Plans complete for adobe renovation

By John Loesing Acorn Staff Writer

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn HIDDEN HISTORY-The Reyes Adobe barn in Agoura Hills will be remodeled next year as part of the Reyes Adobe historical restoration. It's on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, west of Reyes Adobe Road.

A $1.1 million renovation of the Reyes Adobe historical site in Agoura Hills is set to get underway in November, city officials have announced.

Plans for the 170-year-old adobe house and 50-year-old barn were unveiled last week and include a complete, museum-grade renovation along with landscaping, walkways and a running stream.

"We’re not purists, but we don’t want to go Hollywood," said Fontayne Holmes, member of the Reyes Adobe renovation committee. "We wanted it to reflect what this kind of adobe would have in the middle of the 19th Century."

The 4.6-acre property on Rainbow Crest Drive has been closed to the public since the city acquired it in 1982.

Several repairs were made to the home, but the work stopped in 1990 due to budget constraints. Two years ago, the roof on the house was replaced to protect the frail adobe walls, but the inside was left unfinished while the barn remains in a state of disrepair.

The Adobe suffered another setback in 1994 when the Northridge Earthquake struck. More repairs had to be made.

The barn, while not as old as the committee originally thought, will contain a partial glass exterior so that visitors can view the inner adobe walls. An exhibit area with artifacts and information will be set up in the barn’s interior.

"We have made it a rural building that is much more traditional and true to the way it used to be," said Mel Green, an engineering consultant who’s been working on the site.

"The basic building is stable, but we are doing some improvement structurally to give it a little more integrity," he said.

Repairs to the adobe house will be relatively minor since much of the deep work already has been done. Visitors will be allowed to stroll through two main rooms and bedroom and view the period pieces and museum attractions.

The house was built in 1836, but the bedroom was added later.

Because the Reyes Adobe was a working ranch, committee members said the furniture that will be placed inside would be more rustic than the elegant Victorian pieces displayed inside the Leonis Adobe in Calabasas, where wealthier families were said to live.

"I think it’s what kids in the third or fourth grade who study California history would be fascinated by," Holmes said.

True to the times, there will be no indoor kitchen. The loft, which is small and cramped, will remain closed.

Spanish settler Jacinto Reyes built the adobe in 1836 in the area known then as Rancho Las Virgenes.

Following several ownership changes, Dr. Malcolm McKenzie bought the adobe for a reported $3,500 in 1935. As one of several owners interested in preserving the age of the Spanish ranchero, McKenzie used 60 tons of handmade Indian adobe brick to rebuild the crumbling west and north walls.

Jon and Myrtis Dodson purchased the adobe in 1945 and continued the extensive remodeling. During the Dodson era, the adobe became a "showplace," said Celeste Bird, city administrator. Mrs. Dodson sold the property to June Belding of Westlake in 1976. Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation took possession in 1980, but turned the adobe and the adjacent barn over to Agoura Hills when the city incorporated in 1982.

A 1985 attempt to enter the adobe in the prestigious National Registry of Historic Places was turned down because of the building’s alterations, but officials contend that the adobe still could be a major regional draw.

"I think the community in general is going to be thrilled," Holmes said. "It is going to be a wonderful surprise. So many people drive by and don’t know what it is."

The work will be underway soon, Holmes said, and finished by next March.

The biggest cost will be $378,000 in landscaping, which includes site features, walls and fences, stone pathways, citrus orchard and re-circulating creek.

The barn repairs will take an additional $266,000.

"This is not an unexpected amount based on the amount of work we have to do," Bird said.

Funding for the project includes a $400,000 grant from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and $200,000 from Proposition 12, a state conservation grant.

Only about a fifth of the total cost will come from the city’s general fund.