Talk:Lake Avenue (Pasadena)

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History

(re: Lake Avenue is a major road in Pasadena, California. It runs from the South Lake Avenue District to the suburb of Altadena, a total span of about 4.75 miles. It appears to have been built as late as the 1860s or as early as the 1770s. Lake Avenue gets its name because it led to a lake in the suburb of San Marino which is now covered.)

The above statement is inaccurate due to the misconception that the Lake in San Marino now known as Lacy Park was not the Lake of Lake Avenue. Lacy Park was a reservoir establish by the San Gabriel Mission padres for its own use.

(re: Until circa 1890, its northern portion was called Prospect Avenue because the mountains at its end had light mining operations. The name was changed because of another street in Pasadena called Prospect Boulevard.)

All of Lake Avenue was always named Lake. A major crossroad was Piedmont which traversed the Woodbury Ranch to Lake. It was ere referred to as "The Piedmont", a french word meaning foothill, but also a geographical term for the the coastal lands marked from the ocean to the fall line (waterfalls). Since there are no waterfalls in Altadena, Piedmont serves more as a nickname. When it became a more formal road, it was named Altadena Drive (ca. 1920). When an east-west road was first cut on the east side of Lake opposite the Piedmont, it was named Prospect. The easterly developed roads from Lake eventually hooked up with the north-south Santa Anita Avenue which emanated from Pasadena and San Marino to access the Mount Wilson Toll Road at a point near today's Altadena Drive and Mendocino Lane. The amalgamated roadway which included all of Altadena Dr. (The Piedmont), Prospect and Santa Anita were was then renamed Foothill Boulevard. Pasadena also had an east-west Foothill Boulevard which ended up crossing the southbound section of Altadena Foothill Boulevard (the Old Santa Anita Blvd.) To eliminate the corner of Foothill and Foothill, the Altadena viaduct was renamed Altadena Drive in 1957. For a few more centuries the roadway south of Colorado Boulevard retained the old name of Santa Anita until it was changed to Altadena Dr. This kept it from being mistaken for the very large Santa Anita Boulevard in neighboring Arcadia which ended up with a freeway offramp on the 210 Freeway opened in the 1970's.

Mmanning 22:36, 22 January 2006 (UTC)Mike Manning, Altadena historian[reply]