On property that was once destined to be a shopping mall, several dozen history-minded people gathered May 4, sharing hors d'oeuvres and wine and doing a lot of smiling.

They were there to dedicate a new display in the Victorian-era Plummer House which stands adjacent to the Leonis Adobe Museum in Calabasas, the first historic structure formally recognized by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board.

"It's changed slowly and slightly," said Don Adams, president of the Leonis Adobe Association, which administers the museum. "But tonight you see a big change. This is a tremendous gift to future generations."

The two-story, hacienda-style adobe built by settler Miguel Leonis in 1844 is the centerpiece of the compound, a collection of farm outbuildings stocked with implements and farm animals, including two longhorn cattle and Percheron draft horses. The adobe, which had become rundown and abandoned in the early 1960s, is restored on its original site and furnished with some of the Leonis family furniture, an effort that came to fruition thanks to Kay Beachy, one of the founders of the Cultural Heritage Board and an ardent preservationist.

Beachy, a wealthy San Fernando Valley matron, stepped in when a developer proposed the adobe's demolition for a strip mall shopping center in 1962. She bought the 5 ½ acre parcel for $240,000, adding $30,000 to ensure that the building would be restored. Volunteers immediately set about renovating the structure, researching original construction and making sure their finished product represented 19 th-century Calabasas. They found artifacts strewn carelessly about the grounds, including an oversized mirror from the house that was found in the streambed across Calabasas Road and a staircase railing mysteriously found in the chimney.

Undaunted, they were determined to make it a museum of local history and the compound was dedicated May 21, 1966. Beachy lived long enough to see her dream come true, but died in 1972, before the Plummer House joined the Leonis family. The small structure - actually only the front of the original house, as the rear was damaged by fire and vandalism - was moved from its original location in Plummer Park near the LaBrea tar pits in West Hollywood, becoming a part of the museum in 1983. It took a team effort by the Los Angeles Conservancy and the Leonis Adobe Association to raise enough money to move and stabilize the house, where it now serves as a visitors center.

In tribute, the new display at the Plummer House features an oversized portrait of Beachy looking down as visitors sign the guest book. Her generosity and political savvy is celebrated in a tabletop display over a drawer that, pulled out, reveals the original Daily News article about her efforts to save the adobe and make it into a place where people could come and learn about the Valley's rich history.

"Kay didn't want us to just protect and preserve these buildings, she wanted us to give them new life," Adams continued. "I wish these walls could talk. When you see Miguel (Leonis, in portait and life-size sculpture) looking at you, you can't help but feel like you've gone back in time."

The new display, designed by Robert Checchi of E. Octovious Design, uses photographs, artifacts and the furniture itself to tell the story of the Leonis and Plummer families. A drawer beneath Leonis' picture contains examples of guns owned by Leonis; another has photographic representations of Calabasas as it looked when the family lived in the house, including the local school.

The museum runs on a $400,000 annual budget with no government funding. It is completely financed by private donations and income generated from property near the park. According to Adams, more than 10,000 school children from around the Southland visit the adobe grounds every year to get a glimpse of history and experience life on a working farm.

Ray Phillips, the association's President Emeritus, knew Beachy personally and was part of the initial restoration movement.

"I read in the Daily News about a luncheon being hosted in Beverly Hills," he said. "It invited anyone interested in preserving the Leonis Adobe to come. Calabasas was a wild, isolated, tiny community then."

Before retiring, Phillips, 86, worked full-time as an insurance salesman and was a part-time photography buff. He met a young man who had visited all of the California adobes in the 1930s, who told him to see the one in Calabasas.

"I was here very early on a Sunday, because I wanted the good light for my pictures," he explained. "There was a tenant in the adobe and he invited me in for breakfast."

Phillips recalled that one of the last tenants was actor John Carradine and his sons. After they moved out, vandals broke every window and began to destroy the building.

"That's when Kay Beachy came along," he said, smiling. "And the rest is history."

If you go:

Leonis Adobe Museum

23537 Calabasas Road, Calabasas

Hours: 1-4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Group tours may be arranged.

For information, call (818) 222-6511 or visit www.leonisadobemuseum.org