Madison Heights

Madison Heights runs from California Boulevard south to the South Pasadena city line, and from Marengo Avenue east to Lake Avenue and Oak Knoll Avenue. Those are the lines the City of Pasadena keeps for the Madison Heights Neighborhood Association, and they're the lines on the map on this page. It sits in City Council District 7.

You'll sometimes see the name used for the blocks between Del Mar and California too, but the association's map starts at California. The northeast corner touches South Lake Avenue's shops and the start of the Caltech campus, the western edge is about a block from the Fillmore light rail station, and the south end reaches the Langham Huntington hotel near the Oak Knoll neighborhood.

The north-south streets are the same avenues that run up through the rest of the city: Marengo, Euclid, Madison, Oakland, El Molino, Los Robles and Hudson. What sets the blocks apart is the housing stock, which the city has marked as historically significant in pieces, and the fact that you can walk to Lake Avenue and the train from most of it.

Madison Heights as a whole isn't a landmark district. The city's GIS lists it as an eligible but undesignated landmark district, which means the city has identified it as a candidate, not that any rules apply today. In Pasadena a landmark district starts with a petition from the owners, so that could change if neighbors organize one.

Four smaller landmark districts inside the neighborhood already have design review: South Oakland Avenue (964 to 1050 South Oakland, designated in 2003), Madison Avenue (615 to 786 South Madison, January 2006), South Hudson Avenue (601 to 805 South Hudson, October 2006) and Magnolia (2018). Marguerita Lane, off South Marengo, has been a National Register district since 2009. In those landmark districts, work you can see from the street needs a Certificate of Appropriateness before the city issues a permit.

The status of a house also decides some money questions. Contributing houses in landmark or National Register districts, and individually designated houses, can apply for Pasadena's Mills Act property tax program, which in 2026 took single-family applicants assessed at $2.0 million or less. SB 9's lot splits and duplexes don't apply to contributing houses in a district designated by city ordinance, but they do follow the normal state rules on the undesignated blocks.

Pie 'n Burger, the diner on California Boulevard just east of Lake, has been serving burgers and pie since 1963. South Lake Avenue, north of California, has shops, restaurants and a covered arcade, and it's where most errands happen.

At the south end, the Langham Huntington opened in 1907 as the Hotel Wentworth. Henry Huntington bought it in 1911 and reopened it in 1914 as the Huntington Hotel, and after seismic testing in the 1980s the main building was taken down and rebuilt, reopening in 1991. It has been the Langham since 2008. The covered Picture Bridge on the grounds has panels painted by Frank Moore in 1932.

West of Marengo, Arlington Garden is a free 3-acre garden planted in 2005 on Caltrans land that's leased to the city, with an orange grove and water-wise planting, open sunrise to sunset. The garden says it's a 15-minute walk from Fillmore station.

First, whether the house is in one of the four landmark districts, individually designated, or on the National Register, and whether it has a Mills Act contract that will transfer to you. That decides what you can change and how your property taxes work.

Then Pasadena's presale paperwork. Before escrow closes, the seller needs a Presale Certificate of Completion, which requires certifying there's no unpermitted construction over 120 square feet and that the living space isn't 10% or more over the assessor's record, or a city inspection certificate instead. If the inspection finds problems, the seller can hand them to you with a Transfer of Responsibility, so read it before you remove contingencies.

Last, the trees and the house. Pasadena protects native trees such as coast live oaks and California sycamores once the trunk is more than 8 inches across at 4½ feet above the ground, so an addition or pool plan has to work around them or get the city's approval to remove one. On the house, I look at the foundation and bolting, the sewer line, the electrical panel, and anything added over the years without permits, all before we write the offer.