Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, the “lady in the rose garden,” is only half of the duo that founded Santa Monica and gave us so many of the amenities we all treasure today. The other was John P. Jones: one of the original Miner 49’ers, a man who staked his claims in gold and silver and wound up serving as Senator from Nevada for thirty years before moving to the city he and Baker would found.

Senator Jones started as a California miner in 1849, but quickly became involved in the Comstock Lode in Nevada where he made his fortune and moved into politics. Although he was a US Senator from Nevada from 1873 to 1903, Jones invested much of his fortune in real estate in west Los Angeles. His seaside retreat/mansion Miramar was his California headquarters: it’s now the glamorous Fairmont Miramar Hotel (yes, the really NICE one on Ocean that we run by). You can still see the massive Moreton Bay Fig (a gift to Jones from his bartender in 1889) standing just inside the gates off of Wilshire.

Baker and Jones together gave us the glorious town we run through today: Palisades Park, the Veteran’s Administration Campus, and countless parks, schools, and churches. He retired to Santa Monica in 1903 and took to enjoying an evening stroll in Palisades Park ending at his favorite bench where he could watch the sun set. The city erected a special memorial bench to him just up from the statue of St. Monica at Wilshire and Ocean. On the back of the bench there’s an inscription that reads, “In honor of John P. Jones, Founder of Santa Monica and For Thirty Years a Senator of the United States. Pioneer of the West, Statesman, Philosopher, Friend. On the spot he loved so well this memorial has been erected in recognition of his services to the City of Santa Monica and to The Nation.”

You should stop, sit and enjoy the view one of these days, just like the Senator would.