Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Demolition of AC Library Pasadena, Where It All Started

click on all pictures to enlarge

These are the pictures that Vic Kubik ripped off from me before I watermarked the photographs. 

The picture above is looking from the site of the library annex.  
HWA's original office is the brown paneling at the top of the building.

The Fowler Estate was the very first building that HWA bought when he came to Pasadena to start his college.  It housed the library, offices and classrooms.  The Library Annex, which used to be the carriage house to the Fowler Estate has already been demolished. The entire property is in really bad shape.  The only good part is the area that Marantha bought on the lower campus and the Grove Terrace dorm.  They have dumped millions of dollars into refurbishing and property upkeep.


  GTA's old office is the top floor on the left and the remains of HWA's is top floor on right.  Middle floor was the KABC Radio, sounds recordings, typing room, and book collections.










15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm..memories. Sat many an hour in that front reading room from 18-22 year old. Seems like an hour ago.

M.T.Bookshelves

Assistant Deacon said...

What a building. Like its counterpart in Big Sandy, it exemplified the odd priorities of HWA's college. Dusty, musty, outdated volumes that were barely suitable to serious study and scholarship, all situated among glittering, ornate buildings gilded in teak, gold and the finest furnishings and decor.

A not-so-subtle message to students about what we really mattered at this "college."

Buh-bye.

Anonymous said...

That's true AD I think they stocked it with books because they had to. I often walked over to Fuller Theological Seminary to use their library when really needed. I should have stopped in at the registrars office lol

Richard said...

Gasp! You mean Gerald Flurry or David Pack were unable to move it across the country to their grounds???

Allen C. Dexter said...

I have to admit to some nostalgic feelings. I spent many hours in that building from 1955 to 1960. We used to go to the radio studio to watch Herb do the program live. We felt very privileged to be able to do so.

That building had been around a long time when he bought it. I'm not surprised that it was pretty rundown by now.

Ah, such blind cultists were we. Many of those who were there with me are now long gone, and the world doesn't miss a one of them even a little bit. Realizing how little I'll be missed is humbling.

Anonymous said...

The AC library was a complete joke. I had several term papers graded with red pen on them because my book sources were too old. When you have access to a library with limited books that go clear back to the mid 1850's how can you do an up to date term paper. I started using the Pasadena and Fuller libraries after that. The book collection was miniscule compared to other colleges in the area. It was big on pyramidology and World War II

Anonymous said...

In 1968 I found a book in that library about someone (Robert Fulton?) who had invented a prototype submarine and tried to sell it to representatives of Napolean. I am glad to see Armstrongism disappear but it is painful to me to see the campus being broken up. I was there a couple of years ago and walked all over the campus. I finally realized that it was sad to see the place in such a state of neglect, that I missed the people and I missed being 23 tears old.

Glenn Parker

Anonymous said...

I take it back: Herbert Armstrong was correct about his predictions of the end of the world.

The end of his little world.

Indeed, he was the End Time Prophet for Armstrongism.

There hasn't been one to really replace him and the WCG is so gone....

Anonymous said...

"The book collection was miniscule compared to other colleges in the area. It was big on pyramidology and World War II..."

That's interesting, because I remember reading an HWA article in the Bible Advocate in which Herbert seemed enthralled with pyramidology.

Norm

Anonymous said...

I am suprised that Gerald Flurry didn't buy the toilet in the men's room so he can sit where HWA sat.

Anonymous said...

I am suprised that Gerald Flurry didn't buy the toilet in the men's room so he can sit where HWA sat.

I think he would have, if he'd only had sufficient advance notice.

Just imagine, maybe a chunk of one of HWA's poops still clings to the inside of the toilet, waiting for Flurry to bow down and worship it, illuminated by the flickering light of the HWA candelabra.
It would be practically romantic!

That would be better than even the BEST FEAST EVER!

Norm

Painful Truth said...

Al Dexter wtote:
"Many of those who were there with me are now long gone, and the world doesn't miss a one of them even a little bit. Realizing how little I'll be missed is humbling."

It is meaningless. We are all on a journey, for what purpose I do not know. I would venture to guess that the end game is what we learned and our personal growth that we used to make a difference to those near us.

The concept of the Armstrongist becoming priests and kings is a fallacy. A laughable one at that. These people are morons that buy into the concept that HWA created. After all, he was just one of a 1,000 cult leaders in the last 100 years that made a claim as to being inspired by God. He wasn't.

Whatever is "God" is not known to the armstrongist using their Catholic created book. God is...what none of us ever thought of. The concept is beyond us. The worship unnecessary. IMHO.

Byker Bob said...

The library was right across the street from my freshman year dorm.

I can't claim to have spent a lot of time there, but did have the grounds surrounding it as part of my work as a student gardener. Students would instinctively look at the parking lot for GTA's Imperial (or Continental later), HWA's limo, or Richard Plache's Dodge Charger. It was a place where one would often see senior members of the ministry entering and exiting.

They had a listening room upstairs, and a collection of Classical music LPs. Music Appreciation class was mandatory as part of the cultural indoctrination for all students, and in conjunction with that class, you had to spend a measurable amount of time listening to the compositions of any of a number of composers.

In 1967, some farmer from Texas had isolated the bacteria naturally found in cow intestines. Called "the experiment", it was touted from the pulpit by HWA as having the capability to revive the world's deserts. To use the AC vernacular of that day, it smelled ghastly! I mean, like somebody's colon, or like manure on steroids. But, they dutifully spread it over the lawns and shrubs of the entire campus. I associate the odor with the library, because that was the area to which I was assigned.

There was also a short cut from the dorms on Grove to the student center. A walkway cut through the grounds, providing a diagonal, more direct route. The flat lawn area at the base was used for graduation ceremonies.

Love the grounds, hate the lies and scary falsehoods that were taught there. Somehow, our little underground group always managed to have fun, though!

BB

Allen C. Dexter said...

Yeah, healthy young people find ways to have fun. We did also when I was a student. Nothing too extreme, but probably would have been frowned upon by some at times.

Anonymous said...

Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.

And we had such high hopes....

Should have known.