Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin's Coach Barn at the Los Angeles Arboretum

Most people who visit the Los Angeles Arboretum in Arcadia (right across the street from Santa Anita racetrack) probably go because of the gardens.

Or perhaps for the resident peacocks.

Or just to have a Grand Day Out at a reasonable price.

Hollywood film and television history fans enjoy seeing the lake and the "cottage" on the property, because so many movies and TV shows were filmed there. Several "Tarzan" movies and the opening sequence of "Fantasy Island" come to mind. (I'll post a list of all the films and shows in the notes at the end of this post.)

When I visit the Arboretum, I enjoy all the sights it has to offer. But I'm there primarily for the Coach Barn. It isn't a large building, but it's packed with history.

Hollywood could not have made up the life story of  Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin; it's too unique. 

Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin (1828-1909)
Arcadia Public Library, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=143296302

The easiest way to describe Baldwin is to let the Arcadia Historical Society do it for us (minus the scandals involving women, gambling, and allegations of tax evasion that marked his life):

 Elias Jackson Baldwin, founder and first Mayor of the City of Arcadia, was born into an Ohio farming family on April 3, 1828, but spent his formative years growing up in nearby Indiana where a year at Wabash College in Crawfordsville completed his formal education. 

At age 25, already a successful businessman, E.J., wife Sara Ann Unruh and daughter Clara set off on a wagon train journey west to the new state of California. Baldwin initially engaged in hotel, livery stable and brick businesses in San Francisco but soon began a carefully orchestrated system of buying and selling mining shares in Nevada’s Comstock Lode. 

A particularly fortuitous stock sale earned him the much-disliked nickname ‘Lucky,’ but it was hard work and enterprise that netted Baldwin the $5 million profit he brought into Southern California in 1875. “I came down to look at a mine,” Baldwin would later reminisce, “but when I saw this ranch there was nothing that would make me happy but to own it.”

The Ranch was Santa Anita, one of several old ranchos [totaling 46,000 acres] that entrepreneur Baldwin would acquire in Los Angeles County, but it became his beloved home place, and four of his original historic structures have been carefully restored at today’s Los Angeles County Arboretum. 

Baldwin’s second daughter (born to third wife Jennie Dexter in 1876) was named Anita in recognition of the land purchase; a City thoroughfare, a train station, and a racetrack would later sport the name as well. 

Santa Anita was both a heralded beauty spot and a productive working ranch with hundreds of acres in citrus alone, a vineyard and winery that produced prize-winning wines and brandies, and livestock that ranged from sheep and cattle to expensive, successful thoroughbred race horses who made turf history at every track in the nation.

Ever the businessman, Baldwin signed right-of-way contracts with local railroad companies in the 1880s and made provision for two local depots to be built, one on Ranch land and the other in the heart of his newly laid out Arcadia town site. Land sales were headquartered at Baldwin’s Oakwood Hotel on First Avenue, and soon a flamboyant scheme to petition for cityhood grabbed headlines. 

Despite protests from neighboring cities, Arcadia was incorporated in 1903, and with Lucky Baldwin becoming Mayor Baldwin, not only was gambling legalized, but in 1907 a dream came true with construction of Santa Anita Park, a racetrack in his own back yard (today the site of Santa Anita Golf Course). 

Two years later, Baldwin died at his Santa Anita ranch home, but his mark will never be forgotten. “He was Lucky Baldwin, perhaps the outstanding individualist of his generation,” concluded an early biographer. “His was the spirit of the frontier.”

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame website adds context:

Baldwin's obituary in the San Francisco Call described him as "the most noted figure of American turf," while the Los Angeles Times referred to him as the "King of the Turf." ...Anita Baldwin was among the group...that brought racing back to California with a new Santa Anita Park, which opened on Christmas Day 1934.

The centerpiece of the display inside the Coach Barn is, fittingly, the coach. Driving a large, closed, four-wheeled coach pulled by four horses was a popular sporting activity of the rich during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and Baldwin was one of many wealthy men who took part.

A sign in the Coach Barn describes the vehicle's specifications and history.

PARK DRAG FOUR-IN-HAND

A gentleman's private coach, modified from an English public passenger coach to accommodate the needs of a private owner. Included in the modifications is the red rectangular box at the center of the roof which has mahogany fittings to hold wine bottles.

There are cloth shades for the windows of the doors and tufted cushions on the floor of the cab. When the vehicle was parked a sun shade was placed over the entire roof. The carbide lamps at either side were designed on the best known principles for steady lighting when driving at night.

The wheels are made from British timber, the springs from Russian iron, the cushion leather from Morocco, the velvet for the upholstery from France, the mahogany from Honduras and the hickory from the United States, Notice the hand-forged iron steps and hand-holds that make the upper seats accessible.

This private edition was built by Hooper and Company (coachmakers of the British Royal Family) for the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876.

