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Places, Earth
The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
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State Parks, Historic Sites, and Museums need your help.
Throughout the country, state parks, historic sites, homes, buildings, museums, and similar institutions are struggling to continue operating. Because of general financial problems, many of these institutions are operating on a reduced schedule or in danger of closing. Some are being forced to sell off artifacts and property. Many will not weather these hard times without your help.
Places Earth urges everyone to support these vital and important public resources any way you can. Please donate your treasure, time, and talent. Write to your governor and other elected officials telling them to find a way to keep state parks open. It will be your loss.
Public Service Announcement
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Test space for future ad if donations don't increase.
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The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden
All photographs taken by Kenneth A. Larson. All rights reserved. © 2004 - 2012.
The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden is a 127- acre botanical garden and historical site jointly operated by the Los Angeles Arboretum Foundation and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.
The history of the Arboretum predates the Spanish era. The earliest inhabitants of this site knew it as Aleupkigna or "the place of many waters." A four-acre natural body of water in the heart of the Arboretum's Historical Section dates back to this time. Over the years this water-filled depression had been call a cienega, lagoon, sag pond, or lake. Hugo Reid, the ranch's first private owner, called it a swamp in his map. Today it is named Baldwin Lake.
Hugo Reid, a Scotsman with Mexican citizenship, was married to a Gabrielino woman. He became the first private owner of Rancho Santa Anita and constructed his adobe house next to the lake in 1840.
Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin purchased Rancho Santa Anita in 1875. The Baldwin Ranch was situated on a 2,000 acre artesian belt located atop the Raymond Hill Fault. It was Lucky Baldwin who dredged and deepened the lake, by possibly 12-15 feet, in the late 1880s. He surrounded the lake with a retaining wall, capped with granite boulders. This is when the natural water body became known as a lake and it is still fed by springs located in both the north and south inlets. In early Arboretum days, the lake was designated LASCA (Los Angeles State and County Arboretum) Lagoon.
"Baldwin's Belvedere," was built on a peninsula jutting out into the horseshoe-shaped lake and today is known as the Queen Anne Cottage. The cottage was built for Elias Jackson ("Lucky") Baldwin's between 1885-1886, probably as a honeymoon gift for his fourth wife, sixteen- year-old Lillie Bennett. Lillie's father, architect Albert A. Bennett, designed the cottage, but the marriage was over before the construction was complete. Lillie and Elias separated in 1885 and the house designed for Elias Baldwin's fourth wife became a memorial to his third Mrs. Baldwin, Jennie Dexter, who had died in 1881. The Baldwin cottage was the Santa Anita Ranch guest house. Baldwin's personal quarters and cooking and dining facilities and were located in a modernized 8-room version of the old Reid adobe. Upon Elias Baldwin's death in 1909, Lucky's daughter Anita (born in 1876 to Jennie Dexter) closed the Cottage and disposed of all furnishings. Anita removed and stored many of the removable components such as the stained glass windows, black walnut doors, marble fireplace mantels, the hearth tiles, the encaustic tile mosaic entry floor, original bathroom fixtures, and the exterior marble walkway. All of the stored items (stored in the Coach Barn) were returned to the Cottage during the restoration of 1951-53. The cottage is furnished as it might have been in Victorian times. The Queen Anne Cottage is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Queen Anne Cottage is open to the public once a year. Contact the Arboretum for the next open day.
The Santa Fe Depot was constructed by the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad about 1890 in Ranch Santa Anita as a stop in its transcontinental main line. Elias Baldwin donated a right-of-way and bricks in exchange for an agreement for train stops at the station as well as to maintain a depot and provide for a postoffice in the station. In 1969, the depot was moved to the Arboretum to make way for the new Foothill Freeway a few hundred feet north.
It is rare to visit the Arboretum when there isn't a building or corner that isn't being readied for, in use, or cleaned up after being used for a motion picture, TV episode, or commercial. Among the long list of projects shot at the Arboretum are Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan, Jungle Jim, Road to Singapore in 1939, Safari, Fantasy Island, and Roots II.
Location: 301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, CA, 91007.
Just off the 210 Freeway. Exit 210 Freeway at Baldwin Avenue. Turn south.
Open daily from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm; admission closes at 4:30 pm.
Front. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Baldwin Lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Baldwin Lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Plant. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Palm trees. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Lake and ducks. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Garden. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Tree turns red. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Purple leaves. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Purple leaves. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Blue tree. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Baldwin Lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Ap, Chumash/Gabrielino House. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Hugo Reid Adobe,1839
Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Adobe from across lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Queen Ann House
Across lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Across lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Across lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Across lake. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Top being painted back after a film shoot. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Top being painted back after a film shoot. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Top being painted back after a film shoot. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Porch detail. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Porch detail. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Interior. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Interior of stain glass window. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Exterior of stain glass window. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Interior. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Interior. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Roof detail. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Roof detail. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Lucky Baldwin's Coach Barn
Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Interior. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Interior. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Depot
Depot decorated for the Holidays. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Chimney. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Baggage wagon. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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North side. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Upstairs doorway. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Upstairs desk. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Kitchen. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Kitchen. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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Baggage wagon. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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West side. Photo date: 12-12-04.
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This page last updated: Wednesday, 12-Sep-2007 21:25:32 EDT
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Note: This is not the official site for any of the places shown in Places Earth. Places Earth is not responsible for accuracy of the information. Hours of operations, prices, exhibits, and sometimes locations are subject to change without notice.
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Support this Web Site
This web site started because of my love for Architecture and interest in History. This web site is for your benefit and I make no profit on it. I don't allow paid advertising. This site is supported primarily from my regular paycheck as a Set Designer and there haven' been many this year. I sell art at www.klimages.com. A non-tax deductable donation to help cover the cost of operating this web site may be made to Kesign Design Consulting through PayPal ...
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You can buy candles from my wife.
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Or donations can be mailed to the address on the contact page.
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Buy my art.
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This site maintained by Kenneth A. Larson.
Copyright © 2004 - 2012, Kenneth A. Larson. All Rights Reserved.
Website content including photographic and graphic images may not be redistributed for use on another website.
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This site is a non-commercial alternative to my commercial design portfolio site. This site's only purpose is for your enjoyment. There is no advertising and I make no profit. If you are in the need of a designer, please check my commercial site www.kesigndesign.com.
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