Most people in Arcadia know Hugo Reid best as the name of a local street, park and school in the northwestern part of town, Hugo Reid Drive, Hugo Reid Park, and Hugo Reid Elementary School.
If you ask Arcadians the name of the man who founded Arcadia, those who have a guess will usually say Lucky Baldwin. That’s correct.
First landholder But the first individual to hold an official land grant and the first to build a house (at least, the first European) on the property that is now known as Arcadia was Scotsman Hugo Reid.
Reid is credited with building the first dwelling in Arcadia, the Hugo Reid adobe, which still survives at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden but is steadily deteriorating.
Some Arcadians may be familiar with a statue of Reid and his wife and two of her children that used to stand in Los Angeles County’s Arcadia Park until the Arcadia Historical Society spearheaded an effort to have the City of Arcadia restore the damaged and neglected statue and move it to the lawn in front of the Ruth and Charles Gilb Arcadia Historical Museum at 380 W. Huntington Dr.
From Scotland to San Pedro According to the 1953 book “Arcadia, City of the Santa Anita,” by Gordon S. Eberly, Hugo Reid was a tall, good-looking fellow with keen blue eyes. After an unhappy love affair he left Scotland and his family at the age of 18 and sailed to the port of San Pedro and made a trip to Mission San Gabriel. He was so taken with the beauty of the San Gabriel Valley (and a married Gabrielino Indian woman with three children at the Mission) that he moved permanently to Los Angeles in the summer of 1834. Two years later the woman’s husband died of small pox. Reid, by then called Don Perfecto Hugo Reid at the age of 27, converted to the Catholic church to appease and marry the 29-year-old widow, then called Dona Victoria and now the mother of four children.
Rancho Santa Anita Hugo and Victoria set out in 1839 to acquire the 13,319 acres called Rancho Santa Anita, which included what is now Arcadia, and stretching to east Pasadena and to the border of Monrovia/Duarte. They were granted provisional title to the property in 1841 from Governor Juan B. Alvarado (for whom the prominent street in Los Angeles is named) after meeting the requirement of constructing a home on the property in 1840 — the Hugo Reid adobe. The one-story adobe house was built on the south shore of a lake (the lake now in front of the Queen Anne Cottage at the Arboretum) that they had converted from a marsh just above the upper center of the rancho that was fed by waters of cool, clear springs and surrounded by large trees overlooking the broad valley below.
The Reids became widely known for entertaining guests with lavish meals and relaxing ranch life at the idyllic Rancho Santa Anita. But by 1842 the adventurer Reid is said to already have grown restless and tired of ranch life (not to mention the challenges of Victoria’s four children) and spent the next few years traveling to foreign countries on his new trading vessel.
Meanwhile, Victoria was challenged to keep up with ongoing destruction of the rancho by wild animals and Indian raids, and maintenance was becoming a financial burden. Only two years after obtaining full title on the Rancho Santa Anita property in 1845, they sold it to Reid’s former business associate Henry Dalton in 1847 for $2,700 (about 20-cents per acre!).
San Gabriel Mission Reid then devoted his time to the San Gabriel Mission (he was appointed administrator by Governor Pio Pico (the man for whom another prominent Los Angeles street is named) and wrote a series of notable stories about Indians for the Los Angeles Star before he died at the age of 42 on December 12, 1852.
There you have a very brief summary of the man called Hugo Reid, which you may now recall whenever you see that school, street or park again, as I do.
Click here for an audio recording of a 1941 half-hour radio drama of the life of Hugo Reid, episode 23 of the five-year series called “Romance of the Ranchos: Hugo Reid,” which debuted on February 11 of that year.
Perhaps you know more interesting background about Hugo Reid that you would like to share in the comments area below.
If you would like to read more details about Hugo Reid or his adobe, there are many good sites with information, including the County’s Arboretum site, which includes lengthier versions of the following:
Hugo Reid Adobe The adobe was constructed in 1840 with the help of Gabrielino laborers and was representative of a building style then common in Southern California. It was built of sun-dried adobe blocks made by mixing clay soil, water and a straw binder. The roof was made of rawhide-lashed carrizo cane (Arundo donax). As protection from the elements, the roof was smeared with brea (tar) and the walls were white-washed.
Today’s Hugo Reid Adobe has been reconstructed using original methods and materials whenever possible. The interior has been refurnished with a mixture of styles. Inside is found primitive handmade furniture such as the cowhide beds and rough-hewn chairs. Items from New England were available through the hide and tallow trade; these included china, silverware, mirrors, window glass, fabric and books. Exotic articles such as the Chinese trunks and tapa cloth wall hanging were brought home by Reid from his South Pacific trading adventures.
Open braziers provided heat for each room. Lighting sources included candles and whale oil lamps. Clothing was hung on wall pegs. Food was stored, dried and prepared in the cocina , or kitchen (room on the far left). Most of the cooking for the Reid family was done in the outdoor courtyard at the adobe stove and oven.
The Hugo Reid Adobe is designated California Historical Landmark No. 368.
Arboretum Chronology (selected timeline highlights)
ca. 500 B.C. A native village later identified by Hugo Reid as Aleupkigna (“place of many waters”) is established near the-natural lake on today’s Arboretum site.
1771 Mission San Gabriel is founded. Native inhabitants are referred to as “Gabrielinos.” Ca. 1800 Rancho Santa Anita is established as an agricultural outpost of Mission San Gabriel.
1839 Don Perfecto Hugo Reid petitions for 3 square leagues (13,319 acres) of Rancho Santa Anita. He will receive provisional title in 1841 and full title in 1845.
1840 Hugo Reid constructs “a house of stone” near the lake at Santa Anita.
1847 Henry Dalton purchases Rancho Santa Anita from Hugo Reid for $2,700.
1875 Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin purchases Rancho Santa Anita for $200,000.
ca. 1877 Baldwin renovates the Hugo Reid Adobe, creating an 8-room, L-shaped home with a new wooden wing attached to the old adobe structure.
— Scott Hettrick