Cawston Ostrich Farm, located in

South Pasadena, California South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in the West San Gabriel Valley. It is 3.42 square miles in area an ...

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, was opened in 1896 by Edwin Cawston. It was one of America's first

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There ...

farms and was located in the Arroyo Seco Valley just three miles (5 km) north of downtown

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and occupied nine acres. In 1887, the company built Hollywood's first railway, linking the farm to Hollywood.

Founding

In 1886, Edwin Cawston and E.P. Hoyle chartered a ship to take some of the best obtainable ostriches in the world from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

to Galveston, Texas, where it arrived on January 25, 1887. From there, the ostriches endured a treacherous train journey to Los Angeles, California. Out of the original fifty-two birds – 26 males and 26 females – forty-three survived. (Cawston's 1920 obituary claimed that there were 50 ostriches at the outset and only 18 survivors.) The farm was first established at the corner of Main Street and Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles. In 1888, it was relocated to

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; at this point, Cawston had 34 birds. The farm was moved again to South Pasadena in 1896, where it reopened to the public that October 15 with no fewer than 200 ostriches in its stable.

Tourism

The Cawston Ostrich Farm became a premier tourist attraction for many years. Its proximity to the

Pasadena and Los Angeles Electric Railway The Los Angeles Pacific Railroad (1896−1911) (LAP) was an electric public transit and freight railway system in Los Angeles County, California. At its peak it had of track extending from Downtown Los Angeles to the Westside, Santa Monica, an ...

's tram, trolley line that came through from downtown

brought many tourists to visit the farm through the earlier part of the 20th century.Pacific Electric South Pasadena Local Lines
/ref> Guests were able to ride on the backs of ostriches, be taken for ostrich drawn carriage rides and buy ostrich feathered hats, boas, capes and fans at the Ostrich Farm store that was connected to the factory. The ostrich farm feather products were shipped and sold throughout the world. The farm closed in 1935. Most of the original brick structure of the factory and store remains today and is South Pasadena Cultural Landmark #18.
/ref> In 1910 there were 10 Ostrich Farms in Southern California.How Ostrich Farms Became a Thing in SoCal in the Late 1800s, By Adrian Glick Kudler
'la.curbed.com''

References

External links

Cawston ostrich feather fan in the Staten Island Historical Society Online Collections DatabaseImage of a woman feeding an ostrich from a bucket at Cawston Ostrich Farm, South Pasadena, 1935.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles. 1886 establishments in California Farms in California South Pasadena, California Tourist attractions in California 1935 disestablishments in California Ostrich farms {{Tourism-stub