Reid-Baldwin Adobe

Reid-Baldwin Adobe. History Lives Here. , The home place of Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin, founder and first Mayor of the City of Arcadia, was this relatively simple adobe house, though during Baldwin's occupation (1875-1909) it was the larger and more inviting structure seen in the images below. Baldwin was a wealthy man in 1875, an entrepreneur whose success in San Francisco hotel and brick-making businesses extended with great "luck" into Nevada's Comstock Lode millions. Today's Arboretum is the heart of Baldwin's first southern California land purchase, the historic Rancho Santa Anita. Within a few short years, Lucky Baldwin would acquire adjoining ranches that increased his holdings to some 46,000 acres in the San Gabriel Valley alone. Vineyards, orchards and fields of hay and grain covered the landscape, but the home site next to Baldwin Lake was a botanic showplace with elegant guest accommodations just a stone's throw away from his personal adobe residence. , Baldwin reported that he found an "adobe hut" on the Santa Anita property when he made his initial purchase, and early on he decided to make it his home. The "hut" was an L-shaped, 8-room, all adobe structure that likely dated back to 1854 when owner Joseph Rowe reportedly "re-built" an earlier, simpler structure that may have been constructed by first owner Hugo Reid. , The foundations of the current adobe house date back to at least 1854, and historically significant amounts of original building materials remain. An inventory completed after Baldwin's 1909 death identifies each of the eight rooms and thus provides the most compelling storyline of its use during his significant years of occupation. Baldwin's personal living quarters were, of course, included, but so too was a parlor, dining room, kitchen, pantries and servants quarters. Under Baldwin's supervision, a wood frame wing replaced Rowe's adobe wing that ran parallel to the lake. This wing and its original foundations remained through early Arboretum years, but the surface structure was demolished in the late 1950's as efforts were directed at stabilizing the adobe portion of the compound. Today, with renewed and more precisely engineered stabilization, and with historic preservation experts guiding the process, the Adobe is receiving the care it deserves.