The oaks and Craftsman bungalows that define this region’s streetscapes have always needed champions. On June 13, four of them will share a stage.
Pasadena Heritage, the Glendale Historical Society, Altadena Heritage, and the Altadena Historical Society — nonprofit organizations that between them span nearly a century of preservation work — are co-hosting the Regional Restoration Expo, a free, daylong event at the historic Blinn House. The expo runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 160 N. Oakland Ave., the 1906 Prairie Style landmark that serves as Pasadena Heritage’s headquarters.
The event pairs preservation staples — curated exhibitors, restoration specialists, and expert-led discussions — with programming aimed squarely at Altadena residents still rebuilding 17 months after the Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures in January 2025, according to Cal Fire.
A speaker series features Adrian Scott Fine, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy, the nation’s largest local nonprofit heritage conservation organization. Fine, who took the helm of the Conservancy in January 2024, has overseen its advocacy across 88 cities and unincorporated communities in Los Angeles County.
Also on the program is Frances Anderton, a writer and broadcaster who covers Los Angeles design and architecture. Anderton, who hosted KCRW’s “DnA: Design and Architecture” radio show, is the author of “Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles,” a 2022 book that traces the city’s experiments in shared housing from bungalow courts to modern co-living.
Brad Chambers, a preservationist who has advised the Historic House Relocation Project — an effort to save threatened historic homes from demolition across Los Angeles and move them onto fire-damaged lots in Altadena — rounds out the featured speakers, according to the press release. The project, launched in 2025 by the architecture firm Omgivning, has relocated early 20th-century homes into Altadena’s burn zone as an alternative to new construction.
An interactive feature called “What’s It Worth?” will offer attendees live verbal valuations of heirlooms and collectibles, led by John Moran Auctioneers, an auction house founded in Pasadena in 1969.
The venue carries its own preservation story. Designed by Chicago architect George Washington Maher, the Blinn House is the only known Maher residential structure built west of the Mississippi River. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the California Register of Historical Resources, and is a designated Pasadena Cultural Landmark. The Women’s City Club of Pasadena owned the home for more than 75 years before transferring it to Pasadena Heritage in 2021.
The four co-hosting organizations bring distinct but overlapping missions. Pasadena Heritage, founded in 1977, is one of the oldest preservation groups in Southern California and the second largest in the state, with more than 2,000 members. The Glendale Historical Society dates to 1979. Altadena Heritage, a volunteer-based advocacy organization, was incorporated in 1987. The Altadena Historical Society, the oldest of the four, has gathered and shared the community’s history since 1935.
Admission is free. Parking and registration details had not been announced as of press time.
Need to Know: Regional Restoration Expo, Saturday, June 13, 2026, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Blinn House, 160 N. Oakland Ave., Pasadena. Free admission. Media contact: Robert Gordon, The Glendale Historical Society, 415-518-1376, rigolrg@gmail.com. Parking details and event registration information were not available at time of publication.
The four organizations behind the expo describe it as an effort to promote preservation and support rebuilding across the region — a goal that, in a community still clearing ash from its foundations, carries weight beyond the architectural.
