Bellevue township

This colourful map shows the proposed subdivision of the suburb now known as Pasadena, named at the time as Bellevue Township. The allotments offered for sale are bordered by Goodwood Road, Gunther Parade to the south and Fitzgerald Road to the north. The estate was designed by the Government Town Planner, Walter Scott Griffiths, with the land sales handled by the real estate company John Quinn & Co. The plan was drawn by HC Day.

The plan provides for shopping centres, schools, social facilities, parklands and sporting fields and reflects the principles of the 'garden city' movement which began in England and which influenced the design and planning of many Australian cities and suburbs in the early 1900s. The garden city ideal in Australia promoted residential planning along the lines of detached housing, gardens and parks and tree-lined streets, although there was usually variation among individual town planners. Major population growth in Australia's suburbs after Word War I expanded the garden city idea to the 'garden suburb' (Freestone, 1989; National Library of Australia, 2007). Charles Reade, appointed in 1916, was South Australia's first Town Planner and was a major advocate of the garden cities movement. He was responsible for planning and establishing the first South Australian garden suburb of Colonel Light Gardens.

Walter Scott Griffiths was an associate of Reade's and went on to succeed him as South Australia's Town Planner from 1925 until his death in 1929. Griffiths was also connected with national works, and had submitted an entry in 1912 to the international competition to design the city of Canberra, which was won by Walter Burley Griffin. Attempts were made by Griffiths to maintain the ideal of the garden suburb; it was also a useful way to promote the sale of the land. However, the practicalities of providing enough homes for an expanding population generally took precedence and the principles were not widely adhered to. Colonel Light Gardens is now the main example in Australia of a 1920s garden suburb (Garnaut, 1999; National Library of Australia, 2007).

According to Mannings Place Names of South Australia (2006, p. 331) the suburb of Pasadena was possibly named after the city of the same name in California, USA. There is also a Bellevue Drive in Pasadena, USA.

Centennial Park Cemetery, which now occupies 100 acres of land north of Fitzgerald Road was established in June 1936.

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