1921 Brown Pictorial View of Pasadena and Altadena, California

Crown City Crescendo.

This is a c. 1921 promotional bird's-eye view of downtown Pasadena (Old Pasadena), California by local artist Frank E. Brown. It captures the city in an era of tremendous growth, when it had come to be nationally renowned as a resort town and had expanded to become a proper city in its own right.

A Closer Look

This view is oriented towards the northeast, looking out over downtown Pasadena, with Altadena, the San Gabriel Mountains, and the Angeles National Forest in the background. Holly St., Union St., and E. Colorado St. (now Colorado Blvd., soon afterward incorporated into U.S. Route 66) are labeled. In the background, the Altadena Country Club and Mt. Lowe Railway are indicated, while an airplane is illustrated flying over the city.

Several automobile dealerships and related businesses are recorded, including Keller Bros. (which sold Studebakers), the Earl Motor Co. (which sold Nash cars), the Grace Motor Car Co. (which sold Maxwell and Liberty cars), and the Roberts Motor Car Works (perhaps a mechanic), reflecting the booming popularity of automobiles in the early 1920s, especially in Southern California. Other businesses and landmarks, including banks, churches, stationers, transfer and storage companies, a 'Cow Butter Store,' and a mortician, are also indicated with signs. The terminus station of the Pacific Electric Short Line, connecting Pasadena to Downtown Los Angeles, can be seen near center.

Crown City Crescendo

When Pasadena was incorporated as a city in 1886, it already had prospects as a resort town perched between Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains and, crucially, situated along major rail lines. Suitably, in the following decades, convalescing Easterners flooded into the town, leading to the construction of dozens of hotels and other establishments. By the time this view was produced, Pasadena had become a city in its own right, stamped with its own central business district, seen here, and was even considered by some to be a 'twin city' to Los Angeles. Several of the city's key institutions were founded or reached florescence in this era, including the California Institute of Technology, the Huntington Library and Gardens, the Rose Bowl Stadium, and, in 1927, a magnificent new City Hall.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by local artist Frank E. Brown around the year 1921. It is clearly related to a wider panoramic view with a legend and the north-south streets labeled titled 'A Sky View of Pasadena's Busy Business Center,' which is copyrighted 1921, though the exact connection between the two works is unclear. The view might have been commissioned by the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and modified to suit various formats. In any event, both versions of the view are quite scarce, not appearing in any institutional collections.

Cartographer

Frank Eugene Brown (August 2, 1879 - December 18, 1946) was an artist specializing in bird's-eye views based in Southern California. Brown was born in Chicago, Illinois, and dropped out of school to pursue a career in art and design. He traveled to Europe to hone his skills in drawing panoramas and bird's-eye views. He married Sibyl L. Sayer in Chicago in 1900. By 1910, the Browns had moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and then moved to Pasadena, California, in 1915, perhaps due to health reasons (the city was famed at the time for its sanatoria), as Sibyl died in 1925. Rather unusually and specifically, Brown listed himself as an artist of bird's-eye views on some census documents (and on others as a proprietor of an art studio), though he also looks to have operated an art supply and picture framing store in Pasadena in the 1930s. He worked for a time as a staff artist at the Star News, a local newspaper, in the late 1910s, and was later specially commissioned to produce a bird's-eye view of Pasadena's City Hall. He also produced a pictorial map for a 1930 brochure by the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, a panoramic bird's-eye view of the downtown portion of Pasadena, and views of Long Beach and Avalon Bay on Catalina Island.   Further Details...

Condition

Excellent. Slight edge chipping.