You may have seen one or more Historical Markers around town, each attached to two dark green posts and featuring vintage photos and a brief text summary of the building or area where they stand. There are actually 12 markers installed as of 2018. Many are within easy walking distance of each other — three are within a few blocks of each other on First Avenue, and one just a block west on Huntington Dr. at Santa Anita Avenue. The Historical Markers, under the theme “History Lives Here,” are part of the non-profit Arcadia Historical Society’s mission to create broader public awareness of noteworthy historical events, people, and landmarks in Arcadia.
The first one was presented October 27, 2007 during the Centennial Celebration of what is now called First Avenue Middle School. intersections of First Avenue and California Streets (due to major school reconstruction, the marker was later installed on the same date three years later, Oct. 27, 2010)…
Arcadia Park – #2 The second Historical Marker, noting the many evolutionary features on the property that is now Los Angeles County’s Arcadia Park, was dedicated in ceremonies on May 14, 2008…
City Hall – #3
The third Historical Marker denoting the original City Hall building on the northwest corner of Huntington Drive and First Avenue was dedicated on July 13, 2008…
Arcadia Woman’s Club – #4 The fourth Historical Marker, dedicated April 29, 2009, describes the Arcadia Woman’s Club, which officially incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1930, and the 78-year history of the building at 324 S. First Avenue dedicated on July 30, 1931 — just across the street at the southeast end of First Avenue school property…
Arcadia Chamber of Commerce – #5 The fifth Marker was dedicated July 16, 2009, as part of several activities celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce….
Santa Anita Park horse race track – #6 The sixth Historical Marker was dedicated Dec. 26, 2009, at Santa Anita Park on opening day as part of many events to commemorate the 75th anniversary season of Santa Anita Park….
Adams’ Pack Station – #7
A special seventh Historical Marker for Adams’ Pack Station was unveiled on April 17, 2011 at the last remaining mule pack station of its kind near Chantry Flat in the Angeles National Forest of the San Gabriel Mountains (1835 North Santa Anita Avenue – the end of the road).
This marker showcases vintage and recent photographs, in addition to the station’s history. The barn and two-room bunkhouse/store that are still being utilized at Adams’ Pack Station were built in 1936 by J.P. Steele. For the next three-quarters of a century, the station’s donkeys and mules would be the lifeline for supplies to three active resorts and about 200 cabins accessible only on foot in Big Santa Anita Canyon. Recent owners restored the station as a popular gathering place for hikers and families to enjoy a myriad of activities, including regularly-scheduled outdoor music programs, pulled pork sandwiches, animal petting, and guided hikes.
The Derby Restaurant – #8
The eighth Historical Marker was dedicated as part of a joint presentation by the Arcadia Historical Society and the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce on August 11, 2011 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of The Derby Restaurant at 233 East Huntington Drive.
The Derby was co-founded in 1938 by George Woolf, the horse jockey who rode the famous Seabiscuit, and his partner Bill Peterson. Woolf envisioned the restaurant to be a gathering place for jockeys and race fans. It was planned as a source of retirement earnings that would allow him to reflect back on his hall of fame career. The restaurant is appropriately themed with derby memorabilia and decor, making it a historical place to dine as well. The marker illustrates an interesting historical chronology and pictorial history of this cherished establishment.
L.A. County Arboretum – #9
The ninth Historical Marker was presented at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 North Baldwin Avenue, on October 2, 2012….
The Arboretum was once part of the enormous ranch home of Arcadia founder Lucky Baldwin. As such, the photographs on the Arboretum Marker include an 1889 painting by H. H. Cross of Baldwin and daughter Anita sitting with dogs near the famous lake in front of the guest cottage (now called the Queen Anne Cottage); Lucky Baldwin’s nearby adobe home place of more than three decades (often called the Hugo Reid adobe, though Reid never lived there); and postcard views of the Baldwin Ranch, circa 1905, referred to by the Los Angeles Times in 1893 as one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world. The 127-acre Arboretum was the heart of the sprawling Rancho Santa Anita. Baldwin purchased 8,500 acres of Rancho Santa Anita in 1875. His daughter Anita maintained her father’s beloved Santa Anita home site for decades but was forced to sell it in 1936 due to financial burdens created by the Great Depression. In 1947, the new owners, a real estate syndicate headed by the Chandler family sold the prime property surrounding the adobe and cottage to an ambitious group of horticulturists backed by the County and the State for the purpose of creating an Arboretum.
Lucky Baldwin – #10 The tenth Historical Marker was unveiled as part of a large dedication ceremony on April 16, 2013, of a nine-foot statue in the honor of the founder of the City of Arcadia, Elisa Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin, at 365 Campus Drive (Rose Garden west of the Community Center parking lot between Campus Drive and Huntington Drive at Holly Avenue)….
The dual recognition came about 110 years after the founding of Arcadia by Baldwin, the town’s first Mayor. The statue, created by artist Alfred Paredes and named “A Dawn in the West,” was commissioned and donated by Baldwin’s great-great-great granddaughters Margaux Gibson-Viera and Heather Gibson. The statue stands on a pedestal rising a combined total of thirteen feet in the air.
Trains, Depot, Hotel Oakwood – #11
The 11th Historical Marker was dedicated on January 26, 2017 at the Arcadia Transit Center Plaza for the new Foothill Gold Line station, noting the prominence of trains and stations at what is now the intersection of First Avenue and Santa Clara Street for several generations from the late 19th century to the mid-1900s, as well as Lucky Baldwin’s majestic Hotel Oakwood which stood a few yards from the former Arcadia Depot until the hotel was destroyed in a fire Nov. 26, 1911.
Baldwin’s Hotel Oakwood was opened as part of his Santa Anita ranch on December 7, 1889. It was a two-story brick structure with verandas running around both floors. The Arcadia Depot two years earlier in 1887 and the tracks and depots of three of the most prominent and popular rail lines converged here, including the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and Pacific Electric Railway “Red Cars,” all of which faded away in the 1950s and 1960s. An electric passenger train service was re-introduced to Arcadia on March 5, 2016, with the opening of an extension of the Metro Gold line light rail system in Los Angeles that followed the same path as the Santa Fe decades earlier, which included a new bridge in Arcadia over the nearby 210 Foothill Freeway — the largest public art project in the state of California.
Baldwin Lake, Queen Anne Cottage – #12
The 12th Historical Marker was the second one placed at the expansive four-acre history-filled Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 301 North Baldwin Avenue, this one six years later in 2018 on the east side of Baldwin Lake, across from the iconic Queen Anne Cottage.
The marker describes the settlers and owners of note over the years and the first private owner of Rancho Santa Anita, a naturalized Scotsman named Hugo Reid, whose remnants of his home remain. Later Arcadia founder Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin purchased it as part of Rancho Santa Anita in 1875. While he lived in the modest adobe home, he constructed the elegant Queen Anne Cottage, both of which are designated historic landmarks, the latter and the lake a popular site for movie and TV production settings, everything from the Johnny Weismueller Tarzan movies to the opening of Fantasy Island.
From its inception in 2007 for its first ten years and first 11 markers through early 2017, the Historical Marker Committee was chaired by Scott Hettrick with contributing member Carol Libby, contributor Sandy Snider, and a contributing former founding committee member Jack McCrea. Jim Considine replaced Scott Hettrick as chairman of the committee in 2017/18, with Carol Libby and Sandy Snider remaining as contributing members for the creation and presentation of the 12th and most recent marker in 2018.
— By Scott Hettrick