Editing Altadena, California (section)

==History==
=== Etymology ===
The name Altadena was coined by Byron O. Clark, who established Altadena Nursery in 1875. The name combines the [[Spanish language|Spanish]] alta, meaning 'upper,' with dena, a term he likely adapted from [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]], though its precise origin remains unclear. The area is adjacent to, but at a higher elevation than, Pasadena.<ref name="naming">Manning, Mike. The word Altadena was first used by Byron Clark, who coined it for his nursery located south of present-day Woodbury on the west side of town. When he moved his nursery to Linda Vista, he agreed to let the Woodburys take the name for their new subdivision. "[http://www.altadenatowncouncil.org/altadenahistory/ald_history.html ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA: an abbreviated history for the internet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050424084500/http://altadenatowncouncil.org/altadenahistory/ald_history.html|date=April 24, 2005}}". [http://www.altadenatowncouncil.org/ Altadena Town Council]. Retrieved on March 18, 2007.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bright|first=William|author-link=William O. Bright|date=1998|title=1500 California Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning|location=[[Berkeley, California]]|publisher=[[University of California Press]]}}</ref>

=== Early history ===
In the mid-1860s, Benjamin S. Eaton first developed water sources from the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]] and [[Eaton Canyon]] to irrigate his vineyard near the edge of Eaton Canyon. This made possible the development of Altadena, Pasadena, and South Pasadena. He did the construction for [[Benjamin Davis Wilson|B. D. Wilson]] and [[John Strother Griffin|Dr. John Griffin]], who jointly owned the Mexican land grant of [[Rancho San Pascual]], about {{convert|14000|acre|ha}}, that would be the future sites of these three communities. They hoped to develop and sell this land in a real estate plan called the San Pasqual Plantation. Their efforts failed by 1870, despite Eaton's irrigation ditch that drew water from the site of present-day [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory|Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)]] in the [[Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County)|Arroyo Seco]], because the land was relatively inaccessible and few believed crops could thrive that close to the mountains.

Eaton tried to sell the land for the partners, and in late 1873 he helped broker a deal with Daniel Berry, who represented a group of investors from Indiana, to buy {{convert|4000|acre|ha}} of the rancho. This included the land of present-day Altadena, but they developed a {{convert|2500|acre|ha}} section further south as Pasadena.

Byron O. Clark established a nursery in the foothills in 1875, which he named "Altadena Nursery", a name he coined from the Spanish ''alta'' meaning "upper" and ''dena'' from Pasadena.

In 1880 or 1881, Capt. Frederick Woodbury, and his brother, John Woodbury of [[Marshalltown, Iowa]], purchased {{convert|937|acre|ha}} known as the Woodbury Ranch. The land remained primarily agricultural, though several Eastern millionaires built mansions along Mariposa Street, and a small community developed through the 1890s and into the next century.

=== Development ===
[[File:woodburys.jpg|thumb|right|[[Woodbury–Story House]] (1882), the home of Capt. John Woodbury, is extant and occupied.]]
John Woodbury established the Pasadena Improvement Company in 1887, with a plot plan of residential development referred to as the Woodbury Subdivision. They contacted Byron O. Clark, who had moved away, and asked if he could use the name "Altadena" for his subdivision; Clark agreed.

The newly sprouted community of Altadena immediately began to attract millionaires from the East. In 1887 [[Andrew McNally]], the printing magnate from Chicago, and his friend, [[George Gill Green]], had built mansions on what was to become Millionaire's Row: Mariposa Street near [[Christmas Tree Lane|Santa Rosa Avenue]]. Newspaper moguls William Armiger Scripps and William Kellogg built homes side by side just east of [[Fair Oaks Avenue (Pasadena, California)|Fair Oaks Avenue]]. A bit farther east, [[Zane Grey Estate|Zane Grey]] bought a home from Arthur Herbert Woodward, and added a second-floor study. The famous Benziger Publishing Company built a mansion on the corner of Santa Rosa Avenue (Christmas Tree Lane) and Mariposa. Mariposa was taken from the Spanish name for a butterfly. The grandson of Andrew McNally, [[Wallace Neff]], became a famous Southern California architect. He started his career in Altadena with the design and construction of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church (parish est.&nbsp;1918), which was dedicated in October 1926.

