USA > California > Los Angeles County > Pasadena > History of Pasadena, comprising an account of the native Indian, the early Spanish, the Mexican, the American, the colony, and the incorporated city, occupancies of the Rancho San Pasqual, and its adjacent mountains, canyons, waterfalls and other objects of interest: being a complete and comprehensive histo-cyclopedia of all matters pertaining to this region > Part 27
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A later report, in 1888, says the lot was valued at $16,000; and that in default of the conditions being fulfilled by the Library society, the property should revert to the grantor or his representatives. And after reciting these conditions of the grant as made and accepted in 1886, this 1888 re- port further says :
"Plans were then obtained and contracts let for the construction of a beautiful stone edifice in the Romanesque style .* The internal finishing was not contracted for, the entire available resources of the Society being exhausted in paying for the walls and roof, which as the building now stands, have cost $20,000. This cost has been defrayed out of the proceeds of the two lots owned successively by the Society, and by individual sub- scriptions. The hard times following the reaction from our late "boom " made it utterly impossible to obtain further contributions from the residents of Pasadena, and Mr. Legge has kindly extended the time for another year, ending December 31, 1889. About $5,000 is required to finish the building -in default whereof it will become the property of Mr. Legge, should he see fit to assert his rights, and the Society will then be stripped of all its property except the books upon its shelves."
The Library managers, by counting on "boom " pledges that had been given for their building fund, represented that $6,000 would finish the building and pay up all outstanding obligations, and secure the whole property, worth $36,000, as a permanent Public Library belonging to the whole community. And upon this assurance and belief a few public spirited citizens came to the rescue by raising the money on their joint note, which I here give as a notable historic document :
*The green stoue and the buff stone in this building are from quarries only half a mile apart in the Tehachipi mountains ; while the marble pillars are from the quarry at Colton.
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DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
$6,000.
PASADENA, CAL., Oct. 31, 1888.
Two years after date, without grace, for value received, we, or either of us promise to pay to the order of "The Pasadena Public Library and Village Improvement Society," at the First National Bank of Pasadena, the sum of Six Thousand Dollars-with interest at the rate of ten (10) per cent. per annum. Interest payable semi-annually.
W. Aug. Ray, J. Banbury. R. Williams,
James Smith, Wm. T. Clapp, J. B. Corson,
M. Rosenbaum,
Joseph Wallace,
C. E. Langford,
J. M. Radebaugh,
B. Talmadge, H. H. Markham,
Thos. F. Croft,
J. B. Young,
C. H. Rhodes,
S. Washburn, W. T. Vore,
O. S. Picher,
T. P. Lukens,
C. M. Skillen.
This syndicate appointed Col. W. A. Ray, who was then President of the San Gabriel Valley Bank, as its Trustee, with J. B. Corson, J. B. Young and Thos. F. Croft, as an Advisory Committee; and the next day, Novem- ber I, the Library Society deeded their property on Dayton street in trust to the makers of the note. Its managers then went on with their building work and other matters until the $6,000 was all used up-and now, instead of having the building completed and all clear of incumbrance, they were still about $3,000 behind yet, and debts still accumulating, because so many of the boom-time pledges to their building fund utterly failed to be paid, besides increased cost of building and other matters.
To aid the struggling Society in raising funds, Miss Anna Picher and a few others worked up an Art Loan Exhibition, to be held for ten days in the unfinished new Library building. This was the most ambitious and elaborate Art Loan show that had yet been attempted on the Pacific coast ; and having been in some sort repeated yearly ever since, it became an his- toric event which has won fame to Pasadena in literary and art circles both East and West, through illustrated periodicals and descriptive pens, and therefore calls for some account here. The Exhibition commenced February 9, 1889,* with the following daily order of events as announced :
"Senor Arturo Bandini will daily conduct a Spanish conversazione upon suggested subjects of interest to strangers."
I. OPENING DAY .- W. U. Masters, master of ceremonies. Formal opening of the Exhibition, by Hon. J. DeBarth Shorb.
2. FORESTRY DAY .- Under the patronage of Mrs. Eliza A. Otis of the Los Angeles Times. Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont, special guest of the Asso- ciation on this day ; and an address by Hon. Abbot Kinney, State Forestry Commissioner.
3 . CHILDREN'S DAY.
