Their houses burned but they’ll return, ready to write Altadena’s next chapter

They met in the 1960s on their first day of ninth grade at John Muir High School in Pasadena.

They both went on to become authors.

They lived next door to each other in Altadena.

They lost their houses in last year’s Eaton fire.

And they sat next to each other Monday night on stage at Vroman’s Books in Pasadena, bound by friendship, history and loss.

Michele Zack and Michelle Huneven were there to talk about the re-release of Zack’s 2004 book, “Altadena: Between Wilderness and City,” which has been updated with references to the fire that destroyed much of the community and killed 19 people.

“Wilderness and City” is a history book, so much of the discussion was about Altadena’s post-Native American passage from foothill agricultural mecca, to western expansion terminus, to modern L.A. suburb with a distinct sense of place.

But past really is prologue, so the question hanging over the discussion Monday night was not about what Altadena has been, but what it will become. Altadena has been called artsy and a bit funky and architecturally varied, but it was celebrated for three things in particular:

Racial diversity, socio-economic diversity and relative affordability.

All three were in jeopardy before the fire, and more so after, with thousands of lots vacant and local businesses on life support. A member of the audience noted that at the end of the first edition of Zack’s book, she addressed future uncertainties in a section titled, “Whither To, Altadena?”

“Will the community retain its artistic elements, horse properties, trails, rural feel, and architectural heritage even as property values arise and the economic benefits of more density and hillside development tempt builders and political entities?” Zack wrote more than 20 years ago.

“I said that in 2004 and today that question is on everyone’s mind,” Zack said Monday night. “How are we going to rebuild? Can we rebuild better? You know, people want it to be just the same, but it’s not going to be the same.”

Huneven said she and her husband had just been talking about which Altadena qualities are most important to try to re-create, and which would be hardest to re-create.

Zack took the cue and led with Altadena’s sense of independence as a quality worth conserving.

“Maybe that ‘live or die’ spirit,” she said of a community that has chosen to remain unincorporated over the years (it sits beyond Pasadena city limits), and has committed to living with growing perennial threats of drought, deluge, debris flows, earthquakes and wildfires.

And yet, extreme heat will continue to turn scorched vegetation into kindling, and Santa Ana winds will blast their way toward Altadena along the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, and each stiff breeze will carry with it the memory of unbearable loss. A live-or-die spirit might be hard to maintain, despite the commitment to a fire-hardened rebirth.

“I believe more than half of the people … who lost their homes have not yet decided whether or not they’re going to build back,” a member of the audience said, noting that Zack and Huneven are in the other camp, with their new houses under construction. “So I was just looking for a little bit of your hopeful perspective.”

Huneven, whose latest novel, “Bug Hollow,” is set in Altadena, answered first.

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1. Altadena, Calif, United States – November 11: A statue reflects in a fountain at Michele Zack’s home, a Mediterranean style architecture designed by artist Frank Brown, which was lost during the Eaton Fire, on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (Carlin Stiehl/For The Times) (Carlin Stiehl/For The Times) 2. The remains of Michele Zack’s home, a Mediterranean style architecture designed by artist Frank Brown, which was lost during the Eaton Fire, stands on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)

“Well, some days it feels like the fire just goes on and on and on and on,” Huneven said. “Those are the days I’m down just because there’s insurance, there’s loans, there’s contractors, there’s permits, there’s inspections,” she said. “And then other days, you sort of see a house rising up and making something from nothing…what I think of as art and beauty.”

She said Zack and she visited their lots recently, climbed the stairs of her under-construction home, and took in the view from a rooftop terrace.

“And you know, looking out over Altadena … it looks like Altadena in the olden days. It looks like countryside and a few houses here and a few houses there and it really seemed very magical and hopeful,” Huneven said.

“And those mountain views we have now, without all the houses in the way,” Zack said.

I had met with Zack a couple of months ago at her burned-out property, where she had cherished her garden, her courtyard, and the rambling flow of the 100-year-old Mediterranean-revival home. She told me she had briefly wished she didn’t want to rebuild, because it would have been easier to start over in another place. Her heart wouldn’t let that happen, though, and as the historian tapped by the Altadena Historical Society to write the 2004 book, she felt an obligation to the community.

But she understands why, for many people, doubts remain.

“I think it’s a very tough decision and you have to be like, in our case, crazy, because we’re too old to be building a house,” Zack said Monday night. But “I really want to be back in my house… and we’re so rooted in the community, because we’re rooted to place.”

Huneven said that last year, as the smoke cleared, she and Zack were commiserating one day about what had been lost.

“And I said, ‘Well, you know, we’ll always be friends. We’ve been friends since the first day of high school.’ And Michele said, ‘Well, will we ever be neighbors?’ And that’s what got to me,” Huneven said.

In the updated foreword to her book, Zack notes that after the fire, she recalled that “this is not the first time that half (or more) of Altadena’s population left.” It had happened in the 1960s and 70s, when “racial fears, decreasing property values” and other factors triggered white flight.

Once again, Zack wrote, Altadena’s future will be determined by “who stays, who leaves, and who moves here. What forces will determine who is able to return to Altadena post fire? Who will control the rebuild?”

The foreword ends with this:

“Let us work on a road that leads somewhere, in the words of [former Altadena author Zane Grey], ‘with the qualities that make life worth living.’”

steve.lopez@latimes.com