The Brief

The former home of one of the world's most famous western novelists, Zane Grey, was a Mediterranean Revival house designed with high, wood-beamed ceilings and airy balconies.

"It had almost a cathedral vibe when you walked in," said Nathaniel Grouille on a recent visit to the site. He bought the property with his wife in 2020.

It's been almost two months since the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, including several noted historic and cultural landmarks like this one, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

During a visit in February, the shattered glass from the estate's windows was still underfoot, along with blackened wood, twisted gutters and broken pieces of ceramic. All that the fire left standing are the sturdy concrete walls.

Gray was known in the 1920s and '30s for his adventure novels set on the American Frontier, like Riders of the Purple Sage and The Lone Star Ranger. Inside, his house reflected his interest in the Old West and Southwest — and those charred concrete walls that remain still bear faint traces of his interests.

"You can see the white stencils made it through the fire, even though the paint itself is gone," said Grouille's wife Alice Carr, pointing to a wall painted with Hopi spiritual figures.

Weighing options for the Zane Grey Estate  

The Zane Grey Estate in LA's Altadena neighborhood was almost completely destroyed in the January 2025 Eaton Fire. But unlike other neighboring homes which were largely made of wood, its walls were made of concrete — so they mostly remained intact.

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Grouille and Carr are now facing a big question: How to rebuild the site in a way that preserves Grey's legacy while protecting it from the inevitable future fires and other disasters resulting from the impacts of human-caused climate change?

Returning the property to what it was in Zane Grey's day isn't on the couple's agenda.

"This structure was incredibly unique, using really high quality old-growth wood and products that just don't exist today," Carr said.

Grouille said they have no interest in using modern materials to build a Zane Grey Estate lookalike — "A sort of Las Vegas version of a historic house."

Instead, they'd rather reframe the author's legacy to make sense in an era where human-caused climate change creates increasing threats — perhaps by building new, resilient structures out of sustainable materials that architecturally nod to Grey's personality and passion for the West.

"He mixed sort of a Teddy Roosevelt-type pragmatism with a great romance," Grouille said. "That's the kind of the thing you want to preserve."

A familiar tension

Conservation experts are familiar with this tension.

"That can sometimes be a delicate balance," said Seri Worden, Senior director of preservation programs with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Worden said adding a metal roof or removing flammable plantings may increase a historic landmark's chances of surviving a wildfire. But these interventions, if not done carefully, can ruin what makes these places special.

"How can we ensure that we can adapt the historic materials without losing the power these places have?" Worden said.

The Gamble House in Pasadena, a National Historic Landmark, was in a fire evacuation zone in the Los Angeles Fires. Its custodians are now making complex decisions about how to safeguard its future against the impacts of human-caused climate change while at the same time maintaining the historic details and atmosphere for which it is admired.

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This is a question that historic sites that escaped the flames from the recent fires are also asking themselves — such as The Gamble House. The 1908 property, owned by the City of Pasadena and a National Historic Landmark since 1977, is a crowning example of American Arts and Crafts design — a sprawl of redwood shingles and copper pipes.

It was under an evacuation warning during the recent fires; the team temporarily removed a few key artifacts as a precaution.

The Gamble House is recognized worldwide as a gem of American Arts and Crafts design. Its custodians say if it were to burn down, it would be irreplaceable.

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"We are an enormous wood structure. So fire makes all of us very nervous," said Sheryl Scott, the site's director of communications and operations.

Making complex decisions

Scott said The Gamble House staff had previously been focused on earthquake and flood mitigation. Now with the possibility of more fire danger in the future, her team has been making complex decisions.

One was whether to remove the beautiful but potentially hazardous creeping figs clinging to the façade. They decided no. Instead, the plan is to keep the nearby shrubs and trees trimmed.

Another has been figuring out how best to protect the buildings' historic but extremely flammable shingles, also known as shakes. That's a topic of ongoing investigation.

"We can't replace our shakes with fakes," Scott said. "The integrity of the structure, the historic content, is important to us."

The Gamble House in Pasadena

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All of this work takes resources. There are pockets of foundation and donor money. Conservation groups like the Los Angeles Conservancy connect historic landmarks with experts such as architects and contractors willing to provide pro bono or reduced rate assistance.

But Scott said it's a hard time for California landmarks to get grants for protecting or rehabilitating historic sites against disasters. The state's Office of Historic Preservation told NPR it does not offer them. Federal funding sources like the National Park Service are also facing cuts under the Trump Administration.

"Everyone's nervous about the amount of money that's available," Scott said.

With limited resources, Scott said her team is figuring out what to prioritize in order to keep The Gamble House standing for future generations.

"The ongoing care and long term survival of the house is always our main priority," Scott said. "Every decision we make is examined through the lens of being responsible stewards."

