Pasadena Busch Gardens: Adolphus Busch's Early Amusement Park

Local historian Ann Scheid gives a fascinating lecture about this once-famous theme park, remnants of which can still be glimpsed around the neighborhood where it once stood. When German brewing magnate Adolphus Busch purchased a mansion on Pasadena's "Millionaires' Row" in 1904, he quickly bought up some 60 additional acres stretching down to the bottom of Arroyo Seco and developed it into a lushly landscaped park. Busch Gardens, which opened to the public in 1906, featured terraced hillsides, waterfalls and ponds, and "fairy scenes" drawn from tales of the Brothers Grimm.