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The loss of lives is a human tragedy, a personal one. But the loss of iconic structures is an historical tragedy, a cultural one. Communities razed by fire can be rebuilt, but they will never be as they were. That is poignantly true of Altadena, a middle-class Black community established in the 1960s as a triumph over redlining, a widespread, discriminatory mortgage lending practice that froze Blacks out of housing markets. That unique Altadena community was reduced to an historical footnote by the Eaton Fire.
The losses were massive in general, the wiping away of tangible Los Angeles architectural history was devastating in particular. According to a January 10, 2025, statement by the Los Angeles Conservancy, as reported in CN Traveler, “32 properties [the Conservancy] considers culturally or architecturally significant have been lost to the fires.” Here is the Conservancy’s list of those properties, updated with ten additional structures for a total of 42 as of January 15, 2025:
Eaton
Fire:
Altadena Community Church
Altadena Golf Course Clubhouse
Altadena Hardware
The Bunny Museum
Fox's Restaurant
Jane's Cottage/Jane's Village
Little Red Hen Coffee Shop
Masjid Al Taqwa
Andrew McNally House
Nature Friends L.A. Clubhouse
Oak Knoll Montessori (Loma Alta Elementary)
Oh Happy Day Vegan Cafe
Park Planned Homes (Partial)
Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center
Pasadena Waldorf School/Scripps Hall
Rancho Bar
Rayuela Spanish Immersion School
Sahag-Mesrob Armenian Christian School
St. Mark's Episcopal Church
Theosophical Library Center
UEDF Fish & Chips
Walter D. Valentine Cottage B
William D. Davies Memorial Building at Farnsworth Park
Zane Grey Estate
Zorthian Ranch
Palisades
Fire:
708 House
Benedict and Nancy Freedman House
Robert Bridges House
Camp Josepho
Cholada Thai Beach Cuisine
Corpus Christi Catholic Church
Culbert House
Keeler House
Malibu Feed Bin
Moonshadows
Mortensen House
The Reel Inn
Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates
Pacific Palisades Building Block
Theater Palisades, Pierson Playhouse
Topanga Ranch Motel
Vittorio's
Will Rogers historic ranch house ("and other historic buildings at Will
Rogers State Historic Park")
The L.A. Conservancy is
collaborating with local partners to aid in recovery efforts that honor and
preserve the communities’ histories, culture, and sense of place after the
devastating fires that began on January 7, 2025.
On March 19th, the
Conservancy and World Monuments Fund (WMF)
announced a coordinated effort, alongside the National
Trust for Historic Preservation, to document and assess heritage
sites affected by the fires which burned over 50,000 acres and destroyed more
than 16,000 structures—inflicting a severe toll on the region’s cultural
heritage.
This tragic loss of beloved
homes, neighborhoods, legacy businesses, and many historic places has inspired
community groups, coalitions, and organizations like the Conservancy to develop
innovative ideas and potential tools to help rebuild.
Immediately after the
fires, the County of Los Angeles documented all properties affected,
categorizing their condition from minor damage to total loss. Since the fires
occurred in areas with varying levels of pre-existing historic resource data,
the documentation efforts did not always account for heritage sites.
We engaged Architectural Resources Group (ARG) on a mapping project ... as part of the first phase of this initiative to fully document the post-fire impacts of the Palisades and Eaton Fires on heritage resources, regardless of formal designation.
We collaborated with
community partners, including Altadena Heritage, on these efforts and thank Los
Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles for their assistance. This work
represents a critical step towards ensuring that historic and cultural
resources are recognized and considered in the county’s long-term recovery and
reconstruction efforts.
This initiative builds on
the efforts to ensure that well-known landmarks and under-recognized heritage
are accounted for in all of the areas affected by the fires. These efforts will
play a vital role in the rebuilding process and help ensure that cultural
heritage remains a cornerstone of recovery. Safeguarding these places helps
communities reclaim a sense of continuity and identity, both essential to
long-term recovery.
Beyond this initial documentation phase, project efforts include in-depth structural assessments by architects and engineers to provide guidance and resources for heritage-sensitive rebuilding. The Conservancy would also like to expand this effort to include a full community-wide survey of heritage resources throughout Altadena. By integrating cultural heritage into Los Angeles’ disaster response, this initiative will help safeguard the city’s history and identity for generations to come.
LA
Magazine has an interactive list of 24 architectural treasures
that perished in the blaze, most of which are included in the Conservancy’s
list. Links in the article take you
anecdotes about the buildings and often include biographical information on the
architects who built them. This Instagram post invites you into selected
interiors.
