First Presbyterian Church, 1875 (Photo courtesy of Pasadena Museum of History). Stained Glass Windows (Photos – Marina Khrustaleva)
Light Through the Oldest Stained Glass in Town.
By Marina Khrustaleva
Pasadena is home to spirituality and art, and it always was. Early congregations started gathering and building their tiny churches in the mid-1870s.
As they grew, they moved into bigger buildings, selling old ones to smaller groups who would often relocate them to a new site in town. The palette of Pasadena’s spiritual life changed from parishioners of European descent (English, German, Swedish, Norwegian) and African American groups to a larger diversity including Mexican, Guatemalan, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Thai, and Armenian.
Between the early 1880s and late 1920s, each of the major congregations built three or four edifices. Very few of the older structures survived: they experienced wind storms, earthquakes, lack of maintenance, and large-scale development. It makes several remaining pre-World War I church buildings in Pasadena even more valuable. The most vulnerable part of these buildings – stained glass – keeps sending us the same rays of magical light that our predecessors were enlightened with a century and a half ago.
(L-R) Church of the Angels, 1100 Avenue 64, 1889. The “Resurrection” window was created by Cox & Buckley Company in London.
– La Iglesia de Dios de la Profecia (originally All Saints Episcopal Church, relocated in 1892), 101 East Claremont Street, 1886. The small window behind the altar likely belonged to the original church built at the corner of Colorado and Garfield (where the goat statue now is).
– Holy Assembly Church of God in Christ (originally First Friends Church, relocated in 1894), 485 North Raymond Avenue, 1886 (Photos – Marina Khrustaleva)
(L-R) Community Church at Holliston (originally First Methodist Episcopal Church, relocated stone by stone in 1924), 1305 East Colorado Boulevard, 1900.
– Grace Brethren Church, 920 Fremont Avenue, South Pasadena, 1907 (contains the Sunday School annex of Pasadena’s First Presbyterian Church, 1903).
– The tall windows belong to the oldest church building in Pasadena built in 1875. Iglesia Harvest Rock (originally First Adventist Community Church), 400 N. Marengo Avenue, 1905 (Photos – Marina Khrustaleva)
(L-R) St. James Episcopal Church, 1325 Monterey Road, South Pasadena, 1907.
– Sure Foundation Christian Fellowship (originally North Pasadena Methodist Episcopal Church), 199 East Washington Boulevard, 1905.
– Blessed Hope Cristian Church (originally Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church), 474 North Summit Avenue, 1909 (Photos – Marina Khrustaleva)
(L-R) Gospel Tabernacle (now a residence), 125 Electric Drive, 1909.
– Throop Church stained glass windows created by Charles J. Connick, a master craftsman of the medium. 300 S. Los Robles Ave., 1922.
– Meditation Chapel, Fuller Theological Seminary, 135 N Oakland Ave, the 1980s (Photos – Marina Khrustaleva)
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