Before he went on to break the major league color barrier, Jackie Robinson “learned to run and leap and throw” at 123 Pepper Street, a small residential street just south of Washington Boulevard in Pasadena.
He grew up there in a four-bedroom Clapboard house that his mother, Mallie, purchased in 1922. Pasadena was a white neighborhood, and neighbors burned crosses on the front yard according to Jackie Robinson, the PBS documentary.
The house has since been torn down, replaced in 1977 by a nondescript three-bedroom that just hit the market. The house that stands today isn’t special, but the site sure is.
According to the Los Angeles Times, it’s where Robinson “first fired a baseball under the tutelage of three older brothers” and where “he learned to run bases and hurdle potential tacklers.” He lived there while playing for John Muir High School and for UCLA.
A little plaque affixed to today’s stucco facade says, “Jackie Robinson resided on this site with his family from 1922 to 1946.”
It has three beds, two bathrooms, and measures 1,198 square feet. It’s listed for $649,900.
- 123 Pepper Street [Szu Ong / Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California ]
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