Celebrations Abound Today at Altadena’s Farnsworth Park

Charles S. Farnsworth Park in Altadena, closed since the Eaton Fire swept through the community in January 2025, is the site of two celebrations today: a Los Angeles County program marking the start of the historic park’s restoration, and the groundbreaking for Dodgers Dreamfields 69 and 70, a $1.4 million Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation project, in partnership with LA County Parks, to fully restore the park’s upper and lower ballfields.

The County program begins at 10 a.m., followed at 11 a.m. by the Dodgers Dreamfields groundbreaking ceremony. Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation Director Norma E. García-González and Dodgers Foundation CEO Nichol McKenzie-Whiteman are scheduled to take part, along with Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell, a two-time Cy Young Award winner; Dodgers broadcaster José Mota; and Mark Stanley, executive officer of the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy.

“Altadena has shown extraordinary strength and resilience, and we are honored to continue standing with this community as it recovers and rebuilds,” McKenzie-Whiteman said in announcing the groundbreaking.

“Dodgers Dreamfields 69 and 70 are about so much more than baseball and softball,” she said. “They are about restoring a beloved gathering place, creating new opportunities for young people and giving families a space to reconnect, learn, play and dream together.”

The foundation said the project will fully restore both fields and reintroduce safe, inclusive spaces for local youth and families. Planned upgrades include new irrigation systems, improved playing surfaces, fencing, improved batting cages and solar-powered hexagonal scoreboards styled after those at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. A permanent, self-guided STEM Trail will connect the upper and lower fields, drawing on the foundation’s Science of Baseball curriculum and the park’s natural environment.

The fields will support baseball and softball programs for youth ages 5 to 12 and provide open recreational access for youth and teens up to age 18. Once the work is complete, LA County Parks will oversee field operations, including maintenance, reservations, scheduling, permitting, programming and community use.

Before the fire, the upper and lower fields were the primary home venue of Central Altadena Little League. The foundation said the design of the new fields was shaped by listening sessions with the Community Coalition for Altadena Recovery, Central Altadena Little League and other community leaders.

“Altadena’s young baseball players and their families have been eagerly waiting for the day they can return to the diamonds of Farnsworth Park,” García-González said. “The transformation to two new Dodgers Dreamfields, along with the new educational STEM trail, will bring excitement, hope and new opportunities for children and families to learn, play, and create lasting memories.”

Barger, whose Fifth Supervisorial District includes unincorporated Altadena, said she visited Farnsworth Park on Jan. 8, 2025, the day after the fire began, as one of her first stops in the burn area.

“My first feeling was disbelief. I have so many memories anchored there: concerts, little league games, picnics, community events,” Barger told Hey SoCal this week.

“Farnsworth Park was like a historic town square for Altadena,” she said. “Its return will bring back sports, community, and culture.”

Barger credited the Dodgers Foundation with stepping forward on its own. “The LA Dodgers Foundation took the initiative and came forward of their own volition, looking for ways to help wildfire survivors and the Eaton Fire recovery effort,” she said.

Farnsworth Park was built during the Depression on the site of a former County reforestation nursery. Construction began in December 1933 and the park opened in 1934, along with its recreation building, which was renamed the William D. Davies Memorial Building in 1943. Works Progress Administration relief workers added a wood-bench amphitheater in 1938. The nearly 15-acre park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

The Eaton Fire, which ignited the evening of Jan. 7, 2025, burned 14,021 acres, destroyed 9,419 structures and killed 19 civilians, according to Cal Fire. At Farnsworth, the fire destroyed the Davies Building, a utility building and offices, and damaged the amphitheater, which had hosted theater and concerts, along with a playground, a restroom and critical power and water infrastructure, the Dodgers Foundation said.

During the debris cleanup managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, preservation efforts were underway to retain the Davies Building’s two large masonry chimneys and much of its original walls, and archaeologists monitored the site for possible artifacts. “Because it’s a historical site, we’re treating it with care,” Alex Johnstone, a field engineer supporting the Corps’ mission, said in May 2025.

The closure scattered the park’s regular users. The Altadena Rotary Club’s free summer concert series moved to Loma Alta Park, which in May 2025 became the first County park in Altadena to reopen after the fire, with Dodgers Dreamfields 66 and 67. Central Altadena Little League played its 2025 season with help from West Pasadena Little League and other neighboring leagues that shared field space, and its Braves won the division title for the first time in league history. That season is the subject of the documentary “Going for Home.”

The Farnsworth fields will be the 69th and 70th Dodgers Dreamfields. The foundation said it has invested more than $21.3 million in 68 Dodgers Dreamfields since 2003, giving more than 413,000 youth access to playable fields. The foundation and LA County Parks have developed 17 Dodgers Dreamfields across the county, and the foundation said it is committed to completing 75 Dodgers Dreamfields by 2028.

Lead sponsors of Dodgers Dreamfields 69 and 70 are the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, Madhappy and The Madhappy Foundation, and the Susan and Gordon DesCombes Family.

Additional sponsors are the Henry L. Guenther Foundation, Helen and Will Webster Foundation, Security Benefit, LA84 Foundation, Bank of America, Fanatics Foundation, Kershaw Foundation, The Mickey and Lee Segal Family Foundation, The Rotary Club of Altadena, Servpro, Anita Bhatia Foundation for Tomorrow, The Nancy P. and Richard K. Robbins Family Foundation, Alfred E. Mann Charities and Aloe Blacc.

The ballfields are one piece of a multi-phase recovery at Farnsworth led by LA County Parks and the Los Angeles County Parks Foundation, a nonprofit that partners with the department to raise philanthropic support. The Dodgers Foundation said the loss of the park’s facilities, rental spaces and program revenue created a significant funding gap.

In November 2025, Barger announced that more than $60 million had been secured toward restoring Altadena’s fire-damaged parks. The total has since grown. “The Los Angeles County Parks Foundation secured $64 million in grants and from philanthropy for our parks. To clarify, these are not County funds,” Barger said this week.

At Farnsworth, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has allocated $5 million for a healing and reflection garden along the park’s west side, and the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy has contributed $3 million for restroom rebuilding, landscaping and related work. Barger said the restored park will also include a Reflection Garden honoring Altadena residents and a STEM wall.

The full restoration will cost far more. In July, LA County Parks told the Altadena Town Council it still needed $63 million for the Davies Building and the park’s other structures, including $48 million for the Davies Building, and that it had applied to FEMA for that work but had received no FEMA money for any of its Altadena parks.

The County’s July timeline projected a spring 2027 grand opening for the Dodgers fields phase, contingent on a legally required accessible path of travel and restrooms. Barger said a firm completion timeline will be shared as construction progresses.

Designated donations for the Farnsworth Dreamfields project can be made at Dodgers.com/LADF. Donations for Altadena parks recovery are accepted by the Los Angeles County Parks Foundation at lacpf.org. Questions about the status of Altadena parks can be sent to altadenaparks@parks.lacounty.gov.

The event is open to the public, and the County program includes light refreshments. A project site tour from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. is limited to invited guests.

Charles S. Farnsworth Park, 568 E. Mt. Curve Ave., Altadena. Thursday, Nov. 5. County program at 10 a.m.; Dodgers Dreamfields groundbreaking ceremony at 11 a.m. to noon. Open to the public. For information, visit Dodgers.com/LADF.