By JudyAnn Edwards

Eugenia Buss takes a stroll through Redwood Grove - and down memory lane - describing her childhood years on land that eventually became a public park.

“Sometimes I marvel I grew up here,” said Eugenia Buss, her arms sweeping the verdant horizon of 482 University Ave. in Los Altos, also known as Redwood Grove Nature Preserve. “It’s lovely and miraculous this place still exists,” she added.

The seeds for Redwood Grove’s preservation were sown long before its namesake redwood grove was planted. The area’s earliest inhabitants, the Ohlone Indians, found only willow trees lining Adobe Creek. When the area was settled in the early 1900s, the future parkland was split off as a 5.7-acre lot.

San Francisco businessman William Wright acquired the property around 1910 and gifted it to his daughter, Buss’ mother Emma Wright Halsey, for her wedding dowry in 1915.

When a plague devastated the willows in the 1920s, Halsey resolved to augment the property’s solitary redwood with a grove. Buss remembers her mother and gardener tirelessly transplanting truckloads of native Sequoia sempervirens seedlings from her uncle’s Santa Cruz mountain property.

“The redwoods weren’t this glorious when I was a child,” Buss said, rocking back on her heels to gauge how they’ve grown. “Or this healthy,” she added, her left hand pointing heavenward as her right hand maneuvered a Panama hat bearing “Stanford Class of ‘39″ to shield her eyes from the sun.

“Of course, much has changed since my childhood,” said Buss, nodding to redwoods bordering what once had been the croquet court, blackberry bushes overtaking the barbecue area, and a meadow that once held tennis courts outlined with “magnificent” rose-covered fences.

The property changed hands with the Bessey family’s purchase in 1945, and Halsey moved to Palo Alto. Subsequent owners tried to bulldoze the redwoods for housing, but the county prohibited development because of periodic Adobe Creek floods. Rather than let the property deteriorate, former Mayor Roy Lave and other Los Altans persuaded the city to purchase the property for only $45 per acre. Thus, Redwood Grove was saved.

A nature lover, Buss enjoys visiting the redwoods and quietly relishes park-goers’ happiness. She misses her mother’s glorious gardens, but some of Buss’ favorite memories still emanate from her pink-stucco former home. “We used to roll up the rug and have wonderful dances in that front room,” said Buss, her steel-blue eyes twinkling. “In those days, kids danced to records - not CDs.”

The house is still pink stucco, but now it’s Redwood Grove’s Nature Center. Since 1980, each year approximately 5,000 children enjoy its camps, Scout programs, birthday parties and Florence Fava’s Ohlone artifact collection.

The preserve’s good-natured naturalist, Keith Gutierrez, has lived with his family in the former gardener’s quarters since 1993. The beautiful redwoods provide an authentic backdrop for the eccentric gold-miner and blacksmith characters he portrays for students making field trips.

Redwood Grove has been a special place to many people.

“When I lived here, I didn’t think it was anything special,” said Buss. “Now I realize how lucky I was to have this home.”