Stop Designated Historic Sign
2490 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Building built in 1924
In existence since 1951, the original Whistle Stop sign was from an older store about 1.5 miles east on Colorado Boulevard. The owners moved to this location in 1988 after their former building owner did not extend the lease. Their intention was to erect the 1951 neon projecting sign on top of their new location. However, an obscure passage from the City of Pasadena’s sign laws forbade animated neon signs, which protrude from buildings. The Original Whistle Stop’s classic neon train sign was in the opinion of the city counsel, an “Eye Sore.” After months of negotiating, haggling, and persuading, the owners found an ally within the Pasadena Cultural Heritage Commission. The sign was
Although this Walgreens is a contemporary addition to Route 66, they made it part of their design to include a retro neon sign at the entrance of their building, blending in with the heritage of Route 66.
You may turn left on Sierra Madre Boulevard to visit another Pasadena property of significance, or continue on Colorado Boulevard to stop #14.
St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church (Originally Pasadena Women’s Club)
Designated Landmark
58 S. Sierra Madre Boulevard 91107 (on the east side of the street, your left)
Built in 1923
Architect: McCune and Spindt
The Mission Revival building was designed to blend in with the 1920s residential properties in the neighborhood. It was designated a landmark building in 1991 due to its association with the
national Woman Movement of the Progressive Era and the growth of women’s clubs in the 1920s. To return to Colorado Boulevard turn around on Sierra Madre heading north and turn left onto Colorado Blvd. to continue the tour.
14.) Fedde’s Furniture
Designated Historic Sign
2350 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1926
In 1937 Arnold and Ellen Fedde started Fedde Furniture on the same block that it stands today. Over time they slowly acquired other storefronts on the block to expand their business. The rooftop neon sign was installed circa 1950.
15.) Warner’s Egyptian Theatre
2316 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1925
The Warner’s Egyptian theatre opened May 6, 1925. It was renamed Uptown Theatre in 1936 and closed in the early 1980s. The lobby was converted into retail use as an antique furniture store and the auditorium used for storage. The original 1925 fire curtain, with original local advertisements painted on its front, still remains.
16.) Used Car Sales
2193 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in the 1930s-40s
There were many used car dealers located along east Colorado during the Route 66 era; there are 2 rare surviving metal clad buildings at this location, dating from 1930s-40s; during the 1940s, and possibly before, this was the location for Don Lee Cadillac's Used Car Sales. Don Lee Cadillac's New Car Sales Showroom and Services was located at 655 East Green Street at the northwest corner of El Molino adjacent to the Pasadena Playhouse, now the Jacob Maarse Florist. This location, 2193 East Colorado, continued to be used for used car sales and automobile repairs until it was vacated sometime in the early part of this century.
17.) C&H Sales Co Surplus Materials & Surplus Signs
Designated Historic Sign
2176 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1949
This property has a tall multi-colored rooftop neon sign, installed in 1956, with each letter of the vertically oriented word “surplus” within a neon-bordered, downward-pointing arrow.
18.) Dino’s Italian Inn
2055 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Opened in 1949
Mike Scarantino opened Dino's in 1949 at a time when few home-style Italian restaurants were around. After the family decided to close in 2006, a great-nephew of the founder, and son of the owner of Scarantino's in Glendale, decided to keep it in the family, renovated and soon reopened it as Scarantino's Italian Inn. The changes didn't seem to attract new or more business and the restaurant closed in June of 2008. It remains empty today.
You may turn right on Greenwood (just past the Taco Bell) and left on Walnut (just past the Honda Dealer) to visit another Pasadena property of significance, or continue on Colorado Boulevard to stop #19
Woodbury Well
1879 E Walnut Street 91107
Built in 1930
Architect: Aubrey St. Clair
Designated Historic Resource
The water well and pump-house is designed in a fanciful Art Deco style. With its small size and windowless walls, the structure resembles a mausoleum from the 1930s. This Zigzag Moderne style has a flat roof with multiple pilasters and stylized sunburst images. Above the entry is a decorative relief with chevrons surrounding a “crown city” logo flanked by large vertically oriented chevrons.
