Preservationists Hope to Bring New Life to Pasadena Landmark

Growing up just outside Old Town Pasadena, Erika Marrin remembers cocking her head in curiosity at the crumbling old Castle Green building.

“I used to think, ‘What is that? An old folks home? Do crazy people live there?’ ” she said Sunday. Then she laughed. “Well, I guess maybe that much is true.”

As she spoke, Marrin sat on a couch in her father’s meticulously renovated condo on the Castle’s fourth floor. She was there all day, allowing strangers into the condo and encouraging them to ask questions about the formerly grand hotel that once catered to the rich and overly pampered.

But Sunday’s tour of the grounds, which included a peek at several elaborately decorated condominiums and lobby, was not being done for entirely altruistic reasons. It did cost $15 to look behind the wrought-iron gates that surround the 103-year-old building.

However, a group of local history buffs hope the tour and a series of other fund-raising efforts, including a piano concert Sunday, will help provide money to restore the crumbling old Castle to its former glory.

“This place spans the history of the community,” said Tom Coston, a Castle Green board member who has helped organize several fund-raising events. “From resort days to present day, the community just sort of sprang up around it.”

The hotel was built in 1890 and later sold to medicine tycoon G.G. Green, famous for selling questionably cure-all oils “Green’s August Flower” and “Green’s Ague Conqueror.”

Business was booming by 1898, so Green added a second wing, dubbed “Castle Green,” and connected the two halves with an enclosed bridge.

Famous guests included Clark Gable and President Benjamin Harrison, noted for throwing a wild drunken party in the 1890s.

But by the 1930s, changing habits, hastened by the popularity of the automobile, brought a decline in business, and in 1934, the original wing of the hotel was razed. Nostalgia pushed a group of regular guests to pool funds and buy the remaining structure.

Some Castle rooms have been sold to private individuals as condominiums and another section of the hotel was earmarked a decade ago for low-income housing.

For more than a decade, residents and preservation advocates have been toiling to reverse the damages of time, receiving more than half a million dollars in state grant money to refurbish the building. Plans include painting it in its original colors--muted tones of tan and green--and refurbishing its rare wood and iron fixtures.

“I just applaud their efforts,” said Michael Patris of Alhambra, who was more than happy to spend $30 so he and his wife could view the inside of Green Castle. “It’s great they want to take on something of this scale.”

The Castle’s doors opened at 1 p.m. and within 30 minutes, the hallways were filled with curious onlookers. Some were restoration enthusiasts themselves looking for inspiration for home renovations.

A Castle volunteer offered a demonstration on the patio on how to mix modern color shades to get popular turn-of-the-century hues no longer sold in paint stores.

Guests could sit in wicker chairs and sip coffee or tea on the hotel’s grand front porch, much like well-to-do guests probably spent lazy afternoons.

But visitors were most interested in touring the building’s massive interior, which included a grand ballroom and a penthouse suite, which offers a spectacular view of the city.

“I’m so thrilled they aren’t just ripping grand old places like this down,” said Jill Brown, who first visited the hotel as an 8-year-old and remembers scampering down the old bridge to look over the city. “That would just crush me.”