8th Finglish trip June 2009 #25
The Pasadena Museum of History is the former home of Yrjö Paloheimo and Leonora Curtin. In 1970, thanks to a gift from the Paloheimo family, the museum moved to its present location on the grounds on the historic two-acre Fenyes Estate, before the Museum was located in the Pasadena Public Library.
The Fenyes Estate is a historic two-acre estate complex located in Pasadena along what was once known as "Millionaire's Row". In 1905, Dr. Adalbert Fenyes, a Hungarian entomologist and the first Pasadena doctor to use an X-ray machine, and his wife Eva Scott Muse Fenyes commissioned a two-story house from architect Robert D. Farquhar.
The estate and gardens were used as sets for a number of early motion pictures for film industry notables such as Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith.
Eva Fenyes' only daughter, Leonora Curtin, inherited the mansion from her mother. Leonora Curtin had one daughter also named Leonora who was known as “Babsie”. A linguist who spent time among the Pueblo Indians, Babsie traveled widely, spending time in Santa Fe and Pasadena until she met Yrjö Alfred Paloheimo, a Finnish diplomat whom she married in 1946.
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