Valley Hunt Club facts for kids
The Valley Hunt Club is a special private club in Pasadena, California. It is famous for starting the very first Tournament of Roses Parade way back in 1890.
How the Rose Parade Began
The club's members were people who had moved to California from colder places like the East and Midwest. They loved California's mild winter weather. They wanted to show the world how beautiful Pasadena was, even in winter.
One day, a professor named Charles Frederick Holder had a great idea. He said, "In New York, people are buried in snow. Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to grow. Let's have a festival to tell everyone about our paradise!"
The Parade Grows Bigger
Over the next few years, the festival became much larger. It started to include marching bands and decorated floats. They also had fun games in a big field, which was later named Tournament Park. These games were quite exciting! They included ostrich races, cowboy shows with bronco busting, and even a race between a camel and an elephant. (The elephant won that race!)
People built special stands along the parade route so everyone could watch. Newspapers from the East Coast started writing about this amazing event. By 1895, the festival had grown too big for the Valley Hunt Club to manage alone. So, a new group called the Tournament of Roses Association was created to take over.
After many years, the Valley Hunt Club started joining the parade again in 1983. Now, every year, they enter an old-fashioned carriage. It's usually a "roof seat break" pulled by beautiful friesian horses, with riders on horseback alongside them.
The Club Today
The Valley Hunt Club is still located at 520 South Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena. This spot is important because it's where the annual Rose Parade starts. It's also very close to Tournament House, which is the home of the Tournament of Roses Association. The Valley Hunt Club remains an exclusive private club. Many of the large mansions that used to be on Orange Grove Avenue near the club have been replaced by modern apartment buildings. However, a few historic homes, like the Wrigley Mansion and the Fenyes Mansion, are still there.
See also
- Pasadena Tournament of Roses
- Tournament of Roses Parade
- Membership discrimination in California clubs
