There’s an old hotel building in the centre of Pasadena that’s always interested me, the Castle Green. It was converted to privately-owned apartments a long time ago, and has somehow survived the ‘renovation’ that a lot of buildings suffer by being torn down! It’s set back a little way from the street, and is always hidden from view by the huge trees in front of it. Being taller than many other buildings around it, and built in a Moorish Castle style, it has a captivating air of mystery and faded elegance.

It was opened on Sunday to the general public – a yearly event. As well as providing access to the halls, function rooms, lounges, corridors and roof gardens, plenty of the apartments themselves were also open for the public to wander round. The residents seem to largely be the artistic types, decorating the apartments with retro pictures, distinctive renovated furniture, and tasteful lighting, rugs and appliances.

The history of the building is interesting, though it fails to mention the more intriguing seedy intermediate years in the later part of the 20th century, when the tenants were mainly low-income or elderly, and the area was undesirable and dangerous. This was before the rejuvenation of Old Town Pasadena over the last decade or so: the (1-bed) apartments are now $2000 a month to rent.

This is the building in its heyday at the turn of the century. Behind the camera is the original part of the hotel, which burnt down in 1924. Here is some more general Pasadena history outlining the original Indian settlements and the later tourist era that helped the city to boom.

These are the remaining spans of the bridge, seen from the veranda:

It’s difficult to get a long view of the building, due to the trees around it. This is the front face, close up:

The mountains are clearly visible in full from the roof gardens at the top. Not many of the buildings in the city are this high, so it’s rare to get such a view over the town like this.

The restoration/conservation effort still has its work cut out.

Intricate detailing and styling features all over the outside of the building. It’s a real mix of Victorian, Spanish and Moorish themes, but it works together to create a really imposing result.

Toasty.

View down the main stairwell:

I didn’t get many pictures of the inside, as it was either too dark or was somebody’s house.

… In other business:

In doing some work on the car’s brakes the weekend before, I made a pleasing discovery: it’s fitted with the relatively rare option of a limited slip differential (LSD) – normally found only on some of the sports models. This allows better control of the car on slippery roads… something we are promised in the next few days. You can tell there’s an LSD by the fact that the driven wheels, when off the ground, spin in the same direction when turned by hand – if they spin in opposite directions it is a conventional ‘open’ differential. I noticed the car did this, to my great surprise – I really hadn’t expected it – so checked the tag on the diff, and the LSD is confirmed by the ‘S’ at the end. I’ll be blowed!

Brake work in progress (handbrake adjustment and lubrication). It’s really nice to work on a car with no body rust, no rusted bolts, no crud on the underside from years of salty roads, and of course to be able to work in the sun at the end of November.

Also this last weekend was a little event at the Rose Tree Cottage, with the Golden State British Brass Band playing Christmas Carols on the front lawn, and Edmund roasting his chestnuts on an open fire and distributing seasonal cheer. People stopped to listen, sang along, and generally got into the mood. It was just cold enough to feel a little wintry!