Faire Well? : Agoura’s Tie to Renaissance England May Be Undone by Luxury Homes, Supervisors’ Vote

Last weekend, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire brought 16th-Century England to Agoura, as it has each spring for 23 years. The queen was carried in a procession around the grounds. Wenches fought off eager male pursuers. Thousands of Faire-goers happily immersed themselves in a culture four centuries old.

But it may well have been the Faire’s farewell.

In April the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved a developer’s request to build 160 luxury homes on the 320-acre site west of Cornell Road in Medea Creek Canyon. The next move belongs to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who probably will give final approval to the plan. (No date for the vote has been set.)

The eviction threat has led to a campaign to save the Faire in Agoura. According to Faire founder Phyllis Patterson, 9,000 letters have been written to urge the Board of Supervisors to deny the request of developer Brian Heller. The Historic Oaks Foundation, a nonprofit organization created to preserve the site, plans a fund-raising effort this summer to raise one-third, or $4.6 million, of the $14 million the landowner wants for the property. So far, the foundation has raised only $25,000.

Despite the last-minute efforts, Stanley R. Romain, Heller’s attorney, is confident the homes will be built.

“We wouldn’t have spent all this time and money if we didn’t feel the plan would go through,” Romain said.

Judy Kory of Sun Valley has worked at every Faire, from selling apples to playing the Lord Mayor’s wife. The Faire has been her chance to fulfill a lifelong ambition to perform.

“I’ve seen children grow up and have children here,” she said. “This is a family.”

If it’s a family, then Phyllis Patterson is its unchallenged matriarch. Patterson says the Faire evolved from a small children’s theater group she had organized in Laurel Canyon in 1960. The first Faire was held in 1963 at a 5-acre children’s ranch in North Hollywood. Opening day was hardly auspicious.

“I only had one caterer, and he ran out of everything,” Patterson said.

Since those days, the Faire’s crew has grown from 500 to nearly 3,000, while the crowds have steadily increased. Patterson says the 1988 Faire drew about 225,000 spectators.

All along, Patterson said, the Faire’s Elizabethan atmosphere has been crucial to the event’s success. To maintain authenticity, Faire employees are required to attend annual workshops in language and history.

Each Faire has a particular theme within the Elizabethan era. This year’s celebrated the 400th anniversary of the defeat by the British of the invading Spanish Armada. And just as Sir Francis Drake wouldn’t surrender to outside forces, neither will Patterson.

She insists that enough money will be raised to keep the Faire in Agoura, and won’t even acknowledge it will be anywhere else. She said she looked for alternative sites in Ventura County but nothing turned up that could satisfy the need for a rural setting with adequate parking.

Backstage, as performers took breaks from their rigorous schedules, rememberances of past Faires replaced the rumors of this being the last.

Ex-professional football player John Schulps, 48, saw the Faire as an opportunity for artistic growth. Today, his comfortable booth carries expensive handmade knives and an assortment of pottery. He hasn’t forgotten the rough early days.

“I had this little rickety table and my pots were stacked on the floor, one on top of each other,” recalls Schulps, who joined the Faire in 1968. “I can’t believe I put the pots on the floor.”

He says the Faire has changed a lot over the years. “Things are much more money-oriented now. You used to be able to get free refills on your drinks and the food was cheap. No longer.”

When he isn’t selling his wares, Schulps works as a security officer at the Faire. He and the other security officers call themselves the Goon Squad, and they have many stories to tell. Like the time a burly red-headed drunk had to be tied to a tree to keep him under control. Schulps says the guy was so huge they had to borrow the tug-of-war rope to hold him. Or the time he led a posse to pursue some guys who had thrown a rock at a security guard on horseback.

“I’ve spent 20 years in these hills,” Schulps said. “I know them like the back of my hand. It would be a great loss if we had to leave here.”

Tom Westlake speaks for many of the crew who refused to believe this was the last Faire in Agoura.

“It’s very difficult for me to imagine that it can all suddenly stop in mid-sentence,” said Westlake, 32, of Berkeley, an actor at the Faire since 1976.

As the Faire neared its conclusion Sunday, a rumor circulated that Westlake could believe.

“If the luxury homes are built,” said his wife, Suzanne Honor-Westlake, “we hear that the queen’s procession will continue. Only it will go through someone’s bathroom.”