The video below shows a talk I gave on the evening of January 30, 2026 at the beautiful Altadena Library, the day before it closed for renovation. That month 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. 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.

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. As Michele mentions in her introduction, I’m also now doing advocacy work for Pasadena Heritage, which I’m really enjoyng so far.

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 …