CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL RESOURCES INVENTORY DATABASE
City of Pasadena
 
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Resource Summary
500 E COLORADO Blvd
Resource Summary
Address: 500 E COLORADO Blvd APN: 5734-036-009 [print]

This property is in a historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places. *
 
RESOURCE OVERVIEW
Address: 500 E COLORADO Blvd
City: Pasadena State: CA
Zip Code: 91101 County: Los Angeles
County Code: 37
Historic Name: First Methodist Church Common Name:
APN: 5734-036-009 Zoning:
Building Sq. Ft: Site Size (Acres): 1.580
Year Built: 1925 Documented District: PASADENA PLAYHOUSE
District: PASADENA PLAYHOUSE (designated)
 Property Status: Designated
Contributing Status: C    
Resource Description:
Set back from busy Colorado Boulevard and accented by large trees, the First Methodist Church structure is composed of five interconnected Gothic Revival buildings. The main sanctuary, an administration building, an assembly hall, a chapel and a Sunday School are all grouped around a spacious colonnaded courtyard resembling a medieval cloister.

The exterior is clad in grey and cream cast stone, similar in appearance to Indiana limestone. Conventional English Gothic elements include gabled parapets raised above the roofline, simple buttresses along exterior-walls between large windows, and foliated tracery patterns on the, heavy oak doors and on some of the windows.

In 1887, the Methodists erected a new frame church at the southeast corner of Marengo and Colorado, then a fine residential area. In 1901, they replaced the frame building with a stone one. The eastward expansion of the commercial center and the construction of the Civic Center in the 1920s made the Marengo-Colorado site a prime one for development purposes. With the money realized from the sale of that property, the Methodists were able to build their large present church, as well as to pay for the removal of the old stone church to Holliston Avenue, where it was given to another congregation.

In the 1920s, the site at Oakland and Colorado was in the center of a new fashionable shopping district, close to the Maryland Hotel and the Civic Center. Wealthy hotel guests who were Methodists attended services at the First Methodist Church and donated the church organ.

Legal Description:
RESOURCE DETAILS
Primary Architectural Style: Gothic Revival
Secondary Architectural Style:
Architect: Thomas P. Barber
Builder: J. A. Wolvin Co.
Contractor:
Context:
Original Owner:
Original Use:
Original Location:
Demolished: no
Notes:
Moved: no
Date Moved: n/a
Designation Date: n/a

* This is a simplified statement of the property's status. Please review the NRHP Status Code field on the search screen for official, adopted status language.