Who Built A City’s Soul: The Baldwins, Memory, And The People Who Preserve It

Christine Zito: 0:04

Hello and welcome back to Arcadia FYI. I’m Christine Zito, your wonderful host, which I hope it’s uh you think I’m wonderful. And I thank you for the emails and the Facebook messages and saying how much you like the show. It really means a lot to me. And once again, for everybody, I’ve gotten a hold of a few of you. I am, I will get to you and what you want to talk about because some of the things that you guys want on the show is is pretty awesome. So I’m gonna make sure I get that on the show for you. Um I want to thank our sponsors, Longo Toyota in El Monte. You gotta go by and say hi to Mike and Brooke and just check out the dealership because it’s on this huge lot. I can’t remember how many acreages it it is, but they do more than just sell cars. And on that lot, there’s more than uh just having cars there. Star 7 Financial with Francine Chiu. So, yes, I’m a little biased. She’s gonna be in the studio here in the next couple of weeks to talk about about finances and how to save for your 401k, how to save for your children’s education, the Santa Anita Park. Uh things are coming up, some events coming up, and you heard from Pete. The Olympics coming up in 2028. And if you haven’t heard that show, you gotta you gotta listen to that show. Great information. And the Le Méridien Hotel in and Pasadena. All right. How many of you out there like history? Raise your hand. I I know sometimes history can be pretty boring, but I was a history minor when in university. I happen to love history. And this is not this is gonna be a type of history that you’re going to love today because it’s about story. And you know me, I love story. And if you’re watching on YouTube, you can already see who’s in studio with me. The president of the Arcadia Historical Society, Ed Anderson. Hi, Ed.

Ed Andersen: 2:08

Hey, how are you, Christine and our audience? Hello.

Christine Zito: 2:12

I know. I am so glad that you’re that you’re here. I do have to say, okay, I’m gonna brag a little bit here. Your website. I I had the honor and opportunity to build the website, and I still maintain it. I love history. I loved building it.

Ed Andersen: 2:27

I hope some out there in our listening audience uh go to our website at Arcadia Historical Society.org.

Christine Zito: 2:33

O-R-G.org. Okay, let’s get to know you a little bit, Ed. Um Were you born here in California or outside of California?

Ed Andersen: 2:42

I was born in in Santa Cruz, California, up on the Monterey Bay, the original surf city where skateboards were invented.

Christine Zito: 2:49

I know. And did you live like where you can I love Santa Cruz because you can be in the forest and drive right down to the beach?

Ed Andersen: 2:56

Is that where Absolutely spent a lot of time at both, mostly at the beach, probably.

Christine Zito: 3:02

Yeah, probably. It’s a beautiful, beautiful area. And and when did you come to the Arcadia area?

Ed Andersen: 3:08

I came here with uh my employment at the Proctor and Gamble Company in 1972, and I met my wife Debbie. We were married for 50 years this year.

Christine Zito: 3:18

All right, everybody clap, congratulations. You don’t hear that very often.

Ed Andersen: 3:22

Uh we moved to Arcadia in 1977. We were told it was a wonderful place to live and raise uh our family, which we did, and we’ve been in the same house since August of 1977.

Christine Zito: 3:35

Wow, that is that’s amazing. Now, did your kids okay, I’m gonna ask the obvious questions. They went to Arcadia High School and graduated from there.

Ed Andersen: 3:45

Yes, that’s right. Uh both our girls graduated from uh Arcadia High School. They went on and they’re both uh in the teaching profession. Uh my daughter is a adjunct professor at Stanford, and we have a seventh grade teacher in Napa, one of my favorite places.

Christine Zito: 3:59

Oh, yeah, one of my favorite places, too. Anything that has to do with wine and vineyards, I am there. All right, let’s talk about as we get into history here. What first of all, what is it about the city of Arcadia that you, Ed, like or love the most?

