RICHARD NIXON: 1913-1994 : Namesake’s Death Puts Spotlight on O.C. Library : Museum: The native son will be laid to rest near his boyhood home. The town says it’s ready.

Crowds it can handle; dignitaries too. After all, Barbara Bush was just there Friday, and it has hosted Presidents before.

But this week, as the nation watches, the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace will be on display as never before while former President Nixon is memorialized, recalled in terms both glowing and sober, eulogized and finally buried there.

For the $21-million facility, it is an opportunity to show off the combination museum and library that its founder envisioned, helped finance and finally launched in 1990 with much fanfare.

There will be boasting about how it was built without government funds, how it competes amid a sea of tourist attractions and how its new public affairs center may help shape policy debates into the 21st Century.

“Given the fact we’re likely to have two Democratic Presidents and three Republican Presidents--Ford, Reagan and Bush--it will be a big week,” said former Nixon speech writer Kenneth L. Khachigian of San Clemente.

“But for me,” he added, “it won’t be as important without Richard Nixon being at the center of activity.”

The Yorba Linda facility, which opened in July, 1990, is still the only presidential library in the country run entirely without public funds. But financially, it has been an uphill climb as the library has tried to penetrate Southern California’s tough tourist market.

“If you make comparisons with our library and those run by the Department of Interior, our gate receipts are equivalent, if not better, than some of them,” Roland E. Bigonger, 67, a member of the library’s executive board who helped establish the facility, said Saturday. “The problem is we’re not operating with government funds, and I think the President was very proud of the fact that he didn’t want to use government funds.”

By comparison, the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library in Austin, Tex., receives about $2.3 million a year in federal funds; the Jimmy Carter library in Atlanta gets about $1.6 million; and the Ronald Reagan library in Simi Valley receives about $2.8 million.

The Nixon library includes a 5,500-square-foot main facility and the simple wooden farmhouse Nixon’s father built from a kit. In its first year, the library had a deficit of $577,301 on expenses of $3.1 million, according to Internal Revenue Service records.

John H. Taylor, Nixon library director, cut operating expenses the following year to $2.6 million. But the facility had revenue of $1,627,743, resulting in a deficit of $962,298, IRS records show.

Library officials said early expenditures included costs for advertising, promotions and special exhibits.

They also reflected costs associated with the library’s sponsorship of numerous exhibitions, policy conferences, town meetings and forums.

The library’s board of directors and former President Nixon did not want the library to be a “sleepy place that was preoccupied with the past and sold tickets and souvenirs,” Taylor has said.

In January, the library got a boost with the launching of a new policy center, the Center for Peace and Freedom, which will be based at the library and in Washington. A $5-million grant from Walter H. Annenberg, who was U.S. ambassador to Britain under Nixon, kicked off the center’s funding, which is estimated at $25 million.

Yorba Linda officials said they believe the library may become an even bigger tourist attraction after Nixon is buried next to his wife, Pat, who died last June.

It’s no Graceland, said Yorba Linda Mayor Barbara Kiley, “but I imagine when it becomes the final resting place for Nixon, it will end up like Graceland. I think his and Pat’s final resting place will become an attraction and will continue to be an attraction for tourists.”

Admission to the library, normally $4.95 for adults and $1 for children 8 to 11, will be free during a mourning period that will run through May, library officials said.