A Historic Home for Pasadena Central Library’s Books

At left, Led Zepplin performs in May 1969 in the Rose Palace Building in Pasadena. At right, in late February crews erected rows of shelving to house hundreds of thousands of books formerly at Pasadena’s Central Library, while it undergoes extensive seismic retrofitting.

One of Pasadena’s most historic rock and roll venues is about to become the new temporary home for thousands of books and materials from The Pasadena Central Library branch.

The City-owned Rose Palace Building at 835 South Raymond Avenue, which hosted scores of rock shows through the late 60s and early 70s, will now house 300,000 circulating and reference materials, while the central branch undergoes needed seismic repairs. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Led Zeppelin, The Byrds, The Grateful Dead, The Who and Joe Cocker all played the venue.

The building was originally built by Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association in 1964, for the construction of floats for the Tournament of Roses Parade, one of three “float barns” built for float construction in the mid-1900s. It became a rock venue in the spring and summers between float construction seasons.

The Central Library materials will be stored temporarily at the city-owned building, according to Catherine Haskett Hany, communications director for the Pasadena Central Branch Library.

The collection will be kept at the Palace location until the library reopens.

As Hany explained, an assessment of the nearly 100-year-old building’s condition and its various systems was completed in 2020.

The inspection revealed that the building consists of an unreinforced masonry structure, with walls that are not fastened to the building’s foundation or to the reinforced concrete floor beams and timber roof they support. A preliminary structural analysis of the building in April 2021 also revealed that the building was subject to collapse in an earthquake.

The Central Library was officially closed by City officials on May 3, 2021, pending a complete seismic retrofit and restoration.

Rows of shelves have now been completed and are ready to be filled with the Central Library’s collection, according to City officials.

In an email interview, Hany told Pasadena Now that library patrons will be able to access the books and materials stored there by requesting a particular item through the library catalog online, or at one of the city’s s ten library branches. Items will then be delivered to whichever branch library the patron has selected.

The warehouse building will not be accessible to the public, Hany emphasized.

While Central Library tables, chairs and lamps have already been moved to the new location, the library has begun sanding and varnishing the furniture items in preparation for Central Library’s reopening.

The construction phase for the Central Library Retrofit and Renovations Project is anticipated to begin in summer 2025 and last approximately 30 to 36 months, according to the City’s website.