New Project Will Map Fire-Ravaged Altadena’s Cultural Heritage 

In the wake of the devastating Eaton Fire that ravaged nearly 7,000 structures in and around Altadena, the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles has committed $420,000 to document the loss of culturally significant sites in the area and take stock of its “intangible heritage.”

Throughout its history, Altadena has been home to transformational writers and artists, including science fiction author Octavia Butler and actor Sidney Poitier, the first Black person to win an Oscar for Best Actor. At the time of the fires, 81% of Black residents in Altadena were homeowners, a rate about twice as high as the national average. But in the months since the fires, developers appear to be scrambling to purchase charred lots — and they’re not just purchasing individual lots, they’re gobbling them up in multiples. As the redevelopment efforts ramp up, locals who fear displacement and the loss of the region’s character locals have adopted the phrase “Altadena is not for sale.”

The Los Angeles Conservancy, a nonprofit that advocates for the preservation of the city’s cultural and architectural resources, will lead the Getty-funded documentation project over a period of 18 months, LA Conservancy’s CEO and president Adrian Scott Fine told Hyperallergic. The Getty hopes the results of the “cultural asset mapping,” as the process is known, will be incorporated into policy decisions regarding fire relief.

Getty Foundation Director Joan Weinstein told Hyperallergic that the process of cultural asset mapping builds on traditional conservation methods, which typically rely heavily on technical mapping, by emphasizing community engagement and including intangible heritage.

“If you don’t know what you have, it’s potentially a greater risk of loss,” Fine said. “Especially in a community that’s already experienced so much trauma and grief, and then this rush to rebuild.”

Fine said local groups including Altadena Heritage and the city’s arts and culture department will work to identify which histories will be documented and which heritage assets are most at risk. The Getty Foundation, he exaplined, will collect oral histories and physical information on buildings and sites, including stories of local legacy businesses and artist communities. Eventually, the conservancy group plans to work with residents to propose land-use recommendations.

“It’s a new challenge and our response is still evolving,” Val Zavala, an Altadena Heritage board member, told Hyperallergic in an email. “We do know that we want to help retain the tight-knit and diverse community that makes Altadena a wonderful place to live.”

Fine named Zorthian Ranch, a 45-acre haven for artists and writers named after sculptor and Armenian genocide survivor Jirayr Zorthian, as an example of sites the initiative will seek to document. The Eaton Fire destroyed the buildings on the property — where artists including Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan were known to have gathered — except for two structures. Alan, Zorthian’s son, who manages the property, told the Los Angeles Times in January that real estate agents were calling him just days after the fire was contained.

Most of Zorthian’s artwork was lost in the fire, according to a GoFundMe page attempting to raise $200,000 to keep the ranch in the family and prevent developers from acquiring the land.

“The challenge is, how do you preserve as much of Altadena’s really unique cultural fabric and historic built environment as possible, as the community moves toward rebuilding?” Weinstein said. “How do you preserve the memories of what has been lost?”