Cultivating Culture in Pasadena

Once in a while, you’ve got to get out of your hometown. 

You need a dose of big-city culture – but not in L.A., where people drive like heat-seeking missiles and never slow down. You want a place that feels human and down to earth, somewhere to spend a few relaxed days with pleasant people, fine museums, gracious architecture, and good theater. Luckily, there’s a tucked-away haven of culture within easy reach: Pasadena. 

Pasadena?! Before you raise a skeptical eyebrow, consider just one of its attractions: the Norton Simon Museum, whose world-class collection ranges from Botticellis and Rembrandts to Cézannes and Picassos. (For me, it out-gets the Getty.) Beautiful houses are everywhere: On streets shaded by sycamore and magnolia trees, you can admire the legacy of architectural greats such as Wallace Neff, Greene & Greene, and George Washington Smith. 

You can greet the morning sun from your garden window at the iconic Langham Huntington hotel, perched on a knoll overlooking the San Gabriel Valley and its mountain backdrop. Then top off the day with a musical at the Pasadena Playhouse, winner of the Tony Award for regional theater.

Persuaded about Pasadena? Then let your cultural getaway begin.

Museums are many things: cultural repositories, sensory experiences, separate worlds that spark the imagination or offer spaces for quiet reflection. To all this, the Norton Simon Museum adds one subtle trait: a permeating intelligence. 

Works in the galleries are organized sensibly by place and time – rather than by constantly changing curatorial ideas or social trends – which makes it easy to explore one of the most remarkable private art collections ever assembled. Industrialist Norton Simon (1907–1993) amassed thousands of European masterworks from the Renaissance to the 20th century, plus South and Southeast Asian art spanning 2,000 years. Then he took over the ailing Pasadena Art Museum, merging its superb collection of 20th-century American art with his own.

Simon had dropped out of Cal Berkeley as a freshman and invested in an insolvent orange juice bottling company – which he built into the behemoth Hunt Foods. By the time he retired with a fortune of $10 billion, he had major holdings in Canada Dry, Max Factor, Tanqueray, and Avis Car Rental. Then he turned to philanthropy.

I appreciated his institution’s intelligent approach to the interpretive placards that museums place next to paintings. Instead of dry academic recitals of art history, these explore the artist’s life and explain how a particular painting fits. I learned that Paul Gauguin, who famously turned his back on bourgeois society in Paris and sailed away to Tahiti, did not find the primitive paradise he hoped for. His 1899 painting Tahitian Woman and Boy reveals the unexpected presence of French colonial missionaries, implied by the woman’s high-necked gown. (Gauguin was initially disappointed in Tahiti, but went on to paint native models in bright colors and often in the altogether.)

I’ve never much considered how a frame affects a painting. But the museum has – for example, Vincent van Gogh’s 1885 Head of a Peasant Woman in a White Bonnet. A portrait in muted browns and greens, it shows how the artist endeavored to portray working people with honest simplicity. Its original elaborately carved and gilded frame, however, overpowered the painting’s earthen colors and lent an impression of luxury at odds with the humble subject it surrounded. Curators replaced it with a simple 19th-century wooden frame whose warm chestnut tones bring out the dark shades in the painting. A perfect pairing.

I left the Norton Simon Museum impressed not only by its stellar collection, but also by the brainpower brought to bear in presenting it. The museum not only dazzles, it educates.

In late afternoon my wife, Merry, and I checked into the Langham Huntington. This classic hotel was designed in 1914 by noted architect Myron Hunt with broad symmetrical wings and a belvedere tower in the middle. There are seventeen acres of gardens, where we strolled at sunset, then slept perfectly. 

Next morning we rode the elevator to the top floor’s private Langham Club lounge – a perk I definitely recommend for its views across Pasadena and the ease of popping in any time to eat, from breakfast to lunch to nightly cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. 

I buffet-hopped around the serving tables, trying the white scrambled eggs with kale and mushrooms, French toast, fresh giant berries, buttery croissants – basically anything I could fit on my plate. All delicious.

Another bonus of the Club level is the chance to meet interesting fellow guests in quiet, friendly surroundings. That morning they included a couple from Nevada, she a journalist and he a partner in the PR firm that created the wildly successful ad campaign: “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!” He smiled like a man who’d hit the jackpot: “That put four children through college.” 

The hotel is the centerpiece of the leafy Oak Knoll neighborhood. Originally a sheep ranch owned by railroad magnate Henry Huntington, the area became a subdivision of impressive homes in the early 1900s. We drove up Hillcrest Avenue, gawking at the very first house designed by celebrated architects Charles and Henry Greene, an immense dark-shingled “bungalow” called the Blacker House. Montecitans will appreciate the Prindle House, a masterpiece of Spanish Colonial and Moorish architecture, designed in 1926 by George Washington Smith to be reminiscent of Spain’s Alhambra Palace.

Later Merry and I went to an early dinner at Osa, a rooftop restaurant in Pasadena’s Playhouse Village district. We ate with a view across the city to mountains bathed in warm afternoon light. Highly recommended: Crispy Brussels Sprouts with Aleppo chili, Marcona almonds, and pomegranate vinaigrette; Grilled Swordfish on creamy Brentwood yellow corn, salsa criolla, and aji verde. 

