IN PERSON : She’s Keeping the Past in Irvine’s Present

In a small, nondescript building at the end of an unremarkable cul-de-sac, the guardian of the last remnants of the city’s agricultural heritage keeps watch over an assortment of turn-of-the-century farm implements and machines.

It is a lonely place.

Historical artifacts and buildings are largely absent from this master-planned city, once the hub of the mighty 125,000-acre Irvine Ranch that encompassed 23% of all Orange County during the heyday of landowner James Irvine.

That the remnants exist at all is due in part to the unbowed determination of Judy Liebeck, curator of the Irvine Historical Museum and a past president of the Irvine Historical Society.

Part historian, part political strategist, Liebeck is a scarred veteran of battles over historic preservation in a 25-year-old city where modern urban planning is the dominant religion.

“The vast majority of people who move to Irvine think this is a clean new city that does not have any history whatsoever,” she said. “And the city and the Irvine Co. have never tried to correct that false assumption.”

She took on the cause of historic preservation with her father’s advice in mind.

“I wanted to make some contribution because my father always told me that no matter where you go and where you live, you should leave your community a better place for your having been there,” she said.

“That’s our obligation to society. But I had no idea I was going to be so involved for so many years.”

After moving to Irvine in 1974, three years after the city’s incorporation, Liebeck’s growing interest in local history led her to search for the oldest remaining section of the Irvine Ranch.

She took photos of assorted ranch buildings scattered in remote sections of the city, but she could not find the section of east Irvine where the ranch’s shipping center buildings were located. She asked for directions from an Irvine Co. receptionist.

“She saw the camera around my neck and said, ‘By the way, have you been taking pictures?’ ”

After informing the receptionist she had indeed been photographing old ranch buildings, Liebeck was asked to surrender her film.

“She said, ‘You just need to wait here, I’ll call the sheriff and he’s going to have to confiscate your film.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to wait, and I’m not going to give up my film.’

“As I pulled out of the parking lot, all of a sudden I saw this sheriff’s vehicle behind me and it just infuriated me. I just took off, and he was right on my tail. All of a sudden I passed east Irvine, so I pulled in and I figured, this is going to stop right here and we’re just going to have a confrontation. He gave me a very dirty look and continued on and I thought, ‘What is this all about?’ That cemented my decision to research and figure out exactly what was going on.”

Liebeck was instrumental in rallying public support during the 1980s to preserve the buildings she stumbled upon that day in east Irvine.

They are clustered in what is now called Old Town Irvine, at the eastern edge of the city in the shadow of the Santa Ana Freeway, on Sand Canyon Avenue. A blacksmith’s shop, a storage silo, a post office and other assorted buildings survived a three-year battle over their preservation and are now home to three restaurants, a hotel, post office and pool hall.

Although there was no lack of public support for Liebeck’s next major battle with the Irvine Co., she did not prevail. Her two-year attempt to preserve a handful of brick-red, ranch-style buildings on Ford Road and MacArthur Boulevard, known as the Buffalo Ranch buildings, failed.

Most of the 15 buildings, some dating back to the early 1930s, were moved to the location in 1955 for the short-lived Buffalo Ranch amusement park.

In 1960, the late architect William Pereira had a satellite office in one of the buildings from which he worked on the first master plan for the city of Irvine and designed the UC Irvine campus.

All but two of the buildings have since been demolished. One survivor, a two-story barn, is being moved board by board to a Newport Beach resident’s property for restoration; the other, the silo building from which Pereira once viewed the vast landscape of undeveloped Irvine, is now at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

“This was one of the most historic sites in Orange County,” Liebeck said.

“All it required was another four years for it to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, and they were about to make an exception for age. We had the strongest contingency of supporters on any historical issue in the history of Orange County that I know of. We were able to enlist the support of 4,000 community members.”

Liebeck’s most recent battle was over the preservation of the Irvine Ranch agricultural headquarters, a series of buildings on land northeast of Irvine Boulevard and Jamboree Road.

The Irvine Co. has set aside 16 acres for a historic park, but Liebeck believes the buildings should be preserved on a larger site.

“This is where the Irvine Ranch began,” Liebeck said.

The fight for historic preservation is especially tough in Irvine, according to Liebeck, because it is a young city full of residents who came from somewhere else. Without the efforts of historical society founder Anne Davis-Johnson and a small cadre of volunteers, Liebeck believes no historical sites would have survived.

“This city would have been completely stripped,” she said.

“I don’t even think this museum would have made it. Nothing would have remained. But this is not just for ourselves. Our efforts have been for our children, because this is where they were born and raised. If we don’t help save it for them, they will have no history.”

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Profile: Judy Liebeck

Age: 49

Residence: Irvine

Education: Associate degree in engineering from Highline College in Kent, Wash.; certificate in public relations from UC Irvine; Associate of arts degree in journalism from Irvine Valley College

Family: Two grown sons

Background: Born in New Jersey, raised in Seattle; moved from Brentwood to Irvine in 1974 after a five-year career as an engineer for McDonnell-Douglas Corp.; was involved in 1980 founding of Irvine Historical Museum and is now curator; served as president of Irvine Historical Society several times; now a technical editor for Fluor Daniel Inc. in Irvine

On historic Irvine: “The vast majority of people who move to Irvine think this is a clean new city that does not have any history whatsoever. And the city and the Irvine Co. have never tried to correct that false assumption.”

Source: Judy Liebeck; Researched by RUSS LOAR / For The Times

Los Angeles Times