Mystery History -- Solved!

Karin is one smart cookie! She wins again with her 9:35 a.m. Tuesday guess "Linotype operator at Pasadena Star News, perhaps mid-century."

In the 1973 photo above, Don Phillips operates a Linotype machine in the basement of the Pasadena Star-News building* at 525 E. Colorado Blvd.

For decades just about every newspaper, magazine, publishing house and printing firm in the western world used Linotype machines, invented in 1884 by German watchmaker Ottmar Mergenthaler.

Every time a trained operator like Don Phillips touched a key on the typewriter-style keyboard, a matrix with the corresponding indented letter would drop into an assembler. When the matrices for an entire line were assembled, the line was automatically justified and molten metal cast "slugs" would be organized line by line into columns and pages for the purposes of printing. 

This could be done at a rate of 1,000 words per hour or 14 lines per minute. 

Thomas Edison called the Linotype machine the eighth wonder of the world because it revolutionized the printing industry.

Prior to Linotype there was moveable type, invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1436, that created a sea change in western civilization.

Even as late as the 1930s moveable type was still in use at some  newspapers where type was still being set by hand, one painstaking letter and punctuation mark at a time. These newspapers were limited to a maximum of eight pages -- the number of pages that could be typeset at a snail's pace in a day's time.

By 2000 printing technology changed again, switching from mechanical hardware to digital software.

This trailer for the documentary "Linotype: The Film" is quick and fun to watch.

And this CBS Sunday Morning video is a great example of how a Linotype machine works. 

Want to see a Linotype machine up close and personal, set type by hand and learn more about the history of the printing industry? Visit the International Printing Museum in Carson.

* 1927 photo of the 63,863-square-foot Pasadena Star-News building, designed by Joseph Blick in 1924 in a Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1925. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The radio towers on the roof belonged to KPSN Radio, operated by the Pasadena Star-News for two years in the 1920s. Pasadena Star-News offices are now at 911 E. Colorado Blvd.


Many thanks to the Pasadena Star-News, Pasadena Museum of History, Shorpy Archives, The Prothero Press and International Printing Museum.

Mystery History

Where are we? And what's happening?
The first person to answer both questions correctly will win lunch with me -- I'll buy yours and you'll buy mine.

Remember to leave your best guess as a brief comment to this blog post but don't try to give the entire back story (that's my job!).

I'll have the full scoop on Thursday.

Mystery History -- Solved!

I'm calling a tie between Karin with her 7:53 a.m. Tuesday guess "The city is moving a historic bungalow court to a new location. I think it may be the court that's now located off Orange Grove a little west of Lincoln" and Diana who brought it home with her 7:08 p.m. Tuesday guess "Gartz Court."

In the 1984 photo above, a woman looks on as one of five historic Gartz Court bungalows at 270 N. Madison Ave. is readied to be transported on a slow, overnight journey three miles across town to 740 N. Pasadena Ave. It took two nights to complete the move.
.

One of the original bungalow courts in Pasadena, Gartz Court was threatened with demolition when the property was purchased by Montgomery Engineering Co. in 1983 to make way for a new headquarters complex.

Built in 1910 and designed by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, Gartz Court was saved from the wrecking ball when Pasadena Heritage partnered for the first time with the City of Pasadena to identify a suitable property in Northwest Pasadena for the bungalow court and sell the units as affordable housing to first-time homebuyers with moderate incomes.

De Bretteville & Polyzoides, which would later become Moule & Polyzoides, was hired to supervise the big move and design the restoration and expansion of Gartz Court once it was in place at its new location.

Six families live in Gartz Court now, an opportunity that never would have existed had it not been for the inimitable Claire Bogaard, co-founder of Pasadena Heritage, reaching out to Terry Tornek, the City of Pasadena planning director at the time, with a revolutionary idea for a partnership.

And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Many thanks to Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News, Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena Heritage, City of Pasadena, Moule & Polyzoides, American Bungalow.

Mystery History

Where are we? And what's happening?

The first person to answer both questions correctly will win lunch with me -- I'll buy yours and you'll buy mine.
Remember to leave your best guess as a brief comment to this blog post but don't try to give the entire back story (that's my job!).
I'll have the full scoop on Thursday.

Mystery History -- Solved!