A sampling of Los Angeles' lost architectural heritage is described and pictured below, sometimes with before and after images. Thank you to the LA Times, Artnet, LA Magazine, Dezeen, and Wikipedia for images and text.
ALTADENA
COMMUNITY CHURCH
Unveiled in 1947, the Altadena Community Church was designed by L.A. architect Harry L. Pierce in a Spanish Colonial Revival style, complete with stucco exteriors, terracotta roofs, and domed archways. It housed a 27-stop organ custom-built by organ masters Casavant Brothers and stained-glass windows crafted by the historic Judson Studios.
ALTADENA WATER GARDENS/ FUNKY JUNK FARMS
John Agnew [above] and his wife Yipsy spent 20 years transforming the onetime goldfish hatchery into Funky Junk Farms. Their vast archive of vintage travel trailers, automobilia and roadside treasures was the inspiration for the TV show Junkyard Genius.
THE ANDREW McNALLY HOUSE
Built by the Chicago publishing tycoon in 1887, the Andrew McNally House
in Altadena was designed by architect Frederick Roehrig as a Queen Anne-style
mansion, constructed across 15 acres of land. Surrounded by lavish gardens, the
three-story, 22-room main residence held a rotunda affording views of the San
Gabriel Mountains and the famed Turkish Room, an octagonal space with an ornate
hand-painted coved ceiling. McNally later added an aviary. Listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, the house was sold in 1955, then again in 2021.
The iconic mapmaker reportedly built
rooms in his Queen Anne mansion from bits of the Turkish pavilion at the 1893
World’s Columbian Exposition.
THE ROBERT BRIDGES HOUSE
Looming some 100 feet above the ground, Robert Bridges’s Brutalist residence, built in the 1990s, was unmissable to anyone traveling down Sunset Boulevard. In response to the grade and traffic noise on the site, the architect had constructed the house on concrete pillars and pads in a balancing act that would make the most hardened engineer sweat. Inside were yet more massive columns surrounded by a ceiling of exposed concrete, floors of hardwood, and furniture designed by Bridges. “At night,” he told the New York Times in 2014, “this place is incredible.”
THE BENEDICT AND NANCY FREEDMAN HOUSE 
Richard Neutra designed this home in the Pacific Palisades for the young screenwriting couple in the 1940s with both work and family in mind. The architect, who prided himself on accommodating clients’ needs, created for the Freedmans a structure anchored by a large outdoor patio that split the bedroom on the west from the rest of the house. The harmonizing of interior and exterior spaces extended to the house’s sliding glass walls and redwood pergola trusses that led out to the pool. Subsequent owners would add a second story to the building, without losing its mid-century modernist style.
THE
BUNNY MUSEUM
The museum was co-founded by married couple Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski, who started collecting the items after they began a tradition of giving each other new rabbit-themed gifts every day. Originally housed in the couple's home in Pasadena, the museum relocated to larger premises in Altadena in 2017.
Prior to 2025, the museum held over 40,550
rabbit-related items including ceramic rabbits, rabbit antiquities, stuffed
rabbits, cookie-jar rabbits, 9 Rose Parade float rabbits, freeze-dried rabbits, three live rabbits, and
more across 16 galleries in a 7,000 square foot
space. Additionally, the collection included antiquities such as a Roman brooch
and a rabbit-themed Egyptian amulet. The museum held the world record for the "Largest Collection of
Rabbit Related Items" since 1999 when it was initially acknowledged by Guinness World Records.
The slogan of the museum was "The Hoppiest Place in the World.
THE KEELER HOUSE
When the Keeler House was completed in 1991, it represented one of architect Ray Kappe’s modernist masterpieces. Commissioned by jazz singer Anne Keeler, the home was remarkable for its cantilevered construction that allowed for generous natural light on its open-plan interiors and fine woodwork. These elements were the result of Kappe’s modernist take on Frank Lloyd Wright’s principles of organic architecture, as much as his own focus on functionality and locally sourced materials.
Keeler, who still owns the home, was out of town when the structure burned down in the Palisades fire. “It’s gone,” she told the New York Times.
MOONSHADOWS
Before becoming Moonshadows in 1972, drivers along Pacific Coast Highway knew this romantic view restaurant as Canfield’s Big Rock Cafe.
GREGORY AIN'S PARK PLANNED HOMES
Designed in 1948 by Ain with the help of the era’s premier modernist landscape architect, Garrett Eckbo, this strip of 28 Midcentury Modern homes was built as part of a social experiment conceived by a modernist architect focused on cost-effective, prefabricated design for working people. The area was created to look like a park with no front fences and continuous landscaping. The homes had side-facing garages and interior courtyards and glass walls, making them feel a bit like mini estates.
