A Gift for a Rainy Day : In Unusual Move, One Historical Society Donates Funds to Another to Restore a Roof

The Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society has been left high and dry by a kindred organization in Calabasas, and both groups are thrilled about it.

In an unusual display of generosity, the nonprofit Leonis Adobe Assn. of Calabasas has donated $20,000 to the Santa Clarita society, which will use the money to restore the roof of an 1868 farmhouse threatened by rain.

“We chose this group to help because they need it and eminently deserve it for their efforts to preserve buildings from the 1800s,” Ray Phillips, president of the Calabasas group, said.

“We are very, very overwhelmed by this gift,” Paul Kreutzer, a spokesman for the Santa Clarita group, said.

The Newhall Ranch House has been roofless since August when it was disassembled and moved from a parking lot at Magic Mountain--which grew up around the old ranch site--to Heritage Junction Historical Park in Newhall. The historical society saved the original roof and planned to put it back on the building, but discovered after the move that county fire and earthquake regulations required a new, more expensive roof.

Society officials hoped the drought would continue so the building would be spared rain damage, but they were forced to call in the Fire Department last month to help cover the structure with plastic because rain was imminent.

“We got really panicky when it started raining,” Kreutzer said. “If it weren’t for the Leonis Adobe Assn., I don’t know what we would have done.”

It is extremely rare for one historical society to donate funds to another, said Donna Baumgartner, deputy director of the American Assn. for State and Local History, which is based in Tennessee.

“This is so unusual--historical groups are usually struggling for funds,” Baumgartner said of the $20,000 donation.

The Calabasas group has more money to give to worthy preservation efforts, Phillips said. The group--which restored the Leonis Adobe, a 147-year-old former ranch house it now runs as a museum--collects an income from several commercial properties it owns in Calabasas.

The adobe itself and the rental properties were bequeathed to the association by Kathleen Beachy about 10 years ago, Phillips said.

He declined to say how much the association derives from renting the properties, including the Sagebrush Cantina, a popular restaurant in the Old Town section of Calabasas.

The Santa Clarita group still needs about $55,000 to restore the ranch house to its former state.

Eventually, the house will be open to the public as part of the group’s collection of seven historic structures in Heritage Junction in William S. Hart Park in Newhall.