Gregg G wins with his 11:30 a.m. Wednesday guess "It's a captured Japanese mini-sub being displayed in front of Pasadena City Hall in a binds [bonds] drive event in 1942.'

In the Dec. 14, 1942, photo above, the small Japanese submarine Ha-19 is displayed at Pasadena City Hall during a rally for the sale of war bonds and stamps. 

About $1.5 million was invested in bonds and stamps that day, including $1 million by the City of Pasadena. There had not been a Rose Parade that year due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Dec. 7, 1941. (The 1942 Rose Bowl Game had been moved to Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.)

About an hour before the aerial attacks, the Ha-19 submarine, piloted by Kazui Sakamaki, experienced the failure of its gyroscopic compass, forcing Sakamaki to make a visual entrance to Pearl Harbor. The Ha-19 went aground on a reef just outside the harbor. 

Sakamaki's attempts to back off the reef resulted in the draining of the submarine's batteries. He initiated scuttling charges to deliberately sink it but that was unsuccessful, and U.S. forces captured the Ha-19. Sakamaki was the first prisoner taken during the U.S. involvement in World War II.

The Ha-19 beached at Oahu:

U.S. Marine Corps Col. M.E. Jennings, the first person to board the beached submarine, was honored at the Dec. 14 Pasadena rally. 

Two days before, on Dec. 12, the sub was at a rally during halftime at the USC vs. UCLA football game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum:

It also made the rounds of Terminal Island, Burbank, Santa Monica and Hollywood as well as hundreds of others U.S. cities in several states as an incentive for Americans to invest in war bonds and stamps to fund the war effort.

The Ha-19 was one of five small submarines that were supposed to penetrate Pearl Harbor in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 1941, and torpedo U.S. Navy ships. As it turned out, none of the five did any damage but they really didn't have to: As a result of the 90-minute aerial attack, eight U.S. ships and two U.S. naval installations were destroyed, more than 2,400 Americans were killed and nearly 1,200 were wounded.

In 1947 the U.S. Navy put the Ha-19 on display at the U.S. Naval Air Station at Key West, Fla.

Since 1991 it has been on display at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Many thanks to Pasadena Museum of History, Sid Gally, Life on the Home Front, U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, U.S. National Archives, UCLA and Richard W. Galloway.

Mystery History

We're back to the regular Mystery History blog series after several Special Edition posts related my exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History, which closed March 29.

So where are we? And what's happening?

The first person to answer both questions correctly will win lunch with me -- I'll buy yours and you'll buy mine.

Remember to leave your best guess as a brief comment to this blog post but don't try to give the entire back story (that's my job!).

I'll have the full scoop on Thursday.

Mystery History Solved! -- Special Edition #3

There were three correct guesses out of the 70 or so placed in the suggestion box for Mystery History photo #3 at the Pasadena Museum of History, so Laura Verlaque and I used a very scientific method to choose one.

Geoff Meehan is the winner!

In this May 8, 1903, photo, the community stands ready to welcome President Theodore Roosevelt to Benjamin D. Wilson School*.

Located at the southeast corner of Walnut Street and Marengo Avenue, it was a high school from 1892 to 1903. Here's how it looked without all the festoonery:

Newspapers throughout the land were reporting on the planning of Roosevelt's Great Western Tour during which he would visit states from Kansas to California, including a walk through Yosemite with John Muir.  

When Pasadena community leaders learned of the upcoming tour, they sent a specially made key to the city along with an invitation to visit this community during his travels.

From the Feb. 28, 1903, New York Times:

President Roosevelt today received a valuable invitation from the citizens of Pasadena, Cal. What its exact value is has not been made known, but it is worth a good deal, for it is in gold. The invitation, which was handed to the President today by Representative McLachlan of California, asks Mr. Roosevelt to visit Pasadena on his coming trip to the West. It is in the form of a key of solid gold, and around the stem of the key is a splendidly engraved crown.

The key is emblematic of the key of Pasadena, and the crown is emblematic of the Indian name for Pasadena, "The crown of the valley." Pasadena is located at the head of the San Gabriel Valley. The invitation is extended by the Mayor and business officials of the town. The key is four inches long and is a good representation of the mammoth keys of the olden days. It is attached to a small piece of native wood that lies in the bottom of a specially made box. The box is of orange wood, with hinges of gold, and gold trimmings at the corners. A gold plate in the centre is inscribed as follows:

"Presented to Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, by resolution of the citizens of Pasadena, Cal., Jan. 6, 1903."

