Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Descriptive Summary
Title: Carr Family Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1870-1936
Origination:
Carr Family
Extent: 1 Box
Repository:
Pasadena Museum of History
Pasadena, California 91103-3594
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is 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.
Publication Rights
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 responibility to reslove 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
Suggested citation of these records: [Identification of item], Carr Family Collection, Research Library and Archives, Pasadena
Museum of History.
Biographical Note
After a career in academics, Dr. Ezra Slocum Carr (1819-1894) was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction for the
State of California in 1875 or 76. His wife, Jeanne C. Carr (-1903) was Assistant Superintendent of Education and a writer.
They had two surviving children: Edward C. (1848-1929) and Albert Lee (1857-1937).
In 1880, the Carrs retired to Pasadena with the intention of raising orange and fruit groves on their property, named Carmelita.
Carmelita stretched from Orange Grove to Fair Oaks along Colorado Boulevard (the present day site of the Norton Simon Museum).
Jeanne Carr is credited with being the first person to package and market oranges for shipment to the East and Europe. However,
while their orchard flourished the Carrs' financial venture failed. So to capitalize on Pasadena's growing tourist trade,
the Carrs built a boarding house, which was said by historians to have been the cultural center of all Southern California
during the 1880s. Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, William Keith, the artist, and Helen Modjeska, the Polish opera singer,
were among those who stayed with the Carrs. Supposedly, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote part of her famous novel,
Ramona in a cabin on the grounds of Carmelita.
Financial problems forced the Carrs to sell the house and property to Mr. and Mrs. Simon Reed (founders of Reed College in
Oregon) in 1892.
Helen Gilloon, 1977
Scope and Content
The Carr Family Collection (1870 - 1936) includes family papers, legal papers (including deed for Carmelita), correspondence,
sketches, photographs,
Trail of Yesterday transcript (by A.L. Carr) with paste-up of illustrations and some original photographs.