night fragrance in pasadena

i went to caltech in the 1970's and still remember the wonderful fragrance that filled the pasadena night. i wasn't a gardener back then, so i never found out what plant i was smelling. i have since bought many of the more famous fragrant plants grown in southern california, such as cestrum, citrus and pittosporum , but none of them was the fragrance i was looking for. i have a greenhouse, so hardiness is not an issue. i have also tried murraya, confederate jasmine, gardenia.
it was only fragrant at night, seemed to be everywhere and was delightful. i lived off campus and remember it in pasadena near campus but not actually on caltech campus itself.
if anyone familiar with pasadena could recommend plants to try i' d really appreciate it. i mention pasadena specifically, because i know there are often plants that are very popular in one neighborhood, and hardly grown at all in nearby areas.
thank you.

Perhaps you were thinking of Brugmansia?

A lot of gardens in that area have Natal Plum, which has a great evening fragrence (sort of like Jasmine)... and there is lots of Jasmine growing there, too.. not enough Brugmansia's to fill the night air, I doubt. But I would guess either of those other two to be what you were smelling. I associate the same smells with La Jolla when I lived there during school.

Night blooming Jasmine if you only smelled it at night. The flowers are quite inconspicuous and have no scent during the daytime.

The only night fragrance I ever noticed around Tech was the Carob trees and I don't think that could be a scent as lovely as you describe. It was very heavy when walking near the campus, but not on the grounds.

ensete, I'll bet that the city of Pasadena has an arborist. It might be worth contacting him or her.

I'll bet you anything it's Victorian Box tree that you were smelling. Was it in early spring? Those trees are all over in the Hollywood hills, Glendale and Pasadena, and in early spring and late winter they fill the night air with the most beautiful scent I've ever experienced. This year there are a few late bloomers because of the weird weather, I just got a whiff of one last week. Heavenly. Here's the link in DG, but there are no pictures of the tree itself.
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/31821/index.html

We visited L.A. last year and I was just knocked out by Natal Plum. Beautiful, fragrant, and fruiting! You can't do better than that!