On the inside of the lid of the box is the following inscription:

"Pasadena. Greetings to our President."

Then follows a formal invitation for a visit, signed by W.A. Heiss of the City Council, and members of the trade organizations of the city.

Most of the invitations received by the President have met with the reply that the matter would be taken under consideration. The President, however, was so much pleased with this invitation that he directed Secretary Loeb to arrange for a stop in Pasadena in May.

On the way to Benjamin D. Wilson School, the president's coach came down Marengo Avenue, which was decorated with a huge, elaborate arch of lilies and tall wooden posts with palm fronds and wreaths on them.

 Then, when he arrived at Wilson School, a rose-strewn walkway had been laid down for him.

And here's the man himself, giving his speech, no doubt saying "Bully" to this taxidermied grizzly bear!

You can read his speech here.

After the speech, he went to South Pasadena for a visit with former first lady Lucretia Garfield, widow of President James Garfield, and lunched at the Hotel Raymond.

Roosevelt was a passionate conservationist. While in Pasadena, he was taken to the Arroyo Seco  where he famously declared his support to Mayor William H. Vedder for the movement to keep it as a natural park: "Oh, Mr. Mayor, don't let them spoil that! Just keep it as it is."

That was just the momentum that was needed, and within eight years the City of Pasadena began acquiring acreage in the Arroyo Seco.

You know I can't miss the opportunity to show you Mayor Vedder from the Hall of Mayors, right?

My Mystery History exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History has been open since January and will close on March 29. If you haven't seen it yet, please come by!

On Tuesday, March 31, we'll be back to Mystery History business as usual on the Ann Erdman blog!


Many thanks to the Pasadena Museum of History, Teaching American History, Pasadena Public Library and yours truly.

*Benjamin Davis Wilson, for whom this school was named, was more popularly known as Don Benito. He was a major landowner in the greater Los Angeles area, including Pasadena, where he lived at his vast Lake Vineyard property (Lake Avenue was originally named Lake Vineyard Street). He later became mayor of Los Angeles and was the grandfather of General George S. Patton Jr. Mt. Wilson, Wilson Avenue and Don Benito School were named in his honor. The current Wilson Middle School was named for President Woodrow Wilson. 

Mystery History -- Special Edition #3

Photo #3: Where are we? And what's happening?

For this special edition of Mystery History, guesses on this blog are disqualified for the first time ever because this contest is strictly low-tech.

Come to my Mystery History exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History and scroll through the 14 topics that feature photos, artifacts and back stories. 

At the end of the exhibition there is a wall with three photos and  corresponding color-coded sheets you can fill out with your best guesses for each of the three photos, then place them in the suggestion box.  

Good luck!

I'll take the people who win for each photo out to lunch, my treat!

I'll reveal the back story to the photo above on my blog Thursday, March 19. 

Mystery History -- Solved! Special Edition #2

There were a handful of correct guesses out of the 30 or so placed in the suggestion box at the Pasadena Museum of History, so I turned the correct ones over on a table and invited Laura Verlaque to choose one.

Jennifer Carey is the winner! 

In this January 1905 photo, Pasadena Police Chief W. Wray Freeman (1866-1954) sits next to $40,000 worth of recovered jewelry ($950,000 with today's inflation) that had been stolen from Mr. and Mrs. William S. Edey of New York City. 

I love all the detail in the photo. I assume from the tablecloth that the photo was shot during a photo opportunity for media.

Freeman was an officer with the Pasadena Police Department before being appointed chief of police in 1901.

The jewelry had been stolen from the Edeys' winter lodgings at the spanking new Hotel Maryland, where they resided for four months. The property, including the hotel and vast grounds, spanned from Colorado Street to Walnut Street between Euclid and Los Robles (Union Street didn't dissect the area until years later).

The jewel heist was a case that rocked Pasadena from pillar to dome and made headlines across the nation.

Mr. Edey was a wealthy, retired investment broker with the New York Stock Exchange and his wife was a popular socialite.

Every morning Nellie Hadley Edey took her jewelry boxes to the hotel manager, Daniel M. Linnard, for safekeeping in his private vault and took them back every evening before she dressed for dinner.

