"We do the kind of preservation that needs to be done on a building that is now 126 years old," Susan Futterman, chair of Friends of the Castle Green, told Pasadena Now in a 2025 interview. "We are hopeful by having a tour, we help people appreciate what good preservation does for a building and a community."
She was talking about the June tour. Castle Green, the Moorish landmark at Raymond Avenue and Green Street, opens to the public only twice a year: once in June and once in December. The two dates have different hosts. The building's own events page credits the summer open house to the nonprofit Friends of the Castle Green. The Annual Holiday Tour, on Sunday, December 13, 2026, is listed and ticketed by Castle Green itself, with its own caterer, a DJ and a photobooth. If you've walked past the domes for years and plan to finally go inside this December, the difference shapes what you'll see.
Two open days, compared
The June 14, 2026 open house and the December 13 Holiday Tour share a building and a self-guided format. Most of the details differ.
| Spring open house, June 14, 2026 | Holiday Tour, December 13, 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Host | Friends of the Castle Green, a nonprofit formed in 1993 | Castle Green |
| Hours | 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. | 11 a.m. early access, general arrival 12 to 2 p.m., ends at 3 p.m. |
| Price | $50 through Eventbrite or at the gate | $75 early access, $60 general admission |
| Emphasis | Moorish and Turkish rooms, Grand Salon, Palm Court, restored bridge interior, two history talks, pop-up archive museum | Ground floor, the Bridge, 20+ residential units and the Penthouse |
| Extras | Food from Neighbors and Friends available to order ahead, picnics welcome | Holiday snacks and non-alcoholic drinks while supplies last, CS Arts student performances, photobooth, lawn games if weather permits |
The June program this year leaned into history. Scott Drake, a great-great-grandson of Colonel George Gill Green, appeared as a featured guest. The Bridge Gallery exhibit traced the Colonel's patent-medicine fortune, built on elixirs sold as Green's August Flower and Boschee's German Syrup, and his family's ties to Altadena. Pasadena Now's coverage of the spring tour also noted art tied to recovery from the Eaton Fire.
December puts the homes first. The official Holiday Tour page promises access to "20+ residential units" and the Penthouse. That's a deeper look at private apartments than the "select private apartments" in the June program.
What the June ticket has already paid for
The Friends describe public tours as the main way they have funded their projects. Their most visible recent work hangs over the sidewalk. The dome at the end of the pedestrian bridge was restored in the summer of 2024. Pasadena Now reported the job cost more than $30,000 and was paid for entirely from earlier tour proceeds. During the work, restorers found the dome was copper, not the sheet metal they had assumed.
Earlier projects are visible from the veranda. The group had the veranda and sunroom lanterns reproduced by the Seattle glass artist Janusz Pozniak, and the metal lanterns by the local metal artisan Rinauldo's Reproduction. The work in progress is overhead. The Friends are now raising money to restore and paint the two domes on the roof, which their site calls a multiyear effort. All of this follows the Secretary of the Interior's standards for historic preservation.
Some of the oversight comes from outside the building. Pasadena Heritage has held a conservation easement on the exterior facade since 1988. The same few people show up on both sides. James Marrin, a Castle Green resident, co-founded Pasadena Heritage in 1977. He later co-founded Friends of the Castle Green in 1993 and chaired it for more than 30 years. Pasadena Heritage honored him among its living co-founders when it opened its 50th anniversary celebration in July 2026.
The Holiday Tour page says nothing about where its ticket revenue goes. So the restoration record above belongs to the June open house. December's tickets pay for a different experience.
A hotel annex that became private homes a century ago
Both tours are rare for the same reason: Castle Green is mostly private homes. The building now holds about 50 individually owned condominiums. A 1995 Los Angeles Times account called it one of California's first condominiums. How it got there:
- 1898. Architect Frederick L. Roehrig designs the Central Annex, the second of three buildings in Colonel Green's Hotel Green complex. It mixes Moorish, Spanish and Victorian elements over structural steel, brick walls and concrete floors. It was Pasadena's first fireproof building, built after a fire destroyed the nearby Raymond Hotel.
- January 16, 1899. The annex opens and becomes a winter destination for wealthy East Coast visitors. The Hotel Green hosts presidents and serves as home to the Tournament of Roses and the Valley Hunt Club.
- 1924. As the resort era fades, a group of regular guests buys the complex and divides the annex into individually owned apartments. The building's own timeline dates its cooperative apartments to 1926.
- 1929. The bridge's link across Raymond Avenue is cut. The shortened bridge and its pavilion survive on the Castle Green side. That's the Bridge on both tours.
- Mid-1930s. The original main Hotel Green across Raymond is torn down. The surviving 1903 expansion later becomes Green Hotel Apartments.
- November 12, 1982. Castle Green is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also on the state register and the City of Pasadena's register.
Outside the two tour days, the public spaces see steady use. The ground floor and grounds book weddings and events. The building also takes production appointments through its filming office, which lists The Sting, The Last Samurai, Wild at Heart, Bugsy, The Prestige and Babylon, plus television series including The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alias. You may already know the Palm Court and the grand staircase from the screen. The apartments are what the screen doesn't show, and in June each one is decorated to its owner's taste. December opens more than 20 of them at once.
Planning around December 13
The Holiday Tour is self-guided. The building estimates about an hour to walk it, but you can stay until 3 p.m. A few practical details:
- Arrival window. Early-access tickets admit a limited number of guests at 11 a.m. General admission guests can arrive anytime from 12 to 2 p.m. Tickets are sold through Eventbrite.
- Stairs. During the holiday event, elevator service is reserved for accessibility needs. For the June tour, Pasadena Now reported six flights of stairs up to the open apartments. The same building may well ask the same of you in December. One elevator is worth a look either way. The Old Pasadena directory calls it the oldest wrought-iron, man-operated elevator on the West Coast.
- Parking and transit. The building points visitors to the School House Parking Structure at 33 E. Green St. For the June tour, Pasadena Now also listed Del Mar Station Parking at 230 S. Raymond Ave., which doubles as a Metro stop a short walk down Raymond.
- Food. Tickets include bite-sized holiday snacks and non-alcoholic drinks while supplies last. Food and drinks from the event caterer are also available.
If December gets you interested in the history talks and the archive pop-up, with its castings of the building's "grotesques" and the plasterwork used to restore the bridge exterior, put the June open house on your calendar too. That ticket goes to the group raising money for the two roof domes.
Castle Green shows how long Pasadena has been refining the idea of a well-made home in a shared building. Uptown Luxury Condos at 139 S. Oak Knoll Ave. carries that idea into new construction: 17 one- and two-bedroom residences with private balconies and a rooftop amenity space, and you don't have to wait for June or December to see inside. Schedule a private tour with Shahe Seuylemezian of RE/MAX Dream Properties.
