Pasadena is located on land originally occupied by the Hahamogna Tribe of Indians and later part of the San Gabriel Mission (1771) of the California Mission Chain.
The Hahamognas lived in villages scattered along the Arroyo Seco and the canyons from the mountains down to the South Pasadena area. They lived on local game and vegetation.
With the arrival of the Spaniards and the establishment of the San Gabriel Mission on September 8, 1771, the Indians were subjugated, converted, and forced to labor for the mission. The San Gabriel Mission, the fourth in California, grew prosperous, with abundant orchards, vineyards and herds. The vast lands which it administered for the Spanish Crown were divided into ranchos.
After the rule of California passed from Spain to Mexico, the Mexican government in 1833 secularized the mission lands and awarded them to individuals. The northeast corner of San Gabriel Mission, consisting of the 14,000 acres known as Rancho el Rincon de San Pascual, had previously been gifted in 1826 by the padres to Doña Eulalia Pérez de Guillen, noted for her advanced age as well as her devoted service to the mission. On February 18, 1835, it was formally granted by the Mexican government to her husband, Don Juan Mariné. He and his sons subsequently lost the land which changed ownership a few more times before being granted on November 28, 1843, by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to his good friend, Colonel Manuel Garfias, son of a distinguished Mexican family.
Farmers, who came from Indiana in 1874, founded an Indiana Colony here.On April 22, 1875, the stockholders of the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association formally named their community “Pasadena.” A Chippewa Indian word for “Valley,” the name has also been interpreted as “Key of the Valley” or “Crown of the Valley.” The adoption of both crown and key in the official city seal reflect these meanings.
In 1852, two years after California was admitted as a state to the Union, Garfias built an adobe hacienda on the east bank of the Arroyo, where he and his family proceeded to live in grand style, until he could not meet the interest payment due on a loan. Title to the land was then transferred in 1859 to his lenders, Dr. John S. Griffin and Benjamin “Don Benito” Wilson. Portions of the Rancho San Pasqual were thereafter sold, leaving Griffin and Wilson with 5,328 acres in 1873.
The city of Pasadena founded in the year 1874 and then incorporated in the year 1886.
The amount of land area in Pasadena is 59.549 sq. kilometers.
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