4. RUSSIAN DAY .- With exhibits from Alaska by T. P. Lukens, Capt.
* On Jan. 8, 1889, occured the sixth annual election of the Library Society, and out of a total of 1763 shares, 1303 were voted. The trustees than elected were H. N. Rust, L. C. Winston, Dr. W. F. Channing, S. Washburn, Prof. C. F. Holder, J. W. Vandevort, B. M. Wotkyns. And the officers chosen by this board were Rust, President ; Channing, Vice-President ; Otto Froelich, Secretary and Treasurer ; Mrs. Merritt. Librarian. So these were the people put forward to wrestle with the " busted boom " of the lin- finished new Library building.
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
Chittenden and Mrs. Belle M. Jewett, and Russian tea served by Mrs. Jewett in genuine Russian costume.
5. MEXICAN DAY. - With reception to Don Antonio F. Coronel of Los Angeles, and exhibit of his rare collection of Mexican relics .*
6. SPANISH DAY .- With reception to Senator Del Valle, and an ex- hibit of relics from his hacienda of Camulos, the reputed home of "Ramona."
7. ORIENTAL DAY.
8. CALIFORNIA DAY .- Mrs. Margaret Wilson, widow of Hon. B. D. Wilson, former owner of the Rancho San Pasqual, will pour tea ; and Mrs. J. De Barth Shorb, his daughter, loans a chair carved from wood of the old San Gabriel Mission.
9. CHINESE DAY, or "Feast of Lilies."-The Chinese candle-maker will give a receipted bill in his own language.
10. CARNIVAL DAY, or "Feast of Lanterns."- Pageant conducted by C. M. Stetson, the portrait painter, and Mr. Benchley of Los Angeles.
There were many other special exhibits, and persons engaged ; but the above includes all that were of such distinctive historic quality as to call for record here. The ten days' proceedings showed a vast resource of in- genuity, enterprise, skill, working energy and steadfastness on the part of the lady managers and their assistants; yet the incidental expenses of so large and varied and picturesque an undertaking ate up the proceeds and left nothing for the Library fund. Therefore, on the last day, February 18, 1889, C. T. Hopkins, who had been president of the Library Association when this new building was undertaken, and had himself given liberally toward it, f made a strong appeal for aid in a public address, preceded by a talk from Prof. Pickering of Harvard University. After setting forth briefly the previous history, present condition and prospective outlook for the Library interest, Mr. Hopkins said :
"Pasadena has put $36,000 into this beautiful building, as its highest expression of reverence for literature and art. Times are very hard with us, and we can do no more. For want of $5,000 we stand in jeopardy of losing the whole. Can there not now be found among you one liberal soul who can and will advance that $5,000, and so save to the institution the $36,000 now at stake ? If not one such, cannot two be found who will con- tribute $2,500 each, or five of $1,000 each, or ten of $500 each ?"
The "liberal souls " called for by President Hopkins failed to show up ; and court judgments, mechanic's lien attachments, delinquent taxes, pro- fessional fees, etc., continued to accumulate against the new building until it was finally sold at sheriff's sale, and Mr. Legge had to buy it in to save himself. The whole property was now lawfully his own ; nevertheless, he was still willing to donate the land for Public Library purposes, in accord-
* This Don Antonio was the man who made the unsuccessful effort to carry to the city of Mexico a flag captured from the American troops in their disastrous defeat at the battle of Dominguez ranch, San Pedro, Oct. 8, 1846. He was the special friend aud helper of Mrs. H. H. Jackson in gathering material for her famous story of " Ramona."
+Mr. Hopkins gave $1,000 in money, and 300 books.
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DIVISION THREE - BRAINS.
ance with his original agreement; and with this understanding Mr. J. B. Corson set about to see if the city would not buy it, and support the Library as a public institution. He consulted several lawyers about the matter, and they said, under the very limited powers of a " city of the Sixth class," as Pasadena was, there was no law or authority by which the city trustees could appropriate funds for such a purpose. But W. E. Arthur took issue with the older attorneys on this, and gave a written opinion that there was law and authority for it. Frank J. Polley was then the city attorney, and he concurred with Mr. Arthur's opinion. Upon this, Hon. A. G. Throop, "Father Throop," who was then a member of the city board, said, " It is a good thing, a right thing for the city to secure the Library property, and make it a free public institution." Some other members, under adverse ad- vice of other lawyers, were afraid it was not good law - and the times were too hard, anyway-the city expenses were already burdensome-the city's management of the library would become a political job-and various other "lions in the way " loomed up through the fog. But “Father Throop " championed the cause both in public and private until he had won every member of the city board to his view. Thereupon they submitted to public vote a proposition to issue $8,500 of city bonds to purchase the Library property, finish the building, etc .; and this was carried by a large majority on January 14, 1890.
