Pasadena Heritage Remembers the Past, Prepares for the Future at Upcoming Annual Meeting

Pasadena Heritage plans to look back over the past year of historic preservation, as well as look toward the future, during the organization’s annual meeting on Thursday.

The group will review its 2020 activities and elect new board members during the program, which will be held online beginning at 6 p.m., according to Pasadena Heritage.

The event will begin with a virtual tour of Pasadena’s Edmund Blinn House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, organizers said.

“We hope you will join us as we explore this historic house, which was constructed in 1906 and designed by well-known Chicago architect, George Washington Maher,” Pasadena Heritage said in a written statement. “This special presentation will feature photographs taken by notable photographers Tavo Olmos and Dennis Hill, both of whom specialize in documenting historic structures.”

Like many other organizations, Pasadena Heritage has shifted its focus to the virtual domain during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Executive Director Sue Mossman. That emphasis will continue for the immediate future.

“We have an Old Pasadena tour and a special program about architect Paul Williams during February, which is Black History Month,” Mossman said. “And we will carry on from there with virtual walking tours and home tours and offer talks and practical workshops for people to work on their houses or take advantage of city programs that assist owners of historic buildings.”

“It’s been a challenge, but we’re managing,” Mossman said of the online transition.

The process of transferring property from Caltrans to Pasadena, as well as the fate of the historic YWCA building designed by architect Julia Morgan, are among the key priorities for the coming year, according to Mossman.

“We will, I hope, be working with Caltrans as we believe the sale of the properties in the 710 Corridor in Pasadena will begin this year,” she said. “We’re not sure what the timetable is, but we’ve been very involved in seeing those properties protected as they begin to go back into private ownership or be used for affordable housing or whatever their future is.

“That whole corridor is absolutely full of historic homes and national register listed or national register eligible properties, and we continue to be concerned about historic buildings and sites in Pasadena, especially as they, too, have suffered during the pandemic,” Mossman said.

“We’ll be actively involved in plans for these new buildings in the Civic Center, both the one involving the former YWCA and across the street to the north on the Water and Power site,” she said.

“Both of those parcels are currently in negotiations with the city and the developers will be designing buildings that will be permanent or permanent additions to the Civic Center, so that’s a critical place that will be involved,” Mossman said.

“We’re expecting to see new barriers on the Colorado street bridge. The next step is mock-ups of various fencing alternatives along the bridge and we’re waiting for those to get resolved, and then encouraging people to go look at them and help make the best choice,” she said. “That is going to be a major change on this historic bridge, one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. We don’t want to ruin it. We’re trying to see that we do this as sensitively as possible.”

From the Rose Bowl to the Pasadena Playhouse District to Fuller Theological Seminary, Mossman said she worried about the effects the pandemic restrictions have had on local organizations that have traditionally been good stewards of historic properties.

Former Pasadena Heritage CEO Clair Bogaard said the time for action on the issue is long overdue.

“It has been extremely frustrating to me that Caltrans has not moved into action to sell the properties once it was clear that the freeway was not going to be built. And we’ve been going on now several years waiting, waiting, waiting,” she said.

“We now have a new director in the Los Angeles Office of Caltrans, and the word is that he’s more accessible and hopefully he will be willing to meet with us,” Bogaard said. “I’m hoping that a group of us will go and meet with him and we can see if we can finally get this moving.”

Bogaard said she supported the idea of using the vacant Water and Power site next to the YMCA building across the street from City Hall as housing.

“I’m just sort of waiting to see a more definitive design of that building because, in my opinion, it has to be really a quality building and it has to blend properly with the Civic Center,” she said. “I think it seems to be going in that direction. 

“As far as what’s going on on the YWCA site, that’s even more crucial, in my mind, to see what any new construction or changes at all to that building are, because that building is a much beloved building designed by Julia Morgan,” according to Bogaard.

The Colorado Street Bridge is a “much-loved structure” as well, she said.

“I think people want it to maintain its elegance, and yet at the same time, I think we all recognize that something has to be done to make it much more difficult for people to use to commit suicide,” Bogaard said.

Thursday’s online conference will begin with the Blinn House tour at 6 p.m., followed by the meeting at 6:30 p.m., organizers said.

The event will be free for Pasadena Heritage members, organizers said. The public is welcome, as well, with a $10 donation.

Those interested in participating were asked to register by Wednesday online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/member-event-pasadena-heritage-annual-meeting-tickets-134445673629.

More information on Pasadena Heritage is available online at pasadenaheritage.org.

ttps://www.pasadenanow.com/weekendr/events/?event_item=230113