North County’s Elysian Fields?

People aren’t born in Huntington Central Park, and they can’t be buried there. But the 100-plus-acre eastern end of the park in Huntington Beach offers something to address nearly every human need that falls in between.

There is a restaurant to please the palate and fill the stomach. A public library housing 300,000 volumes and subscriptions to 650 periodicals beckons the intellect, the imagination and even the spirit (three local churches rent meeting rooms for Sunday services). The park grounds offer relaxation or exercise in a lovely setting where nature is the star; there are no ball fields or paved courts, just rolling green expanses and a wide variety of trees that provide shade to people and dogs, and a home for a multitude of bird species. It’s not unusual for couples to get married here.

Green Pastures

Stroll the park’s paved footpaths; a leisurely walk along the perimeter takes about 30 minutes. You’ll notice an absence of palms and pines. Not that there’s anything wrong with palms and pines, but they’re all over the place in Southern California. It’s refreshing, a little rustic and charmingly Old-Worldish, to walk past stands of eucalyptus, willow and sycamore.

Dave Winkler, who became the park’s ranger/naturalist in 1975, a year after it opened, says bird-watchers have sighted about 280 species over the years.

“It’s one of the better areas in the entire Los Angeles Basin for birds,” he says. Among the park’s denizens are great horned owls that nest each winter under the eaves of the library, which sits atop a hill at the south end of the gently sloped park.

Skip Burnett, a veteran irrigation specialist at the park, says that over the years he has seen raccoons, skunks and opossums in the park along with the occasional coyote ranging eastward from the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, through the less-manicured western end of Central Park that’s on the opposite side of Goldenwest Street, and into the eastern park zone.

Monarch butterflies, which winter in the park each year, have just started arriving.

As befits a park whose charm lies in its simplicity and lack of development, the formation of ponds and lakes is mainly left up to nature. In the dry season--including right now--there is little water. When the rains come, a broad basin in the middle of the park fills up, attracting hundreds, if not thousands, of ducks and other waterfowl.

As of last week, ducks were congregating in the only water available, a small irrigation containment pool just south of the Park Bench Cafe. Feeding the ducks is allowed; the boldness of the contingent at the pool suggests they’re used to accepting the kindness of human strangers.

Dog walking is a favorite pastime--leashes and cleanup mandatory.

Park visitors can lounge or picnic in the sun or shade; there is plenty of both. They can set up volleyball nets or play soccer, softball or touch football, although they’ll have to map out their fields. Picnickers should bring grills, because none are provided. Benches and picnic tables dot the grounds.

Bicycling and skating are welcome on the park’s wide paths; joggers can stop to exercise at stations on the fitness course along the park’s perimeter. A small playground at the northern end, near Slater Avenue, offers swings, slides, gear to climb on and sand to play in.

The park isn’t completely without amenities: It houses four enclosed restroom stations, two of them equipped with soft drink machines.

Dining With Dogs

Fronting Goldenwest Street, the Park Bench Cafe (17732 Goldenwest St., [714] 842-0775), a green clapboard restaurant, is famous for its unusual and distinguished clientele: It has long offered a special, seven-item menu and catered parties for dogs. Mike Bartusick took over the restaurant in 1988 and set aside a grassy area of his mostly al fresco establishment for people with pooches. He provides disposable feeding bowls for the dogs and keeps them at a distance from diners less disposed to canine companionship. During lunchtime last weekend, it was easy to get a people-only table; the canine section had a waiting list.

Bartusick, who owns an Australian shepherd, serves breakfast and lunch six days a week (hours: 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays, and until 3 p.m. on weekends; it’s open daily during the summer but currently is closed Mondays).

The most popular breakfast dish is the Park Omelet--with bacon, mushrooms, onions, avocado and a blend of jack and cheddar cheese. Bartusick says he has beefed up his hamburgers recently in hopes of winning an annual best-burger contest held in Huntington Beach. The California Cheeseburger, with bacon, is a current favorite, he said. Salads, sandwiches and chili also are featured.

Assisting with some of the cooking and the quality control is Bernice Avalos, Bartusick’s 78-year-old mother. He says the home-style potatoes that come with breakfast entrees follow the recipe she used when he was a kid: Slice baked potatoes into discs and pan-fry with onions and cheese. “We pride ourselves on our bacon,” Bartusick says. “Mom won’t serve anything that’s not crisp bacon.”

