Getty awards substantial grant to document the places and stories that make Altadena unique

Local conservation groups are getting a big boost to help document the cultural landmarks and stories that make Altadena a community like no other.

Today, the Getty Foundation is awarding a $420,000 grant to the Los Angeles Conservancy to head up a mapping project designed to inform rebuilding after the Eaton Fire.

Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation, told LAist that a big part of the project will center around hearing residents’ personal stories.

“The traditions that they associate with specific places. Where communities came together to celebrate,” Weinstein said. “I think that can help foster community healing.”

How it will work

Adrian Scott Fine, president and chief executive officerof the Los Angeles Conservancy, and the team from Architectural Resources Group assess Fox’s Restaurant in Altadena.

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Rico Mandel

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The grant will allow the L.A. Conservancy to continue work it had already begun with a local architectural conservancy firm to map out culturally significant sites that were lost — and ones that survived the fire too.

Part of the issue is that Altadena lacks a complete inventory of cultural and heritage sites, unlike the Pacific Palisades, which had its sites mapped by the city of L.A.

With the help of a number of Altadena-based groups, including volunteer-led Altadena Heritage, the L.A. Conservancy plans to send people into the community to gather information and hold listening sessions to glean what tangible and intangible things were important to Altadenans.

The goal is to have local mainstays such as the Altadena Community Church or Fox’s Restaurant included in what’s called a Geographic Information System map.

But residents might also want to include culturally important sites, such as the Park Planned Homes, a mid-century experiment in prefabricated modern homes, 21 of which were lost in the Eaton Fire. Or maybe the property of Johnny Agnew, a 1920s goldfish hatchery that the automotive expert turned into Funky Junk Farms, a wonderland of vintage things on wheels that often showed up in movies and TV.

Places like this "were very much part of the identity of this community. ... They’re just as important as something like the Zane Grey Estate,” said Adrian Scott Fine, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Johnny Agnew's Funky Junk Farms as it looked in 2017.

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Katherine Garrova

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LAist

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The goal is to also have a list of properties that could be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places or could receive Historic Landmark status in L.A. County.

The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2026.