The Newest Corner of The Huntington Is Its Most Local One

Last summer, the preservationists Kim Cooper and Richard Schave stood on The Huntington's new Oak Meadow and told a passing dad how two young sycamores came to be planted there. They described the moment on their Esotouric Substack in July. The trees are genetically identical descendants of the Eagle Tree, a Western Sycamore that stood for centuries in what is now Compton.

That story is typical of the whole corner. The ground between the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art, the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery and the Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory was redone this year. Most of what fills it came from nearby: a tree from Compton, an oak species that grows wild in Pasadena, a slab of a Pasadena oak, and tiles fired for a Pasadena bank. If you have walked the Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden for years, this is the part of the grounds you haven't seen yet.

What Used to Be There

The site used to be part of the Dorothy Collins Brown Garden. The Huntington describes its western portion as park-like lawns with mature live oaks and winding paved paths. Some of those oaks are still standing. The meadow now has 16 oaks, a mix of new plantings and trees that were already there.

The new parts are easy to count. The Huntington reports more than 5,000 plants installed so far, about 55 species and 22 newly planted trees. The meadow opened in June, Pasadena Now reported, so this fall is its first. Expanded paths and a shaded lawn give it shape. Coast Live Oak, Engelmann Oak and Valley Oak anchor the lawn.

The Trees With Local Addresses

The Engelmann Oak grows naturally only in California and Baja California. The Huntington notes that its range centers on San Diego County, with smaller populations in Pasadena, Orange County and southern Riverside County. So one of the meadow's anchor trees is also a Pasadena native.

The Eagle Tree has a longer history. The Huntington says it marked the northern boundary of Rancho San Pedro, a Spanish land grant established in 1784, and that raptors nested in it for more than three centuries. An 1857 survey of the rancho recorded it as the "Place of Beginning," according to Esotouric, and the Native Daughters of the Golden West dedicated a plaque to it in 1947. Its main trunk fell on April 7, 2022.

Cooper and Schave came up with the plan to save its line. They worked with horticulturist Donald R. Hodel, the California Botanic Garden, the Theodore Payne Foundation and The Huntington to collect and propagate cuttings. On their Substack, they recall that fresh twigs were "wrapped in wet towels, carried away in an ice chest." A clone planted at East Los Angeles College on April 22, 2024, has since failed to thrive, according to a 2026 update on Esotouric's site. That makes the two sycamores in Oak Meadow the clearest public place to see the tree's descendants today. Cooper and Schave wrote that they were "profoundly moved" to see the trees planted "in places of honor."

The smaller plants have local ties as well. Toyon, also called California holly, is the official native shrub of Los Angeles, and its bright berries come on in the cooler months. The meadow's grassland look comes from bunch grasses such as Purple Needle Grass, California's state grass, which can live for decades.

The Galleries on Either Side Tell the Same Story

The meadow connects the galleries around it, and both of this fall's major shows lead back to Pasadena and Altadena.

In the Boone Gallery, "This Land Is …" opens with a cross-section of a Pasadena oak. Its more than 250 rings cover roughly 1740 to 1993, Pasadena Now reported. Josh Garrett-Davis and Linde B. Lehtinen co-curated the show in six sections: Roots, Uprootings, Amendments, Edge Effects, Disturbances and Regenerations. Among the objects are two annotated July 1776 printings of the Declaration of Independence and a 1936 Woody Guthrie guitar on loan from the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. The show closes Jan. 11, 2027.

In the Scott Galleries, "Doyle Lane: Master of Clay" brings together more than 100 works by the Los Angeles ceramic artist. It runs through March 1, 2027. Pasadena Now noted that you meet Lane's work before you reach the galleries. His 1964 Mutual Savings and Loan Mural, 4,876 individually glazed tiles commissioned for a Pasadena bank, now stands in the courtyard of the June and Merle Banta Education Center. Inside are a ceramic fish he made in 1964 for a fountain at a Pantry Food Markets in Pasadena and a wood-and-tile mural from around 1971 for the Altadena home of the artist Charles White. In an Art & Cake review, Victoria Thomas describes Lane's El Sereno house as his residence, studio and showroom all at once.

A Walk in the Right Order

The corner is compact, so you can see the art and the meadow as one visit:

1. Begin in the Banta Education Center courtyard at the Mutual Savings and Loan Mural.
2. Go through "Doyle Lane: Master of Clay" in the Scott Galleries and look for the Pantry fish and the Charles White mural.
3. Step out into Oak Meadow. Find the two Eagle Tree sycamores and the Engelmann oaks. Enrique Martínez Celaya's outdoor sculptures "The Gambler" and "The Landmark" stand in the meadow and the gardens around it.
4. End in the Boone Gallery, where the Pasadena oak slab opens "This Land Is …"

One more piece is coming to this route. Robert Indiana's "LOVE," a 12-foot-by-12-foot polychromed aluminum sculpture, is joining the permanent collection as a gift from Terri and Jerry Kohl. It will be installed in Oak Meadow near the Erburu entrance to the Scott Galleries. The Huntington has said it will be unveiled before the end of the year but has not announced a date. Once installed, it will be the only publicly accessible museum-owned "LOVE" in Southern California. In The Huntington's announcement, the Kohls said, "When the opportunity came to place it permanently, The Huntington felt like the natural home."

Dates Through the End of the Year

Several free-with-admission programs route visitors through the meadow and the galleries, so you don't need to plan the walk yourself.

The Garden and Gallery Tour takes 45 minutes and covers Oak Meadow, the Scott Galleries and the exhibition. The Mandarin Tour covers the same ground. If you're registered for the conference, you don't need a separate ticket for the Hootenanny that closes it.

Getting In on the Days You Want

The Huntington's admission rules, as currently posted on its Plan Your Visit page:

• Adult admission is $29 Monday through Thursday and $34 Friday through Sunday, on holidays and during peak seasons. Members get in free.
• Reservations are required Friday through Sunday, on holidays and during peak seasons. The remaining 2026 peak seasons are Thanksgiving, Nov. 20–29, and the winter holidays, Dec. 18, 2026, through Jan. 3, 2027.
• Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. The grounds are closed Tuesday, and check-in closes at 4:15 p.m.
• Parking is free, according to Pasadena Now.

Free Day falls on the first Thursday of each month. Tickets go out at 9 a.m. on the last Thursday of the month before, through a virtual waiting room, and each household is limited to five tickets a year. Every guest needs a ticket, infants included. Members can't visit on Free Day. Thursday, Nov. 5, is a Free Day, and its tickets were released on Oct. 29. The next one is Dec. 3, and its tickets would normally go out on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26. The Huntington says it assigns a new release date if a release day falls on a day it is closed. That Friday, Dec. 4, the city of San Marino holds its Home for the Holidays Tree Lighting Ceremony from 5 to 7 p.m. at Huntington Drive and San Marino Avenue. You could take the morning tour and come back for the tree lighting in the evening.

If you're planning a visit with family in town this holiday season, or want to talk about life around Oxford Road and Huntington Drive, Sabena Sarma and The Sarma Group are happy to share what we know. Let's Work Together.