Old Pasadena Historic District (Boundary Increase)

Old Pasadena is the historic downtown of Pasadena, California, and this amendment documents a district of 154 contributing and 40 noncontributing resources built between 1886 and 1936. Most buildings are two stories, with a few reaching eight, and the area also includes a train station, churches, some houses and Central Park. Three streets illustrate its stylistic eras. Fair Oaks Avenue preserves brick Victorian-era commercial buildings from the 1880s. Raymond Avenue, which became the main route between the resort hotels and downtown, shows a 1890s shift toward Classical design in buff brick and cast stone. Colorado Boulevard was widened in 1929 and 1930, and its facades were rebuilt largely in Spanish Colonial Revival, with some Art Deco examples. Side streets such as Union and Green retain simple industrial and automobile-related buildings. The district stayed relatively intact because commercial activity moved east, and rehabilitation efforts began in the 1980s, including a 1985 zoning overlay protecting buildings from demolition.