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HISTORY OF ARCADIA
The first human settlements in the San Gabriel Valley were made by the Native American
groups whom Spanish friars named Gabrielinos. They were small settlements, as the
inhabitants maintained a semi -nomadic lifestyle. The Spanish arrived in 1771,
represented by Fathers Angel Somera and Pedro Benito Camibon. They established the
Mission San Gabriel Archangel. Pedro Zalvidea established the Rancho Santa Anita in
1806 when the Spanish crown began breaking up church lands into private holdings.
Mexico took over Californian lands in 1822 and in 1833 the Mexican government passed
the secularization Act, removing all lands from Church control.
Arcadia's first booster was Hugo Reid. Reid was a Scot who married a Gabrielino
woman who had been raised at the Mission. Dona Victoria Perez had been married and
widowed before she met Reid and therefore owned some property. With her land, she
held the grazing rights to Rancho Santa Anita. After their marriage, Reid applied for
absolute title to the Rancho. He gained it in 1841 and set about creating a lake and
building an adobe house for his new family. Unfortunately, Reid was not a successful
rancher. He sold the land in 1847. It changed hands several times over the next two
decades until Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin bought it in 1871.
Baldwin owned hotels in San Francisco and had a reputation as an adventurer. When he
moved to Rancho Santa Anita, though, his intention was to raise a family and raise
racehorses. In 1885, the railroad came through and Baldwin made money selling off
construction land. He began planning a town, planted eucalyptus and oak trees, laid out
roads and acquired water rights. In 1889, he opened the Oakwood hotel near the junction
of the Santa Fe and Pacific Railroad lines.
Settlement in Arcadia
Arcadia incorporated as an eleven square mile city in 1903 at the same time that Baldwin,
was subdividing his land for development. A major portion of his original landholdings
was located in what is today's center of the city, Los Angeles County Arboretum.
Outward from this center, Baldwin slowly sold portions of his original ranch for
agricultural, home, and business development. The Arcadia Train Depot was built right
on First Street, at the junction of the rail lines. A downtown area developed from this
midpoint so that by 1907 a distinctive downtown business district had formed. This
original downtown area was located south of Foothill Boulevard, north of Duarte Road,
east of Santa Anita Avenue, and west of Second Avenue.
Up until the 1920s, little growth took place in Arcadia. In 1910 the city's population was
only 696. The immediate downtown area of Arcadia was comprised of small bungalows.
To the south of downtown were dwellings on approximately two -and -a -half acre lots.
The outlying areas were dotted with small citrus and poultry ranches. During this period
a smaller business district grew in West Arcadia around the junction of Baldwin Avenue
and Duarte Road.
OW In 1936 all but nineteen acres of the Baldwin Ranch was sold to a real estate syndicate.
This opened up more land for development to the north, south, and west of the downtown
area. During the 1940s the land north of downtown subdivided into the Santa Anita Oaks
development, followed by the development of Santa Anita Village, Santa Anita Gardens,
Rancho Santa Anita, Highland Oaks, and Colorado Oaks.
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In the post World War II era the population of the city more than doubled. Over 650
homes were built, expanding the already existing developments, and spurring smaller
developments throughout the city. Over thirty-five commercial buildings were built
during this era. In the 1950s the city of Arcadia grew from a mix of ranches, small
housing tracts and open land into a community of homes.
During the 1960s, due to the rapid growth of the city, Arcadia decided to expand its
boundaries. In a desire to enlarge its industrial base, it annexed a portion of land to the
southeast of the city along Peck Road.
By the 1970s, the many years of development in the city had absorbed all available land.
Residential real estate was at a premium. Beginning in the 1980s, and continuing up to
the present day, smaller, older homes within the city were purchased with the intent of
replacing them with new, larger homes. This has resulted in many of today's older
neighborhoods through the city containing an unusual mix of ages, sizes, architecture,
and quality of homes.
Preservation in Arcadia
Most of Arcadia's preservation practices have been directed towards public buildings and
landscaped areas. Ten percent of Arcadia's acreage has been preserved for recreational
and natural landscape purposes. One major landmark in Arcadia comprising this non-
residential or commercial land is the Santa Anita Race Track. Although the Santa Anita
Race Track was built in 1907, it was closed two years later due to a fire that consumed
the grandstand. The new track was built in the 1930's, when California legalized horse
racing. Gordon Kaufinan, a prolific architect, designed the private Turf Club, clubhouse,
and grandstand. Also within this decade, the Santa Anita Park and the Arcadia County
Park were established, drawing large numbers of visitors.
In other conservation efforts, the State of California and the County of Los Angeles, in
1947, jointly purchased 111 acres in the heart of Elias Jackson Baldwin's old ranch to
form what is now known as the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum. In 1954 the
Queen Anne Cottage, a highlighted landmark within the Arboretum, was restored and
formally dedicated as a State Historic Landmark. A year later, the Arboretum opened to
the public.
The Arcadia Historical Society was organized in 1952. When the Santa Anita and the
� Arcadia Santa Fe Train Stations stood threatened by the path of the Foothill Freeway in
the 1960s, the Arcadia Historical Society along with the Railway and Locomotive
OW Historical Society raised enough money to move both stations. The Santa Anita Station
was relocated to the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum, and the Arcadia Santa Fe
Station was moved to the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds at Pomona.
Arcadia's citizens have always worked to conserve the resources of their city. For
instance, in the 1880s, when Elias Jackson Baldwin began dividing his estate into smaller
property lots, he marketed the land via the fertility of the Santa Anita soil as well as the
beauty of the oak trees that would line the streets. Many of these oak trees have been
preserved to this day not only within the parks that dot Arcadia but also along the
residential streets. In the 1960s when City Council members proposed bills that would
incorporate high-rise buildings into the city landscape, the project was defeated by severe
opposition, in part from the City Planning Department. Today, the tallest building in
Arcadia is the Towne Centre Building on North Santa Anita Avenue at Santa Clara
Street. It stands eight stories—the city's building height limit.
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