Colonel Robert Symington Baker (1826â1894) was a businessman and landowner from Rhode Island. He came to California in 1849 and engaged in mining supplies business, also as Cook and Baker in San Francisco, California. Later he became associated with General Beale in the cattle and sheep business in the northern part of the state and in the Tejon area.
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đ Robert Symington Baker in the context of Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (Spanish: Santa MĂłnica, lit.â'Saint Monica') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to its climate, beaches, and hospitality industry. It has a diverse economy, hosting headquarters of companies such as Skydance Media, Hulu, Activision Blizzard, Universal Music Group, Starz Entertainment, Lionsgate Studios, Illumination and The Recording Academy.
Santa Monica traces its history to Rancho San Vicente y Santa MĂłnica, granted in 1839 to the SepĂșlveda family of California. The rancho was later sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker, who, in 1875, along with his Californio heiress wife Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886. The city developed into a seaside resort during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the creation of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar.
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Robert Symington Baker in the context of Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1827â1912) was a wealthy Californio landowner and socialite of Los Angeles. She played an important role in the elite society of Los Angeles and, later, Santa Monica. She was married to two wealthy Anglo-American men over the course of her life, Abel Stearns and then Colonel Robert S. Baker. Like many californias of her time, Arcadia Bandini provided to her Anglo husbands opportunities for entrance into and alliances within the established californio elite society. She was a skilled businesswoman in her own right, as well as a renowned hostess and organizer of balls and other social functions.
Through her Bandini family wealth and the wealth of her husbands, she amassed an enormous estate and fortune, and upon her death was one of the wealthiest women in America. In her later life, she was considered "the great benefactress of Santa Monica" for her investments in and contributions to the development of the city. As she had no children and died intestate (without leaving a will), her death prompted an infamous court battle for control of her estate.