A rugged, two-tier rock drinking fountain, family-built and designed, now sits in a palm-shaded grove at the Arboretum. It is a tribute to retired Pasadena Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Sprankle.
The Los Angeles State and County Arboretum plans to open its 3 acre rain forest exhibit in July featuring several hundred plant specimens from around the world.
The Arboretum was awarded a $25,000 emergency grant from the Institute of Museum Services. The funds will be used to repair the damage that occurred during a windstorm in February.
Man is riding bicycle on a path inside Rancho Santa Anita Park and Lake (later, the Arboretum), with many palm trees. Sign reads "Open to the Public Daily until 7PM, private property" and "Curves, drive slowly through park." The following information is from Sandy Snider: This is indeed, today’s Arboretum, but at the time the property was owned by a real estate syndicate named Rancho Santa Anita Inc. The enterprise was headed by the Chandler family (Harry until he died), and they bought the land from Anita Baldwin in 1936 for purposes of residential development. About 1939 they opened “the park” to visitors in hopes of encouraging land sales. About 30 acres surrounding the lake was sort of set aside as Santa Anita Park and Lake, that was roughly the area made available for movie location rentals and clearly for bicyclists, etc. 1939 is the circa date for this photograph, but it could have been anytime between 1936 and 1947 (when the land was sold to State and County for use as an Arboretum). The granite boulders lining roadways were typical Baldwin Ranch landscape features, and the pillars seen in the photo are also from Baldwin times. In the background you can see more boulders in a circular sort of shape – likely the old Baldwin Lily Pond.
The Arboretum has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Institute of Museum Services. The money will be used for a computerized system to inventory and store information on the Arboretum's plant collection.
An anonymous donor apparently has withdrawn $225,000 in support of county botanical programs because of concerns about a proposed merger between the L.A. County Natural History Museum and the county Dept. of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens.
County supervisors called a halt to a plan to merge the Department of Arboreta and Botanic Gardens with the county Museum of Natural History because the county's Economy and Efficiency Commission has not made sufficient progress on it and because the board needs to replace recently retired arboreta department head Francis Ching.
The new Hall of Environmental Education at the Arboretum has been completed and will open to the public shortly. The 8,000 sq. ft. auditorium in the new building accommodates nearly 1,000 people. It will be used for exhibits, classes and shows.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a program for the development of a Hall of Environmental Education at the Arboretum. The Arboretum foundation has pledged $500,000 to the total $1,295,000 bill. There is no timetable for the work, but it will take approximately 2 or 3 years.
The 22nd annual Baldwin Bonanza begins tomorrow, including a barbecue, live and silent auctions, and plant sale. The arboretum's finances and budget are discussed.