The building is used for pumping groundwater and distributed to customers. The facility is still in use and pumps approximately 1,800 gallons of water per minute.
St. Clair was the Water & Power Department’s first draftsman in 1913 and the city contracted with him to design the Woodbury Well after he had left city employment to pursue his own architectural practice.
To return to Colorado Boulevard, turn left on Parkwood. You will see stop #19 from the rear on the west side of Parkwood as you approach Colorado Boulevard. Turn right on Colorado Boulevard and continue the tour.
19.) Draper’s Studio of Modes
Designated Landmark
1855 E. Colorado Blvd. 91107
Built in 1932
Architect: Walter C. Fain
Original Owners: Simeon Draper & Virginia D.
Christopher
Original purpose: Commercial Dress shop
The original building on the property was built circa 1914 as a one and a half story residential bungalow. The 1929 city directories indicate that the bungalow was used for a retail store, Simeon Draper’s Women’s Clothing Draper's Studio of Modes was founded by Virgina Draper in 1927 and is now a nationwide chain of retail shops.
A building permit was issued in 1938 to enclose the original front porch and in 1948 the house was completely remodeled in the Moderne style, which remains today, by architect and contractor Walter C. Fain.
Attached to the east side of the building is a narrow rectangular pylon clad in corrugated metal; it extends from the ground to a height approximately ten feet higher than the building. The pylon, originally painted in an accent color, was used for neon signage
At the corner of East Colorado Boulevard and North Parkwood Avenue is a freestanding sign, built in 1962, with a narrow canted pylon clad in corrugated metal supporting a large rectangular sign cabinet.
Virginia Draper’s original store in Pasadena can be seen in this 1951 postcard. Described as "Southern California's smartest apparel shop".
It is a good example of art-deco style applied to a small commercial building. Art Deco flourished between both World Wars (1914 - 1940). It was a symbol of wealth, luxury and elegance that adopted symmetry, rich colors and bold rectilinear geometric shapes to exalt the technological progress of the early twentieth century. These shapes are clearly seen in the building.
20.) Saga Motor Hotel
Designated Historic Sign
1633 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1959
Architect: Harold Zook
Builder: OK Earl
In Harold Zook’s self-published architecture book he says, “When I was out of work at my office, OK Earl, developer, hired me to design for his firm. I designed industrial buildings and had an opportunity to do the Saga Motel on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena.”
The Saga is the quintessential California hotel with palm trees, sparkling pool, and artistic walls. The iconic neon sign projects from a pylon that extends from the roof of the hotel office. It was installed when the hotel was built in 1959.
21.) F. Suie Co. (Originally C.S. Mead Motor
1355 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1946
Architect: Sylvanus Marston
In 1946, C.S. Mead, the then oldest Chevrolet dealer in the world, occupied the corner revival building at 1335 E Colorado Blvd. In 1947, they commissioned a new automobile showroom and service center next door. The modern, low-slung building was designed by prominent Pasadena architect Sylvanus Marston. This design is a departure from his usual revival style designs. In early 2023, a new hotel was approved by Pasadena’s Design Commission on this site, but the historic Marston-designed showroom will be preserved and rehabilitated as a commercial component of the new project.
22.) Foothill Blvd. Milestone (Mile 11)
National Registered Individual Property
1304 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106 in front of
McDonald’s
Put in place in 1906
The Foothill Boulevard Milestone (Mile 11) is a milestone located on Colorado Boulevard west of Holliston Street. The milestone was placed along the Foothill Boulevard, one of six highways
established and marked by the Highway Commission of Los Angeles County in the 1900s. The Foothill Boulevard Milestone was part of a turn-of-the-century road-improvement project undertaken by the Highway Commission of Los Angeles County (1902-1908). The milestone is in the grass parkway strip between the curb and the sidewalk on the south side of Colorado Boulevard, just west of the intersection with Holliston Avenue.