Audio and digital story edited by Jennifer Vanasco. Audio mixed by Chloee Weiner.
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The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."

Every year in Santa Ana, Luis Cantabrana turns the front of his home into an elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe that draws hundreds of visitors.

Along the front of the house, the multi-colored altar is filled with lights, flowers and a stained-glass tapestry behind a sculpture of the Lady of Guadalupe. Cantabrana’s roof also is lit up with the green, white and red lights that spell out “Virgen de Guadalupe” and a cross.

Visitors are welcomed with music and the smell of roses as they celebrate the saint, but this year’s gathering comes after a dark year for immigrant communities.

Luis Cantabrana stands in front of the stunning altar he built in front of his home in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Every year, his display draws hundreds of visitors.

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Why do they celebrate? 

In 1513, the Virgin Mary appeared before St. Juan Diego between Dec. 9 and Dec. 12, asking him to build a church in her honor. Her image — a brown-skinned woman wearing a green veil with her hands together in prayer and an angel at her feet — miraculously appeared on his cloak.

To celebrate in Santa Ana, worshippers gathered late-night Wednesday and in the very early hours Dec. 12 to pray the rosary, sing hymns and celebrate the saint.

Cantabrana has hosted worshippers at his home for 27 years — 17 in Santa Ana.

The altar started out small, he said, and over the years, he added a fabric background, more lights and flowers (lots and lots of flowers).

“It started with me making a promise to la Virgen de Guadalupe that while I had life and a home to build an altar, that I would do it,” Cantabrana said. “Everything you see in photos and videos is pretty, but when you come and see it live, it's more than pretty. It's beautiful.”

The Santa Ana home's elaborate altar in honor of La Virgen de Guadalupe draws hundreds of visitors each year.

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Gathering in a time of turmoil 

Many also look to the Lady of Guadalupe for protection, especially at a time when federal enforcement has rattled immigrant communities.

“People don’t want to go to work, they don’t want to take their kids to school, but the love we have for our Virgen de Guadalupe,” Cantabrana said. “We see that la Virgen de Guadalupe has a lot of power, and so we know immigration [enforcement] won’t come here.”

Margarita Lopez of Garden Grove has been visiting the altar for three years with her husband. She’s been celebrating the Virgencita since she was a young girl. Honoring the saint is as important now as ever, she said.

“We ask, and she performs miracles,” Lopez said.

Claudia Tapia, a lifelong Santa Ana resident, said the Virgin Mary represents strength.

“Right now, with everything going on, a lot of our families [have] turned and prayed to the Virgen for strength during these times,” Tapia said. “She's a very strong symbol of Mexican culture, of unity, of faith and of resilience.”

See it for yourself

The shrine will stay up into the new year on the corner of Broadway and Camile Street.

California’s unemployment agency kept paying cellphone bills for 4 1/2 years without checking whether its workers actually were using the devices.

That’s how it racked up $4.6 million in fees for mobile devices its workers were not using, according to a new state audit detailing wasteful spending at several government agencies.

The Employment Development Department’s excessive cellphone bills date to the COVID-19 pandemic, when it shifted call center employees to remote work and faced pressure to release benefits to millions of suddenly unemployed Californians.

It acquired 7,224 cellphones and wireless hotspots by December 2020. State auditors analyzed 54 months of invoices since then and found half the devices were unused for at least two years, 25% were unused for three years and 99 of them were never used at all.

The investigation, which auditors opened after receiving a tip, identified 6,285 devices that were unused for at least four consecutive months, and said the department spent $4.6 million on monthly service fees for them.

From the beginning, the department had about 2,000 more cellphones than call center employees, according to the audit. The gap widened over time after the pandemic ended and the department’s staffing returned to its normal headcount.

As of April, the audit said the department had 1,787 unemployment call center employees, but was paying monthly service fees for 5,097 mobile devices.

“Although obtaining the mobile devices during COVID-19 may have been a good idea to serve the public, continuing to pay the monthly service fees for so many unused devices, especially post-COVID-19, was wasteful,” the audit said.

Department officials told auditors they were unaware of the spending, but auditors pointed to regular invoices from Verizon that showed which phones were not being used.

“We would have expected EDD management to have reconsidered the need to pay the monthly service fees for so many devices that had no voice, message, or data usage,” the audit said.

The unemployment department began acting on the auditors’ findings in April, when it canceled service plans for 2,825 devices. It has since implemented a policy to terminate service plans for devices that go unused for 90 days.

The California state auditor highlighted the mobile devices in its regular report on “improper activities by state agencies and employees.” The audit also showed that the California Air Resources Board overpaid an employee who was on extended leave as he prepared to retire by $171,000.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.