South Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 in the 2000 census. It is located in West San Gabriel Valley. It is 3.42 square miles (8.9 km) in area and lies between the much larger city of Pasadena, of which it was as soon as a part, and the metropolis of Los Angeles. South Pasadena is the oldest self-builder of floats in the historic Tournament of Roses Parade.

The native inhabitants of South Pasadena and surrounding areas were members of the Native American Hahamog-na tribe, a branch of the Tongva Nation (part of the Shoshone language group) that occupied the Los Angeles Basin. Akuvranga was the Tongva post for the Place that covers modern-day South Pasadena and portion of Pasadena. Tongva dwellings lined the Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County) in South Pasadena and south to where it joins the Los Angeles River and along additional natural waterways in the city. They lived in thatched, dome-shape lodges characteristic for their use of carved wood decorations. For food, they lived upon a diet of corn meal, acorns, seeds and herbs, fish, venison, berries, fruits and other small animals. They traded for ocean fish gone the coastal Tongva upon a daily basis. They made cooking vessels from steatite soapstone from Catalina Island. South Pasadena also has a strong affirmation to having the oldest and most historic sites in the San Gabriel Valley. For many centuries, its adjacency to a natural fording place along the Arroyo Seco had served as a gateway to travel and commerce for aboriginal peoples here and along the coast. It was here that Hahamognas greeted Portola and the missionaries who later normal the San Gabriel Mission a few miles to the east.

The initial buildings upon the Rancho San Pascual were built upon the house which eventually became the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena and Altadena. The first of these adobe structures became headquarters for General Flores and his staff in 1847 where they enormously to surrender to American forces, ending Mexican Colonial find in California. In 1875, the landowners of the Place encompassing present-day Pasadena and South Pasadena voted to rename their connection to Pasadena.

South Pasadena’s first mayor was Donald McIntyre Graham. In February 1888, members of the southern ration of Pasadena attempted to get more control more than their own property and a vote for immersion was made. In 1888, South Pasadena incorporated the southern allowance of the Indiana Colony and land south and eastward to the Los Angeles border. Few Tongva had conventional any land. On 2 March 1888, the city of South Pasadena was incorporated past a population slightly more than 500 residents, becoming the sixth municipality in Los Angeles County. It was chartered with almost the thesame area as the current South Pasadena, about 3.42 square miles (8.9 square kilometers). With the feat of the Pacific Electric Short Line, putting the whole city within simple walking distance of the “red car” stations, South Pasadena afterward became one of the first suburbs of Los Angeles.^{[citation needed]}