Added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 21, 2002

The janitorial and landscaping crews at the Azusa Civic Center complex deserve a raise. When I visited on a sunny day in fall of 2023, the walls gleamed a blinding white; not a frond had fallen from the four palm trees in the main courtyard, and every trash can was empty. Granted I was there on a federal holiday, so there weren’t any visitors or employees to muck anything up. But still, it’s clear that the city takes pride in keeping this landmark to its longevity in tip-top shape. 

The Azusa Civic Center is located on a two-acre parcel between Alameda & Dalton Avenues, on the north side of Foothill Boulevard – aka Historic Route 66. It’s composed of three single-story buildings: Azusa City Hall on the west, the Azusa Auditorium on the east, and an admin building in the center. While they were constructed over a span of 47 years, these three buildings hang together visually with a simpatico Spanish colonial revival style. You know it – that combo of creamy stucco, red barrel-tiled roofs and wrought iron decorations. Spanish colonial revival flourished in Los Angeles in the 1920s, after architect Bertram Goodhue popularized it at the San Diego Panama-California Exposition. Many saw the style, and its toned-down mission revival cousin, as a truly regional architecture for southern California, a link to its Spanish and Mexican past.

For thousands of years, the Tongva-Gabrieliño were stewards of the San Gabriel Valley. The name “Azusa” comes from the name of a nearby Tongva settlement, Asuksa-nga, first recorded by Father Juan Crespi as he headed north with Gaspar de Portolá’s expedition party in 1769. In 1841, the Mexican government gave a land grant to Luis Arenas, former mayor of Los Angeles, including what would later become the City of Azusa. Arenas grew crops and raised livestock for just a few years; in 1844 he sold the land to a wealthy English merchant named Henry (or Don Enrique) Dalton, who operated a winery, distillery and flour mill on the land. Later on, Dalton became the first person to import honeybees to the US. FUN FACT: he’s also the great-great-grandfather of Linda Ronstadt.

Dalton either lost or was forced to sell off much of his holdings, in a decades-long series of boundary disputes, legal troubles and natural calamities that beset him beginning in the 1850s. It’s a long convoluted story, which you can (and should!) read on the Homestead Blog. Suffice it to say, by the time Dalton died in 1884, the vast majority of his land had been sold to Jonathan Slauson, one of LA’s first bankers. Today Dalton is immortalized with Dalton Avenue, which runs right past the Azusa Civic Center’s eastern edge. 

Slauson laid out the town of Azusa in 1887, and began selling off lots to new residents. Over 800 people lived there by 1898, the year that Azusa was incorporated as a city. And as it grew, so did the need for civic services. 

The Azusa Civic Center complex has its roots in a lovely classical revival library by architect Norman Marsh. It was built in 1910 with a $10,000 grant from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, as part of Carnegie’s worldwide library-funding program (see my visits to the Cahuenga Branch and Lincoln Heights Branch for extant examples of Carnegie libraries in LA). The City of Azusa provided a park for the site, and the local Woman’s Club secured furniture for the children’s book area. 

In the history of Azusa, the present year will stand out as a memorable one by reason of the fact that it has witnessed the completion of the new city hall and the creation of the park in which it stands as the center of civic activities. 

With the new building furnished and occupied, Azusa may now boast of one of the finest civic buildings possessed by any Southern California city of near size.

Azusa Herald, August 9, 1928

By the late 1920s, Azusa’s population was creeping towards 5000, so the City decided to step up its building game. They brought in architect Richard M. Bates, Jr. to augment the existing library with the City Hall and Auditorium buildings to the west and east, respectively. Finished in 1928, the complex was arranged in a U shape around a central courtyard. Bates connected the three buildings with a Spanish colonial style arcade, which also partially obscured the 1910 library’s colonial facade, helping to smooth over its aesthetic departure from the 1928 buildings.

