Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
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Things he lost in the fire: the barn turned art gallery. The little house on the hill. Bee hives and sculptures and history. So much history.
Alan Zorthian, 65, keeper of his father’s legacy at the famed Zorthian Ranch in Altadena, fought the Eaton Fire as soon as it erupted at the artist enclave Tuesday night.
“The fire started about five miles east of us, and we’ve been ready for fire,” Zorthian said. “We have fire hoses, a sprinkler system, and when the water company turned off the water, I grabbed the pump and ran to the pool but I couldn’t get enough hose.”
From 6:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Tuesday, Zorthian battled the flames until he realized that too many small fires were exploding around him. He left, saving the ranch’s horses and goats and some of its cattle.
When he returned in the morning, he couldn’t believe what he saw. He is still grappling with disbelief.
“From small fires to a massive conflagration, I couldn’t believe it. We lost a couple of buildings that were important to us, a barn Dad built in the 1970s of architectural significance, some of Dad’s artwork,” Zorthian said. “We went down to Altadena and it’s just unbelievable the devastation. On many blocks every house is burned. I’ve never seen anything like that. We’ve had fires before and we’ve always gotten through it, but not this time.”
A photograph of Jirayr Zorthian on display on Thursday, October 13, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
Artist Jirayr Zorthian, the Armenian-born, Yale-educated painter and craftsman, built the 48-acre Altadena ranch at the top of winding Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena in 1946.
Known as “The Last Bohemian,” Zorthian played host to parties at the ranch for the eclectic likes of jazzman Charlie Parker, artist Andy Warhol and Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman. His haven was an elevated art junkyard where Zorthian recycled everything from railroad ties and river rock to trucks and wood from Craftsman homes into structures and outdoor sculptures.
When he died in 2004 at age 92, Zorthian entrusted his legacy to two of his children, Alan and his sister Alice. Alan, an architect by trade, said the estate recently established a limited liability company (LLC) in order to set up a museum without walls on the property.
A detail from “Cortez In Mexico” by Jirayr Zorthian on display on Thursday, October 13, 2022.
Event coordinator, Chris Agazaryan, Alan Zorthian and curator, Jeff G. Rack talk about the exhibit at the barn on Thursday, October 13, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
Some of the mural studies on exhibit on Thursday, October 13, 2022. An assortment of Jirayr Zorthian’s original mural art studies will be on display in the Zorthian Barn Gallery, some of which became completed full-scale murals as part of the WPA Project. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
“The Development Of Light” mural study on exhibit on Thursday, October 13, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
A photograph of Jirayr Zorthian working on exhibit on Thursday, October 13, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
A detail from a work that depicts good and evil on Thursday, October 13, 2022. An assortment of Jirayr Zorthian’s original mural art studies will be on display in the Zorthian Barn Gallery, some of which became completed full-scale murals as part of the WPA Project. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
A photograph of Jirayr Zorthian on exhibit on Thursday, October 13, 2022. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
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A detail from “Cortez In Mexico” by Jirayr Zorthian on display on Thursday, October 13, 2022.
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These plans are on hold now. Gone is the Zorthian Barn Gallery, which in 2022 housed newly-discovered mural studies done by the artist. The murals were commissioned under President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression.
Zorthian, who said his father liked to “drink cheap wine and talk to top-of-the-line people,” lost the cottage he lived in.
Brian Rack, who curated the 2022 exhibit, also lives in Altadena and said the winds and fire are unprecedented.
Alan Zorthian, son of founder, estate administrator of Zorthian Ranch that was devastated by the Eaton Fire at his ranch in Altadena on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. The 48-acre ranch hosted people like Andy Warhol, Charlie Parker, Bob Dylan and Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman who would visit with Alan’s artist dad Jirayr in the 1950s. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
“These fires came through with unbelievable ferocity,” Zorthian said. “We lost some of Dad’s artwork and the collection was damaged.”
After cataloging what’s been lost, Zorthian said in the days ahead, he will sift through and see what can be saved.
“If my father were here he would have been devastated,” Zorthian said. “I’m glad he didn’t see it. We’re trying to come to grips with what happened.”