Monday, November 24, 2025

Altadena’s Mariposa Junction Rises Again at Saturday Reopening

By EDDIE RIVERA

In a sign of resilience after January’s devastating Eaton Fire, five Altadena businesses reopened Saturday morning along Lake Avenue

On Saturday morning, a stretch of Lake Avenue that had stood silent and charred, reopened to laughter, music, and the low, happy hum of neighbors greeting one another again. The “Rising Together” celebration at Mariposa Junction marked the return of five shops on one of the commercial blocks hardest hit by the Eaton Fire of January 7 — a blast of flame so furious it reduced a 1924 masonry building to rubble and displaced residents and businesses for months. Numerous stores,  businesses, and homes nearby had been obliterated by the fire’s intensity.

For many, the reopening was less a ribbon-cutting than a reunion.

Just inside the revived Gallery at the End of the World, Vanessa Meier stood behind a small display of earrings, purse charms and repurposed beads — her first sales table, her first event, and, in a sense, her first public step into a new life. “I’m a filmmaker, but our industry is flatlined this year,” she said. “So in August I started making jewelry… this is my first event.” She had once been a customer here; when she learned the gallery was coming back, she asked if she could join.

By midmorning, she had already made her first three sales ever.

Meier said her home survived the fire but suffered enough damage that she spent three and a half months evacuated. “I love it that Altadena is rising up,” she said. “We have a strong spirit here… we want to see it come back to life and be beautiful again.”

Across the shop, longtime gallery member Cammie Jones greeted former customers and fellow artists. She has been connected to the gallery “for a couple of decades,” she said, recalling earlier locations and old Saturday shifts behind the counter. Some of the artists showing work on Saturday had lost their homes in the fire; others were returning to a creative space that had shaped their early careers. “We didn’t want to be looking back,” she said. “Today is just about today.”

Inside a freshly painted shop a few doors down, owner Caroline Britton — whose store, Carciofi Paper Boutique & Studio, had suffered extensive smoke damage while her home was totally destroyed — welcomed a steady stream of familiar faces. “It’s been incredible, the amount of people who’ve come out,” she said. “We’re happy to be back… We’ll make it through.”

At the center of the crowd stood property owner Joey Galloway, whose entire block was affected. He had spent the past seven months navigating insurance negotiations, debris removal, and structural assessments — a process he described as “one hurdle after another,” though each with a solution. “This event was very unfortunate,” he said of the fire, “but I see the positive. At the end of the day… we’re going to build back better.”

A remaining 1924 brick building, he explained, must be rebuilt from the foundation up. Galloway plans to reconstruct the structure in cinder block with a brick facade to faithfully replicate its original appearance. “We want the building to look exactly how it looked in 1924,” he said, noting that architects have already begun drafting designs.

The celebration stretched into the afternoon, with residents drifting between storefronts — some for the first time since the fire, others returning to the place where they once shopped, created, or simply talked with neighbors.

“Altadena, we’re a tough crowd,” Britton had said earlier. On this block, at least, tough looked a lot like happy.