Orange Grove Boulevard (Pasadena)

Orange Grove Boulevard is a main thoroughfare in Pasadena and South Pasadena, California. Each New Year's Day, the Rose Parade participants and floats line up before dawn on Orange Grove Boulevard, facing north, for the beginning of the parade. South Orange Grove has been the address of the affluent, both the famous and the infamous, since the early 1900s. The Los Angeles Times said: "When a stranger comes to Pasadena now, the real-estate agent shows him Orange Grove Avenue.

Orange Grove Boulevard is one street of several exclusive residential districts in Pasadena. Since the early 20th century, because of the number of landmark mansions, the street earned the name Millionaire's Row, an appropriate nickname, considering that the estates that once lined this spacious boulevard and the surrounding neighborhood read like a Who's Who of American consumer products. The maker of Wrigley's chewing gum, William Wrigley Jr.'s, significant home was proffered to the city of Pasadena after Mrs. Wrigley's death in 1958, under the condition that their home would be the Rose Parade's permanent headquarters. The stately Tournament House stands on Orange Grove Blvd. today, and serves as the headquarters for the Tournament of Roses Parade. In wartime 1942, Orange Grove Boulevard was used as an alternate route for the Rose Parade to avoid an enemy attack.

Formerly referred to as Mountain Avenue, North Orange Grove Boulevard is home to the exquisite Gamble House. North of Holly Street, the road bends northeast, ending at North Fair Oaks Avenue. The home of David Gamble, son of consumer product maker James Gamble of Procter & Gamble, is located on the north end of Orange Grove Blvd. The Gamble House, an American Craftsman masterpiece, was built in 1908, by architects Charles and Henry Greene, as an exemplification of their Ultimate bungalow. It is open to the public as both an architectural conservancy and museum. The Gamble House is a California Historical Landmark and a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1966 it was deeded to the city of Pasadena in a mutual agreement with the University of Southern California School of Architecture. Ever since that time, two USC architecture students per year have been selected to live in the house full-time.

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