Ed Andersen: 4:20

When we moved here or were planning to move here, I saw signs that said uh Arcadia, community of homes. And it had kind of a wonderful feeling of community, of togetherness, of family atmosphere here. Uh, it was really uh an interesting proposition for us moving in. But really, community is people. And I love the people I’ve met. We’ve had an incredible transition culturally here in Arcadia since we moved. When uh we moved in, uh most of our neighbors look like me. Now, very few look like me. We’ve had a tremendous influx of uh Asian people. I think we’re one of the hubs for Asian culture in the Western United States here in Arcadia. And it’s been uh really a learning experience for me to understand different cultures and come to know this real community feel that we have here in this city. It’s very, I don’t know if it’s unique, but it’s very special. It it touches you.

Christine Zito: 5:14

I don’t think I’ve ever heard it explained that way, Ed.

Ed Andersen: 5:19

Well, it’s part of what we do at the Historical Society. That’s why I’ve enjoyed being associated with our organization for so long now.

Christine Zito: 5:27

Now, the Arcadia Historical Society, that is a that is a very unique and awesome organization. I have to say that just doing the website and learning more about it. How did it all come to fruition, that whole society?

Ed Andersen: 5:42

One of the themes that uh I’m glad you asked that question. One of the themes that I’m really high on is I’ve been impressed as I’ve looked around the local communities in the San Gabriel Valley, how much the women of the community had to do with the culture and the development of of the city itself. Uh you know, women had a different role back in the 1800s, but yet as we uh got more and more towards the 20th century, uh women gained their voice as they got the vote and so forth. And Arcadia Historical Society started with the Women’s Club of Arcadia, which was originally started around 1912. It was called the Cooperative Arcadians. The women decided that it would be good to start preserving the history of this place, which is so rich, and to start uh setting aside the artifacts and uh the oral history and the written history and start to develop uh a place where we could uh preserve and educate the future about what was going on in Arcadia in the early 20th century. Uh uh in 1952, they uh formed uh with 101 women, mostly women, they formed the Arcadia Historical Society, and they were incorporated in 1954, at which time they received their 501c3 status as a California not-for-profit corporation.

Christine Zito: 7:06

Right. Now, let’s get into the rich history of the City of Arcadia. Now, is it true that Lucky Baldwin is the founder of the City of Arcadia, or is he just someone that is like he’s the face or the icon of the city of Arcadia?

Ed Andersen: 7:25

The City of Arcadia would not exist without Lucky Baldwin. It would have been something else, some other person, but he purchased 8,700 acres uh from a man named Harris Newmark in 1875. The center of that property is the Los Angeles County Arboretum to this day. There’s only 137 acres left. Excuse me. As uh uh he s sold off some of the property, but in 1903 he uh contacted the county of Los Angeles and said he wanted to form a town, a city here in uh Los Angeles County. And he did somehow find a way to get 300 voters here in the city, some of whom were probably transient, but nonetheless, there was a vote held, and these uh 300 residents agreed to form uh a city, and Los Angeles County approved the uh application for Arcadia to form in 1903.

Christine Zito: 8:24

Wow. Okay, so but Lucky Baldwin had a lot uh orchestrated in the city of Arcadia, and one of the things is the San Anita racetrack.

Ed Andersen: 8:38

Yes, well that that’s an interesting story. Yeah, Baldwin, by the way, uh E.J. Lucky Baldwin, there’s a wonderful story behind how he got the name Lucky, but uh that might be for another day.

Christine Zito: 8:50

Okay, yeah, I know. No, but that that is an interesting story.

Ed Andersen: 8:53

Uh at any rate, uh yes, he was quite a master manipulator, uh politician, if you will. So he was our first mayor. And uh he did have a racetrack which was founded in 1907, but unfortunately, about a year and a half later, Los Angeles County uh made it out uh outlawed racing in Southern California, so he had to shut it down. Oh and that’s that racetrack was on the grounds of what’s now the San Anita Golf Course here. It was his daughter, Anita Baldwin, one of the most extraordinary women in the history of Southern California. She sold land in 1934 to the Los Angeles Turf Club, who later that year, on Christmas Day, opened Santa Anita Racetrack, 1934.