Meanwhile, Col. Ray, as trustee for the syndicate, was buying up the outstanding small debts of the old society ; and on January 23, 1890, his attorney, W. E. Arthur, filed in court these assigned claims amounting in the aggregate to $979.55. On March 26, 1890, J. B. Corson was made trustee of the syndicate in place of Col. Ray, who was removing back east ; in fact, Mr. Corson had done most of the work, anyway, toward get- ting things into shape to save the Library from being broken up, scattered, and wiped out entirely by bankruptcy .* April 4, 1890, the Library Society, by W. F. Channing as acting president, and L. C. Winston as secretary, made to Mr. Corson as trustee of the syndicate a quitclaim deed of all the Library Society's property on Dayton street-consideration, $1. Also a friendly suit was entered in the Superior court, with Arthur as attorney for the Syndicate trustee, and M. C. Hester attorney for the Library So- ciety ; and on August 3, 1890, the latter allowed the case to go by default, so that the title of the Library, lot, books, fixtures, etc., on Dayton street was by decree of court vested in J. B. Corson as trustee. All this was to enable him to convey the books, etc., to the city, and to sell the lot for bene- fit of the makers of that $6,000 note. They paid Mr. Legge the costs which he had necessarily incurred in redeeming the new building at sheriff's sale, and he engaged to convey it to the city as soon as the building should
*March 16, 1888, the Library property was sold to the state for delinquent taxes amounting to $46.32 But it was redeemed by the Society on October 26 of the same year at a cost of $65.68.
I4
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
be completed without incumbrance, in accordance with his original offer to the now defunct Library Society.
On December 11, 1889, a special committee consisting of city trustees A. G. Throop, and W. W. Mills, and city attorney F. J. Polley, reported to the council that they had invoiced the books, fixtures, etc., of the Library and valued them at $3,042. Then on April 19, 1890, the city council pur- chased this property from the syndicate trustee, J. B. Corson, for $3,000, payable in city bonds. The post of librarian now became a city office ; and on April 21, Mrs. S. E. Merritt was duly appointed by city authority to the same place she had filled ever since the library was started in 1883, and which she holds yet, 1895.
The syndicate had paid out, besides the original $6,000, about $1, 100 to meet outstanding liens, judgments, and other legal claims against the Library property, and about $1,000 of interest on their note-making a total of $8,100. And in return they received $3,000 of bonds from the city, and finally $950 for the old Library lot on Dayton street *- a total of $3,950 ; so that these twenty citizens had thus contributed $4, 150 outright, in their public spirited work to save and firmly establish the free Public Library.+ Charles Legge also generously co-operated with them and is en- titled to equal credit. The city clerk in February, 1894, reported the Library property valued thus : lot and building, $25,000 ; books, maps, documents, etc., $6,500 ; furniture, $300. Total, $31,800.
On April 29, 1890, the first board of City Library Trustees was appoint- ed, consisting of J. W. Vandevort, C. T. Hopkins, Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr, W. U. Masters, Geo. F. Kernaghan. The new Library building was com- pleted by the city, and fitted, furnished, and books moved into it, so that on Admission day, September 9, 1890, its doors were first officially opened to the people of the city, with speeches by Abbot Kinney, T. P. Lukens, "Father Throop," and others.
The only historic episode in Library history during 1891, was on Octo- ber 23, when the eastern members of the National Librarians Congress at San Francisco visited Pasadena on their return trip. They had a special train of five Pullman cars. The Daily Star of October 23, gave a full list of their names, places of residence, and official positions. The Board of Trade and City Library officers gave them a ride through the city, a floral reception in the Library building, and a banquet at Hotel Green.
The city clerk's annual report for the year ending February 28, 1894, gives some statistics which will serve to show how the Library is managed and its expenses met by the city. The library officers for 1894 were : S.
*C. E. Langford bought their interest in the lot aud building for $950 only a few weeks before his death. The two secret Orders of A. O. U. W. and I. O. G. T. owned the second story of the building for Lodge rooms.
+March 20, 1895, T. F. Croft, T. P. Lukens and J. B. Corsou met as a committee to make a final closing up of the affairs of the library syndicate, and found a balance of $2.25 remaining for each one of the original twenty signers of the $6,000 note which saved the library in 1888.
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DIVISION THREE -BRAINS.
Washburn, president of board ; Geo. A. Gibbs, secretary ; C. M. Parker, O. S. Picher, J. W. Vandevort, trustees. Mrs. S. E. Merritt, librarian, Miss Laura B. Packard, assistant librarian. The following table I take bodily from the city clerk's report above referred to :
LIBRARY DEPARTMENT.
