Old Pasadena Historic District

Old Pasadena is the historic downtown of Pasadena, California, made up of about 175 buildings erected between 1886 and 1930. Most are commercial, but the district also holds a large residential hotel complex, a train station, light industrial buildings, several churches and a park. Its streets show different periods. Fair Oaks reflects the 1880s boom, with brick Victorian storefronts. Raymond Avenue, which linked the resort hotels with downtown, took on buff brick and Classical ornament in the 1890s, and its two tallest buildings are concrete towers in a Chicago-influenced style. Colorado Boulevard carries the Spanish Colonial Revival facades added around 1929 and 1930, often when the street was widened. Alleys behind the main streets keep the simple brick service character of the older buildings. Modernization was mostly limited to storefronts, so the area remains a recognizable enclave of early Pasadena, and rehabilitation work was under way when it was listed.