Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker

Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker: Wealthy landowner of Los Angeles and Santa Monica.
Born	1825 San Diego, California
Died	1912 Santa Monica, California
Spouse	Abel Stearns, Robert Symington Baker
Parents	Juan Bandini and Marie de los Dolores Estudio

Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1825–1912) was a wealthy Los Angeles landowner.

Early life in San Diego

Arcadia Bandini born 1825 in San Diego, California, the eldest of three daughters of Juan Bandini and Marie de los Dolores Estudio. Arcadia and her two sisters were considered the most beautiful women of California. According to tradition, the first United States flag flown over the plaza in Old Town San Diego on July 29, 1846, was made by Arcadia and her two sisters out of red and blue flannel dresses and a white crib sheet.

Abel Stearns in Los Angeles

At age 14 Bandini married 43-year-old Abel Stearns. Stearns was a former U.S. citizen who became a Mexican citizen and converted from Judaism to Catholicism in order to become a colonial Spanish citizen beforehand. He was one of the wealthiest men in Los Angeles and she had a sizable dowry in land. They lived in an elegant adobe, El Palacio, in Los Angeles. He died in 1871.

Colonel Robert S. Baker in Santa Monica

In 1874 she married Colonel Robert S. Baker (1826–1894), owner of Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, and they settled in Santa Monica. Baker died in 1894 and Arcadia was again widowed.

Estate

Arcadia de Baker died in 1912, and is interred at Calvary Cemetery, East Los Angeles. She left an estate of seven to eight million dollars, with no will. The estate was widely contested, with several cousins hoping for a share of the money.