PASADENA, a city of Los Angeles county, California, U.S.A., in the foot-hills of the Sierra Madre mountains, over looking the San Gabriel valley; 11 m. N.E. of the business centre of Los Angeles and touching its boundaries at several points. It is served by the Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific, and the Union Pacific railways, and by inter-urban electric and motor-coach lines. Pop. 45,354 in 1920 (82% native white) ; 76,086 in 1930 by the Federal census. The city occupies 17 sq.m., at an altitude of 800-1,20o ft., with the pine-clad heights of Mt. Wilson (6,666 ft.) and Mt. Lowe (6,10o ft.) for background. It is primarily a resi dential city and year-round resort, noted for its own beauty and the varied charm of the surrounding scenery. Roses bloom through the winter, and on New Year's Day is held the "Tournament of Roses," a festival attended by 700,000 visitors. During the pre ceding week a rare spectacle is offered in the suburb of Altadena by the illumination every night of "the street of the Christmas trees," an avenue lined for more than a mile on both sides with Himalayan cedars, or deodars. An outdoor amphitheatre seating 70,00o (called the Rose Bowl) has been constructed in a dry canyon, and is the scene of many pageants, festivals and athletic events. The city has an art institute, a Community playhouse (one of the earliest and most successful of the "little theatres" of the country), and a beautiful new public library (1927) with out door reading-rooms. It is the seat of the California Institute of
Technology. Busch Gardens, privately owned but open to the public, comprise 3o ac. of rare horticultural specimens and beau tiful landscape-gardening. In the suburb of San Marino is the Henry E. Huntington library (one of the finest collections of first editions and manuscript literary material in the world), and the Huntington art gallery, both administered for the public under a trust established by Henry Huntington before his death. A mile above Pasadena, on Mt. Wilson, is the Solar observatory of the Carnegie Institution, equipped with the largest reflecting telescope (1928) in the world and other powerful and delicate instruments. Manufacturing is relatively unimportant, but there were 107 plants in 1927, with a total output valued at $7,551,972. The assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $155,732,710. Bank debits in 1927 amounted to $481,058,000. There were over 34,000 telephones in use in 1928, and the number of automobiles registered from the city in 1927 (28,782) was more than one for each three of the population.
Pasadena was founded in 1874 by a colony of fruit-growers from Indianapolis, Ind., who settled on its site. The city was chartered in i886. Since 1921 it has had a commission-manager form of government.