Restoration: At the Soledad Correctional Training Facility, ten inmates utilized their skills in refinishing, upholstery, milling and cabinet work. Altogether, 2,864 hours of work were devoted to its restoration.

Gift of Baldwin M. Baldwin

Californians were accustomed to seeing Lucky Baldwin driving his coach at major public equestrian events. The San Francisco Examiner described the appearance of Baldwin's coach as part of a horse racing meet in April 1887:

Yesterday afternoon was a red-letter day at the racecourse. Never in the annals of its many meets has there been such a splendid array of fine equipages as were drawn up in the sheds, and literally lined the roadway to and from the track.

E. J. Baldwin must be given the palm [award] for a four-in-hand turnout. He drove an English Tally Ho coach, with a footman perched up on the back with a horn, and his brown spurs were decked in the gold-mounted harness, which took the first price at the Centennial Exposition. They were made at a cost of $7,500, and are said to be one of the finest sets of harness ever used. Besides the gold mountings, there are numerous monograms, which are the only ornamentation. 

At Bay Area horse shows, however, the rules for success were different and very stringent. Baldwin and other wealthy men who drove their own coaches would never have been fully accepted in other parts of the coaching world; they were too haphazard. After competing in a November 1894 show, Baldwin was mildly scorned by one writer in the Examiner for not knowing all the fine points of showing his coach-and-four: 

"E. J. Baldwin knew how to handle his four-in-hand with ease and dexterity, if he was not familiar with all the nice points demanded in society coaches," one critic wrote.

Other critics in the Examiner were not so kind. One writer spent many column inches explaining to his readers exactly what was to be expected of anyone entering his coach-and-four in a show, "without which no man can be a gentleman." After castigating other Bay Area socialites for such things as allowing their coachman's driving apron to be improperly folded, the writer reached his breaking point when he saw that Lucky Baldwin's servants on the coach actually wore facial hair. 

"It is to be hoped that not again will the western world stand agape at the dreadful spectacle of E. J. Baldwin's men back straggling to the ground, failing in the salute, and actually wearing moustaches so they might be mistaken for guests of the owner... The servants are to be trim and nearly of a size, the head groom being a trifle heavier and larger," the critic carefully explained.  "Both must be smooth shaven..."

(Who knew?)

Another Examiner horse show society critic faulted Baldwin's harness and the fact that the blinds in the carriage were up when they should have been down. And Baldwin's coachmen, the writer sneered, "looked like figures you throw balls at." 

These unnamed critics are gone, however, and Lucky Baldwin's coach is still here for us to appreciate. 

Lucky Baldwin's equine interests went far beyond competing in horse shows. A glassed-in display inside the Coach Barn shows us other aspects of Baldwin's empire. Western saddles, including what looks like a child's saddle, are shown without context. I assume they were used on Baldwin's cattle ranch. 

Baldwin founded the original Santa Anita Park in 1904, building a horse racing track adjacent to the current facility. In 1909, the California State Legislature passed a measure outlawing horse racing in the state, forcing the first Santa Anita to close. It burned to the ground in 1912. 

But things can change with time. In 1933, the Legislature authorized parimutuel betting in the state; the current Santa Anita Park opened on Christmas Day 1934, making it the first formally-established race track in California. It was built on land that Lucky's daughter Anita owned. 

Inside the same display in his Coach Barn, a nostalgic and touching display shows many lightweight horse shoes, mounted on a red cloth background. From each shoe is suspended a small silver tag engraved with a name. The shoes are from the horses Baldwin is best remembered for: his Thoroughbreds.

The years of wear and a little tarnish, along with the glare of the protective glass, made reading the names of the horses problematic. I enlarged my photos when I got home and made note of as many horse names as I could decipher. 

Volante (winner, American Derby, 1885)

You can see a picture of Volante in the UCLA Library Digital Collections:

https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z1k6627g

Silver Cloud (winner, American Derby, 1886)

Emperor of Norfolk (winner, American Derby 1888), regarded as "the best California-bred horse until Swaps began his career in the 1950s."

Rey El Santa Anita (winner, American Derby, 1894)

In 1950, the remains of Baldwin's American Derby winners were interred under his racing symbol, a Maltese cross, at Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia.

Baldwin's other Thoroughbreds whose shoes are on display in the Coach Barn include:

Cruzados

San Francisco Call, 30 November 1901

Laredo

Lady Diamond

Rey El Tovar

California

El Piloto

San Francisco

Winona 

Felipe Lugo

Argentina

Olmstead

Falling Leaf

La Puente

Lucky B

Larita

Realista

Savanna

Miss Ford

Los Angeles

Gano

Rutherford

Jennie B.

