Camarillo Crowd Cheers Old Friends, Welcomes New Look

The farmhand peering across Ventura Boulevard on Sunday looked frozen in time, a throwback to when this was the town’s main thoroughfare and workers were 10 a penny.

Across the road, toddlers scrambled onto the lap of a tall, bronzed cowboy, stretched across an iron bench.

The cast bronze likenesses of late Western movie actors Walter Brennan and Joel McCrea, who both lived in Moorpark but gave much to Camarillo, were dedicated in a celebration of $7 million in street improvements and the city’s 36th anniversary.

Residents who have tolerated construction on the busy street for the past year finally saw what all the fuss was about. The road was blocked off for the event and a country and western band played old-time favorites, while about 200 people roamed the sidewalks and got a close-up look at their new Old Town.

The street now has arbors, decorative tiles, planters and sidewalks broad enough for outdoor cafes, along with trees in the median. Also, the boulevard’s four lanes have been narrowed to one lane in each direction.

Eighteen of the district’s 90 businesses have remodeled their facades and more are planning to do so, said Tony Boden, the city’s director of planning.

Officials hope the improvements will make a pedestrian magnet out of what once was little more than a quick route across town for most residents.

“It’s going to be nice if they get some restaurants in here and we can come down in the evenings and walk around,” said Susan Villa, 37, who lives a block away and came to the festivities with her children. “We’re very pleased with the renovations.”

Most of the activity involved dedicating the statues of Brennan and McCrea, as well as a third bronze of eagles in flight, and burying two time capsules beneath the street’s new clock tower.

A fourth bronze, of Adolfo Camarillo, for whom the city was named, will be dedicated next weekend.

The statues cost roughly $150,000 total, paid for by the city’s redevelopment funds, said Tony Perez, the city’s redevelopment coordinator. Sculptor Guillermo Castano of La Presa, near Tijuana, Mexico, was commissioned for the work.

Friends of Brennan and McCrea attended, along with Brennan’s two sons, Walter Jr., 78, and Arthur, 79, who said the statue was a good likeness of their father.

Until his death in 1974, Brennan was frequently the grand marshal of Camarillo’s Christmas Parade. McCrea, who died in 1990, donated thousands of dollars to the town’s youth organizations.

The statues stand without pedestals, Brennan’s feet planted directly on the street and leading man McCrea’s lanky frame permanently sprawled across a bench. Passersby had fun with both likenesses, putting their arms around Brennan and sitting on McCrea’s lap for photographs.

“I think the city did an excellent job,” Walter Brennan Jr. said.

The time capsules are two titanium boxes, one filled with city paperwork and aerial photographs, the other with donations from churches and civic groups. The boxes, each about 1 by 2 feet, were sealed by a special welding process that should preserve them for the 50 years they will be in the ground.

“But in 50 years someone’s going to have to figure out how to open them again without burning up all the stuff that’s inside,” Perez said.