More about Arcadia California

Arcadia is located approximately 13 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles and is home to an estimated 56,565 residents as of 2005. The city is home to the Santa Anita Park racetracks and the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Arcadia started out as part of the “Rancho Santa Anita” owned by San Gabriel Mission, Mayor-domo, Claudio Lopez. In 1839, a large part of the area would be sold to a Scottish immigrant name Hugo Reid. The land would change ownership several times before falling into the hands of real estate spectator Elias Jackson Baldwin in 1875. By 1885, the main line of Santa Fe Railroad, in which Baldwin held stock, opened through the ranch. By the turn of the century the population of Arcadia would grow to 500, most of the population boom was attributed to entertainment in the forms of sporting and gambling, including an early version of the Santa Anita race track. Baldwin would be the one to oversee the cities incorporation in 1903 and would become the first mayor. In 1914, Baldwin’s daughter Anita built a lavish estate called Anoakia on 19 acres land. Anita eventually converted the mansion into a school for girls, and would later become coeducational. In 1990, the estate was closed after being deemed a firetrap and earthquake hazard and was eventually condemned and demolished in 2000. The demolition was part of a long debate by residents due to the fact they estate was the oldest standing private residents in the city. The estate was one of a kind featuring special architecture and the façade was made to replicate the of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Mush of the artwork in the estate is now located in museums throughout the state. During WWII, Arcadias Race Park would become the site of the Santa Anita Assembly Center for the Japanese, a place where Japanese would be interned under FDR’s executive order 9066. At one point, the site would become the largest Japanese assembly center in the United States. Approximately 400 temporary barracks were built in the parking lot to house those interned. The city has seen other controversies as well, such as Native American activists threatening to sue the high school over their “Apache” mascot in the late 1990’s. The issue was settled privately with the school making certain changes, but the mascot remained in the end.