The Lady In The Rose Garden

Who is that lady in the rose garden?

She’s the Godmother of Santa Monica...

Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1825-1912) is a founder of Santa Moncia, which is perhaps the main reason she’s at the center of the rose garden at the center of Palisades Park. Imposing, isn’t she? Masahito Sanae’s bust of her was placed in Palisades Park in 1987.

She was born into the wealthy Bandini family of San Diego in 1825, and was married at 14 to 43 year-old Abel Stearns, an Anglo-American from Massachusetts who had to convert to Catholicism and become a Mexican citizen in order to prosper in Los Angeles. When he died at 73, Arcadia became fantastically wealthy and then married Col Robert S. Baker, who had founded Bakersfield and bought Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica. The even MORE wealthy couple settled in Santa Monica.

We Leggers owe Arcadia a great debt: she (along with Sen. John P. Jones) created the original map of the city of Santa Monica, donated the land that became Palisades Park, gave land to numerous schools and churches, and even formed the National Home for Disabled Veterans (now the VA Campus).

Tip your cap to Arcadia when you pass the roses: she donated and/or laid out the paths we run on today.

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KCET's Lost L.A. did a great page on Arcadia -- check it out here!