Numerous historic landmarks lost in Los Angeles wildfires

Will Rogers’ ranch home. Pasadena Waldorf School. Robert Bridges House. The Bunny Museum. Andrew McNally House. Theatre Palisades. The Zane Grey Estate. The Palisades and Eaton infernos have laid waste to more than 30 structures considered historic in what preservationists believe is the single worst loss of such properties in the region’s history. “It’s staggering and heartbreaking – I don’t know any other way to put it,” said Ken Bernstein, principal city planner at Los Angeles City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources. “This is widespread destruction of significant architecture and places that are cherished in our communities.” The tally could grow, perhaps dramatically, as an accounting of the losses continues. Though institutions including the Getty Villa were saved, the fates of many other notables remain unknown. The Los Angeles Conservancy said Friday afternoon that 32 properties it considered historic because of their architectural or cultural significance were claimed by the fires, which have destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 structures. Some of the historic buildings, including Altadena’s Zane Grey Estate and Rogers’ Western-style Palisades home, had formal landmark status on the National Register of Historic Places or another list. But others, such as Fox’s Restaurant in Altadena and Theatre Palisades, were considered important in part because of their status as beloved community spaces. “It is a mass erasure of heritage,” said Adrian Scott Fine, chief executive of the Conservancy, a non-profit dedicated to historic preservation. “We haven’t seen anything like this before.” In some cases, notable properties are severely damaged but not obliterated, including Gladstones, the seaside fish restaurant formerly owned by the late LA mayor Richard Riordan, according to the Santa Monica Mirror. In the Altadena foothills, much of Zorthian Ranch burned, including artwork by founder Jirayr Zorthian. But two buildings of the artists’ colony were spared, said Jason Deach, a ranch hand who visited the site Thursday. “Every other thing is gone, wiped from the map,” he said. Some institutions have already vowed to rebuild – among them the Bunny Museum in Altadena, which featured quirky but seemingly irreplaceable collections of porcelain figurines, artwork, clothing and other items depicting rabbits. The Lake Avenue museum lost roughly 46,000 objects. Other notable losses in Altadena include its homes. The Andrew McNally House was built by the eponymous mapmaking impresario who co-founded publisher Rand McNally. Constructed in 1887, the Queen Anne-style mansion, privately owned, was on the National Register of Historic Places. The house was known for its so-called Turkish room, an ornately decorated octagon that Cooper said was “one of the most beautiful spaces in the world”. Not far from the McNally property, the Zane Grey Estate is in ruins. Co-designed by famed architect Myron Hunt and built in 1907, the house was long the residence of its namesake owner. Grey was the author of Riders of the Purple Sage and many other works of western fiction. As with Altadena, the Palisades lost a mixture of privately owned historic properties and famed public spaces, perhaps none more beloved than Rogers’ ranch home. The 31-room residence, built by the vaudevillian-turned-movie star in the 1920s, was situated within Will Rogers State Historic Park. The home has served as a museum, housing a collection of artwork, western memorabilia and a library centred on Rogers. The California State Parks system, which oversees the property, said it saved certain items, including art. “They saved some of the interior features and some of the collection, but not much,” Fine said. “That is an epic loss. You can’t talk about the Palisades without talking about Will Rogers.” Bernstein mourned the fate of the Palisades’ Business Block, a Spanish Colonial Revival shopping plaza from 1924. Television footage showed the Sunset Boulevard property almost fully levelled, though some architectural features remained intact. He called the trapezoidal building, listed as an LA Historic-Cultural Monument, “the earliest commercial heart of Pacific Palisades”. Bernstein and others said that it will take time to catalogue all the destroyed historic structures. He said that his office would eventually update a citywide survey of historic places – searchable online via the HistoricPlacesLA database – to reflect the losses. The information, he said, will help preservationists, property owners and others understand “both what we lost and what we may still have the opportunity to help revitalise and recover”.

Numerous historic landmarks lost in Los Angeles wildfires

Wildfires have destroyed more than 30 landmarks in Los Angeles – and the tally could grow