Home Subjects

C.C. Pierce, photographer. Exterior view of the Andrew McNally residence in Altadena, ca.1900. Photo from the collections of the University of Southern California.

There is little we as the editors of Home Subjects can say that would meaningfully illuminate the devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires. In the coming months, we hope to highlight the experiences of curators and historians who are working in and with historic house properties in the L.A. area. In the meantime, this post offers some links for further reading about historic properties directly affected by the current fires, and a few links to work by people who are thinking about the meaning of cultural heritage in a time of environmental precarity. Please share links or other anecdotes in the comments about houses or sites that are important for us to know about.

A timber-sided house designed by Robert Bridges, which sat on concrete stilts over Sunset Boulevard, was burned to the pillars by the fire. Photo credit: Trevor Tondro for The New York Times

We wrote at Home Subjects in April 2024 about Los Angeles’ rich architectural legacy, particularly in mid-century and later 20th century modernist work.  The Los Angeles Conservancy is providing real-time, updated monitoring of the fate of particular properties and is maintaining a list of losses and providing resources for property owners whose buildings have been affected. Although the fires are still ongoing as I write this on January 14, 2025, a number of articles have already appeared in major U.S. newspapers describing some of the built architectural heritage that has been lost or is at serious risk. Writing for the L.A. Times, Daniel Miller quotes Adrian Scott Fine, chief executive of the Conservancy, who calls the fires “a mass erasure of heritage.” Miller notes that at least 32 buildings considered historic have already been confirmed as having been destroyed. Amongst them are the Robert Bridges House in Pacific Palisades, named for the architect who designed it in 1974. The Keeler House, which enjoyed an equally dramatic site in Pacific Palisades, was designed by Ray Kappe in 1991 and has also been destroyed. The city’s legacy is of course rich in a range of modernist media and culture, including music and film; Javier C. Hernández reported in the New York Times the loss of approximately 100,000 scores by composer Arnold Schoenberg stored at the music publishing company operated by the composer’s son, when his home in Pacific Palisades burned. (Though the loss will present a considerable obstacle to orchestras and musicians wanting to perform Schoenberg’s work in the immediate future, Hernández notes that no original manuscripts were destroyed.) There is some good news; as of now, the Eames House in Pacific Palisades, considered an important landmark of mid-century modern design, is still standing.

The exterior of Will Rogers’ ranch home, located at Will Rogers State Historic Park. Photo courtesy of California State Parks via the Los Angeles Times.

Of course there are many even older properties that have been destroyed; in the New York Times, Sam Lubell noted the loss of these markers of the ‘Old California’. Amongst them are Will Rogers’ ranch house, which had been built in 1926. Unlike the two houses mentioned above, which were still privately owned and lived in, the Rogers ranch and associated land holdings had been transformed into a state park after the death of Rogers’ widow, Betty, in 1944. In Altadena, two important earlier houses have burned, the Zane Grey estate, built in 1907, and the Andrew McNally House, a Queen Anne beauty built in 1887.

Pitot House, c. 1799. New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Landmarks Society

It will be weeks and months before the extent of loss is assessed. In the meantime, there are resources available for historians and curators to think about how to process cultural losses like the one dealt by this fire. Over at the Society for Historical Archaeology, archaeologist Marcy Rockman has been writing a blog series since September 2024 to share climate news and reflect on its significance for “culture, society, and heritage.” Rockman is a leader in this field of research. Her academic work addresses how humans have adapted, responded, and learned the lessons of their geographic and climatic surroundings over the centuries, offering a vital road-map for thinking about how we can adapt to our own rapidly-changing surroundings. As she writes, “I speak for memory, connections to place, migration, and how we learn the world around us.” Likewise, the Center for the Future of Museums hosts a blog that frequently reflects on the issues facing historic properties in different parts of the United States, each of which has a particular set of challenges, such as Jenny Dyer’s August 2022 post about Pitot House Museum on Bayou St. John in Louisiana. And Adam Markham, with the Union of Concerned Scientists, has also written about the importance of historic places to our collective culture.

Scholars like Rockman want to help lead the way to a more proactive approach to heritage, taking stock of what is most important for human thriving and memory before it is lost. Her work speaks to what preservation advocate Richard Schave, quoted in Miller’s article, lamented as the loss of “touchstones–physical places in the world that mark our intellectual history.”