by SGM (CA) Daniel M.
Sebby, Military Historian, California Military Department
On 29 April 1931, the
California National Guard acquired from the City of Pasadena
by deed a half-acre of land located at 159 North Raymond Street
for the purposes of building a multiple unit armory
The armory was built in
1932 as the home for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd
Battalion, 185th Infantry Regiment (Sixth California), and the
battalion's heavy weapons company, Company H. They remained there
until they were mobilized for World War II in March 1941. The
battalion's other three rifle companies, E, F, and G were located
in Monrovia, Pomona, and Ontario respectively.
During World War II, the
armory was occupied by the California State Guard's Headquarters
and Headquarters Company, 3rd Infantry Regiment; Headquarters
and Headquarters Detachment, 1st Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment;
and Companies A and B, 3rd Infantry Regiment. In 1943, these
units were reorganized into the Headquarters and Headquarters
Detachment, Medical Detachment, and Company A, 4th Battalion,
29th Infantry Regiment who occupied the armory until 1946.
After the war, with the
reestablishment of the California National Guard, the armory
was occupied by the following units:
Post-World War II Era
Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 223rd Infantry Regiment
Medical Company, 223rd
Infantry Regiment
Service Company, 223rd
Infantry Regiment
Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 111th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
Korean War Era
Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 111th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
3rd Holding Section, Separate
Detachment, Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, California
Army National Gua
Headquarters and Headquarters
Detachment, 2nd Group, California National Guard Reserve
Company D, 7th Battalion,
California National Guard Reserve
Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, 223rd Infantry Regiment (NGUS)
Medical Company, 223rd
Infantry Regiment (NGUS)
1st and 3rd Battalions,
223rd Infantry Regiment (NGUS)
Post-Korean War Era
Headquarters and Headquarters
Company, Combat Command C, 40th Armored Division
Company B (Clearing Station)
40th Armored Medical Battalion
There are no mentions
of this armory in the Biennial Reports of the Adjutant General
after 1962 and it is assumed that the armory was vacated.
The armory then began
its second life as a museum and today it serves as the Armory
Center for the Arts.
L.A. Weekly History
Best of L.A. Arts:
How the Armory Center evolved from Military Institution to Arts
Institution
by Tanja M. Laden, 16
August 2019
The Armory Center for the Arts prioritizes inclusion and diversity
with its bounty of free offerings.
Located roughly two blocks
north of Colorado Boulevard in Old Pasadena is the Armory Center
for the Arts, an elegant yet unassuming structure built in the
1930s with the words “California National Guard” inscribed
above the entrance. That’s because the California National
Guard Armory occupied the structure from the time it was built
in the 1930s until it was decommissioned in the 1950s, at which
point the world-champion Pasadena Badminton Club took over. Eventually,
the building fell into disrepair, the Pasadena Badminton Club
left, and the site became the property of the city of Pasadena.
In 1989, it became home to the Armory Center for the Arts, making
the Armory’s past is almost as interesting as its future.
The Armory is an outgrowth
of the education department of the former Pasadena Art Museum,
which dated back to 1922 when it was the Pasadena Art Institute.
In 1942, they merged with the brand-new Pasadena Museum of Art,
moving to what is now the Pacific Asia Museum. In 1954, the institute
changed its name to the Pasadena Art Museum, and started to focus
on acquiring and presenting modern art. One of the museum’s
many major achievements was exhibiting the country’s first
retrospective of works by Marcel Duchamp in a 1963 exhibition
curated by the legendary art world impresario Walter Hopps.
In 1969, PAM was absorbed
by the Norton Simon, and the Pasadena Art Workshops started.
In 1989, the workshops merged with Pasadena Gallery of Contemporary
Art, and what is now known as the Armory Center for the Arts
was officially — and finally — born.
Today, the Armory’s
mission is “to build on the power of art to transform lives
and communities through creating, teaching, and presenting the
arts.” To date, it’s participated in both Pacific Standard
Time initiatives, hosted solo shows of works by Robert Rauschenberg,
presented a public project by Yoko Ono, and organized a 2012
flight-based performance piece by artist Richard Jackson called
“Accidents in Abstract Painting.”
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