Pasadena landmark to showcase newly restored dome and unique art exhibits on June 8
The Castle Green, Pasadena’s striking Moorish-Victorian architectural gem, will open its doors for its ornate annual summer tour on June 8, revealing newly restored features and two significant art installations. Visitors will gain rare access to private apartments, historical public rooms and restoration projects that preserve this cultural landmark.
“We do the kind of preservation that needs to be done on a building that is now 126 years old. But it’s beyond what the HLA is faced with for their daily operation,” said Susan Futterman, Chair of Friends of the Castle Green. “We are hopeful by having a tour, we help people appreciate what good preservation does for a building and a community.”
The self-guided tour will feature an impressively large architectural model of Castle Green created in 1965 for a USC master’s project, recently donated to the landmark.
“We have been gifted a model of the Castle Green. It’s by three feet by six feet by three feet,” Futterman explained. “It is quite beautiful. You really see the Castle Green, but you also see his artistic spirit as he interpreted the Green.”
Alongside the model, the building’s bridge area will display artist Kenny Art’s watercolor exhibition previously shown at Altadena Public Library, depicting properties before and after the devastating Altadena fire.
“There’s something about watercolors that I think allows you to see the devastation of the fire, but without necessarily breaking in tears,” Futterman noted.
Visitors can also examine the recently restored dome on the bridge.
The restoration, completed last August, revealed the dome to be copper rather than sheet metal previously believed, requiring innovative scaffolding techniques.
“They constructed this amazing scaffold last summer after our last tour. They took out the windows of the bridge and put this huge iron bar through it, which supported the scaffolding around it,” Futterman described.
The tour includes access to the original Moorish and Turkish Rooms, Grand Salon, Palm Court, Lobby with the Grand Staircase, and several private residences.
Docents will be stationed in historical rooms with scheduled lectures throughout the afternoon.
“People always do such unusual, different things with their apartments at the Castle Green because it attracts so many artistic types,” Futterman noted.
Guests can visit the penthouse, originally a solarium with a glass roof, and explore the roof garden. A pop-up museum will display artifacts from the Castle Green archives, including castings of the “grotesques” and decorative plaster work used in restoration projects. Live entertainment will be provided, and visitors can enjoy refreshments on the veranda.
Founded in 1993, the Friends of the Castle Green has spent three decades meticulously restoring the building, which was completely painted white when they began.
“That was the trend. Any historic thing, white. So the grand salon was white, the temperature was white, the Moorish room was white,” Futterman recalled.
The organization’s work has special significance in light of recent historic losses in Pasadena. Futterman highlighted connections between Castle Green and other landmarks, including the third annex along Green Street currently undergoing restoration.
She also noted ties to the Rand McNally house in Altadena, which inspired some of Castle Green’s features but was lost in the fire.
Built in 1898 as an annex to the Hotel Green, the Castle Green was designed by architect Frederick I. Roehrig with Moorish, Spanish and Victorian elements. It holds listings on the National Register of Historic Places, the State Historic Register, and Pasadena’s list of Historic Places.
The Friends of the Castle Green approaches the tour as an immersive experience.
“We don’t try to be precious about it. We want people to sit down anywhere they want us to go. We want them to enjoy being in this structure and taking it in.”
General admission tickets are $55.20. Visitors can bring picnic lunches.
Castle Green Summer Tour, 99 South Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. Sunday, June 8, 12-4 p.m. For information: Susan Futterman (626) 824-8482, susanfutterman@mac.com.
