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| 1100 Oxley St, South Pasadena, CA 91030, USA (South Pasadena, California)
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South Pasadena Public Library
This building is a historic part of South Pasadena, California's past, but is probably better known worldwide for a couple of recent genre appearances in the world of television and film. The building dates back to 1907, although the foundation of a public library in the city dates back to September 10, 1895. Originally, this particular building featured a domed, classical-revival design but expansions in 1930 altered both the look and the structure of the building.
The north side of the building that borders El Centro Street still features the 1930 Mediterranean Revival façade designed by architect, Norman Marsh, and was the main entrance for over fifty years. In 1982, it was converted into the Community Room portion of the South Pasadena Public Library and Howard Morgridge designed a more modern façade to make-up the new Oxley Street entrance on the building's south side. Interestingly enough, neither entrance was featured in its first known appearance in horror entertainment.
Angel (1999-2004)
As it would turn out, the west side of the building and a large tree on the northwestern corner of the building would be featured in the known-debut of South Pasadena Public Library in the world of entertainment. The appearance arrived in the form of an episode of the Joss Whedon vampire television series, Angel. The series followed the character of Angel (David Boreanaz) that first debuted in its parent series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as a vampire that is cursed with a soul and seeks redemption from his past bad deeds.
The episode in question was titled, Couplet, which appeared in third season of Angel and aired on February 18, 2002 on The WB. The library comes into play during one of the side-plots to the storyline. In it, a young woman comes to Angel with concerns that a witch is seducing her fiancé. The task of tracking the fiancé, Jerry (Scott Donovan), is assigned to recently formed couple, Gunn (J. August Richards) and Fred (Amy Acker), who secretly follow the man to a building, which in reality is the library.
In Couplet, the very-real tree actually doubles as a demonic entity that drains the life from its human victims using its roots, after sucking them down into the ground. The tree captures Gunn and Fred, as well as the fiancé Jerry, and it is up to Angel and the Groosalugg (Mark Lutz) to come and save them. Needless to say, the library is only featured up until the point that Gunn and Fred are pulled into the ground, as the "underground" sequence that follows was shot on a soundstage.
Halloween (2007)
South Pasadena Public Library would again emerge in the genre in 2007 with the Rob Zombie remake of the classic 1978 John Carpenter horror film, Halloween. Although technically a "remake," the new version of the film is also a prequel of the original film, as the first hour is a completely new storyline that fills in some of the 15-year gap from the start of the original film and when it picks up a short time later. The expanded scenes follow the character of Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch) during his childhood and document the events that lead up to his murder of his older sister, Judith (Hanna Hall), with his mother's boyfriend and school bully thrown in for good measure in the remake. They also expand on his time in Smith's Grove Sanitarium and treatment under the care of Doctor Samuel Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). The movie then catches up with the original's storyline with a now-adult Myers (Tyler Mane) breaking out and returning to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois.
The library would end up serving multiple purposes during the making of Halloween, but it is more predominately featured as the exterior of Haddonfield High School where Myers's younger sister (unbeknownst to her), Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) and her friends attend. The original entrance bordering El Centro Street is featured in the sequence and the "Library Community Room" sign out front was altered to read "Haddonfield High School". It appears during the sequence when Laurie and Lynda (Kristina Klebe) leave the school and start walking home.
As with so many of the other set pieces used in the production of Zombie's Halloween, the library still had more roles to play. Additional filming was done to fill in for two other sequences in the movie. In the first, point of view shots were taken from inside the south side of the building that looked out over Oxley Street. In the scene, Laurie and her friends are in the school's library and Laurie notices Myers standing across the street, watching them. According to Zombie, the sequence with the girls was actually shot at Eliot Middle School in nearby Altadena but the shots looking out the window at Myers were filmed at the South Pasadena Library. As irony would have it, Myers is standing directly in front of the house that doubled as the home of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the original film (see Halloween (1978): The Strode House). In reality, it is located directly across from the library that appeared in the remake.
Finally, the lobby of the library was used to film the bathroom stall sequence from the truck wash where Myers kills the character of Big Joe Grizzly (Ken Foree) to take his clothing. The exteriors of the truck wash are actually located in Castaic (see Halloween (2007): The Truck Wash), but the interiors were filmed here at the library. In later comments, Zombie stated that an additional breakaway bathroom stall was built for the sequence, but it was ultimately not needed. During the filming of the sequence in the "real" stall, Foree and Mane took their acting up a notch and slammed one another around so hard that it broke the real thing.
Production on the film took place between January and March of 2007 with some additional re-shoots in late June. Production was centered in the greater-Los Angeles area in some of the same areas used in the original Halloween. In fact, in addition to being located right next to the infamous Strode House from the original film, the South Pasadena Public Library is also only a block away from the building used as the original 1978 Myers House (see Halloween (1978): The Myers House). Ironically enough, it is also located just blocks from the residence that appeared as the "new" Myers House (see Halloween (2007): The Myers House) and directly across the street (on the El Centro side) from the building that doubled as the exterior for the elementary school in the remake.
The Library Today
The South Pasadena Public Library continues to serve the residents from the surrounding area. Following the expansions in 1980, the size of the building grew to an impressive 24,500 square feet. It now features around 125,000 unique titles and boasts an annual circulation of more than 350,000 items. The library also hosts a variety of special events with author readings and autographs, which have included such notables as Ray Bradbury in March 2008. For more information on schedules of events or general hours, please visit their site below. |
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| User Trips |
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| Related Sites |
City of South Pasadena: Public Library
The official Web site of the South Pasadena Public Library, which has been used in such notable productions as the television series, Angel, and the 2007 remake of Halloween. |
HalloweenMovies.com
The official Web site of the popular Halloween series, including information on all of the sequels, as well as the recent Rob Zombie remake. |
Seeing Stars
This Web site includes a great deal of information, including sites of celebrity deaths and graves, as well as countless movie locations around the California area and more. |
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| Similar Destinations |
| Halloween (2007): The Rabbit in Red Lounge |
| Halloween (2007): The Doyle House |
| Halloween (2007): Haddonfield Elementary |
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| See Also on TheCabinet.com |
| There are no other pages on this site associated with this location. |
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| Available from Amazon.com |
Angel - Season Three (Slim Set) |
Halloween (Three-Disc Unrated Collector's Edition) |
Angel - Season Three |
Halloween - Unrated Director's Cut (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) |
Halloween (2-Disc Unrated Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray] |
Halloween |
Halloween Entertainment Poster Print, 24x36 |
Halloween (Standing with Skull) Movie Poster Print - 24" X 36" |
Rob Zombie's Halloween: Michael Myers Action Figure |
Rob Zombie's Halloween Michael Myers 18" Action Figure w/ Sound |
Michael Myers Rob Zombie Halloween Mask |
Adult Rob Zombie Michael Myers Halloween Latex Mask |
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