Ruins

Altadena has some interesting ruins, at least temporarily. Though not exactly ancient, they go back a few years.

These are the remains (or were, a few days ago) of the Washington Mutual Building that succumbed to fire last February. A crew is in the process of cleaning the site. The remains won't remain for long.

An interesting post from Altadena Above It All from the day of the fire comes with a comment stating that the building once housed "Altadena Federal" in the 50's and 60's, a locally-owned savings and loan. I was able to find a Google blurb from 1962 about said Savings & Loan, but the link led nowhere. Old news, I guess.

I also found a more recent survey on Stonehill News, polling locals about whether or not they'd like to see the adjacent Ralph's Grocery store expand onto the soon-to-be-cleared WaMu property. Nothing personal, but that Ralph's is depressing. Central/western Altadena could use a better grocery store. So the enthusiastic survey responses are no surprise. At one time, everyone thought there was going to be a "Super Ralph's" on that spot. What happened? All I could find were a couple of blurbs on a couple of websites, essentially saying the same thing: the deal fell through because the landowner was asking for too much money.

I wonder how easy it'll be for that landowner to find a buyer now?