Historic Preservation

The City’s historic preservation program promotes the identification, evaluation, rehabilitation, adaptive use, and restoration of historic structures. The links below will guide you to a wide variety of detailed information about the City designated and surveyed historic properties and districts, the process and criteria related to the designation of historic sites and districts and the process for obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness for new construction, alterations, additions, re-locations, or demolitions within a historic site or district.

In 2012, the City of Pasadena received a grant from the California Office of Historic Preservation, through the Certified Local Government program, to create a public information program about historic resources in Pasadena. Take a tour using the web or download the Historic Pasadena Smart Phone App.

The California Historical Resources Inventory Database (CHRID) is a searchable, interactive database of historic properties that contains information about every designated historic property and district in the city and many other properties and districts that have been identified in recent historic resources surveys including the city’s most recent citywide survey of buildings constructed in the Mid-twentieth Century (1935 – 1965).

Download CHRID Tutorial

Learn about the different types of historic designation, effects of designation and incentives available to owners of designated historic properties.

A historic resources survey identifies and evaluates historic resources within a particular geographic area or based on a particular type of resource (i.e. multifamily housing, specific architectural styles, etc.).

Read the Historic Preservation chapter of the Zoning Code

Advisory body to the City Council on the promotion, protection and use of Pasadena cultural resources. It recommends the designation of individual historic resources and landmark districts, and reviews applications for Certificates of Appropriateness for major alterations to and demolitions of historic resources.

May is Preservation Month, an effort spearheaded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that began in 1971 as Preservation Week and was expanded to a month-long celebration in 2005. In Pasadena, historic preservation month has been celebrated since 2004 with an annual awards program that recognizes positive contributions to historic preservation in the city.

The Historic Preservation Commission may recommend that a structure of historical significance be relocated rather than demolished. Relocation may be within the city or outside the city limits. When moving the building to another site within Pasadena, adherence to building permit procedures is required.

Use this interactive map to locate and obtain information about designated historic resources. Click the box next to “Historic Properties” to turn on this map layer.

Find information about historic resource surveys, historic gardens, and other landmarks throughout Pasadena.

Documents and links to information related to the City’s Historic Preservation Program, including a link to application forms and submittal checklists for Historic Preservation reviews.