Mystery History -- Solved!

Liz wins with her 11:10 a.m. Tuesday guess "Opening of Robinson's department store where the present day Target is." 

In the May 12, 1958, photo above, shoppers wait outside the J.W. Robinson Department Store at 777 E. Colorado Blvd. on opening day.

People were lined up around the block:

                           

Here is the 175,000-square-foot store under construction earlier that year:

                           

The ribbon-cutting: left to right are Carter McDonald, manager of the J.W. Robinson store; Pasadena Mayor Seth Miller, Edward R. Valentine, president of the Robinson Building Company and a member of the J.W. Robinson Board of Directors; Mrs. W.F. Valentine; Donald Buckingham, president of the J.W. Robinson Company; and O.K. Earle Jr., president of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. 

Aerial view:

Designed by William L. Pereira and Charles Luckman, this was the last free-standing Robinson's in the U.S. because shopping malls were just beginning to be built across the nation.

Robinson's closed on Jan. 31, 1993. Target Stores acquired the property and reopened it in May 1994. 

Many thanks to Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena Public Library and the Department Store Museum for the photos.