Altadena Historical Society (AHS), a non-profit organization, was founded in 1935 to gather, preserve, and make available information about the people, places, and events that have shaped the community in the past.
AHS publishes a quarterly newsletter, The Echo, which highlights upcoming program topics, articles of local historical interest, archival donations, research requests and society activities.
AHS also hosts quarterly informational programs for members and the public at the Altadena Community Center. Our volunteers regularly provide historical presentations to youth, senior and school groups to promote interest in Altadena's history.
The Altadena Historical Society is proud of its own 70 year history. We are one of the oldest volunteer organizations in the community.
Altadena Historical Society News
AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2014-04-01 12:55:05 CDTPasadena Star-News’
Larry Wilson Recalls Altadena Boyhood
at April 28 AHS Meeting
Popular long-time Star-News editor and columnist Larry Wilson will recall memories of his Altadena boyhood and youth at the Historical Society’s April 28 meeting.
The Star-News’s public editor and columnist grew up at 1216 and then 1294 Sunny Oaks Circle, the latter was a house designed for his parents by Harold Bissner, Jr., a prominent Pasadena architect perhaps best known for the Palm Springs-area “Volcano House.”
Wilson attended Noyes Elementary School and Eliot Junior High School. He bought his first house on Alpine Villa Drive in 1984 when he was the founding business manager of the Altadena/Pasadena Weekly, in the same Lake Avenue office where Harry Smith previously published The Altadenan. Wilson and his friends in the East Loma Alta neighborhood used to distribute newspapers on Thursday mornings during their high school years.
Wilson is now a resident of Pasadena, but says he “enjoys crossing the border to have a beer at the Altadena Ale and Wine House.”
Monday, April 28, 2014
7:30 p.m.
Altadena Community Center
730 E. Altadena Drive
Altadena, CA 91001
Programs are free and open to the public
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AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2014-01-14 11:55:25 CST
Altadena Historical Society & Altadena Public Library
present
Historian and Author
Roberta H. Martinez
ALTADENA: HOMESTEADERS, SQUATTERS AND EARLY PIONEERS
Before real estate developers discovered Altadena in the 1850s, Mexicanos, homesteaders and squatters laid claim to areas near Altadena’s canyons. Setting up residence on unoccupied land, our earliest pioneers have a historical legacy not yet fully told. Using photos and maps, Roberta will discuss her recent discoveries about early local land use relative to the Homestead Act instituted in the 19th century to populate the wide-open western United States. After the event Roberta will be selling and signing her book, Latinos in Pasadena.
Monday, January 27, 2014
7:30 PM
Altadena Community Center
730 E. Altadena Drive
Altadena, CA 91001
Programs are free and open to the public
Roberta H. Martinez is the Executive Director of Latino Heritage, an organization that is dedicated to promoting knowledge of the Latino experience and history through cultural and educational programs in Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley. Roberta graduated from UC Riverside with a degree in Music History. An author, historian, television producer, advisor for the Pasadena Historical Museum, Roberta published her most recent book Latinos in Pasadena in 2009. Her specific area of research is Latino heritage and women’s issues. She currently co-chairs Pasadena City College President’s Latino Advisory Committee.
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AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2013-10-22 17:58:20 CDTIt’s Popcorn and Movie Night at AHS.
Monday, October 28, 2013 7:30 PM
We’ll be showing two films about Mt. Lowe:
1912 silent movie, What the Doctor Ordered, starring Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett, Jack Pickford and Eddie Dillon, shot on location in a local orange grove and on Mt. Lowe in the snow.
To Mt. Lowe with Love by Phil Callahan and Bill Myers, produced in partnership with Edison Co. This 32-minute movie takes us back in time with black and white motion pictures and stills, to experience the world’s greatest trolley adventure.
In addition, we will show excerpts from The Pacific Electric Northern District in Spectacular Color, written and researched by Charles Seims, produced by Alan Sishel, released in 1993. The film features the line that went from downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena, Sierra Madre, Monrovia and Glendora (not Altadena), from 1947 to 1951. This video will be available to purchase in VHS format the night of the event for $7.00.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
Altadena Community Center
730 E. Altadena Drive
Altadena, CA 91001
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AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2013-07-09 13:44:40 CDT 
AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Take a trip down memory lane when we show a hundred photos of Altadena shot between 1968 and 1998. Known as The Mayor of Maiden Lane, Leon Ricks (1928-2013) was a proud resident of Altadena for more than 60 years. An independent thinker and accomplished photographer, Leon documented four decades of life in Altadena, from mundane street scenes, to annual events, to
fires and floods. Leon’s family generously donated more than a thousand slides to Altadena Historical Society. Please join us to honor Leon’s memory and his love of Altadena, when we present a hundred images from his collection.
Monday, July 22, 2013, at 7:30 pm in the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001.
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The Day the Rocks Fell
Posted by AHS on 2013-05-14 13:30:01 CDT 
Interview in the Pasadena Independent Star News, Sunday Feb. 8, 1959:
The three surviving Drew family members, Dorothy Drew Schaefer, George G. Drew and Helen Gregory (photo lower right) recall the dramatic events the night boulders crashed through the Rubio Pavilion,
“dropping it in a tangled mass of wreckage into a roaring torrent of water 100 feet below.”
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AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2013-04-16 12:58:29 CDT 
AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Join us on Monday, April 22, 2013, at 7:30 pm in the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001.
The landmark Scripps Home, which was located at the corner of El Molino and Calaveras, is gone forever. But AHS is keeping the story of this beloved institution and its role in the community alive. A century’s worth of residents’ memorabilia, photos, scrapbooks and ephemera was given to AHS in 2011.
Professional historian and archivist Tim Gregory organized the more than 1500 documents. Please join us to hear Tim discuss the collection and the history of the home. You’ll also have an
opportunity to look at some of the most significant parts of the collection.
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AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2012-12-18 14:15:09 CST 
AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Join us on Thursday, January 24, 2013 at 7:30 pm in the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001.
Ian will discuss the legacy of his father, artist Charles White, one of the greatest socially conscious figurative lithographers of the 20th century.
Programs are free and open to the public.
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AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2012-08-21 13:40:41 CDT 
AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Join us on Monday, October 22, 2012 at 7:30 pm in the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001.
Mike Manning will cover the history of the Mount Lowe Railroad. A major project for the AHS in 2013 will be to digitize its Mount Lowe Collection, funded by a grant from Southern California Edison. The collection will then be available online.
Programs are free and open to the public.
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2012 Premium Membership Gift
Posted by AHS on 2012-08-21 13:10:22 CDT 
2012 Premium Membership Gift: -- Four limited edition reproduction vintage postcards featuring Altadena scenes (backs of postcards are blank). See Membership page for details.
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AHS Quarterly Meeting and Lecture
Posted by AHS on 2012-04-16 11:45:18 CDTMay 14, 2012: Author and historian Elizabeth Pomeroy and Arroyo Foothills Conservancy Executive Director John Howell will speak about The Past and Future of Millard Canyon.
May 14, 2012 7: 30 pm, 730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001
Programs are free and open to the public.
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730 E. Altadena Drive Altadena, CA 91001-2351
(626) 797-8016 altadenahistorical.society@yahoo.com