The milestone is a concrete table with barbed wire reinforcement measuring approximately five feet long, twelve inches wide and six inches thick, rounded off at the top and buried about eighteen inches into the ground. Cast stone (concrete) lettering denotes the miles to the old Los Angeles County Courthouse (demolished) in downtown Los Angeles ("11" miles, in circle), the block numbers assigned under the County roadmarking system (blocks "220/222"), and the initials of the route name ("F.B.", Foothill Boulevard). The "Foothill Boulevard" road left the Los Angeles city limits in South Pasadena, traveled north to Pasadena along Orange Grove Boulevard to Colorado Boulevard, and then eastward through Arcadia, Monrovia and Azusa to Claremont.
In 1994 a new driveway to accommodate adjacent commercial development displaced the milestone. It was relocated approximately twenty-five feet east within the grass parkway strip to its present location. The milestone is at the same depth below grade, tilt and distance from the curb as with the original siting.
This concrete pylon is the oldest road marker in the City, having been originally placed here when Colorado Boulevard was still a dirt road.
23.) Howard Motor Company Building
National Registered Individual Property
Early Automobile Related Properties in Pasadena
1285 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1927
The Howard Motor Company built the showroom in 1927. It was one of several car dealerships built along Colorado Boulevard. The building is designed in a California Churrigueresque style of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
The Bush-Morgan Motor Company moved into the building in 1938 and occupied it through the 1950s. The building was still used as an auto showroom in the 1990s and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 18, 1996.
“Churrigueresque” is the ornate, sculpted, baroque architectural style popularized in Spain during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It was revived during the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park, San Diego. In the years between World War I and World War II, the country entered the age of the automobile, and this high-relief style worked particularly well in the expanding California automotive market where dealers competed fiercely for attention and for sales.
Route 66 garages and dealerships like the Howard Motor Company are significant for many reasons. Dealers sold, repaired, and sometimes even assembled the automobiles that crowded Route 66 and local roads by the middle of the 20th century. Facilities like garages and dealerships provided tangible indicators of the social and economic changes generated by the highway and automobile usage generally, and their activities, appearance, and location were closely tied to factors such as highway designation, paving, changes in alignment, and local and national economics. Pasadena, as an eventual terminus of Route 66, was well situated to host profitable automobile dealerships.
Most early Pasadena automobile dealers located their showrooms on Colorado Boulevard. Two groupings developed: one on a two-block stretch of West Colorado Boulevard between Orange Grove Boulevard and downtown, and the other located in the then-geographic center of the city along East Colorado Boulevard between Lake and Hill Avenues.
Though 1285 East Colorado was built for and used by the Howard Motor Company, it has also been occupied by several other automobile dealers and related businesses over the years. The building remains a well-preserved example of Churrigueresque architecture and early automobile dealer showrooms.
24.) Fleur de Lis Banquet Hall (Originally Buchanan or Heritage Oldsmobile Inc.)
1253 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1928
This was originally the showroom and service facility for Buchanan Oldsmobile Inc, and in the 1950s George H. Natzel Oldsmobile.
25.) Andy’s Coffee Shop
1234 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1906 per Assessor with major alterations in 1926
This unassuming coffee shop has a wonderful 1930s decor, but maybe even more interesting is the shop can be seen in numerous film and television shows. Just to mention a few: Mad Men, The Fast and the Furious 4, and it was highly featured in Anna Kendrick’s “Cups” music video. Stop in for breakfast or lunch and fall into another time period and take a look at some of their film and television memorabilia.
26.) Rose & Crown Hotel (Original Imperial 400 Motel)
1203 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1962 per Assessor
This three-story complex with stucco plastering, and an L-shaped layout was an Imperial 400 Motel in the 1960s.
