George James Leo Barry (1893-1969) put the “Barry” in Barryknoll: he co-owned the 1923 tract that introduced this street. (Ackerman Drive honors the tract’s surveyor Fremont Ackerman.) Barry, one of five siblings, was born and raised in Troy, NY. His family moved to Pasadena in 1910. Along with his father and brother, both named John, Barry was part of the advertising staff at the Pasadena Star-News. The two Johns later became associates of silent film pioneer D.W. Griffith and helped produce and promote the racist epic Birth of a Nation. I found little biographical information about George J. Barry, except that he was a lifelong bachelor who had evaded the WWI draft by claiming a disability.
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