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California Preservation Foundation

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California Preservation Foundation

Dedicated to protecting California's diverse cultural heritage and historic places.
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06/01/2026

My Path to Preservation: Cindy Heitzman, California Preservation Foundation
Tuesday, June 9th | 12 PM - 1 PM | Online - FREE

This month, we welcome CPF's own Executive Director, Cindy Heitzman.

Cindy brings over twenty years of experience as the leader of the California Preservation Foundation. She served on CPF's Board of Trustees from 2001-2003 and previously worked as Building Official and Fire Marshal for the City of St. Helena in the Napa Valley.

She's served as the first female president of the Redwood Empire Chapter of Code Officials (2000), Chair of the California Building Officials’ Historic Codes Committee and has coordinated courses on the use and application of the California Historical Building Code. She also served as a commissioner on the California Building Officials Training Institute from 2002 – 2005.

Cindy attended California State University, Chico and holds a BA in Fine Art and studied Building Inspection Technology at Butte College, Chico.

Register at: https://californiapreservation.org/events/my-path-to-preservation-cindy-heitzman-cpf/

05/29/2026

Have you ever stayed at the Wigwam Motel?

Few sites along Route 66 are as immediately recognizable as the teepee-shaped cabins of the Wigwam Villages.

The original concept was born in 1933 by Frank Redford, who built his first motel in Horse City, Kentucky and named it Wigwam Village. Several more Wigwam motels would be built, some of them along Route 66.

The Wigwam Motel in San Bernardino, California was the final Wigwam Motel site, and second to be built by Redford himself. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2012.

The other remaining motel along Route 66 is the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona.

Learn more at about Wigwam #7 from National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/places/wigwam-village-7.htm

Photo by Lynne Miller

05/28/2026

In Malibu, a last-ditch effort is underway to save and expand the Topanga Lagoon, which contains some of the last remaining coastal wetlands in the state. The adjacent Topanga Beach, a popular recreation spot serving nearly 1 million visitors each year, is also under threat from coastal erosion.

The Topanga Lagoon Restoration Project, which would expand the lagoon to between 7 and 10 acres in size, represents “one of the last opportunities to restore a significantly larger and more functional lagoon” in the area, according to the project website www.topangalagoonrestoration.org

A key part of the project will involve rebuilding a Pacific Coast Highway bridge that travels above the lagoon and had artificially shrunk the mouth of the creek’s outlet. Replacing the 79-foot bridge with a new 460-foot bridge would allow the lagoon to widen once again, back toward its intended shape. The restoration project would also provide additional beach habitat, trails and visitor services.

Read more from SFGATE: https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/malibu-lagoon-wetlands-22230526.php

Photos from Environmental Science Associates

05/27/2026

Local Government Bootcamp: Rethinking Community Engagement in Preservation
Thursday, May 28th & June 4th | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Online

Tomorrow! Join us as our latest program highlights approaches that work in both large cities and small jurisdictions with limited staff or preservation expertise.

Participants will leave with concrete strategies, adaptable messaging, and actionable ideas to improve engagement, build stronger partnerships, and support long-term stewardship of historic and cultural resources.

The program is grounded in the realities local governments face every day, including limited staffing, competing priorities, public skepticism, and evolving expectations around participation and transparency.

Sessions will focus on approaches that are scalable, practical, and immediately applicable across a range of community types and agency capacities.

Register at: https://bit.ly/CPF-Community

Photo by Matheus Amaral

05/26/2026

In January, Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP) announced a $2.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Humanities in Place program, the largest single investment in the organization’s history.

This transformative award launched the Placekeepers Fund, a groundbreaking regranting initiative that will distribute $500,000 annually for three years — totaling $1.5 million — to community-led preservation projects across the United States and Pacific Island territories.

The purpose of APIAHiP's Placekeepers Fund is to distribute resources directly to communities that are working to document, recognize, and preserve historic sites that are important to Asian and Pacific Islander American history.

The Placekeepers Fund is now open, with applications open to community groups, nonprofits, and cultural organizations nationwide.

APIAHiP will host a series of informational webinars and regional convenings to support applicants especially those with limited grant-writing experience or access to traditional preservation funding.

Apply by June 30 at apiahip.org/fund

05/25/2026

Now in its 39th year, the National Trust’s annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list has proven to be a highly effective tool for shining a light on the threats facing our nation’s greatest treasures. Due to the efforts of the National Trust and its passionate supporters, the ongoing initiative has galvanized public support behind more than 350 sites to date with only a handful lost.

