[Last updated 9/22/23 12:21 AM PT—Fixed inaccuracies about Blinn House Foundation and Frank Lloyd Wright]
When the Women's City Club of Pasadena dissolved in May 2020, it meant their clubhouse—the Blinn House—needed to go to a good caretaker.
The ladies gifted it to the preservation-oriented non-profit Pasadena Heritage—and now they've moved in, this historic home is once again bustling with events.
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Fortunately, it was also open for tours during California Preservation Foundation's Doors Open California 2023.
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I'd actually been trying for months to figure out how to tour it, having emailed the perhaps defunct Blinn House Foundation to no avail.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380701cropLO.jpg)
But in Southern California—and in life in general, I guess—I've learned to just keep trying. You never know when things are going to change.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380724cropLO.jpg)
The Blinn House—named after lumber baron Edmund Blinn—is located in the formerly gated, turn-of-the-last-century Pasadena historic district of Ford Place (now owned by Fuller Theological Seminary).
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380712cropLO.jpg)
It was completed in 1905/6, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright-trained architect George Washington Maher—a contemporary and coworker of Frank Lloyd Wright—in the Prairie School style (perhaps most associated with FLW, but in the same universe of Arts & Crafts and Craftsman, which Pasadena is particularly known for).
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The details are stunning, starting with a healthy dose of leaded glass—including some windows that include the "broken arch" architectural theme found throughout the rest of the house, exemplary of Maher's "Motif-Rhythm Theory."
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380739lo.jpg)
The fireplace is tiled with a trailing wisteria design in mosaic by the Giannini and Hilgart Glass Company of Chicago, where the Blinn family resided before making a more permanent home out of their winters in Pasadena. (The studio also fabricated Prairie-style stained glass windows for FLW.)
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The Women's City Club clearly took impeccable care of the Blinn House since its founding in 1945—spending three quarters of a century there.
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Pasadena Heritage also raised some money to refurbish it before moving in and opening it back up in May 2022.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380767lo.jpg)
Because the man the house was built for was a lumber man, there's plenty of stained mahogany and oak to behold...
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...including in the former "lobby" of the Women's City Club front entryway, a.k.a the Blinns' former dining room...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380756lo.jpg)
...which is lit by "water lily" lighting fixtures and is now adjacent to an annex where various meetings and banquets are hosted.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380766cropLO.jpg)
This fireplace is decidedly more monochromatic than the one in the living room...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380774lo.jpg)
...and it shares a wall with the former library, with its curved bay windows.
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The bathroom fixtures are original, even in the public restrooms.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380779lo.jpg)
On the tour, we also got to explore upstairs, where five bedrooms and three bathrooms were once occupied by the Blinn Family.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380786lo.jpg)
The woodworking on the railing repeats the "broken arch" theme...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380789cropLO.jpg)
...as does the art glass window at the stairwell landing.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380804lo.jpg)
Upstairs, it feels a bit liturgical or ecclesiastical...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380800lo.jpg)
...including a storage bench facing a wall, which feels a bit like a pew.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380791lo.jpg)
The original circuit box has been replaced, though it stands exposed on the upstairs hallway wall...
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380792lo.jpg)
...and one of the offices benefits from a lovely corner window arrangement.
![](https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/l93/pandisoo/P1380795lo.jpg)
Even the former sleeping porches have been converted into office space—but upstairs, like downstairs, features a relatively intact bathroom.
The Blinn House is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a local landmark as well. Hopefully now that Pasadena Heritage has taken occupancy, lots more members of the public will get the chance to tour it.
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