You’ve probably heard of the Gamble House, a definitively important example of the Craftsman style as developed by the architects Greene & Greene. A little further down Orange Grove Blvd. you’ll find its somewhat less well-known but equally (if differently) noteworthy counterpart, the Pasadena Museum of History (pasadenahistory.org). The Museum began in the 1920s as a single filing cabinet but has grown over the years to comprise a notable historic residence, a research library and archives, exhibition galleries, and a Finnish Folk Art Museum. Finnish?! Plan a visit to find out why!
The centerpiece of your visit will probably be a tour of the Fenyes Mansion. Unlike the Gamble House up the street, this 1905 Beaux Arts residence is not particularly important architecturally. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it contains all the furnishings, art works, and other objects that generations of the same family collected and used up until the house became a museum. It still feels like someone’s home and gives a fascinating glimpse of daily life among the denizens of this then-fashionable Boulevard in the early twentieth century.
The Museum holds a special place in my own appreciation of Pasadena’s history: as a precocious teenager I was its youngest docent – too old for the junior docent program but not old enough to join the regular volunteer docent staff. (They stretched a point for me.) Maybe it’s time I planned a visit myself!
By John Hazlet, Realtor Associate at Town Square Real Estate
CalBRE# 01950505 | [email protected]
626-340-8645 | johnhazlet.com