Founts of Knowledge

The Huntington Beach Central Library and Cultural Center (7111 Talbert Ave., [714] 960-8839), a mansion of learning--and fun--is set atop a hill overlooking the park. The original 1974 building was designed by the famed architect Richard Neutra and his son Dion to blend into the natural setting. The western and northern facades facing the park are reflective glass offering a mirror image of trees and sky. Inside, most of the reading areas offer expansive views overlooking the park.

Water is a distinctive presence, both inside and out. A moat with fountains surrounds half the building; more fountains cascade along the walkway to the main entrance.

Inside, an addition that opened in 1994 was built to echo Neutra’s concept of blending structure into nature. Its hallmark is the atrium-like central section, in which a spiral concrete walkway winds to a lower level built around and above a large indoor pool with fountain jets. The design gives the illusion of water flowing from the outside moat into the indoor pool. Water splashes into the pool from four large concrete bowls atop towering pylons--two of them more than 20 feet high.

Library director Ron Hayden said that the last time he checked, the library was taking in about $600 a year in coins thrown into the various pools and fountains.

“It’s more hassle than it’s worth,” he said. “We have to take the money out and dry it, because the banks won’t take it [wet].”

Before the addition was built around them, Hayden said, the concrete bowl fountains stood outside the building and “had nothing in them but these horrible asparagus plants.” The spiral staircase also was on the outside; it led nowhere and was used for nothing, except when kids would cut through a chain-link fence at the bottom and use it as, in Hayden’s words, “a kamikaze skateboard paradise.”

The $9-million expansion enhanced the library’s content along with its ambience. It added a large, airy children’s section of 75,000 books; huge stuffed animals--dragons, apes, bears and, scariest of all for many adults, Barney--sit atop the shelves and can be pulled down for hugs and play.

One corner of the children’s area is decorated with tiles, most of them depicting seaside themes, that were painted and signed by local children. Nearby, a wooden boat with mast and sail serves as an enclosure for games, toys and books. Computers for games and research are available.

Other attractions for the kids include the circular aquarium with tropical fish outside the entrance to the children’s section, and the Tabby Storytime Theater, a popular center for puppet shows and several story sessions each week that library staffers conduct for listeners ages 18 months to 9 years.

The main collection is housed in four levels of book stacks; the library also houses a gallery sponsored by the Huntington Beach Art League, a gift shop and a media center that for a dollar or two will rent cardholders movies on videocassette and DVD; also available are CD-ROMs and music CDs from a collection stocked with jazz, country, folk, soundtrack and original cast albums, pop and rock. Library cards are free to Huntington Beach residents, $25 a year for others.

For scholars in need of a caffeine boost or snack, there is the One Fine Blend coffee shop on the lower level; it offers coffees, fruit drinks, teas, breads and pastries, along with pre-wrapped refrigerated sandwiches and drinks and snacks from vending machines.

The library theater, home to the Huntington Beach Playhouse community theater group, is a comfortable, well-appointed hall; the Playhouse opens its 2000 season Jan. 14 with the Andrew Lloyd Weber/Tim Rice musical “Evita.”

IF YOU GO GETTING THERE: From the San Diego Freeway (405) take Goldenwest Street south; for playground and north end of park, turn left at Slater Avenue then right into the parking lot; for Park Bench Cafe turn left after Slater into the restaurant parking lot; for Huntington Beach Central Library and south end of park turn left on Talbert Avenue, which becomes a driveway into parking lots for the library and park.

From Pacific Coast Highway, take Goldenwest Street north to Talbert or Slater and turn right.

ON THE BILL: Special events at Huntington Central Park include Civil War battle reenactments, classic car shows and Shakespeare in the Park productions by the Huntington Beach Playhouse, presented in a small amphitheater downhill from the library.

WILDLIFE: Squirrels, jack rabbits and cottontails live at the park too. Among the park’s legends is the “attack rabbit,” a domesticated bunny with a temper that somebody let loose during the 1970s. It was known to chase people, children and adults before animal control caught up with it.

1. Park Bench Cafe, 17732 Goldenwest St., 842-0775

2. Huntington Beach Central Library, 7111 Talbert Ave., 960-8839

3. Park area