Pasadena History: How the Town Got Its Name

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

As editor of Pasadena Patch, I get emails all the time from people in Pasadena, CA, asking me to cover events on the other side of the country. Well, it turns out the two Pasadenas are connected.

“In 1890 the Southern Land and Silk Association, incorporated in Baltimore, bought 100 acres that originally had been part of the tract called Waterford,” wrote Cunningham. “These people came from California to grow mulberry trees and raise silkworms, though they had originally intended to operate a vineyard.

“After first investing in property at Round Bay, where they named streets Pasadena, Alameda, and Los Angeles, the Association bought land in what became the village of Pasadena. There they built five houses along the present Railroad Avenue, Light Street, and Hamburg Street. Oral tradition tells that the woman who lived north of the former railway station named her new home Pasadena, after her former home in California.

“Hope Road was the name of what now is Pasadena Road. The group’s hopes were not fulfilled, but the name that they gave their little community now identifies the entire peninsula.”

Be sure to check back next Wednesday for more Pasadena history.