On Friday, Jan. 20, 1905, in her haste to prepare for an early morning horseback ride, Mrs. Edey placed the jewelry boxes in her trunk instead of taking them to Linnard. Her husband had already set out to play golf at the Los Angeles Country Club.

By the time they returned to their rooms, the jewels were gone.

Various pieces, including rings, brooches, necklaces and bracelets, were set with diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires and other gems. 

Because there had been three other recent thefts of valuables, Linnard and the hotel detective suspected the head bellboy, F.A. Gaston, because he had a master key. When Mrs. Edey's jewels went missing, they searched Gaston and discovered a gold fountain pen in the lining of his vest that had been stolen from another guest's room days before. 

But Gaston clammed up, and Mrs. Edey's jewelry was nowhere to be found.

The Pasadena Police Department joined forces with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and pawn shops were notified by telegram to be on the lookout for the stolen jewels.

The case was cracked when one of the other bellboys in the scheme was put in a "sweat box" (those were the days!) and finally sang like a canary.

He told police Gaston had enlisted his help along with one other bellboy and that a buttonhook had been used to pick the lock on Mrs. Edey's trunk.

Then he led police to the Hotel Raymond, where the jewels had been buried under a pepper tree.   

It was soon discovered Gaston had a number of aliases he had used in employment as a bellboy to steal expensive belongings in hotels from San Francisco to San Diego.

He was sent up the river where there are no master keys.

Here are images of the three bellboys in the Jan. 24, 1905, edition of the Los Angeles Times. Gaston, AKA James Doyle and other aliases, is at the lower right):

As for the Hotel Maryland, it burned to the ground the evening of April 18, 1914. Myron Hunt began drawing plans right away and the new Hotel Maryland opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1914. In 1934, after the Great Depression caused tourism to decline dramatically, it was demolished. Eventually The Broadway department store stood in its place.

To my knowledge, all that is left is a 1929 annex that was converted to apartments many years ago at the northeast corner of Euclid Avenue and Union Street, a ghost wall just north of All Saints Church  and a fountain that was surrounded in 1990 by decorative tiles for a public art wall installation designed by artist Joyce Kozloff at Plaza Las Fuentes behind All Saints Church. 

Just one photo remains in this Special Edition series of Mystery History photos. Be sure to stop by my Mystery History exhibition and take your best shot at photo #3. You may win a fabulous prize!

Many thanks to the Pasadena Museum of History (D5-P9), Nahemaka, Night Owl Cafe, Los Angeles Times, Sterver and Sterver, Cafe Pasadena and City of Pasadena.

Mystery History -- Special Edition #2

Photo #2: Where are we? And what's happening?

For this special edition of Mystery History, guesses on this blog are disqualified because this contest is strictly low-tech.

Come to my Mystery History exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History and stroll through the 14 topics that feature photos, artifacts and back stories. 

At the end of the exhibition there is a wall with three photos and  corresponding color-coded sheets you can fill out with your best guesses for the three photos, then place them in the suggestion box.  

Good luck!

I'll take the people who win for each photo out to lunch, my treat!

I'll reveal the back story to the photo above on my blog Thursday, March 5. 

I'll post the third photo March 17 and that big reveal on March 19.

Photo #1 was revealed on Feb. 19. You can see that post here.

Mystery History -- Solved! Special Edition #1

Bill DePoto's guess, "Construction of Christian Science Temple, South Oakland Ave.," that he placed in the suggestion box at the Pasadena Museum of History was correct and he wins the fabulous prize for Mystery History Special Edition #1.

In the 1910 photos above and below, construction of the First Church of Christ, Scientist is in various stages at the southeast corner of Green Street and Oakland Avenue.

The church cost $100,000 to build. It was designed by architect Franklin P. Burnham of Chicago, who also designed the Georgia State Capitol, Carnegie Art Museum and the Riverside County Courthouse. 

In 1903 Pasadena's burgeoning Christian Science community built its first church at the southeast corner of Colorado Boulevard and Madison Avenue:

 It was expanded in 1905:

1905 was also the year the land at Green and Oakland was purchased. After years of fundraising drives and proposals from various architects, Burnham was hired and construction began in 1910. It was completed the following year. 

The church had the largest number of square feet of any building in Pasadena at the time. It was designed to be completely fireproof and was topped by one of the earliest examples of a reinforced concrete dome.

