There is a new park that’s currently under construction in VAN HALEN guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s former hometown of Pasadena, California which will feature a stage named after the legendary rock band.
According to KABC, the park will be named after science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, and will be located at 701 East Union Street (between El Molino Avenue and Oak Knoll Avenue). It will have open space for informal recreation, relaxation, and community gatherings; children’s playground with shade structures; public restrooms; a 48-space parking plaza; and a dog run.
Pasadena held public outreach sessions to solicit suggestions for the name of the new park, with the most popular being Eddie Van Halen and Butler. According to a tally, Eddie Van Halen Park received over 3,400 favorable responses in the survey, Octavia E. Butler Park got 526, and Playhouse Village Park and similar variations, including Playhouse Park, got 135. Ultimately, it was decided that the park would be named after Butler and the performing stage would be named after the entire band that is VAN HALEN.
Following Eddie’s death after a long battle with cancer, fans left flowers at his childhood home on Las Lunas Street in Pasadena. Flowers were also left on Allen Avenue where Eddie and Alex Van Halen scratched the band’s name into the wet cement of a sidewalk in their youth.