The Palisades and Eaton fires are nearly knocked down after burning for more than three weeks, destroying 16,000 structures in Los Angeles – homes, businesses and treasured landmarks. Many were well-known and sources of pride in LA, and others weren’t famous but still loved by longtime residents of Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
Experts in the field of architecture recently gathered at a forum titled “The Heart of LA: Memory, Resilience and the Road to Recovery” at LA’s downtown Central Library, to discuss the enormity of the wildfires.
What was lost was conveyed with a two-minute “in memoriam” reel played at the start of the discussion showing the notable houses, recreation spots, businesses and buildings lost to the wildfires.
The crowd sat quietly watching the reel of places so familiar to them projected on the screen. It was painful to realize that from one day to the next, these cherished places – considered part of the “Heart of LA” – were no longer there and now only a memory.
The images in the reel included the Altadena Community Church, the Andrew McNally House, the Benedict and Nancy Freedman House, Janes Village, the Will Rogers Ranch House, the Bunny Museum, Cholada Thai Cuisine, Moonshadows, the Pacific Palisades Business Block and the home on 1589 Homewood Drive – which was the film location for “Poltergeist II: The Other Side.”
Some of these buildings were more than 100 years old. The Andrew McNally House, a Queen Anne mansion owned by the co-founder and president of the Rand McNally publishing company, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and was one of the oldest – completed in 1887. Designed by Frederick L. Roehring, it had nine bedrooms, six bathrooms and a tower with views of the San Gabriel Mountains. It had its original stained-glass windows, Douglas fir paneling and hand-carved woodwork. It was destroyed on Jan. 8 by the Eaton Fire.
Historic buildings at Will Rogers State Historic Park, including the 31-room western-style ranch house, are also gone – the ranch house was located on Rogers’ 186-acre ranch in Pacific Palisades and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In the 1930s, Rogers was America’s cowboy philosopher, vaudeville entertainer, radio and movie star.
The impact on the state park is still being assessed. The park has been a favorite among hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers full of nature with birds and deer, a place where people can hike, get married and have outdoor birthday parties. It was an open and tranquil space famous for the Inspiration Park trail with panoramic ocean views.
The Bunny Museum in Altadena was listed among the world’s most unusual museums, and in subsequent years was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. This unique place was open all year long and held over 46,000 bunny items of every size including large wood carvings, stuffed animals and toys. The pet cats and bunnies were rescued but the building and extraordinary collection burned to the ground.
The oceanfront Moonshadows Restaurant was perched over the beach in Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway. Known for its beautiful views, the business burned to the ground in the Palisades Fire. Longtime employees of the popular restaurant considered “family” lost their livelihoods as well as their “work home.”
What Should Rebuilding Look Like?
Architecture writer Sam Lubell, President and CEO of the LA Conservancy Adrian Scott Fine and architectural historian Heather Goers were among the panelists.
Lubell was reminded of the 1986 Central Library Fire, which damaged or destroyed more than 1 million books. He hopes that, as was the case with the library, LA can recover, but acknowledges that the recent fires have been far more devastating.
“A lot of people have lost their lives, but for the community, we’ve lost these things that we feel are part of our common history and part of our heritage, and that’s been really hard,” Lubell said. “It has also reminded me, when I started writing about [the damage], what a phenomenal heritage that is.”
Goers recounted when she first came to the Pacific Palisades and LA as a young adult, and how she was enamored with the architecture and the ocean view. Now, she said the community has lost schools, parks and businesses that made up “the fabric of their lives.”
“I think on some level that is a deeper loss because architecture is kind of the touchstone of our history,” Goers said. “It’s the tangible representation of our lives and how we’ve lived, and so when you look at the scale of this loss, it’s just magnified tenfold by the layers of history that have resided in those buildings over time and what that has meant to people.”
As the LA Conservancy has been cataloging and confirming the losses of these historic buildings and homes, Fine said it’s a profound loss, as people, including himself, took them for granted and assumed they would always be there. There’s an additional loss for people who didn’t know these places existed because now they will never be able to see them in person.
“That is a loss for everybody, and I think it’s amplified to some degree when we’re talking about things like the Zane Grey Estate in Altadena or certainly Will Rogers [Ranch House], which is an epic loss in terms of heritage, in terms of places that tell stories, and there’s no other place that can tell that kind of story,” Fine said.
“But it also goes for entire neighborhoods like the Janes Village or the Park Planned Homes in Altadena. These wonderfully designed communities were providing a sense of community, scale and architecture that maybe didn’t have the gravitas of other places, but [are] equally important now that we’re all … [experiencing] so much loss at one point in time.”
When it comes to rebuilding, Fine explained that part of that effort will be assessing what was damaged but is still standing and how to ensure it can be repaired. He also thinks that the affected communities should be the “core to that voice” on what the rebuilding should look like.
He added that they’re not going to just rebuild what was lost in terms of historic places, as it would be “false history.” When it does come time to start building, they will also have to consider how to do so in a way that’s smarter and more resilient in the face of future fires.
“It’s been said before – part of the story of LA is its layered history,” said Fine. “It’s always doing something new. It’s always asking the question, ‘What’s next?’ And that’s a very LA kind of thing, and I think that is going to be part of this rebuilding process. You’re keeping what’s still there in terms of story, but you’re adding to it and that is very much part of our heritage.”
Editor Diana Martinez contributed to this article.