Contract to Add Historic Structures to Hart Park : Santa Clarita: Under the agreement approved by supervisors, at least nine vintage buildings will be moved to Heritage Junction.

Heritage Junction, a collection of mostly 19th-Century buildings assembled at William S. Hart Park in Santa Clarita, will be allowed to remain there permanently and to expand, under a contract approved Tuesday between Los Angeles County and the local historical society.

The contract approved by the County Board of Supervisors will allow nine buildings deemed significant to the valley’s history to be added to a group that already includes three houses, an adobe, a railroad station and an old schoolhouse. Until Tuesday, however, the 1887 Saugus Depot was the only building that had approval to remain on the site permanently, and no legal arrangement to add other significant structures had been made.

The depot had been slated for demolition before it was moved to the park in 1980. It now houses a historical museum open to the public on weekends.

John Mann, president of the 320-member Santa Clarita Historical Society, said the first building expected to be moved into the area under the new contract is the Pardee House, which is just outside the park and is owned by Pacific Bell.

Mann said the circa 1887 building is to be placed at the entrance to Heritage Junction and will serve as its visitor center.

Historical society curator Jerry Reynolds said the Pardee House was built as a Good Templer’s Lodge, a fraternal organization headed by a leader of the Prohibition Party. The house was purchased in 1889 by early Newhall businessman Ed Pardee and moved to its current site. The seemingly nondescript wood-frame house was “quite a community and social center over the years,” Reynolds said.

An agreement under which Pacific Bell would donate the structure to the society, which has a grant to pay for the $10,000 cost of moving the house, is being reviewed by the company’s attorneys. If details can be worked out, the society hopes to move the house next month.

The contract between the county and the historical society includes a site map for the 15 acres where the current structures--as well as any additional buildings--will be located.

None of the buildings are to be moved onto the portion of Hart Park bequeathed to the county by early Western actor William S. Hart, because of concerns that any future admission charges, gift shops or concession stands could violate an anti-commercial clause in Hart’s will, said Michael Kriste, a manager with the county Department of Parks & Recreation.

The contract requires the society to build a foundation for the buildings and to paint and maintain their exteriors while interior work proceeds. The society finances the moves and restoration efforts using dues, donations and private and public grants.

The Pardee House is not expected to require much work because it was renovated by the telephone company and then used as the office for the Newhall Chamber of Commerce, said Norman Phillips, superintendent of Hart Park.

But the other buildings are in far worse shape and it is unknown when they will be opened to the public. “We understand that it’s a long, tedious process and when they’ll be done, nobody knows,” Phillips said.

Eventually, it is hoped, the buildings are to be furnished in a style appropriate to their period.

The Newhall Ranch House, which was built in the early 1860s and later became the founding family’s homestead, was moved to Hart Park from property that was slated for expansion of Magic Mountain. It is expected to be the next renovated structure to open to the public, perhaps as early as October, Reynolds said.

When rain was expected in March, 1991, the Santa Clarita Historical Society received a $20,000 grant from the Leonis Adobe Assn. in Calabasas to restore the ranch house’s roof.