Photograph of Old Town Pasadena — Photograph by Adbar, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Old Pasadena Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. 16 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1894.

From the record

“Old Pasadena, often referred to as Old Town Pasadena or simply Old Town, is the original commercial center of Pasadena, a city in California, United States, and had a latter-day revitalization after a period of decay.”
Wikipedia article Old Pasadena, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1983 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Roughly bounded by Pasadena, Fair Oaks, Raymond Aves., Arroyo Pkwy., Del Mar Blvd., and Corson St., Pasadena, 91105
When was it listed? September 1983
Category. district
Census division. Pasadena
National Register reference number. 83001200 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1894 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Old Pasadena Historic District, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering Old Pasadena Historic District, surveyed 1894

Fires near this property

198 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 198 fires within 5 miles of Old Pasadena Historic District between 1992 and 2020, burning about 5,966 acres in total. None started naturally. 24 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	86
Equipment and vehicle use	31
Arson/incendiarism	24
Smoking	22
Misuse of fire by a minor	12
Recreation and ceremony	10
Power generation/transmission/distribution	6
Debris and open burning	5
Fireworks	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
7 September 2008	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	CHANEY
5 September 2004	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	SUNSHINE
4 September 2016	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
4 September 2002	Power generation/transmission/distribution	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	ELLIOT
30 September 1995	Arson/incendiarism	7.0 acres	Angeles National Forest	CHANEY
3 September 2001	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Angeles National Forest	TWIN
22 September 2019	Arson/incendiarism	10 acres	Angeles National Forest	LOWE
21 September 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this property

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Old Pasadena Historic District: 4 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Simmons Brick Co.-Pasadena Plant	Clay	Past Producer
Devil S Gate	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Devils Canyon Dam	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
La Canada Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Osborn Co	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sedimentary
Osborn Co.	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Pasadena Aggregates Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Storms near this property

3 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Pasadena, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2004 and 2024: 1 lightning, 1 hail, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
March 2024	Flash Flood	Pasadena	-	California Highway Patrol reported flash flooding of Highway 210 at the Lake Avenue onramp. Officers reported 6 to 12 inches of standing water on the onramp.
October 2005	Hail	Pasadena	-	A severe thunderstorm produced large hail in the valleys of Los Angeles county. Near Pasadena, one and one quarter inch diameter hail was reported by a weather spotter.
February 2004	Lightning	South Pasadena	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Los Angeles County

Maps showing this location

16 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the middle of the area the National Park Service maps for this listing, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1894 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:62500
1896 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1900 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1900 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:62500 - 10 printings
1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1928 USGS Altadena quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1953 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1966 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1979 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:100000
1995 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Old Pasadena Historic District (Boundary Increase)	0.1 miles	2008
Hotel Green	0.1 miles	1982
Holly Street Livery Stable	0.2 miles	1979
Friendship Baptist Church	0.2 miles	1978
Civic Center Financial District	0.3 miles	1982
Pasadena Civic Center District	0.3 miles	1980

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 83001200 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Angeles County	All 616 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.