Restoration met relocation Monday night, Aug. 5, when an Altadena couple embarked on the arduous effort of moving their antique house across town.
Gwen Sukeena and husband Jacques Laramee lost their home in the Eaton fire just weeks after purchasing it. But instead of rebuilding, the couple — who share strong feelings about recycling, repurchasing and antiquities — bought a historic 1910 home in Los Feliz and are shipping it in four sections this week to their Altadena property.
“We’re thrilled. We love recycling,” Sukeena said, noting the tattoo of the recycling symbol of her husband’s forearm.
On Monday night, August 4, the couple began the physical process of relocating their vintage 3,600-square foot home, with two of the four sections loaded onto separate 18-wheelers. With a permit in hand from the city to start the process at 10 p.m., however, a delay pushed back the first trip by four hours.
By morning, the initial parts of the home, in what will be a multi-part move over days, had arrived at their Poppyfields Drive address.
But it took a minute.
Two of the seven or eight movers involved had just arrived from Georgia in the evening and needed to refresh before embarking on the move.
“They needed a little bit of a snooze,” Laramee said, noting that the intention was to start at 2 or 2:30 a.m., and arrive in Altadena just as it was getting light at around 4 a.m.
“This whole journey has been a rollercoaster, so this is par for the course,” Laramee said. “No big deal. Everything has been so chaotic.”
Larameee and Sukeena were just killing time standing on the street outside the 2919 Saint George Street address, conversing with their consultant, as well as a city inspector who would see them safely to the border starting in the middle of the night.
“One of the straps needs to be adjusted,” explained Investigator David Orozco with the City of Los Angeles, pointing out to Laramee that a piece of the wood atop the truck was being crushed by its placement.
According to Brad Chambers, a preservationist who is consulting on the project, the house sections were to be driven southwest to Western Avenue and then down to Olympic Boulevard before the trucks circle back and go through downtown, ultimately heading north through Alhambra, South Pasadena, and into Pasadena, avoiding highways as they travel.
“I love old houses and their history, their architecture, their beauty,” said Chambers, who has moved five of the 22 old homes that he has helped refurbish and sell in recent years. “Seeing these demolished or falling into disrepair caused me to think about getting involved.”
Since that time, Chambers has offered free services to help some fire survivors look into a new way of rebuilding. He said the practice not only preserves historic homes, but expands a depleted housing stock and prevents old structures from being sent to a landfill.
“Brad has been the guiding light,” Laramee said, calling his help invaluable.
For their part, the couple was thrilled to find a house that not only featured glorious interior woodwork and wainscoting, but brought a somewhat remarkable history with its story.
While it originally stood at 707 N. Mariposa Avenue, in 1948 the house was moved to Saint George Street in a celebratory event that included a party of 150 people inside the structure as it traveled across the city. Reputed to once be the home of actor Mary Pickford at one point in its earlier history, 1948 owner Alice Blackburn’s party — with dancing and music inside the house as it traveled — made history with national news stories, including a spread in Life magazine.
“The history of the home captivated us,” Laramee said. “We had to save this house.”
Neighbors, too, were thrilled that the couple made the effort to make it happen, though it was a chaotic series of events as it unfolded. Laramee said that they had still not even struck a deal with the owners, who were planning to level the house, before they were already doing some of the physical work of dissembling it, as things had to move so quickly.
The original plan was to move the house over four nights, starting Monday, but things were adjusted on the advice of their movers.
While they were despondent about losing their first house so suddenly, the couple remains upbeat about how things have unfolded for them.
“It was poor timing, but here we are,” Laramee said. “It’s the new adventure.”
The couple also remains thrilled to be executing one of the most unique examples of recycling.
“We only get one earth,” Laramee said. “It’s our one home, so we’ve gotta keep her healthy, protect her, and do it right.”
Jarret Liotta is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and photographer.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.