[photo credit: Visit Pasadena]
The conversation between novelist Michelle Huneven and historian Michele Zack is part of Pasadena Heritage’s Altadena Revealed lecture series — one thread in a calendar of walking tours, lectures, hands-on workshops and public events that the nonprofit preservation organization runs year-round across Pasadena and Altadena.
Founded in 1977, Pasadena Heritage is the second-largest historic preservation organization in California, with more than 2,000 members, according to the organization’s website. The group holds more than 80 historic preservation easements — the largest such program west of the Mississippi River, according to its website — and says it is best known for the preservation of Old Pasadena, a revitalization effort that became a national model for downtown historic districts.
The organization’s headquarters is the Blinn House, a residence at 160 N. Oakland Ave. designed in 1905 by Chicago architect George Washington Maher and completed in 1906. It is the only known Maher residential structure built west of the Mississippi, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources, according to Pasadena Heritage. The Blinn House is also a designated Pasadena Cultural Landmark.
Dr. Bridget Lawlor, who became executive director on December 1, 2025, after serving as preservation director, leads a staff that includes Programs Director Nick Giovanazzi and Operations and Development Director Kyle Grimes, according to the organization’s website.
Friday’s Altadena Revealed lecture, titled “Writing Underfoot — Or, why Michelle Huneven sets her novels in Altadena,” takes place at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory, 540 W. Woodbury, Altadena. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the lecture runs from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., according to the event listing. Huneven, author of six novels including the recent “Bug Hollow,” is a former restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times who has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a James Beard Award and a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, according to the event listing. She has taught creative writing at UCLA for 20 years. She and Zack have been friends since attending John Muir High School together and were Altadena neighbors for 23 years before both lost their homes in the Eaton Fire, according to Pasadena Heritage’s event description. A $10 suggested donation is requested with registration.
The lecture series is a collaboration among Pasadena Heritage, Altadena Heritage, Bungalow Heaven Landmark District, the Altadena Historical Society and the Foothill Catalog Foundation, according to the event listing on Pasadena Heritage’s website. The Foothill Catalog Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding communities affected by the Eaton Fire through a collection of pre-approved home designs, according to the foundation’s description on the event page.
On Sunday, May 31, Pasadena Heritage offers a guided walking tour of the Playhouse Village Historic District from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The district includes approximately 34 buildings that trace Pasadena’s eastward growth in the 1920s and 1930s, when the city shifted from agricultural roots to a center of tourism, culture and design, according to the event listing.
The group’s June schedule opens with the Regional Restoration Expo on Saturday, June 13, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Blinn House. The free, one-day event with no registration required brings together approximately 40 to 50 restoration specialists, artisans, heritage material suppliers and preservation services, according to Pasadena Heritage’s event page. The event is aimed at homeowners throughout the foothill communities who are maintaining, restoring or reimagining older properties, the listing states. An expert speaker series will include Adrian Scott Fine, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Conservancy, according to the event page. John Moran Auctioneers will offer live valuations where attendees can bring heirlooms for on-the-spot appraisal, and a food truck and beer garden will be on site, according to the event description.
On Father’s Day, June 21, Pasadena Heritage hosts a tour of the Rose Bowl Stadium from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Led by Rose Bowl docents, the tour takes visitors through spaces most people never see, including the original 1922 locker rooms, press box, broadcast center and onto the field itself, according to the event listing. The stadium was designed by Myron Hunt and has been in continuous use since 1922, the listing states. Tickets are available through Zeffy and are nonrefundable, according to the event page. Pasadena Heritage members can contact Giovanazzi at nick@pasadenaheritage.org for a discount code.
Later in the year, Craftsman Week returns October 11 through 18, 2026. The annual tradition was expanded in 2025 from a weekend to an eight-day festival in partnership with the Gamble House, the Pasadena Museum of History, Judson Studios and other institutions, and welcomed more than 1,200 visitors that year, according to Pasadena Heritage’s sponsorship page. The week features interior tours, walking tours, lectures, exhibitions and hands-on craft demonstrations celebrating the Arts and Crafts movement in Pasadena and beyond, the sponsorship page states.
Pasadena Heritage’s full event calendar and ticket information is available at pasadenaheritage.org/events-tours. The organization can be reached at (626) 441-6333 or info@pasadenaheritage.org.
Pasadena Heritage, which turns 50 next year, is also planning a 50th anniversary gala, according to the organization’s sponsorship page. Details have not yet been announced.