Christine Zito: 9:35

And that was on the that’s up that was on the Arcadia Golf Course, right back then?

Ed Andersen: 9:39

Baldwin’s original racetrack was on yes, was on the you know what that I did not know. That’s right. And that’s where uh the Ross Balloon School came along in 1918, prior to that, prior to our racetrack, the balloon school. It was uh interesting use of the property. But it was Anita Baldwin who made arrangements for Santa Anita racetrack.

Christine Zito: 9:59

Then how did the San Anita racetrack become the San Anita race park as it is now?

Ed Andersen: 10:07

Very interesting piece of that was when World War I broke out in 1918, the uh Anita Baldwin arranged for the U.S. government to use the land that is now the golf course, and they established Ross Balloon School. There were about 200 parachutists and balloonists who came to Arcadia and uh they set up their operation there. There’s some wonderful photos at the Arc the Guild Museum in Arcadia of that balloon school.

Christine Zito: 10:35

And you can also see it on the on the website.

Ed Andersen: 10:37

Absolutely. So uh it got repurposed as a military base, and then when the war ended, it became an airfield. And some famous uh flyers came through here.

Christine Zito: 10:48

I know, I you know what when people ask me, hey, where’s the airport? And I said, Well, you can golf on it now. So but moving from that land uh where the uh the golf course was, okay, trying to follow your your journey here. Now the Santa Anita Park that’s there on Huntington, when did it move there?

Ed Andersen: 11:12

Well, it in in essence it never moved. They just graded over the uh Baldwin’s track. And then when Anita Baldwin sold in 1934 to the LA Turf Club, they then uh began they were fast moving because they only acquired rights to the property in 34 and it was open on Christmas Day the same year. So it was pretty remarkable how quickly they were able to build the facility, which has been expanded since then, of course.

Christine Zito: 11:38

Right. Let me ask you this. Okay, so back then when Anita Baldwin uh founded the the racetrack, was there roads then? You know, like Huntington wasn’t even a road then, right? Because it was just one big land. Okay.

Ed Andersen: 11:55

I’m trying to get everybody by the time the racetrack came along, it Huntington was probably there. But Huntington Drive, we’re not sure exactly that the date, but it probably wasn’t until around the turn of the 20th century that it came in. The road that was used from Los Angeles was called County Road, and that is Doherty Road, which is about a quarter mile or so south of Huntington.

Christine Zito: 12:16

Right. God, isn’t this interesting? I want to pick your brain, but okay, we got to stay focused on this. So the purpose of the Arcadia uh historical society is to keep that history alive, is it not?

Ed Andersen: 12:32

Yes, and we found the best way to do that is to have programs, uh, whether they be educational, we do a lot of speaking in the community through our speakers group, and we talk about any mostly about people because history is really comes alive. It’s about people. And so we talk about the Anita Baldwins and the Lucky Baldwins, but also some other characters like Parker Lyons, who had the most extraordinary museum here on Huntington Drive, beginning also in 1934. Uh he had over a million artifacts, and he ended up selling them to uh Harrah’s in Reno uh when he passed away. His son sold it. That was in the late 50s. But this museum was amazing. He had things from Wild Bill Hickok and uh all the famous historical characters.

Christine Zito: 13:16

Where was the museum?

Ed Andersen: 13:18

It’s right where the La Meridian Hotel is now. Oh my god. And we have a historic marker there to note the spot.

Christine Zito: 13:24

That is yeah, because uh the where the La Meridian is, that there used to be a famous hotel and and not hotel. Yeah, it was a hotel.

Ed Andersen: 13:32

There have been some famous hotels, motels, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Flamingo and others.

Christine Zito: 13:37

And then um also there wasn’t there a bar there?

Ed Andersen: 13:42

Yes, the hundred to one club. The hundred to one club, uh you’d have to call it a dive. But but you had to experience it. And when they demolished that to make room for uh renovations that ultimately led to the La Meridian, we were actually able to secure the hundred to one sign. I’m not sure what’s going to be done with that, but it’s in storage. It was quite a place.

