Pasadena History: Angels Gets its Start

Here’s your weekly dose of some Pasadena history thanks to The Pasadena Peninsula by Isabel Shipley Cunningham.

In 1923, Angels started as a roadside stand that had to use straw, burlap and tin to keep its ice cream cold. However, no other local stores sold ice cream, which made Angels an instant local favorite.

“In 1923 Samuel and Marie Angel opened a summertime refreshment stand on Mountain Road at Lake Shore,” Cunningham wrote. “Samuel Angel wanted to try farming, but he soon realized that farming was not his calling and returned to Baltimore. However, as people began to build homes in the area, he and his wife decided to try and make a living there as storekeepers.

“In an 8-by-15 foot space, the Angels sold home-made bottled drinks, cookies, candy bread, home-made ginger muffins, snuff, and cigarettes. Ice cream was available only on the weekend because Angels had to carry ice from a straw, burlap, and tin-covered pit several times a day to keep ice cream frozen. No other local stores sold this luxury.

“The next year the Angels built a larger home that housed an all-year grocery store, but they opened at the roadside stand during the summer.”

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