True Blood’s Season 5 is up and running and going full steam ahead. Last week the crew shot scenes for the upcoming season in Old Pasadena at The Castle Green.
The Castle Green is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the State Historic Register, and the City of Pasadena’s list of Historic Places. A number of motion pictures and television commercials have been filmed in and around the building. Filmmakers often use the versatile space, sometimes displaying, sometimes disguising the turn-of-the-century elegance visible at every turn.
One of Pasadena’s most unique buildings, the Castle Green was built in 1898 as the annex for the famous Hotel Green. The Castle Green is an imposing seven story Moorish Colonial and Spanish style building sitting next to Central Park in Old Pasadena at Raymond and Green Street and built by Col. George G. Green of the Patent Medicine Business.
The Castle Green, opened in 1899 as the second of three buildings in the Hotel Green complex, was a lavish resort for easterners and others escaping winter rigors. Architect Frederick I. Roehrig, for what was later to be called the Central Annex, drew on Moorish, Spanish, Victorian, and other stylistic elements to produce Pasadena’s most stunningly original building. He blended domes, arches, pillars, balconies, and verandahs in a building of structural steel with brick walls and concrete floors, making it Pasadena’s first fireproof building. He tied it to the first part of the hotel complex, built on the east side of the street, by an ornate enclosed bridge crossing Raymond Avenue. When the Annex opened for business, its two cylindrical towers on the south and much of the roof line were illuminated with exterior lights. There was even a penthouse garden with a glass roof.
The Hotel Green became the social center of Pasadena, playing host to vacationing tycoons and even presidents. It was also home to both the Tournament of Roses and the Valley Hunt Club.
At the end of the resort era, the west annex was purchased by a group of regular hotel guests who wished to continue to come to the Hotel Green. In 1924 the group of investors divided the hotel complex into three parts. The Central Annex was divided into fifty individually owned units and so it remains today, renamed the Castle Green.
SPOILER ALERT! So, we asked ourselves, what could they be filming at this location this season? There has been speculation that Pam, will have her origin story explored. We learned this in the casting calls, that they are looking for new cast members in particular. They looked for: A non-threatening man in his 30s and a prostitute oddly named “Washcloth Helen.” Both of these characters are said to be introduced to fans during a flashback to a San Francisco brothel in 1905. The date is significant because 1905 is supposedly the date where Pam becomes a Vampire according to author Charlaine Harris. True Blood has changed the story from that of the books before so the fact that Pam actually turns in London in the novels doesn’t mean much. Will we see more of Pam played by the lovely and talented Kristin Bauer in Season 5?
Below are more photos of The Castle Green:
For yet more photos and information about this location, go to: castlegreen.com
Source: spoilertv.com