Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Colonel Green’s Great-Great-Grandson Returns to Castle Green for Annual Spring Tour

The 127-year-old Pasadena landmark opens June 14 with Eaton Fire recovery art and a family reunion more than a century in the making

More than 127 years after Colonel George G. Green opened the doors to his Moorish fantasy of a hotel, his great-great-grandson will walk through them.

Scott Drake, a descendant of the Civil War veteran and patent-medicine entrepreneur who built Castle Green in 1898, will appear as special guest speaker when the Old Pasadena landmark opens for its annual spring tour on Sunday, June 14. It is, according to the Friends of the Castle Green, the first time a member of the founding family has been featured at the event.

The self-guided tour runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine, and includes access to the building’s original Moorish and Turkish rooms, Grand Salon, sunroom, grand staircase, and select private apartments spaces the public can enter only twice a year. Two historic talks will be offered during the afternoon. The Bridge Gallery will host an exhibit on the life and legacy of Colonel Green, whose Pasadena hotel empire once drew the Rockefellers and Roosevelts to spend their winters in Southern California. The Hotel Green was also the early home of both the Tournament of Roses and the Valley Hunt Club. Green himself lived in a mansion in nearby Altadena.

That Altadena connection carries new weight this year. The tour will display watercolors from Keni Arts’s “Beauty for Ashes” series, which documents the Altadena neighborhood before and after the January 2025 Eaton Fire. The artist, whose given name is Keni Davis, lost his home, studio, and decades of paintings in the blaze that destroyed more than 9,000 structures across the community. Six artists from the Alta Arts Collective, an Altadena-based organization that promotes local arts, will sell their work on the Castle Green veranda.

“Art is a process more than a product; it doesn’t start with the paint, nor does it end with the picture,” Keni Arts said in a statement through the Altadena Library about his “Beauty for Ashes” exhibition in 2025.

The building itself stands as a testament to what preservation can protect. Designed by architect Frederick I. Roehrig, the imposing structure blends Moorish, Spanish, and Victorian architectural styles, with domes, cylindrical towers, arched balconies, and verandahs. Inside, visitors will find original plaster moldings, hand-carved fireplace mantles, and original lighting fixtures that have survived since the building’s opening in 1899. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and is listed on the State Historic Register and the City of Pasadena’s roster of Historic Places. In 1924, a group of regular hotel guests purchased the building and converted it into individually owned condominiums, which it remains today — making the tour one of the few chances to see how modern residents live within 127-year-old walls.

The Friends of the Castle Green, a nonprofit formed in 1993, has spent more than three decades restoring the building’s interior and exterior. The group’s current focus is the restoration of three domes — two on the roof and one at the end of the bridge — a multi-year project. Work on the bridge dome was completed in 2024, according to the organization’s website. Tour proceeds fund these ongoing restorations.

“We are hopeful by having a tour, we help people appreciate what good preservation does for a building and a community,” Susan Futterman, chair of the Friends of the Castle Green, said in 2025 coverage by Pasadena Now.

Futterman has described the tour as an immersive experience rather than a hands-off museum visit. In a 2024 interview with the Pasadena Weekly, she said the building carries deep meaning for the city. “This is the last remaining hotel that is virtually intact,” she said. “In Pasadena, we’re wild about our history.”

Also on display will be an architectural clay model of Castle Green created in 1965 by ceramist Rubio Lief Kallis for a USC master’s project, which was donated to the landmark, along with artifacts from the Castle Green archives.

Tickets are $50 and are available through Eventbrite at eventbrite.com or at the gate on the day of the event. Picnic lunch boxes from Old Pasadena café Neighbors and Friends can be pre-ordered through June 10; visitors may also bring their own picnic baskets, though no alcohol is permitted. The building has steps at the entrance and six flights of stairs to reach the upper-floor apartments; limited elevator service is available for those with mobility issues. Parking is available at the School House Parking Structure at 33 E. Green St. and the Del Mar Station structure at 230 S. Raymond Ave., which is also a Metro stop. For information, contact Susan Futterman at susanfutterman@mac.com or 626-824-8482.

Colonel Green built his hotel for visitors escaping Eastern winters. His great-grandson is making the trip west for a different reason — to see what 127 years of Pasadena stewardship have kept standing.

Castle Green Spring Home Tour (June 14) Date: Sunday, June 14, 2026 Venue: Castle Green, 99 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105 (Old Pasadena) Link: https://www.oldpasadena.org/visit/directory/view/261/castle-green