Christine Zito: 14:04

I think we should open it up again.

Ed Andersen: 14:05

Yeah, let’s go.

Christine Zito: 14:06

Come on, Ed. Let’s go into business and open up the open up the bar again and st and just sell wine and a few beers.

Ed Andersen: 14:12

That would be a fun challenge.

Christine Zito: 14:15

Yeah, that would definitely be okay. Since we have some time, I do want to talk about Lucky Baldwin and his family. Lucky Baldwin has a lot of history behind him, founding the city of Arcadia. And we and he’s all he’s known for other things too. Wasn’t he married more than once, or was he married once and just married I don’t know. You tell me.

Ed Andersen: 14:40

Some people think five times, but I’d say four times. Yeah. Uh he his favorite wife was uh Jenny Dexter Baldwin, uh, who’s uh uh was the mother of Anita Baldwin. Uh and uh she unfortunately died young. He married his fourth wife, Lily Bennett. Uh I forget the exact date, but they didn’t really live as man and wife. She lived in a very palatial home in San Francisco, and he went back and forth.

Christine Zito: 15:08

I see. Now, where if I were to drive up Baldwin and then you go up um going into I want to say Sierra Madre there, wasn’t there a huge mansion that used to be along there, along foothill in Baldwin?

Ed Andersen: 15:26

Uh not a mansion that I can recollect, but he sold uh uh in around 1881, he sold the land that Nathaniel Carter used to develop Sierra Madre, and up on the hill there he had a mansion called Car Carter High. And uh that’s where uh Carter lived. Carter was tied in with Baldwin in terms of developing the land that eventually became Monrovia and East Arcadia, and uh it was an interesting story.

Christine Zito: 15:50

Yeah, well, Lucky Baldwin’s, isn’t that named after after Lucky Baldwin? The the pub?

Ed Andersen: 15:56

Oh yes, of course. Sure.

Christine Zito: 15:58

Now that’s that’s located in Sierra Madre and one in Pasadena.

Ed Andersen: 16:02

That’s correct.

Christine Zito: 16:02

And was there ever one here in Arcadia? I mean, how come it’s outside the city and we don’t have a Lucky Baldwin here in Arcadia?

Ed Andersen: 16:09

Well, uh uh that property was once uh the land on that Lucky Baldwin owned, and uh when he sold the land to uh Carter, he kept most of the good water. So Sierra Madre struggled to find the the really good drinking water uh thanks to Lucky Baldwin. But yes, uh it was Baldwin Land, and I think it’s a it’s obviously a creative name because Baldwin is kind of such a fascinating character that once you learn about him and the kinds of things he was involved in, the kind of money he carried around and how he did business, uh he he’s a strikingly interesting figure.

Christine Zito: 16:43

He is. I mean, there’s so much I would I would like to talk to him. If I ever met him, I’ve I would have uh quite a few questions. Are is there anybody still living that still is associated to Lucky Baldwin?

Ed Andersen: 16:57

Yes. We have uh uh someone who belongs to our historical society. Her name is Margot Gibson. Uh she is a great, great, great granddaughter of Lucky Baldwin, and she’s probably the foremost expert on Anita Baldwin. And she sometimes plays the role of Anita Baldwin, which she’ll be doing November 14th at our big event here in Arcadia. Uh so yes, uh, and the family is still around, and we keep in touch and and hopefully uh they have some history that eventually they’ll share with us too.

Christine Zito: 17:29

That is great. Um, okay, my favorite subject that I love because I love the walk of champions. And the walk of champions is all about the horses from the Santanita Park.

