Itinerant Craftsman: Lessons from the Duntley-Blackburn Residence [VIDEO]

Preamble

The video below shows most of a talk that I gave on the evening of January 30, 2026 at the beautiful Altadena Library. My preamble and large portions of the Q&A were cutby the editor, as were some of the pauses when I was talking over a blank screen. And the 200 slides have been resynched in a way that doesn’t fully align with the original presentation. So it comes off as more breathless and wrong-footed than the orginal talk. But the bulk of the content is there, and there’s now a lot of bonus content if you scroll down past the video.

January 2025 marked the first anniversary of the devastating Eaton fire, which had barely spared the library and my home, but which destroyed or severely damages some 10,000 homes. As I mentioned in my introductory remarks (since cut), I was delighted to be introduced by the legendary local historian and activist Michele Zack, author of the newly-reissued history Altadena: Between Wilderness and City. I aslo gave special thanks to Altadena Heritage chair Hans Allhoff.

The talk recounts the story of a 1910 Craftsman Bungalow that was moved from East Hollywood to Los Feliz in 1948, and then to a fire-ravaged parcel in Altadena, in the summer of 2025. That’s the year I transitioned from corporate work as an LA-based architectural historian into private practice.

The final weeks of research took me down all kinds of rabbit holes. Although it’s largely about the history of building relocation in greater Los Angeles and the life of pioneering businesswoman Alice Blackburn, there’s also a lot of film lore, and a good chunk of the talk should have been subtitled Searching for Andy Hervey.

It’s a very LA story …

Video (YouTube)

Alice Blackburn extras

Here’s the obituary for Alice Blackburn (1910-1996) from the Los Angeles Times, August 3, 1996. All memorial donations went to the Mooseheart orphanage where she spent her childhood. As someone who was orphaned myself (twice — like Alice’s house), I can relate to her affection for any people who cared to raise her.

Andy Hervey extras

Here’s a little more on Andy Hervey, including some photos I had forgotten about when I assembled that talk.

Article from the North County Times (Oceanside, CA), April 23, 1981:

Article by Gregory N. Joseph from the Desert Sun (Palm Springs, CA), January 13, 1982:

Article from the North County Times (Oceanside, CA), March 12, 1984:

Article from the Los Angeles Times, May 19, 1985:

Obituary from the North County Times (Oceanside, CA), March 12, 1984:

Early images of the Duntley-Blackburn House

Duntley-Blackburn House (1910) at original location in 707 N Mariposa Ave, East Hollywood:

ca. 1948 (Source: *Los Angeles Times*, 1949)

Sanborn fire insurance map of Los Angeles vol. 9, 1919 (corrected to 1942).

East (primary) elevation on the day and night of the move on July 7, 1948 (Photos by Loomis Dean for LIFE magazine; some reversed from source for correct orientation):