Twenty-one of the houses were destroyed by the Eaton fire.
PACIFIC PALISADES BUSINESS BLOCK
A local landmark, the
Business Block Building was a Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure, unique
for its trapezoid silhouette, designed by architect Clifton Nourse in 1924.
Located at the nexus of Antioch, Swarthmore, and Sunset, it was intended as an
open-air market—a purpose it retained over decades. The mixed-use property that
also served as a village green was fiercely guarded by its community: a plan in 1982 to demolish the building to make way
for a shopping mall was greeted by intense opposition. Two years on, it was
declared a City of Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument.
The Spanish Colonial Revival-style
retail center was recently restored after being saved in the 1980s. It was City
of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #276. The building was leveled in the Palisades wildfire.
THE ROWEN HOUSE
Designed by Josef Van der Kar for economist Henry S. Rowen and his wife in 1957, the Rowen House sat on 1.2 acres in the Pacific Palisades. The Dutch-born architect had conceived the space in the International Modern-style, ensuring a minimalist and utilitarian touch throughout. So appealing was the residence that it was immortalized by famed architectural photographer Julius Shulman, whose images of the house now reside in the Getty Library.
When the home hit the market in December 2024, it still boasted an expansive floor plan dotted with skylights, paved with terrazzo floors, and intersected by handsome wood panels. It sold on December 30 for $7.5 million, before it was consumed by the Palisades fire.
SCRIPPS HALL (PASADENA WALDORF SCHOOL)
Built more than a century ago, Scripps
Hall was commissioned by William Armiger Scripps of the Scripps publishing
dynasty and intended as the center of his namesake estate. Architect Charles W.
Buchanan designed the three-story mansion in the Arts and Crafts style, its
interior anchored by an expansive staircase and flanked by leaded glass
windows. After decades in the Scripps family’s hands, the residence was
acquired in the 1980s by the Pasadena Waldorf School, which converted the
grounds into its Paquita Lick Machris Campus.
TOPANGA RANCH MOTEL
Built in 1929 by publishing giant
William Randolph Hearst, the historic Topanga Ranch Motel represented one of
the last surviving bungalow-style motels. Its 30 rooms once housed Pacific
Coast Highway construction workers, before becoming a vacation retreat for
families and creatives drawn to its beachside location. It also served as a popular location for film and TV
productions. California State Parks acquired the property in 2001, closing it
in 2004 with plans to restore and reopen about 20 of its cabins.
WILL ROGERS STATE HISTORIC PARK
When celebrated vaudeville performer Will Rogers died in 1935, his widow
transformed his 359-acre ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains—encompassing a
house, stable, corrals, golf course, hiking trails, and riding ring—into a
memorial. Over the years, it has hosted horse riders on its grounds as much as
visitors to the ranch house, which displays Western artwork and artifacts. The
estate was then willed to the state and later listed on the National Register
of Historic Places.
According to the California State Parks, the park’s staff, horses, and some of the artworks were evacuated ahead of the Palisades fire.
The historic buildings on the site, however, were destroyed. “While the loss to
the Will Rogers Ranch is devastating,” said Jennifer Rogers-Etcheverry,
Rogers’s great-granddaughter, in a statement, “it pales in comparison to the loss of the property and businesses,
and more importantly, the lives of those in the surrounding area.”
ZANE GREY ESTATE
A landmark in Altadena, this
7,240-square-foot residence was built in 1907 by
Chicago business machine manufacturer Arthur
Herbert Woodward. Designed by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, whose services were actively sought by
Pasadena’s affluent denizens, the Mediterranean
Revival style house had
beamed ceilings, cast-iron sconces, built-in shelving, and fireplaces encircled
with Grueby tiles. It was acclaimed as the first fireproof
home in Altadena, built entirely of reinforced concrete as prescribed by
Woodward's wife, Edith Norton Woodward, a survivor of the Iroquois Theater Fire
of 1903.
In 1920, spurred by the memory of a visit to Altadena during their honeymoon, author Zane Grey and his wife bought the home. After the Greys bought it they built an addition on the roof for a studio and massive library.
The fires have left wounds that will never fully heal. Through the people who lost their lives and the structures that will never be rebuilt again as they were, if at all, chapters of the county’s cultural heritage have been lost. As Adrian Scott Fine of the Los Angeles Conservancy put it:
“It is a mass erasure of heritage,” he said. “We haven’t seen anything like this before.… [W]e are reminded of how important it is to be there for one another as a community. It reminds us all what places and spaces mean to us, especially once they are gone.”
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| Tourists pick wildflowers in Altadena in 1909 |
Keep it real!
Marilyn
Devestating...
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