Mysery History -- Solved!

Helen* wins with her 2:46 p.m. Tuesday guess "Building or repairing the dome of City Hall?"

In the 1926 photo above, the dome at Pasadena City Hall is under construction. 

The dome sits above the tower and below the cupola in this 1927 photo when construction of City Hall is near completion.

City Hall was built before union rules, OSHA and other modern safeguards. The workers in 1926 and 1927, most of them local, didn't have hard hats, back support belts, knee pads, steel-toed boots and nail guns; what they did have was a strong ethic for hard, honest work.

 

 

There are hundreds of photos in this series shot by photographer Albert Hiller, who was 42 years old and nationally renowned when he was commissioned by the City of Pasadena to document the construction of City Hall. The photos are mostly in albums that are part of the historical collection in the Centennial Room at Pasadena Central Library.  Hiller lived in Pasadena and had a studio at 49 E. Colorado Blvd. He was also a celebrity photographer of sorts, shooting portraits in his studio of Eva Fenyes, Lilly Busch, violinist Henri van Praag and many others.

This 1927 photo is one of my favorites, but the photographer is unknown. A worker stands proudly next to the huge medallion that graces the front of City Hall:

*Helen, please message me on Facebook or email me at AnnErdmanPR@gmail.com so we can schedule our lunch date!

Many thanks to Pasadena Public Library.

Bloggers' Tour of City Hall this Saturday!

If you're a fellow blogger, join me for a behind-the-scenes tour of the 1920s-era City Hall, including background about the history and architecture of Pasadena's most famous landmark.

We'll meet in the courtyard this Saturday, Sept. 15, at 10:30 a.m., then go along corridors, into stairwells, all around the courtyard and every other exterior nook and cranny (with the exception of the tower, which is off-limits these days).

See the Facebook event item here.

Don't forget your camera!

After the tour, as bloggers' schedules allow, we'll head to a nearby restaurant for food and those all-important beverages.

Parking: My best advice is to leave your car behind and take the Metro Gold Line to the Memorial Park Station, then walk a short block and a half to City Hall. If you're totally tied to your vehicle, the first 90 minutes are free under Paseo Colorado just a block away; there are also a couple of surface parking lots in the area. Paying at a garage or lot is a lot cheaper than getting a nearly $50 parking ticket!  Please note I cannot provide parking validations.

For more information e-mail me at annerdman.ladyofleisure@gmail.com or call me at (626) 375-2742.

PLEASE NOTE this is not a "y'all come" community tour -- I can't accommodate a cast of thousands! But for all you bloggers, I hope you can make it!

All of the photos above were shot by Tavo Olmos.