Tournament House, Italian Renaissance mansion in Orange Grove Boulevard, Pasadena, United States.
Tournament House is a two-storey Italian Renaissance-style mansion on South Orange Grove Boulevard, designed by architect George Lawrence Stimson and completed in 1914. Its second-floor five bedrooms now serve as committee meeting rooms, a dressing area for the Rose Court and display space for trophies and photographs of past Rose Bowl Games, Grand Marshals, Presidents and Queens. The surrounding Wrigley Gardens hold hundreds of rose, camellia and annual varieties, including the All-America Rose Selections test beds.
Tournament House was built in 1914 on South Orange Grove Boulevard, then known as "Millionaires' Row", for real estate and dry goods tycoon George Stimson, designed by his architect son G. Lawrence Stimson. Stimson sold it to chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. for $170,000, and the adjacent gardens were bought a year later for $25,000. After Mrs. Wrigley's death in 1958, the property passed to the City of Pasadena on condition that it become the permanent headquarters of the Tournament of Roses.
Volunteers known as "white suiters" wear white suits with red ties, name tags and membership pins while working the parade. The second floor holds displays of trophies, past Rose Bowl Games, Grand Marshals and Rose Queens, including an original Peanuts strip from January 1, 1974, when creator Charles M. Schulz was Grand Marshal.
Tournament House stands on South Orange Grove Boulevard, on Pasadena's former "Millionaires' Row". The Wrigley Gardens around it are open to the public through the year, but close from December 31 to January 2, when the Rose Parade takes over the city. Volunteers from the Pacific Rose Society tend the roses, camellias and annuals.
The second floor's five bedrooms now serve as committee meeting rooms, a dressing area for the Rose Court, and display space for Tournament of Roses history. Among the exhibits is an original Peanuts strip from January 1, 1974, when creator Charles M. Schulz was Grand Marshal; in it Lucy tells Linus the grand marshal "wasn't anyone you ever heard of."
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