Arcadia
Located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, Arcadia is the site of the Santa Anita Park racetrack and home to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.
Originally part of "Rancho Santa Anita", and owned by San Gabriel Mission, Mayor-Domo, Claudio Lopez. It was named after a family relation named "Anita Cota", on his wife's side.
The land holding changed owners several times before being acquired by the real estate speculator Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin in 1875. Baldwin purchased 8,000 acres of Santa Anita for $200,000. Upon seeing the area, Baldwin gasped “By Gads! This is paradise!”. Upon buying the land, Lucky chose to make the area his home and immediately started erecting buildings and cultivating the land for farming, orchards and ranches. In 1885, the main line of the Santa Fe Railroad, in which Baldwin was a stockholder, was opened through the ranch, making subdivision of part of the land into a town site practical. In 1889, on a site just north of the corner of First Avenue and St. Joseph Street, adjacent to the Santa Fe tracks, Baldwin opened the 35 room Hotel Oakwood to be the centerpiece of his new town.
Arcadia largely grew up as the well to do suburb of neighboring Pasadena, with many early residents being the sons and daughters of long established Southern California families. Indeed, a large tract of estate homes was developed by Harry Chandler, the scion of the Los Angeles Times, who lived in adjacent Sierra Madre, CA. The city also became the residence of choice for many corporate chief executives, including those in aerospace, the horse racing industry, and finance.
In 1947, 111 acres that comprised the heart of the Baldwin Ranch were deeded to the State of California and the County of Los Angeles, to be developed into what is today the beautiful Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.
In 2006, CNN and Money Magazine compiled a list of United States cities with the most expensive home prices. Arcadia ranked #19 in the country with an average home price of $703,000. Related Properties:
