Collection context
Summary
Background
- Scope and content:
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The collection is split up into thirteen series. The first, the George Gill Green series, represents biographical material, correspondence, land records, bank checks, personal papers, and ephemera. The second, the Green Hotel Series, contains business reports, correspondence, menus, promotional publications, and other items published by and about Hotel Green. The third, the Castle Green Series, contains newspaper clippings, promotional publications, and miscellaneous items about Castle Green. The fourth, the Green Residence Series, includes records relating to the purchase of the Green Residence in Altadena, California, and miscellaneous items about Altadena. The fifth, the Green and the Tournament of Roses Series, includes articles relating to Hotel Green and programs of the Tournament of Roses. The sixth, the Green Laboratory and Supporting Industries Series, includes correspondence, bank drafts, patents and trademarks, and miscellaneous items relating to the Green Laboratory. The seventh, the Green Company Publications Series, includes books, almanacs, advertising cards, and related artwork produced by the Green Company of Woodbury, New Jersey. The eighth, the Green Residences in New Jersey Series includes floor plans, newspaper clippings, and publications relating to Green’s residences in New Jersey. The ninth, the Genealogy series consists of charts representing the descendants of Lewis M. Green (G.G. Green’s father) and Ephraim Smith Cleveland (Angie L. Brown’s maternal grandfather). The tenth, the Family Members series consists of obituaries, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous items relating to the members of the George G. Green and Angie L. Brown Green families. The eleventh, the Photographs Series includes photographs of Hotel Green, Castle Green, Wooster Block, Central Park, G.G. Green Residence, family photographs, New Jersey photographs, Green’s train car and boat. The twelfth series contains postcards of Hotel and Castle Green and also Hotel Green's account book and ledge from 1915-1916. The thirteenth series includes any and all oversized items including scrapbooks, certificates, photographs, and maps.
- Biographical / historical:
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George Gill Green was born in Clarksboro, Gloucester County, New Jersey, on January 16, 1842, the son of Lewis M. Green and Mary Ann Turner. His mother died in 1844 and his father married Ellen H. Banks in 1849. To that marriage, a daughter and son were born – George’s half-siblings. He attended Fort Edward Institute located north of Albany, New York, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Pennington Seminary in Pennington, New Jersey before entering medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He attended medical school in 1862, 1865, and 1866 but did not graduate. In 1864, he enlisted in the 142d Illinois Infantry for 100 days for which he received a pension as an assistant to a surgeon. He was appointed to the rank of colonel in the New Jersey State National Guard in 1887 by the Governor of New Jersey. Prior to the Civil War, he clerked in his father’s store in Greenwich Township, New Jersey. His business ventures led him to Baltimore, Maryland where he was a wholesale agent for Dr. C.G. Garrison’s Family Medicines, and Athens, Ohio where he met and married Angie Lindley Brown, daughter of Leonard Brown and Julia A. Cleveland in 1870. About 1872, he purchased his father’s factory in Woodbury, New Jersey- continuing to use his father’s recipes to make Dr. Boschee’s German Syrup and Green’s August Flower. He marketed these products by printing and publishing his own pictorial almanacs, trade cards, brochures, and calendars. In addition to a glass factory, a laboratory, and truck works that supported the main factory, he financed the construction of many other buildings, homes, and streets in Woodbury. Many were named after Green. In 1881, his father built The Green Hotel in Woodbury. In 1887, Green and Andrew McNally purchased 25 ½ acres in Gorgan Tract (Altadena, California) from Melvin E. Wood and Edwin C. Webster. In 1891, George G. Green obtained the unfinished Webster Hotel situated on the southeast corner of Raymond Avenue and Green Street (then Kansas St.) in Pasadena, California. The hotel opened in 1894 under the name The Green Hotel. Construction on Castle Green (called The Central Annex) located across the street from the Green Hotel began in 1897 with a Grand Opening on Green’s birthday in 1899. Another addition called the Wooster Block (west of Castle Green) opened in 1903. Green’s winter home was located in nearby Altadena, California. He became familiar with the “forthcoming community” called Altadena during his 1887 visit to Pasadena. In 1888, when his youngest daughter was born in Woodbury, New Jersey, Green named her “Altadena Green”. Colonel Green died in Woodbury on February 21, 1925. He was survived by his wife, Angie, and children- Mrs. Lottie Grattan (widow of William E. Grattan), Mrs. Charles P. Greene (Edythe), George G. Green, Jr., and Mrs. Robert Neustadt (Altadena). His son, Harry Brown Green, died of influenza in 1918. Colonel Green’s wife died in 1934. Colonel Green, his wife Angie, and all their children except Altadena are buried at Eglington Cemetery in Clarksboro, New Jersey. George G. Green maintained a home in Woodbury, NJ called Gray Towers, a vacation home called Kil Kare Castle at Lake Hopatcong, NJ, a hunting lodge called Foxledge in Sparta, NJ, and his winter home in Altadena, CA. One article reported he lived six months of the year in California and three months at each of the vacation homes. Through various personal relationships and businesses, he connected with other early Altadena and Pasadena residents, such as Andrew McNally, map publisher; P.D. Armour, founder of meat packing company; A.C. Armstrong, purchasing agent of the Santa Fe railroad; and Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, aeronaut, scientist and inventor. Through his wife and children, Green was acquainted with Emlen Drayton, son-in-law and governor of the New York Stock Exchange; Lewis Lupton, nephew and chemist in the G.G. Green Co.; J.H. Holmes, Green’s wife’s cousin’s husband who was manager of the Green Hotel; Benjamin Brown, his wife’s brother and shipping clerk at the company. Social events at the Hotel Green in Pasadena often featured gala events that included his daughters Edythe, a harpist, and Lottie, a vocalist. Fires brought loss to Green’s stable in New Jersey in 1885 and the death of his granddaughter, Lotta G. Greene, daughter of Edythe, in a house fire in 1922. An autographed photo in the collection indicates he knew Blanche Galton Whiffen (stage name Mrs. Whiffen) well-known Broadway actress, singer, and aunt to Agnes C. Kelleher, wife of his Colonel Green’s son George G. Green, Jr.
- Acquisition information:
- Some of this material was donated by Steven Harris in 2005 and 2010. Mr. Harris obtained photocopies of many original materials from Gay Green Ciprico Japinga of Holland, Michigan, great-granddaughter of Col. Green. Other materials were assembled by archives staff.
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- 1868-1934
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using Record Express for OAC5 on July 14, 2025, 2:54 p.m.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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Collections are open to the public for research. Use is restricted by rules intended to protect and preserve the materials in good condition for the future. For additional information please contact the Pasadena Museum of History.
- Terms of access:
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Use of the materials is governed by all applicable copyright law. The Pasadena Museum of History reserves the right to restrict any materials from reproduction at any time. Property rights reside with the Pasadena Museum of History. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. The Museum’s physical ownership of the materials in its collection does not imply ownership of copyright. It is the user’s responsibility to resolve any copyright issues related to the use and distribution of reproduced materials. For permission to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Pasadena Museum of History.
- Preferred citation:
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George G. Green Collection. Pasadena Museum of History
- Location of this collection:
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470 West Walnut StreetPasadena, CA 91103-3594, US
- Contact:
- 626.577.1660