CALABASAS : New, One-Acre Park Opens in Old Town

Calabasas Creek Park, a one-acre Victorian-style sanctuary from city life that is considered to be Old Town Calabasas’ crowning jewel, opened this weekend.

The park, on Calabasas Road next to the Sagebrush Cantina, is heavily shaded and is fronted by a white picket fence. On the grounds are an antique drinking fountain, paths along Calabasas Creek and more than 250 rosebushes.

The area also is home to a reproduction of a jail that once stood in the vicinity, back in an era around the turn of the century when Calabasas was still a frontier.

“Calabasas was a very wild, lawless community,” said Phyllis Jones, director and curator of the nearby Leonis Adobe, a historic homestead that is now a museum. “People never said they came from Calabasas.”

The jail was moved to Chatsworth in the early 1900s, she said. Then, it disappeared. An old “hanging tree,” which blew down in a storm last winter, will be pieced back together and placed next to the jail, she said.

The park is also home to a huge oak tree, which was moved by Caltrans to make way for ongoing renovation work to the Ventura Freeway. The tree, estimated to be 500 years old, Jones said, is unique, in that it is actually two species of oaks that are joined at the trunk.

The one-acre sanctuary, actually within the city of Los Angeles, borders Calabasas, which hopes to annex the park. City officials consider the park to be a draw for Old Town Calabasas, a collection of Western-style shops and restaurants on the other side of Calabasas Road.

It is open and free to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.

About 100 people, some in period costumes, were on hand Saturday for a ceremony highlighted by a speech by former Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, and a flag-raising by a Civil War regiment, the 6th U.S. Cavalry, to mark the park’s debut.

The 83-year-old Yorty also was present 20 years ago for the dedication of the Leonis Adobe.

He reminisced about his friendship with Katherine Beechey, a philanthropist who bought the historic homestead for $275,000 in the early 1960s and turned it over to the Leonis Adobe Assn., which runs the museum.

Beechey, who founded the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board, died in 1974.

“She was a wonderful lady and a very good friend of mine and I wish she were here today,” Yorty said. “I wish they were naming this park after her.”