Will Rogers' ranch home. Pasadena Waldorf School. Robert Bridges House. Rabbit Museum. Andrew McNally House. Palisade Theatre. Zane Gray Manor.
The Palisades and Eaton inferno have razed more than 30 historic buildings in what preservationists say is the worst loss of such structures in the region's history.
“It’s shocking and heartbreaking — I don’t know how else to describe it,” said Ken Bernstein, chief city planner for the Los Angeles City Planning Office of Historic Resources. “This is widespread damage to important buildings and places our community holds dear.”
That number is likely to grow significantly as the accounting of losses continues. While institutions, including the Getty Villa, survived, the fate of many other notables remains unknown, such as several influential mid-century case study houses built under the auspices of Arts & Architecture magazine.
The Los Angeles Conservancy said Friday afternoon that 32 properties it deemed historic because of their architectural or cultural significance were destroyed by the fire, which has destroyed or damaged more than 9,000 structures.
Some historic buildings, including Altadena's Zane Gray Manor and Rogers' Western-style Palisades House, have official landmark status on the National Register of Historic Places or other listings. But others, such as Altadena's Fox Restaurant and the Palisades Theater, are considered important, in part because of their status as beloved community spaces.
“This is a massive erasure of heritage,” said Adrian Scott Fine, CEO of the Conservancy, a nonprofit devoted to historic preservation. "We've never seen anything like this before."
The Palisades Fire destroyed Will Rogers' former ranch home at Will Rogers State Historic Park.
(California State Parks)
In some cases, well-known properties were severely damaged but not lost, including Gladstones, an oceanfront fish restaurant formerly owned by the late Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. In the Altadena foothills, much of the Zorthian Ranch burned, including the artwork of founder Jirayr Zorthian. But Jason Deach, a ranch hand who visited the site Thursday, said two buildings at the artists' colony survived.
"Everything else just disappeared, wiped off the map," he said.
Some institutions have vowed to rebuild, including Altadena's Rabbit Museum, which houses a bizarre but seemingly irreplaceable collection of porcelain figurines, artwork, costumes and other items depicting rabbits. The Lake Avenue Museum lost approximately 46,000 items from its collection.
The Rabbit Museum in Altadena was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“We are losing these touchstones — physical places in the world that mark the history of our ideas,” said Richard Schave, a preservation advocate and co-founder of Esotouric, a cultural tourism services company.
As natural disasters become increasingly severe due to climate change, conservationists say they face new and ominous challenges. The damage from this week's fires highlights a fundamental shift in the sector.
“The quintessential 20th-century symbol of historic preservation threats was the bulldozing of individual historic buildings or neighborhoods for urban renewal,” Bernstein said. “Today is an extreme climate event. Wildfires, rising sea levels and extreme winds will not bring incremental gains. threat, but the ongoing threat of widespread damage to our most treasured historical and architectural landmarks.”
Some of Altadena's famous buildings, including the Zorthian Ranch and the Bunny Museum, tell the story of the community's long history as a haven for free spirits, mystics and the counterculture.
Their destruction amounted to the erasure of regional history associated with "raising social awareness for positive change," Schaff said. He and his wife, Kim Cooper, another founder of Esotouric Tours, were particularly devastated by the loss of the Theosophical Library Center.
The Lake Avenue facility houses the largest collection of materials related to Theosophy, a modern religious movement in which writers such as William Butler Yeats were adherents and which influenced later New Age belief systems . “It was a treasure trove of profound knowledge,” Cooper said.
The library contains more than 40,000 books as well as the archives of the Theosophical Society. The collection embodies "the cultural ideas that formed this visionary Southern California spirit," Cooper said. The Theosophical Society did not respond to a request for an interview.
Other notable losses in Altadena included its homes. The Andrew McNally House was built by the mapmaking manager of the same name, who was also a co-founder of publisher Rand McNally. This Queen Anne-style private mansion was built in 1887 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The house is famous for its so-called Turkey Room, an ornately decorated octagon that Cooper said was "one of the most beautiful spaces in the world."
The Andrew McNally House, built by co-founder of Rand McNally Publishing Company, was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
(Chris Pizzero/AP)
Not far from McNally Manor, Zane Gray Manor lies in ruins. Co-designed by renowned architect Myron Hunt and built in 1907, the house has long been the residence of its namesake owner. Gray is the author of "The Purple Paladin" and many other works of Western fiction.
"Grey is very important as a literary figure, and (the house) is also architecturally important," Fine said. Restoration work on the property was "almost complete," he added ruefully.
Like Altadena, the Palisades lost privately owned historic properties and celebrated public spaces, perhaps none more beloved than Rogers' ranch home.
This 31-room home was built in the 1920s by a vaudeville actor-turned-movie star and is located within Will Rogers State Historic Park. The home has been used as a museum and houses a collection of art, Western memorabilia and a Rogers-centered library.
The California State Parks System, which oversees the property, said it preserved certain items, including artwork.
“They kept some of the interior and some of the collection, but not much,” Fine said. "This is an epic loss. You can't talk about Palisades without talking about Will Rogers."
The Palisades business district was severely damaged by the fires that swept through the area.
(Brian Vanderbrugge/Los Angeles Times)
Bernstein mourned the fate of the Palisades Mall, a 1924 Spanish Colonial Revival shopping plaza. Television reports showed the Sunset Strip property was almost completely razed, but some architectural features remained intact.
He called the terraced building, listed as a Los Angeles Historic and Cultural Monument, "Pacific Palisades' earliest commercial center."
Representatives for the development did not respond to requests for comment.
Bernstein and others say cataloging all the destroyed historic buildings will take time. He said his office will eventually update the citywide historic places survey — searchable online through the HistoricPlacesLA database — to reflect the loss.
He said the information will help preservationists, property owners and others understand "what we've lost and what we still have opportunities to help revitalize and restore."
There's a long-standing refrain in Southern California: The region is too willing to overturn its own history in the name of progress. Today, observers may question the accuracy of that adage—preservationists have come a long way in recent decades—but this week, a devastating new fact emerged from the ashes.
A fire has done what a bulldozer couldn't.