How Much Did a Rose Parade Float Cost in 1941?

About $800 to $1000.   Accounting for inflation, that would be equal to about $16,000 in 2015 money. (Today a float cost upwards of $250,000)

The Altadena Chamber of Commerce sponsored the 1942 float and in 1941 raised funds directly from the community.  Most people gave between $1 and $5 dollars.  The largest donation was $100.

The Chamber kept a record of who gave how much.

This is how the Chamber described the float:  

"On an oval base 24 feet long and 12 feet wide, all in solid heather, will be placed a large shield with an open center, topped by a beautiful golden eagle with seven foot wing spread.  Directly below the eagle is a gorgeous flower ribbon bearing the words, "Lest we Forget".

List of flowers:

• 2500 sprays of heather
• 500 red hot-house roses
• 7500 Delphinium and corn flowers
• 10,000 white pom-pom chrysanthemums
• 18,000 white narcissus, maiden hair fern and other greens
• 5,000 sweet pea flowers
• 5,000 soleil d'or and yellow and bronze mums
• Lily of Valley as funds allow 

 "America's Heroes"

Today, Rose Parade floats cost upwards of a quarter million dollars.  Altadena was priced out of the pageant in the late 1960s when cost climbed to around $10,000. (That would be equal to $67,000 in today's money.)

Visit AHS to see an exhibit featuring Altadena's participation in the Rose Parade during the last seven decades.  We're open Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, 9 am to 1 pm.

Our special hours are Saturdays from 2 pm to 4 pm through January 12, 2016.  That means you can come in January 2 if you're looking for something fun for all those bored house guests.

Tournament of Roses Parade Exhibit "Altadena in the Rose Parade" Opens December 6, 2015

Featuring documents, parade programs, photographs and clippings, the inaugural show in AHS' new exhibit space celebrates our community's seven decades of participation in the internationally known event. The exhibit will run through June 30, 2016.

Altadena's 1956 entry The Rose Tattoo
inspired by the Pulitzer prize winning play
of Tennessee Williams

A free exhibit open to members and the public

Exhibit Hours:
Monday, Tuesday and Friday, 9 am to 1 pm

Special hours: 
Saturdays January 1 and 9 from 2 pm to 4 pm

Altadena Historical Society is in the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Dr., Altadena, CA 91001

Historic Echo Mt. Trail Sign Installed in Altadena Community Center Courtyard

Efforts by Altadena Historical Society and Los Angeles County staff have resulted in the installation of the historic Echo Mt. Trail signpost in the courtyard of Altadena Community Center - a project 12 years in the making. 

The concrete sign with an arrow pointing to the trail head was found by Altadenan Jack Stivers after the Mt. Lowe railway was discontinued and the tracks torn out in the early 1940s. Jack donated the signpost to AHS in 2003, with the wish that it be erected at the new Community Center, a Los Angeles County facility.  The sign remained in storage until AHS and the county recently renewed efforts to get the artifact installed.

Front row left to right: AHS president Jane Brackman,
Mackone Development superintendent Raymond Gonzalez, Community Center staff Lorraine Contreras and Community Center and Senior Center director Liliana Garcia 

Altadena's New Museum

You donations are building the new Altadena museum! 

Not quite this big

With your financial support, we'll  renovate the 250 square ft corridor leading from our entrance doors to create an efficient museum space with permanent walls and movable partitions, display cases for artifacts and documents, modern graphics and spotlighting.

Sara Noble Ives sent her check early.

The museum space will showcase revolving exhibits of all imaginable facets of Altadena history drawn from the thousands of historical photographs, newspapers, letters and postcards, maps and ephemera that pack the Society’s space.

Wouldn't you like to see what's in all these boxes?

            

We're Almost There

Two anonymous Altadena donors have kicked off the campaign with promises to match donations to $6,250-- challenge grants that, with your support, could raise $12,500 toward the museum project. We're more than two thirds way to our goal. Everyone is helping!

            

Museum support from Zane Grey?
He would if he could.

Please take time now, as the tax year comes to a close, to write a check to AHS and make this much needed project a reality. Send your donation to AHS, 730 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena CA 91001.

Altadena Green: The True Story of How She Got Her Name

Celebrating Webster’s Community Pharmacy’s 87th year serving our town, AHS is proud to feature rotating exhibits telling stories of local history and the people who shaped it. Our new exhibit, Altadena Green: The True Story of How She Got Her Name will be at Webster’s April through August, 2014.  

Altadena Green was the fifth and last child of Angie Brown Green and Col. George Gill Green. Born in 1889, the same year the family moved into their new home on Altadena’s Mariposa St., she was 18 years younger than her oldest sibling. Although many people think the community was named after her, in fact she was named after Altadena.  

April 11 is Webster’s Community Pharmacy’s first Food Truck Friday event of the season.  Come enjoy food, friends, and stop in to see the exhibit.