Grinstead

Grismer

Magdelina

Lizard

Brandy Wine

Glenita

El Salado

Estrellita

Lillita

Diamante

Sinaloa II

Geraldine

Formero

Wonderland

Glenmound

Favor

Frank Ward

Ogelita

One cannot talk about Lucky Baldwin's racing empire without mentioning at least three African-Americans whose stories were never fully told back in that day. The first is jockey Isaac Murphy, who rode Volante, Silver Cloud, and Emperor of Norfolk to their victories in the American Derby in Chicago.

Anaconda, Montana Standard, 6 April 1913. 

The Kentucky Horse Park website notes that many people consider Isaac Murphy to have been the greatest jockey of all time:

Isaac Murphy won with more than a third of his mounts year after year. By his own account, Murphy won 44% of his races. Only 34.5% can be verified in chart books from the era, but it’s likely that some of his races were not covered in the chart books. Either way, Murphy set a standard that no other jockey has met.

He won the Kentucky Derby three times, the Latonia Derby five times, and four of the first five runnings of the American Derby, once the richest 3-year-old race in America.

Not only was Murphy known for his skill on horseback but also for his honesty and loyalty. He once refused to let champion Falsetto lose the 1879 Kenner Stakes, even though gamblers enticed him with bribes.

Among others, Murphy rode Emperor of Norfolk, Kingston, Firenze, and Salvator. Aboard Salvator in the 1890 Suburban, he defeated Snapper Garrison and Tenney in a historic match.

Isaac Murphy also owned and trained horses during his career. He died of pneumonia at age 36 in 1896.

Among the other African-Americans associated with Baldwin's success are his farrier, John Isaac Wesley Fisher (1854-1940), and his son Julian D. Fisher (1896-1976). An enlargement of a photograph of father and son covers most of a wall in the Coach Barn.

The Fisher family lived in nearby Monrovia for many years. The Monrovia Historical Society website summarizes their story:

John Isaac Wesley Fisher -- a Black man and former slave from St. Louis who was freed at the age of eight -- was the head blacksmith and farrier for [Lucky] Baldwin. He was a prominent breeder and trainer there and later a foreman on the ranch. Baldwin marveled at John Fisher's horse care abilities and trusted him. 

Julian D. Fisher...grew up on Lucky Baldwin's Rancho Santa Anita. He was quite a good rider, and Lucky Baldwin gave him a pony. Julian and his pony won 1st prize in the Rose Parade three years in a row. As an adult, Julian was a Special Reserve Officer for the Monrovia Police Department for over 20 years.  Upon his death the Monrovia City Council closed its meeting in his memory; flags at public buildings were flown at half-staff.

The interior of the Coach Barn itself is beautifully appointed, with gleaming hardwood and ornate metal work.

The exterior is designed and painted to match the Queen Anne Cottage on the Arboretum property. 

In his day, Elias "Lucky" Baldwin was a controversial character, but he is best remembered now for his horses. The Coach Barn allows us to see a little of their history. 

And when we travel through parts of the cities of Arcadia, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, Temple City, El Monte, South El Monte, City of Industry, Baldwin Park, West Covina, La Puente, Montebello, South San Gabriel, and Monterey Park, we can remember that one man used to own all this land.

______________________________________________

Arcadia Historical Society: 

https://arcadiahistoricalsociety.org/historical-markers-guide/arcadia-historical-marker-10/

PBS SoCal's post on Baldwin has more biographical information and photos:  

https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/departures/elias-lucky-baldwin-land-baron-of-southern-california

Here is Lucky Baldwin's page on the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame website: 

https://www.racingmuseum.org/hall-of-fame/pillar/elias-j-lucky-baldwin

Isaac Burns Murphy: https://kyhorsepark.com/explore/isaac-burns-murphy/

J. I. W. Fisher and his son, Julian Fisher: 

https://cityofmonrovia.pastperfectonline.com/Photo/58BE0C8B-6B54-4A2F-A905-397343350300

https://cityofmonrovia.pastperfectonline.com/Photo/3A6165B2-5C8E-4613-8ECA-052993546910

Movies and Television Series filmed at the Los Angeles Arboretum: 

https://www.arboretum.org/save-baldwin-lake/sediment-study/

The LAist website offers a more unvarnished review of Baldwin's life:

https://laist.com/podcasts/off-ramp/lucky-baldwins-arcadia-a-gambling-hell-and-booze-pleasure-park

Public TV's one and only Huell Howser visited the Arboretum in 2002 for his series "Visiting..." There's some great footage of the interior of the Coach Barn:

https://blogs.chapman.edu/huell-howser-archives/2002/09/27/lucky-baldwin-cottage-visiting-1018/

Rey el Santa Anita's 1924 bay grandson, Rey de Los Angeles, served as a US Army Remount sire. His photo is part of the collection at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library on the Cal Poly Pomona campus. CPP sits on the site of the former Kellogg Ranch, which was the Pomona Quartermaster Remount during World War II. 

The WKKAHL online finding aid for the Horse Center is here: 

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8pz5gc0/