From 1924 to 1926, 160 homes were built in Altadena by [[fugitive]] conman Elisha Paul Janes, with distinctive steep roofs and multiple gables; despite his lack of qualifications, they proved popular, and this neighbourhood was designated as a heritage area in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |title=Janes Village |url=https://www.janesvillage.org/index.html |access-date=September 7, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kaiser |first1=Laura |title=Many Popular Houses in L.A. Were Part of a Scam by a Con Artist Who Disappeared |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/los-angeles-home-scam |website=Atlas Obscura |access-date=September 7, 2024 |date=November 9, 2023}}</ref> 
Many notable buildings followed in the 1930s, including Eliot Junior High School (1931) and Davies Community Center in [[Farnsworth Park]] (1934).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Foster |first1=R. Daniel |title=Neighborhood Spotlight: Altadena offers varied architectural styles but few places left to build anew |url=https://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hp-neighborhood-spotlight-altadena-20180512-story.html |newspaper=LA Times |access-date=September 7, 2024 |date=May 11, 2018}}</ref>

=== Later history ===
[[Redlining]] policies prevented [[African Americans]] from acquiring land or purchasing property in much of California.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/segregation-in-the-city-of-angels-a-1939-map-of-housing-inequality-in-la|title=Segregation in the City of Angels: A 1939 Map of Housing Inequality in L.A.|date=November 14, 2017|work=KCET|access-date=August 14, 2018|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> One of the areas exempt from these policies was Altadena Meadows, which thrived and became one of first middle-class African American neighborhoods in the area.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2017/11/12/altadenas-own-take-on-civil-war-monuments-honors-abolitionist-owen-brown-in-revamped-park/|title=Altadena's own take on Civil War monuments honors abolitionist Owen Brown in revamped park|date=November 13, 2017|work=Pasadena Star News|access-date=August 14, 2018|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Shattered in the Fire: A Historic Black Haven |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/us/la-fires-altadena-historic-black-community.html |work=The New York Times |last=Knoll |first=Corina |date=January 14, 2025 |access-date=January 15, 2025 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

[[File:Lake Avenue Altadena.jpg|thumb|Lake Avenue in Altadena, 2011]]While Altadena long refused wholesale [[Municipal annexation|annexation]] by neighboring [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]], the larger community nibbled at its edges in several small annexations of neighborhoods through the 1940s. Attempted annexation was stopped in 1956 by community campaigns, though it has been resurrected several times since by Pasadena without success. Had the annexation succeeded, Pasadena would be the [[List of United States cities by population|108th largest city]] in the United States.

With early-1960s redevelopment in Pasadena, the routing of extensions of the 134 and 210 freeways, and lawsuits over the desegregation of [[Pasadena Unified School District]], there was white flight and convulsive racial change in Altadena. In 1960, its black population was under four percent; over the next 15 years, half the White population left, and was replaced by people of color, many of whom settled on the west side of town after being displaced by Pasadena's redevelopment and freeway projects.

In 1993, the [[Kinneloa Fire]], begun accidentally on the slopes above [[Eaton Canyon]], burned dozens of homes in Altadena and neighboring [[Kinneloa Mesa, California|Kinneloa Mesa]] as part of a rash of late October wildfires driven by [[Santa Ana winds]] in Southern California. One man died of complications from smoke inhalation and dozens were injured.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |date=2001 |title=20 Largest California Wildland Fires (By Structures Lost) |url=http://www.fire.ca.gov/FireEmergencyResponse/HistoricalStatistics/20largefiresstructures.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011031164438/http://www.fire.ca.gov/FireEmergencyResponse/HistoricalStatistics/20largefiresstructures.asp |archive-date=October 31, 2001 |access-date=October 10, 2022 |website=California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection}}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite news |last1=Malnic |first1=Eric |last2=Farrell |first2=David |date=October 28, 1993 |title=13 Fires Ring Southland: 450 Homes Burn; Laguna, Altadena Hard Hit |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-28-mn-50441-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=December 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207055901/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-10-28-mn-50441-story.html |archive-date=December 7, 2022}}</ref>