Some diners, including us, headed around the corner to the Pasadena Playhouse to see Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon. I confess to being a bit allergic to musicals, finding it slightly cringy when the cast s-i-i-ingggs every . . . thinggg . . . they want to sa-a-a-ay! But this production was a gem, a stylish updating of the 1947 classic, staged by a dazzlingly professional cast of singers and dancers that included Tony winner Tyne Daly.

The plot in a nutshell: Two contemporary guys from New York are hiking in Scotland and get lost in the forest. As they wander, a village and its folk magically appear out of the mist (thanks to clever stagecraft effects). The two have stumbled upon fabled Brigadoon, a hamlet that becomes visible for only one day each century. 

Lots of singing and dancing ensue, and a romance grows between a village girl and one of the outsiders. Will he stay? He must decide before Brigadoon disappears for another hundred years. All ends happily, of course, with the message that love can make dreams come true.

By the end of our stay in Pasadena, I started to see a sort of parallel with Brigadoon. Both are places you’re surprised and grateful to discover right under your nose. Each has its own special aura and an array of lovely things to see. I hope we’ll find our way back again soon.  

Pasadena for Culture Buffs

DO

•  Visitors information: www.visitpasadena.com

•  Norton Simon Museum: www.nortonsimon.org; 411 W. Colorado Blvd.

• USC Pacific Asia Museum: The 1929 building, designed by anthropologist and curios dealer Grace Nicholson as her home and shop, is in Imperial Palace Courtyard style with authentic Chinese details. The exhibition Mythical Creatures (through Sept. 6) spans twelve rooms with objects and immersive art tying the immigrant experience to Asian mythical figures that watch over and protect those on journeys of transition. https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu; 46 N. Los Robles Ave.

• Pasadena Playhouse: Historic California theater in rustic style; www.pasadenaplayhouse.org; 39 S. El Molino Ave

• Architecture: Blacker House, 1177 Hillcrest; Prindle House, 1311 Hillcrest. 

STAY

The Langham Huntington: An iconic California hotel with a formal yet comfortable atmosphere that evokes Pasadena’s traditional, gracious way of life. There are acres of lawns and gardens, two swimming pools, tennis, and a spa with treatments inspired by traditional Chinese medicine. Opt for the Langham Club level, with exclusive access to an eighth-floor lounge and complimentary morning-to-evening meal services. 

There are 379 guestrooms including 36 suites, and eight cottages. Rates start at $425 (Superior room) and $899 (Suite); for the two-story, 3,600-square-foot Tournament of Roses Suite, contact Reservations. www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/los-angeles; 1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave., Reservations (626) 568-3900.

EAT

Osa Rooftop: At the AC Hotel; https://osarooftop.com, 540 E. Colorado Blvd.

•  Visitors information: www.visitpasadena.com

•  Norton Simon Museum: www.nortonsimon.org; 411 W. Colorado Blvd.

• USC Pacific Asia Museum: The 1929 building, designed by anthropologist and curios dealer Grace Nicholson as her home and shop, is in Imperial Palace Courtyard style with authentic Chinese details. The exhibition Mythical Creatures (through Sept. 6) spans twelve rooms with objects and immersive art tying the immigrant experience to Asian mythical figures that watch over and protect those on journeys of transition. https://pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu; 46 N. Los Robles Ave.

• Pasadena Playhouse: Historic California theater in rustic style; www.pasadenaplayhouse.org; 39 S. El Molino Ave

• Architecture: Blacker House, 1177 Hillcrest; Prindle House, 1311 Hillcrest. 

STAY

The Langham Huntington: An iconic California hotel with a formal yet comfortable atmosphere that evokes Pasadena’s traditional, gracious way of life. There are acres of lawns and gardens, two swimming pools, tennis, and a spa with treatments inspired by traditional Chinese medicine. Opt for the Langham Club level, with exclusive access to an eighth-floor lounge and complimentary morning-to-evening meal services. 

There are 379 guestrooms including 36 suites, and eight cottages. Rates start at $425 (Superior room) and $899 (Suite); for the two-story, 3,600-square-foot Tournament of Roses Suite, contact Reservations. www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/los-angeles; 1401 S. Oak Knoll Ave., Reservations (626) 568-3900.

EAT

Osa Rooftop: At the AC Hotel; https://osarooftop.com, 540 E. Colorado Blvd.

Castle Green

If you’ve driven around Pasadena, there’s a good chance you spotted the 1898 Castle Green. It was once the annex to the Hotel Green, a lavish resort where the wealthy came to winter in sunny climes, enjoying afternoon tea and games on the lawn. President Grover Cleveland stayed here, and John D. Rockefeller was remembered fondly for tipping the staff with silver dimes. 

The hotel and annex were linked by a bridge over Raymond Avenue, but after hard times the hotel side was demolished in 1935. The annex, Castle Green, has been restored as condominium units and retains many original features, from hand-carved fireplaces and plaster moldings to vintage furniture, and the last human-operated iron-cage elevator on the West Coast. The lobby and gardens play host to weddings and also appeared in the movie Babylon with Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. The premises are not open to the public, but tours are offered twice a year, in June and December. Well worth a visit; it’s like checking in to another era. 

For information visit www.castlegreen.com; 99 S. Raymond Avenue.