UPDATED: Pacific Grove's 128-year-old LaPorte Mansion burns in morning fire.

The LaPorte Mansion, a well-known 128-year-old landmark just outside of Pacific Grove's downtown area and a filming location for the 1959 film A Summer Place, caught fire this morning, Friday, May 26, suffering extensive damage.

UPDATE: The fire began after the man living at the home notice smoke inside and went to investigate, according to Monterey Fire Chief Gaudenz Panholzer. The man attempted to extinguish the fire from above through a window using a fire extinguisher but was unsuccessful. He was able to escape without injury.

The Monterey Fire Department was dispatched at 9:48am and arrived soon after. When crews arrived they could see flames on the exterior of the house facing Lighthouse Avenue, Panholzer says. Unfortunately, the fire had already traveled inside the walls and up to the attic. 

Old Victorian homes used balloon-framed construction, where the exterior of the structure is built first and the walls are added inside, Panholzer explains. It creates a space between the exterior walls and interior walls from the ground up to the attic. Once a fire gets inside that space, it travels straight up and overtakes the attic. "It's very, very difficult to fight those fires," he says.

Fire fighters were working inside the house until it became too unsafe due to danger of collapse. "We had to withdraw," Panholzer says. "It's still smoldering and we'll be there for several more hours."

UPDATE: As of 7:15pm, Friday, smoke could be seen rising out of the center of the house from the gaping hole where the roof used to be. Monterey Fire Fighters were on scene. The house had been fenced off.

Currently there's no known cause for the fire—Panholzer says it was likely accidental. The damage may be too extensive to determine the actual cause. He says it is possible that the house still contained old knob and tube wiring, which could be a potential ignition source. The house may have been owned by the same family since the 1940s. "It doesn't appear they did any significant upgrades," Panholzer says.

The man told fire fighters he heard a popping noise earlier in the morning but didn't think much about it, until he experienced the smoke later.

"It's very sad. It was a beautiful, beautiful structure. It's a loss to the community," says Panholzer.

Pacific Grove Police were also on the scene helping with traffic control. Police closed down four intersections surrounding the large property: Lighthouse and Ridge Road; Lighthouse and Bentley Street; 17 Mile Drive and Heacock Avenue; 17 Mile Drive and Bayview Avenue. These intersections are closed until further notice, according to PGPD social media, posted around 1pm.

Also known as "Pinehurst," the Queen Anne style mansion was built by banker George Brandt in 1895, according to a Pacific Grove Historical Context Statement written for the city in 2011. It later became the home of William R. LaPorte who served as mayor of P.G.

In A Summer Place—starring Ricard Egan, Dorothy McGuire, Arthur Kennedy, Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue—the mansion was used as the "Pine Island Inn," where much of the film's story takes place.

The house was a regular stop on the Monterey Movie Tour, which operated for 20 years by owner Doug Lumsden until he closed the tour in March because of troubles relaunching after Covid.

"It's such a shame," Lumsden says of the LaPorte's destruction. "There was such history there. It was the movie that put the city on the map."

Someone sent Lumsden a photo of the fire and he immediately rushed to the scene. "It's pretty gutted. It's pretty much done," he says.

"It was one of the great sites that people so loved," Lumsden says. "It was such a wonderful setting. That was one of the [tour stops] that people really resonated with."