Story by Ella Apisakkul
Staff Writer

Photo by Philip Kwak
Staff Photographer

South Pasadena’s Dinosaur Farm, a toy and book store that has remained a local staple for years, is facing the threat of leaving its location due to rising rent from new building owners. 

Dinosaur Farm, operating since 1994, is founded and owned by David Plenn, a former musician and songwriter. Plenn’s son, Taylor, was born in 1992, and at that time, “music sales were going down, people weren’t purchasing actual physical CDs or albums, so I really wanted to be around and be a dad.” 

The idea for the store came soon after. “People moved to South Pas because the schools were good, so that means there’s families; there’s no toy store in town… and that was it. My wife worked at the Natural History Museum, and she ran the retail stores there, so she knew how to get it started. [And] then she said ‘I have this name’, and I said ‘What’s the name?’. She goes, ‘Dinosaur Farm’. I was like, ‘Dude, I could definitely work with a Dinosaur Farm’.” 

Ever since, the toy and book store has grown into something that South Pasadena residents easily recognize. Its colorful interior provides a cozy place of solace for visitors. It prides itself on standing out from other toy stores because “it’s not what you’d expect. [You’d expect] a warehouse, with these big shelves… instead, it’s very welcoming, we painted the walls so it’s interesting.” Alongside their goods, the store hosts arts crawls and music events, including their upcoming Halloween event in the store’s parking lot.

Because of its long life, some South Pasadena residents have grown up with the store. “People have core family memories and core childhood experiences here,” said David’s son Taylor. 

However, its successful lifespan may come to a close. “[The new building owner] bought the building, and thought that we weren’t paying enough…  what he needed to get out of this place and what I could afford to pay just didn’t match. I tried to tell him that what we bring to the street is going to make your other properties more successful. But right now, he’s just looking at the dollars times square feet, [saying] ‘I should be getting this’.” 

“We’ll probably be given until June. We live in South Pas, so I’d rather be in South Pas,” said David. “But there’s not a lot out there… the thought of moving means I’ll probably have to do a GoFundMe, because it’ll cost way too much money to set up a new place.” 

In response to how the community can help, David said, “I think just word-of-mouth… KNX news ran a story on it. KTLA ran a story on it. More of that to raise awareness will be helpful. If nothing else, it’ll be a big deal, we move somewhere else and they go, ‘Oh, Dinosaur Farm’s in Sierra Madre now!’ and then it’ll help draw people to where we are.” 

Though the news is a surprise to locals, the business itself didn’t see it that way. “When we were renegotiating our lease three years ago, they weren’t willing to go aim further past three years, no matter what we offered, so the writing was kind of on the wall that the building was going to be sold,” says Taylor. 

The future of Dinosaur Farm is uncertain, but the business is determined to keep doing what they can for these possible last months in South Pasadena. “There’s good and bad and ugly, in terms of these commercial people that are buying up all these properties, and unfortunately, we’re getting the bad. It’s not good, it’s not ugly…it’s just bad. We want to stay here, but we’re not going to kill ourselves to [do so]. We’re having to dig deep.” 

South Pasadena’s community has not forgotten the small business, “assuring us that they’re going to follow us wherever we go and asking us what they can do, and assuring us that everything’s going to be okay. I want to think that it will, [that] the right pathway will find us, but it’s been good to hear people be on our side.”

“If you stand across the street and look at this block, take out our store, and put in a furniture store, you’ve sucked the soul out of the whole small town environment. So we’ll see. I still, in the back of my mind, think that maybe something will happen, so I’m not totally giving up,” said David.