Imperial 400 was a motel chain founded in 1959 and its buildings had a characteristic "Gull Wing" shaped roof (as shown in the postscard, but eliminated when the motel was modernized and converted into a box-lid-style roof). It went broke in the mid 1960s and sold out to new owners.
visible from the street through expansive plate glass windows and entry doors. Architects Bennett and Haskell designed the building in 1927-28 and the contractor was William C. Crowell for auto dealer James H. Kindel. The building remains largely unaltered from its 1927-28 appearance, both on the exterior and in the significant interior spaces. It was placed on the register in 1996 as an example of early automobile related properties in Pasadena.
29.) Allied Food to Go (Originally Allied Auto Supply)
Designated Historic Sign
1060 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1952 per Assessor
When Allied Auto moved to their new location further east on Colorado Boulevard, we though this understated Route 66 building was going to be demolished and redeveloped as only the sign is designated as historic. Then we noticed this freshly painted storefront getting ready to operate as a takeout kitchen. We love how the Route 66 - style has been preserved and the sign maintained, even though some of the text was changed.
27.) Michael’s (Originally Parker’s Office
Designated Historic Sign
1155 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1939
The protruding sign on this Art-Deco building is listed as historic in 2002. The sign dates to 1945.
28.) Caliber Collision (Original Kindel
National Registered Individual Property 1095 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1928 per Assessor
Architects: Bennett and Haskell
The James H. Kindel Building is a two-story, reinforced concrete Italian Renaissance Revivalstyle commercial building with a high-style automobile showroom at the street and an attached utilitarian service garage behind. The showroom interior, richly ornamented, is
30.) The Academy Theatre (Originally Bard’s Egyptian Theatre)
1003 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1924-1925 with major renovations in 1957-1958
Original Architect: L.A. Smith
Renovations Architect: Carl G. Moeller
Bard's Egyptian Theatre seated 1,700 when opened. It was originally financed by Louis L. Bard, and was also known as "Bard's Academy Theatre" or the "Academy Theatre." Los Angeles architect L.A. Smith originally planned a 2,500seat theater in February 1924, in a commercial building also containing 9 stores and 14 offices. The cost was set at $200,000. By November 1924, this had changed to 11 stores and 21 offices, with the same budget figure listed. Like a number of Los Angeles theaters designed between 1922-1926, it was Egyptian Revival Style.
In 1957-1958 Fox West Coast Theatres undertook a $200,000 renovation and the original design was replaced by an updated Streamlined Moderne design. New air conditioning equipment, an elevator and parking were added. Carl G. Moeller was the designer for this renovation.
The Academy was divided into a six-screen multi-plex in 1984.
32.) Pasadena Hotel and Pool (Originally Hotel Constance) Designated Landmark
928 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1926
Architect: McNeal Swasey
The Hotel Constance was commissioned by Pasadena businesswoman Constance V.L. Perry. It is a seven-story, reinforced-concrete building designed by Los Angeles architect McNeal Swasey. The decorative elements include modified Mediterranean design elements including a frieze along the top of the building, stone panels of angels and griffins, decorated with wrought iron and cast stone, including images of centaurs and other mythical beasts, mostly. Perry sold the hotel in 1930. The hotel eventually closed and was renamed the Pasadena Manor Retirement Hotel, serving for many decades as an assisted living facility, before closing in 2007.
31.) Pashgian Brothers Designated Historic Sign
993 E. Colorado Blvd. 91106
Built in 1928 per Assessor
Pashgian Brothers is one of the largest and oldest oriental rug stores on the West coast, established in 1889 and located in Pasadena since 1903. The rooftop metal sign is designated historic from circa 1950/1955.
The hotel was restored and reopened in 2014 as part of the Thai Dusit International chain. The hotel received a Pasadena preservation award in 2015. In 2019 a massive addition was completed and a rooftop pool was added. The hotel was renamed Hotel Constance. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the hotel was closed again and was bought out of bankruptcy in March of 2022 and reopened as Pasadena Hotel & Pool. The lobby and bar have been remodeled to a very sophisticated 1920s décor.