Salary of Librarian, $50.00 per month
$600 00
Salary of Assistant Librarian, $25.00 per month.
300 00
Salary of Janitor, $15.00 per month.
180 00
Lighting
175 69
Fuel.
103 00
New Books
1,208 67
Freight and drayage on books
18 :
Subscriptions to magazines and papers
159 10
Binding books and magazines
82 60
Printing lists and blanks
40 3I
Stationery and postage
24 15
Brooms and brushes
2 20
Notary fees
50
Repairs on building, painting, etc.
153 05 $ 3,047 60
The total amount of Library bonds issued in 1890, was $8,500, at 7 per cent. interest. And at the date of the above report there were $6,800 of these bonds still outstanding.
In August, 1894, the librarian made her annual report to the board of trustees, and from it I glean a few points of historic interest for preservation. She says :
" The support of the library is derived from a tax levy on all taxable property within the city limits, the assessment being 5 cents on each $100, two fifths of which goes to the library sinking fund and three-fifths to the maintenance of the library. The apportionment to the library department for 1893-94 was $2,736.92."
The total number of books then in the library was 7,044. The total number of card-memberships for drawing out books was 2,781. The library had been open to the public on 360 days during the year, and 43,982 books had been drawn out by card, while 8,273 had been drawn for use in the library reading rooms. A charge of 50 cents per month or $1.25 per quarter, in advance, is made for membership cards to persons residing outside the city limits. During the year.90 books had been rebound, 12 discarded, and 207 repaired in the library workroom. Eighty-two periodicals were regu- larly received ; and the total outlay for supplying the literature tables for the year was $154.40. The fees from non-resident borrowers had amounted to $43.75 ; and fines for keeping books out over time were $179.65.
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND SCIENTIFIC COLLECTIONS.
President C. T. Hopkins of the Pasadena Library Association delivered a public address February 18, 1889, on the early history and pressing needs of the Library enterprise. And in this address he said :
" We have in private hands four large collections-in Mineralogy, Geo- logy, Conchology and Archæology -ready to be placed on exhibition in
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
our museum as soon as it is finished. We have an Academy of Sciences ready to arrange and utilize them."
The Academy of Sciences referred to was organized in January, 1886, at the residence of Hon. Delos Arnold, on Kansas [now Green] street between Fair Oaks and Raymond Avenues. Mr. Arnold was elected president of the society. Other members were : Prof. C. F. Holder, Dr. Wm. F. Channing, Dr. N. D. Van Slyck, Mrs. Jeanne C. Carr, Maj. H. N. Rust, Frank J. Polley, Esq., J. R. Greer, C. T. Hopkins, and others. The "museum " mentioned by Mr. Hopkins was never provided for in the Library building. The Academy of Sciences, however, has never disbanded, but holds a nomi- nal existence yet, although in a state of quiescent dormancy. And the " collections" mentioned have become historic, giving prestige and fame to Pasadena, as follows :
MINERALOGY COLLECTION .- This belongs to Hon. T. P. Lukens, and comprises specimens of every sort of mineral that has any commercial value, ever found in Los Angeles County, besides others from all over California and the other mineral bearing states of our own country, and many other parts of the world. There are also specimens of fossil wood found in exca- vations at Los Angeles city, and from other places ; and fossil fish and leaves from our local "fossil hill," down the adobe road toward Los Angeles. Mr. Lukens had a complete catalogue of his collection made in June, 1895.
GEOLOGY COLLECTION .- This was Dr. Ezra Carr's, which amounted to some tons weight and had lain in their shipping boxes, unshelved, ever since they were brought to Pasadena in 1880. In 1894 this valuable accum- ulation of specimen fossils, minerals and rock types was donated to Throop Polytechnic Institute.
CONCHOLOGY COLLECTION .- Hon. Delos Arnold has the largest and finest accumulation of scientific material in this line of any man in the State, I suppose - and all systematically arranged and classified -a total of about 25,000 specimens. Among these are some 1,500 different living species or varieties of mollusca, about 400 species of which are found on the Pacific coast, and at least half of these occur in Los Angeles county. More varie- ties are found at San Pedro Bay and vicinity than at any other one point from Alaska to San Diego. Also about 300 species of fossil shells have been found at San Pedro and Deadman's Island. In Mr. Arnold's collection as a whole, there are specimens representative of every age in the geological scale, from the lower Silurian up to the living present. And some 25 or 30 specimens from this Pasadena collection were illustrated in Vol. 8, of the State Geological Reports of Illinois, published in July, 1890-one of them being Actinocrinus Arnoldii, which Mr. Arnold himself discovered in a quarry near Marshalltown, Iowa ; it was named by the professional experts, and pronounced the only specimen of its species known in the world. These illustrations were borrowed and used in "North American Geology and
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DIVISION THREE- BRAINS.
