Pasadena Green

We had a ball tooling around Pasadena, California this weekend, savoring the sunshine, the food and the magnificent architecture. The city of the Tournament of Roses and the Rose Bowl is blessed with abundant, awesome design.

Photographs by Lisa Gillis

My cousin Larry Martin (aka ‘Mr. Pasadena’) served as stellar tour guide, showing us all the sights. We rode, walked, munched, drank and talked. Loving Pasadena.

Enjoy this peek at two standout structures:

The warm and wondrous Gamble House, designed by celebrated architects of the Arts and Crafts movement, brothers Charles and Henry Greene.
The striking and unusual Castle Green, designed by architect Frederick L. Roehrig.

The Gamble House is an outstanding example of American Arts and Crafts style architecture. The Green brothers designed the home in 1908 as a winter home for David and Mary Gamble of the Procter and Gamble Company.

A National Historic Landmark, the house is owned by the City of Pasadena, operated by the University of Southern California and is open for public tours.

The Castle Green was built in 1898 by Col. George G. Green as the annex for the then social center of Pasadena, the Hotel Green. Roehrig drew on Moorish, Spanish, Victorian, and other stylistic elements to produce one of Pasadena’s most unique buildings.

In your local area, what is your favorite example of great architecture and why?

5 Comments for “Pasadena Green”

I used to live right around the corner from the Castle and have a love for all things Gamble House.

Now, I live near Hearst Castle and nothing that I could say about that wonderful place could ever do it justice.

Gwen said | August 12th, 2009 at 11:01 am

Nice photos. If you can get inside the Gamble House for a docent tour it’s a real treat.

Nancy Manning said | August 12th, 2009 at 12:16 pm

Hi Gwen,

Pasadena is blessed with such great architecture and design. We had such a nice visit there. I would love to see the inside of the Castle Green some time.

About the other Castle you live near now, from what I’ve heard we could probably do at least a week of posts about it.

Thanks for popping in,
– Kathy

Kathy said | August 16th, 2009 at 2:54 pm

Hi Nancy,

Unfortunately our schedule didn’t allow for making the tour this time. But I peeked in lots of windows (and almost fell in the Lily Pond!) Will definitely fit that in next time.

Thanks,
– Kathy

Kathy said | August 16th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

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