Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Twice-Moved Craftsman Offers Altadena a Blueprint for Rebuilding by Relocation

Friday lecture examines how a house that partied through its 1948 Hollywood move landed on a fire-damaged lot—and what that means for recovery policy

A five-bedroom Craftsman that survived two demolition orders in more than a century now stands on an Altadena lot where a home burned in the Eaton Fire—and on Friday, a historian will explain what lessons the building’s unusual journey holds for fire survivors weighing how to rebuild.

Graham Larking, a cultural resources specialist with a doctorate from Harvard, will present “Itinerant Craftsman: Lessons from the Duntley-Blackburn Residence” at 7 p.m. at the Altadena Main Library. The lecture is part of the Altadena Revealed series, a monthly program created by the Foothill Catalog Foundation and local heritage organizations in response to the January 2025 fire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures.

The house at the center of Larking’s presentation traveled from East Hollywood to Los Feliz in 1948, then from Los Feliz to Altadena in August 2025. Each move saved it from the wrecking ball. The first made national news.

When the original structure was condemned to make way for the Hollywood Freeway, owner Alice Blackburn—a pioneering businesswoman who ran a Nash car dealership—bought the home at auction for $2,800 and purchased a vacant lot a few miles away. On the night of the move, she threw a candlelit party inside the rolling house. One hundred fifty guests, including actresses Doris Day, Betty Hutton, and Dorothy Lamour, danced as the two-story building crept through the streets. A hula dancer performed barefoot. Guests signed waivers in case of disaster. LIFE Magazine ran a three-page pictorial.

That story became the lead item in Blackburn’s 1996 obituary.

Last summer, the house faced demolition again when its Los Feliz lot was slated for redevelopment. Interior designer Gwen Sukeena and mechanical engineer Jacques Laramee—who had lost their Altadena home to the Eaton Fire just ten days after moving in—acquired the building and had it transported 24 miles to their empty lot on Poppyfields Drive.

“This has been a really overwhelming experience in a very good way,” Sukeena said. “We’re at least able to see a little bit of light at the end of a very dark tunnel.”

The relocation was facilitated by Omgivning Architecture & Interiors, which launched the Historic House Relocation Project after the fires to match homes facing demolition with families who lost properties. The firm estimates that relocating a house costs about one-third of building new.

“It’s the most sustainable way to rebuild, by not throwing an entire house into the landfill,” said Morgan Sykes Jaybush, Omgivning’s creative director. “It’s also a great way to bring some historic character back to these neighborhoods which have suffered so much loss.”

Jaybush said 180 families are now on a waitlist for house relocation. But scaling the practice faces obstacles. California’s house-moving industry has dwindled from 26 companies in the 1940s to just two serving Southern California today. Los Angeles issued only eight house relocation permits in the past five years. Modern moves require cutting buildings into sections and transporting them on flatbed trucks at night to avoid traffic infrastructure.

According to the event listing, Friday’s lecture will explore “revised historic ordinances, streamlined permitting, and regular coordination among local governments” as prerequisites for expanding building relocation.

The Altadena Revealed series is presented by the Foothill Catalog Foundation in collaboration with Pasadena Heritage, Altadena Heritage, Bungalow Heaven Landmark District, and the Altadena Historical Society. The program aims to highlight community history while informing rebuilding discussions.

The lecture takes place at the Altadena Main Library, 600 E. Mariposa Street. For more information, call 626-798-0833 or visit altadenalibrary.org.

The house Larking will discuss is 3,600 square feet with five bedrooms—nearly double the size of what Sukeena and Laramee lost. It was built in 1910 for realtor George Marshall Duntley and may have been the former home of actress Mary Pickford. After its 1948 journey, the building stood at 2919 Saint George Street for more than seven decades before its second move.

“Why couldn’t we relocate houses like they used to do in the old days in L.A. when they were building the freeways?” Jaybush said. “Let’s find a way to relocate houses instead of throwing them into the landfill.”