South Pasadena

by Rick Thomas

Overview

South Pasadena is a small city among giants, sandwiched between the great metropolis of Los Angeles and its nationally famous namesake neighbor, Pasadena. Described as a modernday Mayberry and a Norman Rockwell painting come to life, South Pasadena thoroughly represents the very idea of "Main Street America." The city's 40year fight against the I710 Freeway extension is legendary in suburban efforts to maintain cultural identity. "South Pas," as residents know it, was named five times on the National Historic Register's top10 list of "Most Endangered Places." The city's resistance to outside forces threatening to erode the rich heritage captured in these evocative images has made this "little guy" municipality a giant in the historicpreservation battle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738547480
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	06/06/2007
Series:	Images of America Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,068,323
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

Author Rick Thomas is the former museum curator and vicechair of education for the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation. He served on the South Pasadena Natural Resources Commission, helping to maintain a strict policy protecting the city's great oldgrowth trees. Using touchstone photographs from his own collection—one of the San Gabriel Valley's largest accumulations of historical images and artifacts—as well as national, state, and local historical archives, Thomas provides a window to his city's past and an understanding of why its preservation is so important.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     6
Introduction     7
Scent of a City     9
The Raymond     19
Cawston Ostrich Farm     31
City of Trees     41
Tragedy Strikes Home     49
The Fight     57
The Power of Dreams     71
Small-Town Charm, Big-City Heart     93
Our Town     105
South Pas at Nightfall     117