RESTORED REYES ADOBE SET TO OPEN NEXT YEAR.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

AGOURA HILLS - With $800,000 in hand, the city of Agoura Hills can finally complete its long-delayed restoration of the historic Reyes Adobe and open it to the public next year, officials announced Wednesday.

The city, using a combination of local and state funds, will use the money to furnish the three-room adobe with period furniture and landscape the grounds. The oldest building in Agoura Hills, the 200-year-old white stucco structure has served as headquarters for a working cattle ranch, a travelers' respite and even a fort.

``The only things older here are the oak trees,'' said Joseph Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, who made public Wednesday a $400,000 state parks grant for the Reyes Adobe rehabilitation.

That money, combined with $200,000 of city general funds and $200,000 from Proposition 12 parks funds, should be enough to finally complete the restoration, said Celeste Bird, administrative analyst for the city of Agoura Hills.

The adobe home was built sometime between 1790 and 1820 by Jose Reyes and Maria Altagracia Reyes de Vejar, who raised cattle that grazed over the rolling hills from Liberty Canyon to Westlake Village. Their ranch house grew with the family and their home became a stopping point for travelers and Spanish missionaries on the El Camino Real, or Royal Road.

The ranch changed hands several times, eventually becoming a small horse boarding facility in the 1960s. The occupants tried to modernize the old adobe and added french doors, a garage and extra rooms.

The adobe then fell into the city's hands, and the local historical society hoped to place the building on the National Register of Historic Places. But the adobe was rejected because it had undergone so many changes.

In the late 1970s, the city brought in structural engineer Mel Green and architect Anne Watson to begin a complete restoration of the adobe.

But they couldn't re-create the home the Reyes family built.

``Honesty in preservation is restoring to what you know,'' Green said. And the only documentation he had was of house plans drawn in 1935. So he and Watson began tearing down brick additions, fireplaces and bathrooms until it was stripped down to its original 1930s facade.

Then they began an exact replication, even pulling clay from the yard for adobe bricks and building a crooked central wall just as in the original, Watson said.

But their completed work stood empty, awaiting furnishings and educational displays.

The community had block parties and fund-raisers to help open the adobe, but ``the money was just never available,'' said Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Woodland Hills, a former Agoura Hills council member.

Then the restored adobe suffered cracks and other damage during the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, and Watson and Green were called back to repair the cracked adobe.

Now, with an $800,000 budget, the city hopes to have the Reyes Adobe and its barn open to the public by the end of next summer.

Much of the work is already done. The thick adobe walls are strong. New hardwood floors line the rooms. And restored period hardware is installed throughout the house.

And with the restoration, Watson said, the city can possibly have another shot at a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, to ensure another level of protection for the building.

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Photo:

Kathy Chew of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority looks through a window in the Reyes Adobe.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer