Old Pasadena to the Colorado Street Bridge

From the A Line at Memorial Park: Bakewell and Brown's 1927 Beaux Arts City Hall, Castle Green, the streets of Old Pasadena, the Norton Simon Museum, the former Vista del Arroyo Hotel and the 1913 Colorado Street Bridge arching over the Arroyo Seco.

Best time: Weekend morning or late afternoon; check Norton Simon Museum hours before you go

The route, stop by stop

1. 1
   Memorial Park station

   A Line station, 24 minutes from Union Station (Metro timetable).

2. 2
   Pasadena City Hall

   Completed 1927 by Bakewell and Brown (designers of San Francisco City Hall): Spanish Baroque domed tower and a central courtyard with a Baroque-style fountain (LA Conservancy). 20 min.

   Bakewell and Brown's 1927 City Beautiful landmark in Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial Revival style, six storeys around more than 235 rooms, with a 54-foot-wide dome over the…

3. 3
   Castle Green

   Surviving part of the Hotel Green, built from 1893 by George Gill Green and expanded in 1898 and 1903 (Wikipedia), at 99 S Raymond Ave. 5 min.

4. 4
   Old Pasadena

   Pasadena's original commercial centre, revived after decades of decline (Wikipedia); walk Colorado Blvd. 45 min.

5. 5
   Norton Simon Museum

   Opened 1969 as the Pasadena Art Museum, by local architects Ladd & Kelsey to echo Pasadena's Craftsman houses and civic buildings (LA Conservancy); sculptures on the grounds (Wikipedia). 90 min.

   A calm, uncrowded museum on the Rose Parade route with a collection of startling quality: Rembrandt and Brueghel, Monet, Manet and Renoir, and one of the best groups of South and…

6. 6
   Vista del Arroyo Hotel

   Spanish Colonial Revival resort hotel, a military hospital in WWII, now the Richard H. Chambers US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Wikipedia). View from outside. 5 min.

7. 7
   Colorado Street Bridge

   Concrete arch bridge opened 12 December 1913: 1,467.5 ft long, 148.5 ft high, longest span 233 ft, on the National Register (Wikipedia). Look down into the Arroyo Seco. 20 min.

   A curving 1913 concrete arch bridge over the Arroyo Seco, built on a bend so its footings rest on solid ground; it carried Route 66 around 1936-1940 and reopened in 1993 after…

Walking directions

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