Ed Andersen: 17:42

Yes. There’s been uh uh as we rolled into the the current century, a lot of people thought, gee, Santa Anita 1934 to now, look at all the wonderful history and the beautiful architecture and the structure that that is Santa Anita Park. We’ve got to preserve this. All the famous race horses who’ve uh been on that track, the greatest horses in the world, the best thoroughbreds ever ran on that track. So uh around 2012, a group began to loosely form, and in 2014, by then they’d had fundraisers and uh put in these uh 24 by 24 inch plaques along Huntington Drive and some of the north-south streets to the point where we now have nearly 70 of these bronze plaques to honor jockeys, trainers, announcers, the people who’ve made Santa Anita Park and Thurb Road Racing so prominent in the West.

Christine Zito: 18:35

All right, my favorite is just right out here. My office is Seabiscuit. I go by there, because I saw the movie like 15 million times, and when Pete Zibrill was in here, we talked about, you know, some of uh it seabiscuit was filmed there at the park. And um I I just I I love that horse, I love the the trainers and that whole story, and I’m so glad it’s right out here. It’s in downtown, just so you guys know, um, and you can also see all the markers at the at the website, uh Arcadia Historical Society.org.org. And it’s all these markers are in downtown Arcadia, like down Huntington and down First Avenue. You’ll be able to to see these markers. And people do, you could see them take pictures near the uh some people will come from the travelers and they come and they take pictures like they do in in Hollywood.

Ed Andersen: 19:28

Yeah, so it’s easy to go online and through our website and others, the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce, and and get a directory. It’s really fun to to take that walk.

Christine Zito: 19:37

Yeah, and there’s statues too. Um Lucky Baldwin is right there in front of the San Anita Park, in front of how do I say it’s on the corner of Huntington, Hawley, and Campus Drive. That’s correct. That’s where the Lucky Baldwin statue is at.

Ed Andersen: 19:55

Yeah, right opposite the main entrance to San Anita.

Christine Zito: 19:58

And right in front of, I want to say the senior center and the Arcadia Chamber.

Ed Andersen: 20:03

Yeah, that’s the Arcadia Community Center and the Guild Museum of Arcadia Heritage is back be just east of that in the virtually the same parking lot.

Christine Zito: 20:11

I know I have to say I jog by there like often. And Anita Anita Okay, go ahead.

Ed Andersen: 20:16

Go ahead, talk about Anita.

Christine Zito: 20:18

Anita Baldwin. Yes, her statue is in front of the Limeridian.

Ed Andersen: 20:23

Yeah, we call that at Huntington and Huntington. Huntington and Huntington.

Christine Zito: 20:28

Yeah, and um I did some drone work for the Limeridian, and I got this really I in fact I’ll show it. If you’re if you if you watch on YouTube, I will show both these statues and just um the Nita Baldwin one that’s right there.

Ed Andersen: 20:43

That was a big deal, yeah. Yeah, that was. We handled all the funds, so the the fundraising through uh collaborative organizations, and uh that was a wonderful achievement to get that statue up. What a woman.

Christine Zito: 20:56

Yeah, that’s uh we ha you know what we have to you do have to come back in at and we can talk about just lucky and talk about maybe maybe we can give Anita her own show.

Ed Andersen: 21:05

I I think it’s worth it, but you might want to get Margo. Yeah, I was just gonna say we need to get Margo in here too to talk about that. Can could it would it be okay to mention a couple of the key uh moments in our KDA history? I was you’d please I’d like to top line some of the important things.

Christine Zito: 21:21

No, you go.

Ed Andersen: 21:22

I I also mentioned um uh I I mentioned the Ross Balloon School, and also that area was uh a military installation of sorts during World War II, which is a really an important part of our history. And it it’s in a sense it’s one of the darker parts of our history, but it was put upon us by uh Franklin Roosevelt, who signed uh, I believe it was uh Executive Order 9066, and it said any organ organization or group of people harmful uh to the interests of the United States should be incarcerated. Yes, which led to the incarceration, by the way, not only of Japanese people, but many Italians and many German people were also incarcerated. People don’t realize that. However, let’s talk about the Japanese assembly center at Santa Anita. Uh San Anita was not an what’s called an internment camp like Manzanar and some of the others. It was an assembly center. And though it was a terrible time in our history, I guess if you were going to be incarcerated, this is the only place that you could probably survive. The Japanese people prospered here. They’re very resourceful. They had their own newspaper, they had their own sports teams, and not that it was any fun because it wasn’t, but they found a way to make the most out of a terrible situation. And of course, the U.S. government has apologized for that, and that’s a good thing. And we are we honor what happened then, and we honor those Japanese people, many of whom made great contributions to American society and to our way of life. So it was a difficult time, uh, but we don’t sweep that under the rug. Right. It happened. We honor that.