The places featured on the 2026 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places span the country, from rural areas to densely populated city centers. Each of these places has different challenges and needs, but they are all united in how they illuminate stories of remarkable individuals who fought to bring our country closer to its founding aspirations of equality. These historic places, and the inspiring stories they preserve, are necessary so that America may learn from its past in the hopes of building a more perfect union.

The 11 Most Endangered program uplifts and catalyzes community-led preservation work through a high-impact public awareness campaign resulting in increased visibility, public attention, and new resources to save and activate historic places for the public good. This year, in honor of the 250th, each site featured on the list will also receive a one-time grant of $25,000 from the National Trust.

Two places on the 2026 list are in California:
Tule Lake Segregation Center (Modoc County, California), and Angel Island Immigration Station (Tiburon, California)

Read more at: https://savingplaces.org/stories/11-most-endangered-historic-places-2026

Photos by: MichaelVi (Angel Island Immigration Center, Adobe Stock);
Wacky Wikster (Tule Lake Segregation Center, Wikimedia Commons)

05/23/2026

Join HistoriCorp this summer in Stanislaus National Forest to gather critical data essential to it’s future preservation.

HistoriCorps’ Architectural History Program is an exciting endeavor that engages volunteers in surveying tracts for our National Forest partners. Volunteers will travel to different sites to collect the necessary data that will help the Forests determine how they manage these lands for future generations.

You’ll be a mobile workforce traveling from site to site photographing, measuring, and investigating the numerous structures on each tract. Volunteers and our field staff will commute together to a given tract location daily. There will be eight week-long volunteer sessions between June 21 - August 28.

The data collected with the team will be used to build a report that guides forest service recreation and reservation managers. Surveys by HistoriCorps assist the U.S. Forest Service and the public with compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act.

Learn more at: https://bit.ly/Stanislaus-Survey

Photos from HistoriCorps

05/21/2026

Local Government Bootcamp: Rethinking Community Engagement in Preservation
May 28th & June 4th | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM | Online

Effective community engagement is foundational to successful preservation—but too often, it is treated as one-way outreach rather than a collaborative, ongoing process.

This program reframes engagement in the context of historic preservation as a two-way exchange that builds understanding, trust, and shared responsibility among public agencies, nonprofit partners, and the communities they serve.

Designed for planners, commissioners, preservation professionals, and nonprofit staff, this two-day program emphasizes practical tools, clear communication strategies, and real-world application. Participants will explore how institutional practices shape participation, how to talk about preservation in ways that resonate with residents and decision-makers, and how to work effectively with nonprofit partners to expand capacity and strengthen outreach.

Register at: https://bit.ly/CPF-Community

Photo by Matheus Amaral

05/19/2026

Three new properties, including two along major rivers in the Central Valley and the former migrant farmworker camp near Bakersfield that was the inspiration for John Steinbeck’s classic novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” will become new California state parks, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in April.

In addition, California will also add roughly 30,000 acres — an area the size of San Francisco — to existing state parks by 2030 under a new law aimed at streamlining park expansions.

The new parks are in the Central Valley, a place that has among the fewest state parks of any part of California. All three are already owned by the state or local governments and two are already open to the public.

Read more at The Mercury News: https://bit.ly/New-CA-Parks

Photo by Brian Baer, California State Parks

05/18/2026

Tomorrow! Join us for our free lunchtime webinar series Preservation in Print, featuring "Rancho Guadalasca: Last Ranch of California’s Central Coast" by Colleen M. Delaney

Tuesday, May 19th, 12 PM - 1 PM, Online - FREE

A Mexican land grant awarded in 1836, Rancho Guadalasca lay at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains along the eastern Oxnard Plain.

Indigenous Chumash, Californio ranchers, Anglo-American farmers, Japanese fishermen, and Basque sheepherders all left their marks on the land, along with local institutions like Camarillo State Hospital and CSU Channel Islands.

Join CPF along with archaeologist and anthropology professor Colleen M. Delaney as she traces the 5,000 years of community and lifeways that shaped Ventura County.

Learn more and register at: https://californiapreservation.org/events/pip-rancho-guadalasca/

PHOTO CREDIT
1. Book cover: (top image) Lewis ranch workers in the canvas "doghouse": Courtesy of Terrance Tally; (bottom image) Mugu Lagoon, photo by Philip A. Mastinick
2. Camarillo State Hospital first section under construction. Attribution: California State Archives F3253_90(32N)

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Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

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https://californiapreservation.org/

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