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Rancho Santa Anita was a
land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
in present-day
Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...
given to naturalized Scottish immigrant Hugo Reid and his Kizh people wife. Reid built an
adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...
residence there in 1839, and the land grant was formally recognized by Governor Pio Pico in 1845. The land grant covered all or portions of the present day cities of Arcadia,
Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...
, Sierra Madre,
Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...
and
San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...
. A small portion of the rancho has been preserved as the
Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 127 acres (51.4 ha), is an arboretum, botanical garden, and historical site nestled into hills near the San Gabriel Mountains in Arcadia, California, United States. Open daily, it only closes ...
.
,
barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
,
corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
,
bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...
s,
pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...
s
lentil The lentil (''Vicia lens'' or ''Lens culinaris'') is an annual plant, annual legume grown for its Lens (geometry), lens-shaped edible seeds or ''pulses'', also called ''lentils''. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in Legume, pods, usually w ...
s,
fruit tree A fruit tree is a tree which bears fruit that is consumed or used by animals and humans. All trees that are flowering plants produce fruit, which are the ripened ovaries of flowers containing one or more seeds. In horticultural usage, the te ...
s and
vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...
s. The land also grazed about 20,000 head of cattle. After the
Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence (, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. It was not a single, coherent event, but local and regional ...
in 1821, the Mexican secularization act of 1833 was passed. Starting in 1834 Mexico took away much of the Catholic Church's Mission land and sold it as Ranchos. Reid was a
Scot Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or ...
who became a Mexican citizen, thus being eligible to own Mexican land. To comply with Mexican law for the land grant of 13,319 acres, he built an adobe house and lived here with his wife, Victoria. In 1847, Reid sold Rancho Santa Anita to his Rancho Azusa neighbor, Henry Dalton for $2,700. With the cession of California to the United States following the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...
, the 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...
provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim was filed with the
Public Land Commission The California Land Act of 1851 (), enacted following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the admission of California as a state in 1850, established the California State Lands Commission to determine the validity of prior Spanish and Mexican l ...
in 1852, and the grant was
patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
to Henry Dalton in 1866. Joseph Andrew Rowe lived in the rancho for several years after purchasing it in 1854 for $33,000. In 1858, Albert Dibblee (1816–1895) and William Corbett bought the rancho and who held it until 1864. Then 1865, 11,319 acres of Rancho Santa Anita, sold or $20,000 to William Wolfskills. William's son, Luis Wolfskill, sold 8,500 acres with the lake to Los Angeles merchant Harris Newmark for $85,000. In 1869, Alfred Beck Chapman (born 1829, died 1915) bought 1,786 acres of Rancho Santa Anita, and built a home near modern California Boulevard and Ivydale Court, Chapman Woods. Chapman Woods Road is in Pasadena. Citrus, walnuts, avocados, and pecans still live where he planted them. Chapman also grew peas, lentils, and wheat. Chapman Avenue, and Chapman University were named after the West Point graduate who owned part of the Silverado Mine in Orange County. In the 1920s, Jim Stewart and Ben Quigley subdivided Chapman Woods. In 1875, Newmark sold Rancho Santa Anita to Elias Jackson ("Lucky") Baldwin for $200,000. Lucky moved into the Hugo Reid's adobe house by the natural lake. In 1881 he built a white Queen Anne style house at the lake also a Queen Anne style coach
barn A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain.Allen G ...
for his prized horse. Lucky loved horses, he initially founded a racetrack on Rancho Santa Anita in 1904. The racetrack closed in 1909 and burned down in 1912. In 1934, the current
Santa Anita Park Santa Anita Park is a Thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, United States. It offers some of the prominent horse racing events in the United States during early fall, winter and in spring. The track is home to numerous prestigious race ...
opened as a thoroughbred horse-racing track. In the latter 1880s, Baldwin subdivided a portion of the rancho to establish the town of Arcadia. In February 1881, Nathaniel Carter (Jan. 24, 1840 – Sept. 2, 1904) purchased 845 acres of Rancho Santa Anita, along with two other purchases, to form the new town of
Sierra Madre, California Sierra Madre (Spanish language, Spanish for "mother range") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, with a population of 11,268 at the time of the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley below the southern ...
. In 1875, Lucky's Los Angeles Investment Company began subdividing and selling parcels from many of his ranchos. In 1883, 240 acres (970,000 m2) of Rancho Santa Anita were sold to William Monroe for $30,000. Additional parcels of Rancho Santa Anita were sold to Edward F. Spence, John D. Bicknell, James F. Crank, and J.F. Falvey.


Historic sites of the Rancho

* Hugo Reid Adobe. Rancho Santa Anita adobe house built by Reid in 1839.Hugo Reid Adobe at Rancho Santa Anita, ca.1900
/ref> * Santa Anita Depot, built in 1890 for the
Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Railroad classes, Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight tra ...
.


Gallery

File:The home of Elias J. ("Lucky") Baldwin, the former Hugo Reid Adobe, at Rancho Santa Anita, ca.1903 (CHS-5178).jpg, The home of Elias J. ("Lucky") Baldwin, the former Hugo Reid Adobe, at Rancho Santa Anita, ca.1903 File:Hugo Reid at Rancho Santa Anita.png, Hugo Reid at Rancho Santa Anita. File:Lucky Baldwin 001.jpg, Lucky Baldwin in 1905 File:Lucky baldwin 20150523.jpg, Lucky Baldwin statue, Arcadia, California – across Huntington Avenue from Santa Anita Racetrack at Holly Avenue File:SantaAnitaEntrance wb.jpg, Art deco entrance to Santa Anita's grandstands File:Santa Anita Track (3446121612).jpg, Santa Anita Park track File:Queen Anne House Los Angeles.JPG, Queen Anne Cottage and Coach Barn File:Harris Newmark.png, Harris Newmark


See also

*
Santa Anita Park Santa Anita Park is a Thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, United States. It offers some of the prominent horse racing events in the United States during early fall, winter and in spring. The track is home to numerous prestigious race ...
*
Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 127 acres (51.4 ha), is an arboretum, botanical garden, and historical site nestled into hills near the San Gabriel Mountains in Arcadia, California, United States. Open daily, it only closes ...
*
Ranchos of California In Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California, ranchos were concessions and land grants made by the Viceroyalty of New Spain, Spanish and History of Mexico, Mexican governments from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish concessions of l ...
* List of Ranchos of California


References


External links


Map of old Spanish and Mexican ranchos in Los Angeles County
{{California history History of Pasadena, California Arcadia, California Monrovia, California San Marino, California Sierra Madre, California Temple City, California San Gabriel Valley 1845 establishments in Alta California Ranchos of Los Angeles County, California