Christine Zito: 23:02

You wanted to share another uh Yes.

Ed Andersen: 23:05

In 1943, Anita Baldwin sold 1,300 acres to Harry Chandler of the Los Angeles Times. And those 1,300 acres encompassed what is now the LA County Arboretum. So it’s been reduced by uh those 1,300 acres are down to one, I think, 137 acres. But the home ranch is around Baldwin Lake, encompassing the old Hugo Rita Dobie, which was just renovated, the Queen Anne Cottage, that’s a whole unique story about Anita Baldwin that you might want to cover uh at some point. But uh so Chandler it was going to be developed at the in the 40s. Uh somebody had already made plans to to lay out uh housing, just as we have in the San Anita village nearby. But Chandler bought this property and he conveyed it to the county uh in 1947 and it became the Los Angeles County Arboretum. So thanks to Chandler, he preserved that property. Otherwise, it would just be uh an extension of our community of homes. Thank God we have the Los Angeles Arboretum and one of the finest arboretums in the country.

Christine Zito: 24:09

Beautiful. And the way they keep it up and the upgrades that they have recently done, it’s it’s it’s awesome.

Ed Andersen: 24:14

We’ve participated in that, by the way.

Christine Zito: 24:16

Oh, in the upgrades?

Ed Andersen: 24:18

The uh the Historical Society gave $25,000 to renovate the paintings in the old Queen Anne Cottage. Oh and uh also we just uh gave them a nice gift to repair the windows on the Santa Anita Depot, which is on Baldwin Avenue. You can see it as you drive by.

Christine Zito: 24:36

Now, Chandler, didn’t he didn’t he build some apartments?

Ed Andersen: 24:40

That I’m not aware of.

Christine Zito: 24:42

Well, the the FLETA isn’t it doesn’t surprise me one bit. Oh, okay. I know that the Fleeta, I uh the Fleeta apartments, the first apartments that were built here in the city of Arcadia, I thought was owned by Chandler.

Ed Andersen: 24:54

Makes a lot of sense.

Christine Zito: 24:55

Yeah, that’s what I thought. Okay, so let’s talk about some of these events. There’s a little I wonder if I should play some music, some mystery. Mystery, music, you know, can you I and and you talk about it. I don’t want to give it away. I mean, I already know who I can’t even say it.

Ed Andersen: 25:12

The Arcadia Women’s Club, as I’ve already mentioned, is sort of the genesis of Arcadia Historical Society. They have, by the way, the first historic marker from issued by the city of Arcadia. Uh a lot of our history, unfortunately, has has gone away for whatever reason, development, etc., etc. But they have the first historic marker in the uh women’s club building on First Avenue in Arcadia. They’ve just renovated. It’s a beautiful facility. We are hosting in collaboration, or maybe I should say we’re uh we’re in collaboration with them to host the first ever uh casino and mystery murder winery at the bald uh murder mystery at the Baldwin Winery on November 14th. The casino opens at 5 30. We have professional some professional actors, a number of uh characters who are suspects, to include Anita Baldwin. And uh it it’s gonna be a night of fun. We we’re going to have a live auction with some wonderful things. Uh it’s gonna be acting out a murder mystery, and there’s gonna be a lot of intrigue because the murderer will not even know they’re the murderer until the very end. So it’s uh it’s gonna be a there’s gonna be a wonderful dinner. Uh it’s gonna be an exquisite evening.

Christine Zito: 26:29

So it’s gonna be casino, so you can win money or lose money. Um dinner.

