As a new coastal live oak tree was lowered into the ground on Saturday, Oct. 3, the Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department began the rebuild of Charles White Park in Altadena, which was destroyed in the Eaton fire.
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The groundbreaking took place on the 47th anniversary of the death of White, the well-known Black artist from Chicago who lived his last 20 years in Altadena until he died in 1979. White was laid to rest in nearby Mountain View Cemetery, when mourners scattered acorns on his grave taken from a mature oak at the park now echoing the shape of the new one, with both providing hope for new growth in burned-out Altadena.
Mario Rodriguez views artwork by Charles White during a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Charles White Park in Altadena on Oct. 3, 2026. (Photo by Connor Terry, Contributing Photographer)
Mika Yamamoto speaks during a groundbreaking celebration for a new Charles White Park in Altadena on Oct. 3, 2026. (Photo by Connor Terry, Contributing Photographer)
Disney Volunteers dig dirt during a ceremonial tree planting during the groundbreaking for a new, Charles White Park in Altadena on Oct. 3, 2026. (Photo by Connor Terry, Contributing Photographer)
Andrew Guiding Young Cloud Morales, left, and Chief Anthony Morales perform a tribal welcome during a groundbreaking celebration for a new Charles White Park in Altadena on Oct. 3, 2026. (Photo by Connor Terry, Contributing Photographer)
“Today is a beautiful example of what it means to be Altadena Strong,” said Fifth District Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who has led county recovery efforts in the unincorporated community that lost more than 6,000 homes and a total of 9,000 structures including several parks in the Jan. 7-Jan. 8 destructive Eaton fire.
Those local, state and federal elected officials, as well as community members and volunteers present at the Saturday ceremony, shoveled dirt to cover the base of the new oak tree, located less than 50 yards from the old, existing oak tree.
“As we turn the soil today may we also turn our hearts toward the future,” prayed Pastor John McCall of Bethel Church in Pasadena, a 46-year resident of Altadena.
Charles White Park, in the northwest portion of Altadena, suffered significant damage from the Eaton fire, joining the array of burned lots and felled homes in the neighborhoods that surround it.
The $12 million park rebuild includes a first-time community recreation building with park restrooms, a splash pad, a playground with an acorn theme, two pickleball courts, a soccer field, walking paths that form a loop around the park, an amphitheater, a public art element, and yes, more trees for shade, parks officials explained.
About $10.5 million comes from contributions from Disney Co. and the state Department of Parks combined. Also, Rep. Judy Chu has reserved $750,000 for the park, to be used to build the pickleball courts. Also contributing was the Los Angeles County Parks Foundation.
The budget for the rebuild of Charles White Park is complete, pending any future cost overruns. The county is expected to finish the park by the end of 2027.
The playground will be under the 100-year-old oak that survived the Eaton fire, still showing a partly blackened bark. Part of the new playground will be built beneath the oak canopy that pays homage to White’s studio in Altadena’s Meadows neighborhood, known for its thick tree canopy. Another part featuring an acorn play structure is taken from Octavia Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” a literary piece depicting survivors of a fire creating a new community called Acorn.
County leaders pointed out that the park re-construction mimics the rebuilding of homes off Ventura Street on the park’s north side. The park is located at 77 Mountain View Street, just west of Fair Oaks Boulevard in West Altadena, the area hit hardest by the fire.
“This park is being constructed at the same time as many surrounding homes,” said Norma Garcia-Gonzalez, director of county parks. “The park will be here when you are finished rebuilding your homes.”
Loma Alta Park was the first park rebuilt by the county, with donations from the Los Angeles Dodgers for a ball field and the Los Angeles Clippers for a basketball building/gymnasium. The area also has a new playground, a county library satellite, and a large, public swimming pool. The county has been collecting donations from philanthropic groups to augment park rebuilding.
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Barger announced that Charles S. Farnsworth Park, a place where the community held summer concerts and where a nationally recognized historic building hall was destroyed, will start reconstruction in about a month. It’s located near the northern end of Lake Avenue, at 568 Mount Curve Ave.
“Parks are a needed place for residents to find respite, belonging and connection,” she told those gathered for the ceremony. “Our parks in Altadena are such clear indicators of what matters to this community. And it is not lost to me this park is named after an Altadena artist. A rarity.”
This is only the second park in the country named after an artist, said Eugene Hutchins, 51, a former member of the Altadena Arts group, which helped put on art shows at the park pre-fire. On display Saturday were books and prints by White, whose works have appeared in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and museums in Chicago.
White documented African American-related subjects in paintings, drawings, lithographs and murals. He died in 1979, but his work, as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art notes, was his “tool to highlight dark realities that he personally experienced as a black man.”
White’s work often included images of famous African American leaders. But he also painted everyday people, such as preachers, mothers, musicians and sharecroppers, according to Altadena Heritage.
“His work was never a caricature,” Hutchins said. Looking at a charcoal drawing of a black mother holding a baby, he added: “It is authentic. It comes from an honest place.”
He began his career after being hired by the federal Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. His first public art piece was a large canvas entitled “Five Great American Negroes.” It used bright colors to depict Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Marian Anderson, and George Washington Carver. Later on, he also painted Abraham Lincoln and John Brown, according to Altadena Heritage.
Altadena residents know John Brown, the man who led an anti-slavery raid at the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., in October 1859. The effort was an attempt to provoke a slave revolt in the Southern states. Though the raid failed, many historians agree it lit the match that helped provoke the Civil War.
While John Brown was arrested and executed along with eight of his men, Owen Brown, his son, survived and escaped, eventually homesteading in Altadena, where abolitionists protected him. Owen Brown’s grave marker and burial site are located atop a hill in Altadena. It was Ian White, son of Charles White, who found the grave stone years after it was ripped from its original site, an apparent act of vandalism. He later helped with its restoration.
Ian White told how mourners scattered acorns from the tree that became part of the park a year later, and pointed to the young oak tree planted on Saturday. “We gathered acorns from underneath this oak tree as a reminder that even the smallest tree can grow and bring life.”
Charles Kanuep, deputy director of county parks who oversees planning and development, directed those to the tree suspended from a crane and invited them to grab a shovel.
“This is that majestic oak’s new forever home. It’s a symbol of strength and resilience,” he said.
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