A West Hollywood house moved to Altadena this week completed an unusual journey—a 1926 home transported overnight from 855 N. Orlando Avenue to shelter the Martinez family after the Eaton Fire destroyed their residence of eight years.
The four-bedroom house spent decades as home to Una Devlin Lynch and her eight children. Crews cut it in half Thursday night and drove it 26 miles through Los Angeles to West Pine Street, where it now sits on steel beams awaiting a new foundation. The lot had been empty just 24 hours earlier.
By Friday morning, the 2,300-square-foot structure that once hosted legendary Sunday brunches in West Hollywood was ready to begin its second act in fire-scarred Altadena. See KTLA’s great report here.
Sunday Brunch and an Open Door
Una Devlin Lynch emigrated from Cork, Ireland and bought the Orlando Avenue house sometime after arriving in the U.S. She was born in August 1926, the same year the house was built. She worked as a bookkeeper into her 80s while raising eight kids by herself.
The house had a reputation in West Hollywood because of Sunday brunches. Una’s children came unless they had work or were out of town. Friends tagged along. Relatives visiting from Ireland and Australia showed up. Work colleagues from different parts of Los Angeles stopped by. The table fit everyone.
“My children are my investments,” Una told people. Her family remembered “that Irish twinkle in her eyes” when she said it. Her kids collected seven bachelor’s degrees, two master’s degrees, and two law degrees between them.
Una went to St. Victor’s Church in West Hollywood for 70 years. She volunteered at St. Anne’s, which helps at-risk women, and got an Angel Award from them in 2014. She died December 3, 2024.
Four months later, the property sold for $2,995,000. The buyer purchased it for the lot—9,200 square feet on a corner. The plan: tear down Una’s house and build six small-lot homes with accessory units. Twelve residences where one family lived.
Moving Houses Again
Morgan Sykes Jaybush pulled demolition permits in February, weeks after the Eaton Fire. As creative director at Omgivning Architecture, he noticed houses slated for the wrecking ball while fire survivors needed places to rebuild.
Around the same time, artist Evan Chambers and educator Caitlin Chambers spotted a Hollywood house about to be torn down and had the same thought. Mutual friends put them in touch with Jaybush. Two days later, they were working together.
The idea isn’t new to Los Angeles. Freeways built in the 1940s and 50s meant moving thousands of houses out of the way. LA had 26 companies in the house-moving business then. California has seven now. Only two work Southern California—Dinuba House Movers and American Heavy Moving.
The Orlando house wouldn’t fit on the roads intact, so crews cut it in half. They set each piece on steel beams, loaded those onto flatbed trucks, and drove 26 miles through LA at 20 mph, dodging low bridges and tight turns.
“It’s the most sustainable way to rebuild,” Jaybush told Engineering News-Record. “You’re not throwing an entire house into the landfill, and you’re bringing historic character back to neighborhoods that lost so much.”
Starting Over
David and Lauren Martinez spent eight years in their Altadena house near Glenrose and Pine before the fire. Their youngest was born a month after they lost it.
“It feels like a lifetime, but it also feels like yesterday,” David said.
NBC4 took him through the Orlando house before crews moved it. He walked around picturing their life there—Christmas tree in one spot, stockings over the fireplace. The house still needs a foundation poured, utilities connected, inspections passed. Move-in is planned for June.
Colum Lynch, one of Una’s sons, told NBC4 his family was “thrilled” when they learned the house wouldn’t be demolished. “Just the notion that it was going to be preserved in some form kind of blew us away,” he said.
What It Costs
The houses sell for a dollar. Families pay for everything else—moving, permits, foundation, renovations. Omgivning pegs total costs at half to two-thirds of new construction. Families like the Martinezes say their quotes came in 25 percent cheaper than building new, though that depends on finishes and upgrades.
Timeline beats cost for some people. A relocation takes nine to 12 months. New builds in fire zones are running three years.
The Chambers family—first to get a relocated house—budgeted around $550,000. Insurance covered part of it. They tapped savings and ran a GoFundMe for the rest.
The Pipeline
This West Hollywood house moved to Altadena marks the third completed relocation. A 1911 Craftsman came from Taft Avenue in Hollywood. A 1910 Craftsman from Los Feliz went to Jacques Laramee and Gwen Sukeena, who lost their Altadena house months after buying it. That Los Feliz house had already been moved once in 1948 to avoid the 101 Freeway.
Jaybush has 180 families on a waitlist. He’s found 56 property owners willing to sell houses marked for demolition and he’s hunting down contact information for 135 more. Ten families signed contracts. Another 38 contracts went out. Six houses are in active moves right now.
The program takes anyone who lost a home in the Eaton or Palisades fires and owns an empty lot. Property owners with houses facing demolition can donate them. Contact: HouseRelocation@Omgivning.com or (213) 596-5602.
What Sticks Around
Each West Hollywood house moved to Altadena or the Palisades keeps building materials out of dumps. Altadena lost over 9,000 structures. These relocated houses bring back some of what the neighborhood looked like before.
LA issued eight house relocation permits in the past five years. The city used to do this constantly—moving houses out of Bunker Hill during downtown’s rebuild, shifting them from Hollywood to Los Feliz when freeways went in. Regulations got tighter. Demolition got easier.
Una Lynch’s house will do what it did for 80 years—give a family a place to live. The Martinez family moves in this summer.
Additional reporting from NBC4 Los Angeles.
The home wasn’t even located in West Hollywood. It was located in the City of Los Angeles. West Hollywood is mainly apartments and condos. Not single family homes.
This is really inspiring. LA has a history of moving and reusing structures so it is great to see this in action. There are so many languishing bungalows and houses which could be offered up. Keep up the good work!
Great story.
A fabulous service!
This is amazing. In a culture of instant everything, that moving a beautiful older home steeped in history and love is the fastest way to ‘rebuild’ is simply 🤍 amazing. What a wonderful way to rebuild.