Gen. Charles S. Farnsworth County Park, also known as Farnsworth Park, is a

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 2023. Its population is greater than that of 40 individua ...

park and

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

district (site #97000027) in

Altadena, California Altadena () is an unincorporated area, and census-designated place in the San Gabriel Valley and the Verdugos regions of Los Angeles County, California. Directly north of Pasadena, California, Pasadena, it is located approximately from Downtow ...

. The land was purchased by Los Angeles County in 1921 for use as a nursery. When the County built new nurseries in the 1930s, a movement to turn the land into a county park was spearheaded by General Charles S. Farnsworth and William O. Davies. Farnsworth designed the park and supervised its grading and landscaping. Davies began planning for a community center. Funds for the construction of the community center came from grants from the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...

. The park was completed in 1934. The park was originally named Altadena Park. The park project included a two-story

arts and crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

American craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. ...

style building that was later christened the William D. Davies Memorial Building. The park was renamed in honor of Farnsworth in 1939. It hosted various amenities such as an amphitheater, a baseball field, and tennis courts. It was placed on the Register in 1997 for its significance as a recreation and architecture site. The buildings were destroyed during the 2025

Eaton Fire The Eaton Fire was a highly destructive wildfire in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, in Southern California. The fire began on the evening of January 7, 2025, in Eaton Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains, and a powerful S ...

References

External links

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National Register of Historic Places
Altadena, California Botanical gardens in California County parks in California Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles County, California Parks in Los Angeles County, California San Gabriel Valley Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in California Buildings and structures destroyed by the January 2025 Southern California wildfires {{LosAngelesCountyCA-NRHP-stub