The City Hall building in the west wing historically housed the unsexy departments, like the treasury office, court clerk and water and light departments were based out of the west wing; when it opened there was a small emergency hospital. The police chief and fire departments were there too, but have since moved to their own facilities nearby. These days, the City Hall building houses the HR, engineering, information technology and economic and community development divisions.

The Auditorium in the east wing has always been home base for the Azusa City Council. It also witnessed movie screenings, movie filming (anyone remember 3 Ninjas?), dance recitals, local beauty pageants and court cases. Will Rogers once appeared in front of judge John Durrell here after he was fined $100 for speeding. But Rogers had the last laugh: the famous US Route 66, which passes right by the Civic Center on Foothill Boulevard, was unofficially renamed the “Will Rogers Memorial Highway” in 1952, the same year that Durrell retired.

In 1959 Azusa built a brand new library just to the northeast of the Civic Center. Without a need for the 1910 Carnegie library anymore, they converted the middle building into an admin office for City Hall, housing the Mayor’s office, city clerk’s office, finance department and City Council offices. The building was deemed unsafe after the Sylmar earthquake of 1971, demolished in 1974 and replaced in 1975 with the stronger, two-story building that we see today. The ‘70s version of the arcade still retains some of the Spanish colonial character of Richard M. Bates’s version, with arches of white stucco and red-tiled roof. But it’s perhaps a more formalist interpretation of that vibe – the arches are taller, and the arcade has less ornamentation than its predecessor. 

Also new in 1975 was a fountain in the central courtyard, a gift from Azusa’s sister city of Zacatecas, Mexico. The base of this fountain was originally a fishpond, constructed in 1909, the year before the completion of the original Carnegie library. The fishpond’s original perimeter walls still serve as the base of the fountain. 

There’s an old running gag from the Jack Benny radio show (see a filmed version here) where he goes to a train station and the train caller (played by Mel Blanc) makes increasingly strange announcements about a “Train leaving on track five for Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga.” To honor Benny for bringing their towns to national attention, officials from the three cities declared December 15, 1965 as Jack Benny Day. Benny was treated to a parade, and named an honorary citizen of all three cities, tax exempt for one year. In return he gave the officials signed portraits of himself. And wouldn’t you know it, the ceremony took place at the Azusa Civic Center.

Azusa is now a city of some 50,000 residents. As it’s grown and evolved, the Civic Center has stayed at the center of the city’s civic life, but also helped Azusa remember its past. A stone monument, dedicated to the memory of Azusa’s pioneers, has graced the entrance walkway since 1932. Multiple memorials to the city’s war casualties and military veterans adorn the park surrounding the Civic Center. On the north end of the park you’ll find the Azusa Historical Museum; next door is a 1903 schoolhouse, awaiting restoration, where Mexican students were once segregated and taught “Americanization” lessons. Buried in the ground in the courtyard is a time capsule, buried in 2000 and set to be uncovered on July 4, 2025. Just imagine what you can learn from a visit to the Azusa Civic Center when it’s not a federal holiday.

Thank you to Julianna Randisi, Adult Services Librarian at the Azusa City Library, for sourcing historic photos and background information about the library 

Sources & Recommended Reading

+ “Azusa History” (www.azusaca.gov)

+ Bogren, Ken and Delores: “Azusa City Hall” (Route66times.com)

+ Doernberg, Jerry: “Anaheim, Azusa, Cucamonga Return the Call: JACK BENNY DAY” (Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1965 – via ProQuest)

+ Kines, Mark Tapio: “Dalton Avenue” (LA Street Names)

+ Masum M. Azizi, AIA, Azizi Architects: Azusa CIvic Center’s NRHP nomination form

+ “New City Hall of Spanish Architecture Most Beautiful In San Gabriel Valley” (Azusa Herald, August 9, 1928)

+ Spitzzeri, Paul R: “Sharing History Through the Viewfinder with the Azusa Historical Society” (The Homestead Blog, February 17, 2019)

+ Spitzzeri, Paul R: “Sharing Some History About Henry Dalton of Rancho Azusa, 1804-1884” (The Homestead Blog, January 24, 2023)