When the swallows come back to...

When the swallows come back to . . .

Valencia?

If the late Leon Rene were writing his famous song about the feathery freeloaders of San Juan Capistrano nowadays, he might have to add a second verse about a city in the Santa Clarita Valley.

And it wouldn’t be so nostalgic.

Valencia’s College of the Canyons tried for years to dissuade about 2,000 swallows from nesting there each spring, once drawing a $500 fine from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after an abatement project accidentally killed 12 of the birds.

“They really do make quite a mess,” said Stephanie Weiss, a college spokeswoman. “It costs us about $5,000 a year to clean up.”

After the problem was mentioned on television news a few years ago, the school received de-swallowing solutions from all over the nation: spray Tabasco sauce in nesting areas, hang rubber snakes and lobsters from buildings, make an example of a few swallows by displaying them in a cage.

“One man offered to get rid of them for ‘under $100,000,’ ” Weiss said.

No method proved practical, however.

So now the college’s Biology Department has decided to take advantage of their presence by studying their migratory habits. And students and faculty have scheduled a picnic on campus this morning to welcome the swallows back from their winter home in Argentina (and from their stopover in Capistrano last month).

“We can’t beat these little guys,” Weiss said. “So we’ve decided, ‘Let’s join them.’ ”

If you want service from the crew at Engine Company No. 28, you better go to them.

The building, which operated as a Los Angeles fire station from 1912 to 1969, was recently converted into a restaurant.

Despite the danger of inviting jokes about burned steaks, owner Linda Griego said she chose the Figueroa Street structure because “it’s beautiful and I liked the idea of a 3-story building nestled among high-rises.”

Diners eat in the station’s former apparatus room, which was a stable area in its early years.

The Fire Department closed the station in 1970, according to spokesman Vince Marzo, because by then, “we had better motorized apparatus and could get around a lot easier so fewer fire stations were needed downtown.”

The restaurant was allowed to keep the old name because the department has never reassigned the number. It’s generated some confusion.

“Some of our customers tell us that when they call up information for our number,” Griego said, “the operator asks if it’s an emergency.”

One of the most frequent comments made by diners, Griego said, is “how come there aren’t any poles here--our waiters should come down poles. Actually they were gone when we bought the building but we’re going to bring one back. No waiters are going to use it, though. Can you imagine the workers compensation possibilities?”

While it sometimes seems as though every building in Los Angeles was put up the day before yesterday, the Engine Company is only one of a surprising number of eateries that have had previous incarnations.

The palace that houses Trumps, the posh West Hollywood eatery, began a bit more humbly as a Union 76 gas station and garage. Collage in Long Beach and the Ritz Grill in Pasadena are also former gas stations. Trattoria Angeli Cafe inhabits a one-time Shane Carpet showroom in West Los Angeles.

Other restaurants and their predecessors include Rex Restaurant downtown (a former clothing store), Kate Mantilini in Beverly Hills (bank), Valentino’s in Santa Monica (bar), Rose Cafe in Venice (gas company office), Tamayo in East Los Angeles (pipe supply store, among others), the Far East Cafe in Little Tokyo (hardware store) and the 7th Street Bistro downtown (exhibition hall/artist studio).

Then there’s Philippe’s sandwich shop, whose location (on north Alameda Street downtown) and many doorways on the second floor lead its owners to suspect that it was once a brothel.