In 2022, Altadena gained local coverage in Los Angeles as the place of the first land return to the [[Tongva]] since the arrival of Europeans in the [[Los Angeles Basin]] area, after a resident donated her 1-acre property to the [[Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Purtill |first=Corinne |date=October 11, 2022 |title=An acre of land in Altadena has been formally transferred to L.A.'s first people |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2022-10-11/essential-california-land-transfer-tongva-essential-california |access-date=December 16, 2022 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=October 10, 2022 |title=Why A Property Worth Millions Was Returned To The Tongva Tribe |url=https://laist.com/news/la-history/why-a-property-worth-millions-was-returned-to-tongva-tribe |access-date=December 16, 2022 |website=LAist |language=en}}</ref> It was described as marking the first time in nearly 200 years that the Tongva have had land in [[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles County]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 10, 2022 |title=After nearly 200 years, the Tongva community has land in Los Angeles County |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-10-10/after-nearly-200-years-the-tongva-community-has-land-in-los-angeles-county |access-date=December 16, 2022 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US|first1=Jonah|last1=Valdez}}</ref>

In 2022, a single lottery ticket was sold to Edwin Castro, which would win a world record US$2.04 billion [[Powerball]] jackpot.<ref>{{Cite news |first1=Aya |last1=Elamroussi |first2=Dakin |last2=Andone |date=November 8, 2022 |title=Winning ticket for $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot sold in California, state lottery officials say |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/us/powerball-lottery-record-delayed-drawing-tuesday-trnd/index.html |access-date=November 8, 2022 |work=CNN |language=en}}</ref>

=== Eaton Fire ===
{{main|Eaton Fire}}
[[File:Oh Happy Day Vegan Cafe after Eaton Fire (vertical).jpg|left|thumb|185x185px|Destruction of business district on Lake Avenue]]
On January 7, 2025, the [[Eaton Fire]] started in Altadena around 6:30 PM local time during a powerful [[Santa Ana Winds]]. It quickly spread to 14,000 acres by January 10, with 17 confirmed fatalities.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eaton Fire Incident Page |url=https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/eaton-fire/updates/c9547534-417d-42c9-806c-a867a5c76a13 |website=Cal Fire Incidents |publisher=CALFIRE |access-date=28 January 2025}}</ref> Over 9,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, including the [[Andrew McNally House]], [[Altadena Community Church]], [[St. Markʼs Episcopal Church (Altadena, California)|St. Mark's Episcopal Church]], [[The Bunny Museum]], [[Scripps Hall (California)|Scripps Hall]] and much of the downtown area. The entirety of Altadena was put under an evacuation order.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-08 |title=2 people die in Eaton Fire as evacuation orders expand beyond Altadena |url=https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/eaton-fire-altadena |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=LAist |language=en}}</ref> Nearly half of the Black households in Altadena were damaged or destroyed by the fire.<ref name="guard-16feb2025">{{cite news |last1=Beckett |first1=Lois |title=The LA fires burned down a thriving Black community. Residents are afraid of being 'erased' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/16/california-fires-black-community-recovery |access-date=February 16, 2025 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=February 16, 2025}}</ref> In the aftermath of the fires, many homeowners struggled with high rebuilding costs and some were forced to sell, while luxury developers and wealthy individuals scrambled to buy lots in cash at competitive prices.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hong |first=Jae |date=23 March 2025 |title=After the Eaton Fire, Altadena residents fight to keep out luxury developers |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/eaton-fire-altadena-residents-fight-keep-luxury-developers-rcna196272 |website=NBC News |access-date=25 March 2025}}
</ref>  Community groups such as [[Altadena Not for Sale]] quickly formed to advocate for the under- and non-insured so they don't fall prey to predatory land speculators.

{{maplink|frame=yes|frame-align=center|frame-width=|frame-height=300|from=January 2025 United States wildfires.map|frame-latitude=34.195|frame-longitude=-118.137|zoom=13|text=Affected area of Altadena by [[Eaton Fire]] ([[c:Data:January 2025 United States wildfires.map|map data]])}}