Presents From the Past

Logging and wheat enterprises made Albert Workman a rich man, but it was a small grove of eucalyptus trees that secured his place in San Fernando Valley history.

Workman planted what some say were the first eucalyptus trees in Southern California on the West Valley ranch that bore his name. The ranch’s main house is now the centerpiece of Shadow Ranch Park in West Hills.

The house, heavily damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, will finally be repaired with $1.3 million in Proposition K funds approved this week by the City Council.

Also approved was a $2.1-million expenditure to build a new child care center at Victory-Vineland Recreation Center in North Hollywood.

The Valley improvements were among 12 projects totaling $44 million approved by the council, including $9.5 million for a new children’s museum in Griffith Park.

Three years ago, Los Angeles voters approved a $750-million bond measure to pay for park and recreation improvement projects over a 30-year period, officials said.

“Proposition K is a measure that is helpful to our recreation and parks system,” said Steven L. Soboroff, president of the Los Angeles Board of Recreation and Parks Commissioners. “The projects the council has picked have been good ones.”

Still, Soboroff said he would like to see bond funds spent more quickly in the future so that projects won’t become the victims of higher construction costs and changing political priorities.

“As time goes on, costs go up and political situations change,” he said.

Even so, officials at the Valley sites welcomed the news that funds are on the way.

Money set aside for the Victory-Vineland Recreation Center will pay for a new child care facility at the site for children 5 to 12, officials said.

Currently, the 60 children enrolled in the year-round center share a gymnasium with children participating in recreation programs, officials said.

“The gym gets really crowded in the summer because many neighborhood children are out of school,” said Terri Gutierrez, the center’s assistant director.

At Shadow Ranch Park, the bond money will be used to repair the Workman House, which had been used for classes and community meetings before the temblor struck nearly six years ago.

“Any time you have facilities for residents to use, it is going to be a benefit to the community,” said Bob Carpenter, park director at Shadow Ranch.

Workman built the house in the late 1860s after making a fortune as an overland freighter, hauling logs into Los Angeles. He surrounded the home with eucalyptus seedlings that he imported from Australia.

Only two of Workman’s original trees remain--two others were toppled in windstorms earlier this year--but the seedlings he planted are believed to be the parent trees of most of the eucalyptus presently growing in Southern California.

Workman lived with his family at the ranch until 1900, when he sold the property. Over the years, the house has served as a boardinghouse, a private girls’ school and the home of Colin and Florence Clements, screenwriters for “Gone With the Wind.” The city purchased the 11-acre property in 1957. The house was declared a historical and cultural monument in 1962, and the park was dedicated by the city in 1963.

Construction is likely to begin on both the child care center and Workman House within months after the funds are made available in January.

The center is expected to take eight months to a year to complete, but the Workman House may take longer because the property has to meet historical and cultural requirements, said Bart Benjamins, director of resources and development with the city recreation and parks department.