2 Landmark Barns Will Be Relocated

The two landmark barns at the Dos Vientos Ranch, dismantled piece by piece to make way for a sprawling Newbury Park housing development, have found a temporary home a short distance down the road.

At a meeting this week, members of the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency (COSCA) voted 5 to 0 to take possession of the grand old barns, which once housed prize horses for Henry Ford’s tool and die maker, Malcolm Clark.

Both barns, built in the 1930s, were designated as historical landmarks by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors more than 10 years ago. Disassembly of the barns, and the careful numbering and recording of each piece to ensure their reassembly, began in December.

Thousand Oaks Councilman Andy Fox, who sits on the COSCA board, said the agency was given the barns by the Operating Engineers Pension Trust, which is building a 2,360-home subdivision on the site where they once stood.

“We’re going to store them on a farm site adjacent to the Two Winds Ranch, the Olympia Farm’s site,” Fox said.

The abandoned farm is part of the much larger Broome Ranch property, which is now publicly owned.

Fox said COSCA is considering using the barns as the centerpiece for a new city-owned equestrian facility being planned for Broome Ranch.

“There will probably be some cost in reconstructing them to be inhabited, but that’s at least an option that we have now,” Fox said. “It’s just a question of funding.”