Historic House Relocation: When Pasadena Houses Move Instead of Disappear

Historic Southern California house being lifted by crane for relocation to a fire-affected community

Most of us think of a house as the immovable part of real estate. Owners come and go. Furniture moves in and out. Neighborhoods change around it. But the house itself stays put.

Except when it doesn’t.

Historic house relocation has been part of Pasadena’s and greater Los Angeles’s story for well over a century. And years ago, we played a small part in one of those stories.

Nicholas Akers and his partner, Paul, moved a Victorian home from Alhambra to 745 South Marengo Avenue in Pasadena. We watched sections of it traveling along the streets to its current location. After they restored the house and prepared it for a new use, we became the leasing agents.

We remember being fascinated by the idea. A house that might easily have disappeared was instead picked up, carried to another piece of land and given another chapter. At the time, it felt like an unusual real estate story. Looking at what is happening in Altadena today, it feels much more significant.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pasadena Has Been Doing This for Generations

Historic house relocation is not a novelty here. One Folk Victorian at 464 Summit Avenue was built in Los Angeles in 1890 and moved to Pasadena in 1915. Today it contributes to the Raymond-Summit Historic District.

Then there is Gartz Court, one of Pasadena’s early bungalow courts. Designed by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey and built in 1910, it originally stood about two miles from its current location. When demolition threatened the court in 1984, its bungalows were moved to 745 North Pasadena Avenue, where they remain today.

Historic Gartz Court bungalows surrounding a landscaped courtyard in Pasadena — *Gartz Court survived because its bungalows moved. Built in 1910, the court was relocated about two miles in 1984 rather than demolished.*
*Credit: Aaricka Washington / LAist*

Those examples and others help explain something distinctive about Pasadena. Preservation has never meant that every building must remain frozen on its original lot. Sometimes the land has another future, even if the house itself is still worth saving.

That willingness to see value in older buildings also draws many buyers to Greater Pasadena. They are not simply choosing bedroom counts or floor plans. They are responding to streets that feel accumulated rather than manufactured, where architecture from different eras still tells the story of how the community grew.

An Old Idea Returns to Altadena

After the Eaton Fire, historic house relocation has taken on a new urgency.

The Historic House Relocation Project, led by preservation architecture firm Omgivning, is identifying older houses elsewhere in Los Angeles that would otherwise be demolished and relocating them to fire-damaged lots in Altadena. The Los Angeles Conservancy says the effort combines preservation with housing recovery, giving threatened houses another life while helping displaced families return.

The idea is already becoming real. Pasadena Now reported that a 1926 residence moved from West Hollywood to Altadena in January 2026 was the project’s third completed relocation. At that point, 180 families were on the waiting list.

Our Compass colleague Teresa Fuller is involved in another effort, Bust a Move, working with Altadena Brick by Brick to source donated character homes that are slated for demolition and physically relocate them to cleared Altadena lots. The aim is not simply to replace structures, but to help families return while retaining some of the architectural character that has always made Altadena feel like Altadena.

Historic house section transported by truck during a Southern California relocation project — Moving a house sounds improbable until you see one on the road. The practice once used to preserve Pasadena buildings is being used again as part of today’s rebuilding efforts.
Credit: Courtesy Omgivning / Historic House Relocation Project

Why Moving a House Matters

Historic house relocation can look almost theatrical: a porch rolling down a street, a roof passing beneath utility lines, an entire home temporarily becoming traffic. But underneath the spectacle is a serious idea.

A house carries more than lumber and plaster. Its proportions, windows, porch, craftsmanship, and relationship to the street help create a neighborhood’s visual memory. Saving the building saves at least part of that memory.

That is why historic house relocation matters to more than preservationists. It matters to sellers and buyers. When a home has architectural character or a meaningful history, those qualities can influence how buyers understand it. We have spent decades helping sellers recognize what makes their property distinctive and helping buyers understand what makes one Greater Pasadena neighborhood feel different from another.

Historic house relocation is an unusually literal example of that principle: the value of a house is not always confined to the land beneath it.

Years ago, when we walked through that restored Victorian on South Marengo, we thought of it mainly as a fascinating project. Today, we see something more.

Sometimes a house reaches the end of its life in one location without reaching the end of its life at all. Sometimes preserving the story means putting the house on wheels. And letting it begin again.

If you are considering a move into Greater Pasadena, or wondering how the history and character of your own home should be presented when you sell, Hem-young can