Nearly a century after this church was built, structural work revealed the need for a large-scale seismic upgrade. The project team, led by Architectural Resources Group, analyzed the building’s condition, installed  a major structural system that is virtually invisible, and restored historic finishes. And they did it all in 18 months with a budget of only $3.5 million, without disrupting a single church service.

The retrofit and restoration project received the prestigious Preservation Award from the Los Angeles Conservancy in 2009.

The church today at 80 S. Oakland Ave.:

Pasadena's rich history includes incredible architecture of churches throughout the community, past and present.

Many thanks to Pasadena Museum of History (Benshoff Collection, #14), Los Angeles Conservancy, Architectural Resources Group, Univerity of Southern California and Pasadena Church of Christ, Scientist.

Mystery History - Special Edition #1

Where are we? And what's happening?

For this special edition of Mystery History, guesses on this blog are disqualified for the first time ever!

So what's the contest and how can you win? It's highly low-tech.

Come to my Mystery History exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of History and stroll through the 14 topics with photos, back stories and artifacts.

At the end of the exhibition there is a wall with three photos and corresponding color-coded sheets you can fill out with your best guesses for each of the three photos. Just place your guesses in the suggestion box. It's that simple!

I'll take the people who win for each photo out to lunch, my treat.

Good luck!

I'll reveal the back story to the photo at the top of this post on my blog Thursday, Feb. 19, including the name of the winner.

I'll post the second photo March 3 with the reveal March 5 and the third photo March 17 and that reveal March 19.

Mystery History -- Solved!

I stumped everybody this week.

In this 1884 photo, workers begin construction of the Hotel Raymond on Bacon Hill (later renamed Raymond Hill), the top of which had been leveled for the massive project.

Thomas Banbury won the contract for blasting through what to the naked eye looked like a big mound of dirt. But underneath were sedimentary rocks and granite.

On Monday at high noon Mrs. Banbury lighted the three fuses that exploded 2,500 pounds of powder, the consequence of which was the complete disorganization of the last point of rock on the summit of the hill. -- The Pasadena Union, March 1, 1884

The hotel under construction:

This was before a railroad had come to Pasadena. More than 900,000 feet of lumber and 500,000 shingles were sent by ship to San Pedro and the materials were hauled by wagons to the construction site. It took about four months for the land to be graded and the lumber to be hauled up the hill.

One million bricks were made at the construction site for many uses, including fireplaces in each of the 200 rooms.

The onsite brickyard:

After some financial entanglements that led to work stoppages, construction was finally completed and the Raymond Hotel opened on Nov. 17, 1886. 

(South Pasadena incorporated as a municipality two years later after borders were redrawn. The Hotel Raymond became part of that city in 1888.) 

Walter Raymond:

Walter's father Emmons Raymond, a retired railroad tycoon, provided substantial funding for the venture. 

On Easter Sunday 1895, the luxurious Raymond Hotel was reduced to smoldering rubble after a burning ember from one of the chimneys landed on the roof.

This was during the day, so most guests were out on excursions. The few who were at the hotel, along with staff, grabbed what they could and rushed outside. Miraculously there were no casualties.

Thaddeus Lowe saw the fire from his Echo Mountain hotel and sent a telegram to Walter Raymond expressing "profound regret." 

Walter Raymond decided to rebuild. A second hotel with the same name, this time made with stucco, opened in 1901, continuing the tradition of luxurious hospitality.

 

Here's a circa 1910 postcard showing some detail:

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. The Great Depression that began in 1929 caused tourism to dwindle, and five years later the second Raymond Hotel had a date with destiny in the form of a wrecking ball. 

The historic Raymond Restaurant on South Fair Oaks Avenue is one of only two structures that remains of the Hotel Raymond property. The building was the hotel caretaker's cottage.

Raymond Hill now consists of residential neighborhoods. A little stretch of stone on Raymond Hill survives from the hotel property. Thankfully it is hiding in plain sight and has remained untouched.

Some of these photos are included in the Hotel Raymond portion of my Mystery History exhibition. Each of the 14 featured topics in the exhibition includes a related artifact. You'll have to stop by to see the Hotel Raymond artifact. It's a huge one (literally)!



Many thanks to the Pasadena Museum of History, California Historical Society, Bring Fido and Laurie Allee.