This Altadena park has it all – an amphitheater, craftsman rec center, pickleball, even a horseshoe court!

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 7, 1997

Sitting at the tippy top of Lake Ave., right on the toenails of the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains, this park has EVERYTHING: lush grass, BBQ and picnic areas, an amphitheater & concert series, a playground, an old grove of cedar trees, baseball field, basketball, tennis and pickle ball courts, even a freakin’ HORSESHOE court, all dating back from the WPA era.

It’s also got plenty of history. Originally intended as a nursery for LA County, the property was converted into a proper park in the ‘30s at the urging of Major General Charles Farnsworth (a WWI vet who had retired to Altadena), and another distinguished Altadena resident William D. Davies. Davies planned the community center (completed in 1934) and Farnsworth designed the park (completed in 1938); they were finished in part thanks to PWA and WPA funds and local labor. Both the park and the building were later renamed after the two men.

The two-story Davies Memorial Building is a thing to behold – it reflects the influence of the arts & crafts movement, with its naturalistic walls of stone and shingle, and the handmade light fixtures and fire screens on the inside (or so I’ve seen in pictures – it was closed when we visited). All the more reason to return.

Recommended Reading

+Farnsworth Park @ NRHP website

+Farnsworth Park @ the LA County Parks & Recreation site

+Altadena Historical Society website