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A year and a half after the Eaton Fire reshaped Altadena, Los Angeles County has taken a major step toward preserving part of the community’s architectural heritage.
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors recently completed the final legal step to establish the Historic Highlands Historic District, making it both Altadena’s first historic district and the first ever designated under the county’s historic preservation ordinance. The designation, which officially took effect on July 9, protects 77 homes in the unincorporated northern portion of the Historic Highlands neighborhood.
The newly protected area includes a remarkably intact collection of homes built between 1905 and 1959 in architectural styles that define early Southern California neighborhoods, including Craftsman, American Foursquare, Tudor Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival. The district encompasses portions of East Woodbury Road, New York Drive, Atchison Street, North Mar Vista Avenue and North Catalina Avenue; all are just north of the neighbor Pasadena’s existing Historic Highlands district.
While Los Angeles is no stranger to preservation—think the city’s Historic-Cultural Monuments or neighborhoods like Angelino Heights—this marks the first time the Los Angeles County government has created a historic district for an unincorporated community under its own preservation ordinance. County officials say the effort reflects years of advocacy by residents, preservationists and the Historic Highlands Neighborhood Association, whose campaign began in 2019.
The designation arrives at a particularly meaningful moment. Although the Historic Highlands neighborhood largely escaped the devastating early-2025 Eaton Fire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures, most significantly in Altadena, the disaster underscored how quickly communities can lose pieces of their architectural identity. Preservation advocates have pointed to the district as a way to protect one of Altadena’s best-preserved collections of early-20th-century homes while the broader community continues to rebuild.
For homeowners, historic district status doesn’t freeze the neighborhood in time, but it does establish design review standards intended to ensure that renovations and new construction remain compatible with the area’s historic character. County leaders hope the designation will serve as a model for future preservation efforts elsewhere in unincorporated Los Angeles County.
As Altadena continues recovering from one of the most destructive fires in its history, the Historic Highlands designation signals a commitment to preserving the character that made the community distinctive in the first place.