Paleontology," by S. A. Miller, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1889 - this work being issued some months before the Illinois State Report was gotten through the press. Mr. Arnold made generous donations from his collection to the State Normal School at Chico ; to the Smithsonian Institution at Washing- ton, D. C .; to the Pasadena High School; and to the Throop Polytechnic Institute. In addition to his wonderful collection of shells and crinoids, mostly the gatherings of his own hands, Mr. Arnold has made canes from about' one hundred different kinds of rare woods, shrubs and plants that grow in this semi-tropic clime, but not in the more northerly portions of our country, and hence have a fascinating interest to our Eastern visitors, as well as a scientific value in themselves.
ARCHEOLOGY COLLECTION .- Maj. H. N. Rust had what was deemed the finest collection in this branch of science on the Pacific coast at the time President Hopkins referred to it, as above quoted. In 1892 it was sold to Frank G. Logan of Chicago, and was exhibited in the great World's Fair there in 1893. Mr. Logan afterward donated it to the Congregationalist college at Beloit, Wisconsin, and it there abides.
MRS. LOWE'S COLLECTION .- Since the date when President Hopkins alluded to the four collections then here, another one has been brought to Pasadena which quite overtops them all in the comprehensive magnitude and marvelry of its completeness both as to number and quality of the specimens, nine-tenths of them being the choicest of their kind. It com- prises thirty-one distinct and different collections, made by Mrs. Leontine Augustine Lowe herself (wife of Prof. T. S. C. Lowe) during the past forty years-and she is still adding to it. The collection of curios alone has cost $150,000, and comprises some of the rarest old paintings, old laces, tap- estries and costumes-relics of rank and royalty ; carvings, sculptures,
RESIDENCE OF PROF. T. S. C. LOWE. There are basement rooms under the entire building, and all occupied by Mrs. Lowe's unique collection.
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HISTORY OF PASADENA.
coins, mosaics, and other relics of classic antiquity. In the department of Mineralogy alone there are 80,000 specimens, comprising every known metal or its ores, and every species of precious stones, both cut and uncut ; every species of marble, onyx, agate, alabaster, etc., etc. Rare old books- some made by hand about A.D. 1430, before the art of printing was in vogue, and others along up the far-away centuries. In Ceramics there are rare vases and table ware of ancient royalty ; Venetian porcelains of most exquisite quality and in great variety ; a set of table ware used by George Washing- ton while he was President ; etc. In fact, all branches of natural science, all phases of artistic skill, and all zones of the earth are liberally repre- sented in this unique collection, which is estimated to contain over 300,000 specimens. Of Indian baskets alone there are 547, and no two alike. In the field of Ethnology the exhibits are most extensive, comprehensive, ver- satile and instructive. Mrs. Lowe had a passion for making collections, from her early childhood ; and this great Museum represents her life-work and life-play, besides raising a family of seven girls and three boys-all still living, and all vigorous, healthy and bright people. The collection is to be placed in a fire-proof building erected purposely for it on Echo Moun- tain. In her search for rare specimens Mrs. Lowe has traveled around the world. She enlisted the co-operation of scientists, travelers, mine-managers, art collectors, antiquarians, curio dealers, high officials in different countries, missionaries, etc., thus levying tribute on all lands. Her collection is said to be the largest one now in private hands in the United States, and is without doubt the largest one ever made by a woman in the world -hence its prom- inence as a living incident in Pasadena history.
NEWSPAPERS.
THE PASADENA CHRONICLE .- During the spring of 1883 it began to be talked that Pasadena ought to have a newspaper of her own. Most of the talkers, however, thought the place was not big enough yet, and were not willing to put money into such a dubious enterprise. In July a printer named C. M. Daley offered to start a paper here if some of the citizens would lend him their credit so he could get his type-setting and press-work done at the Los Angeles Times office .* Ben E. Ward was the only Pasa- dena man who had faith and grit enough to make the venture, and he be- came Daley's surety for the printing contract. So, on August 8, 1883, the first number of the Pasadena Chronicle came forth, and was the first printed newspaper for the place. It went in Daley's name, but Ben E. Ward, assisted by his brothers Frank and Walter, did the editing and the Pasadena business for it, and at the end of two months he had to pay the printing bills himself. Daley was no help in the matter at all, and Ben then took
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