Ed Andersen: 26:33

You’re not really gonna lose money. You might lose your steak that we give you.

Christine Zito: 26:37

That’s funny. Uh so dinner and and a mystery play. So uh so there’s gonna actually be acting going on. Okay.

Ed Andersen: 26:45

So they’ll be circulating in the crowd, so you get a chance to meet the suspects.

Christine Zito: 26:50

That is great. I love Ed, I love mystery dinners. I used to go to them often. I have not been to one, so I’m looking forward to going to this one.

Ed Andersen: 27:01

You can learn about it at the arcadiawomansclub.org at their uh site.

Christine Zito: 27:07

Or you can learn about it on on the Arcadia Histor Historical Society dot org.

Ed Andersen: 27:12

I was going there.

Christine Zito: 27:13

I know. So I I love your websites. I’m always going to read refer to the websites.

Ed Andersen: 27:19

Thank you, thank you.

Christine Zito: 27:20

So yeah. Um I see that you have a book.

Ed Andersen: 27:23

Yes.

Christine Zito: 27:24

What is that book?

Ed Andersen: 27:26

There are any number of well, there are several publications which are worthwhile. This one I think for the average person would be great. You can find it almost anywhere at any of the local libraries here in the San Gabriel Valley. It’s put out by the Images of America organization, which does uh has enlists local people to write their history. It’s called Images of America Arcadia, and it’s uh sponsored by Arcadia Historical Society. It’s uh written by a number of prominent people in our society who were uh who are a lot of our key people in the 1980s. It’s called Images of America Arcadia. And if you just Google Arcadia uh on any anywhere, you’ll you’ll find several of the books. There’s one by Sandy Snyder and Pat McAdam called From uh From Ranch to City, uh Arcadia Story. That’s a really good book. But uh you’ll get more intimate with Lucky Baldwin and Anita Baldwin and the fascinating characters that uh predominated in the early days. Arcadia was a rough and tumble town. It was called the only sporting, the Los Angeles Times called it the only sporting town in Southern California. Unfortunately, there were a number of saloons and a few brothels, and it didn’t have a very good reputation. Yeah. Until the women of Arcadia came along and said, We’re gonna clean up your town, Mr. Baldwin, and that’s when uh things started to happen in, I think, a really positive vein for a person.

Christine Zito: 28:52

We do have you do have to come back and talk about that. So much to talk about. And this is and we’re just this is a history just on the city of Arcadia.

Ed Andersen: 29:00

That’s right.

Christine Zito: 29:00

I mean, this is how rich the history is here. And um, I grew up here um uh well, a lot of my years, and then I moved to Walnut, graduated from Walnut High School. Go mess things. So uh, but my dad lived here most of his life in the city of Arcadia. In fact, just right down uh San Anita. So and I live here in Arcadia, I love Arcadia, I love the riches, I love the culture, and I love the community. And I’m so glad that I got ahead of an opportunity to meet you, Ed. I thank you so much for being here. It was my pleasure, enjoyed it. And everything that we talked about, the the events that are coming up are not only on the website, arcadiah historical society.org. You can also go to arcadiafyi.com. All of that will be on there, also. So, because I don’t want you to miss out on any of these events because it is truly very um rich. In the city that we live in. In and there’s so much of the city of Arcadia that I hope that in these shows that you’re learning about the education, the community, the housing, the history, the Santa Anita racetrack. I just learned so much about just the LA Arboretum. And I mean, that is, I mean, we haven’t even gotten to the shops of Santa Anita. I mean, there’s so much here in the city of Arcadia that is just I I’m I’m just so happy that I am living in this city. I would like to thank our sponsors of this show that make it happen. Uh, Longo Toyota, Lexus in  El Monte, Star 7 Financial with Francine Chu, the Santa Anita Park that we had just talked about, the Le Méridien Hotel in Pasadena and Arcadia that we had just talked about. Um, just I thank you so much, and I thank you for being a part of this show. Until next time, be blessed and make it a great day.