Looking across graduating class of Arcadia High School students on football field on campus. A back-drop and speakers platform has been set up on left side of photo. Parents and guests are on far side of graduating class. Graduation ceremony.
About 12 girls in white are seen walking across the lawn at front of First Avenue School (Arcadia Grammar School at this time, 1935). They have garlands of flowers over their shoulders to commemorate their graduation from 8th grade. Photo is also interesting because construction scaffolding is across front of school.
Apparently taken in the High School gymnasium which has been decorated for special event. Many students are seated at tables, for what probably was a dinner following graduation.
Anita Baldwin and Joe Smoot, developer of Hilejea Park, Florida, prepare to turn ceremonial spadeful of soil for their projected race track. Anita has white hat and dress; Smoot is in double breasted suit.
Michillinda Avenue is street running parallel to left edge of photo. Santa Anita Avenue is close to right edge of photo. Four tracks are in view. Left to right they would be: 1. Training track used by Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin, 2. Aborted L. A. Jockey Club Track project of Anita Baldwin and Joe Smoot in 1933, 3. Small training track belonging to Santa Anita Park Race Track, and 4. Main track and grandstand of Santa Anita Park. Arcadia County Park is seen in lower right portion of photo.
Group in winner's circle at Santa Anita Race Track with horse and rider. It is a group from PLEASC (Public Library Executives Assoc. of Calif) meeting held at Arcadia Public Library. Lunch for the group was at Race Track. None of the people are identified.
Dark, tree-lined street completely bisecting photo from west to east just above, is Duarte Road. Santa Anita Park Race Track is at upper right edge of photo. Smaller oval nearby is a training track. The incomplete oval in upper left is the race track that Anita Baldwin and Joe Smoot attempted to build in 1933 but abandoned the project. Huntington Drive and Colorado Place form a "y" just east of Santa Anita Park Race Track. Note grove of olive trees on land where City Hall is located today (240 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia). Baseball diamond in upper right corner of photo, just below the convergence of the "y" is at Arcadia County Park. Corrected description as of 11/04/2008.
Grandstand and portion of track at Ascot Park, a racetrack built near the center of Los Angeles that offered racing from 1903-1907. It was closed due to a city ordinance forbidding gambling. Baldwin's track, Santa Anita Park, which opened in December 1907 was designed and built by the same architect that built Ascot Park: A.M. Allen. The two tracks are similar in style and are occasionally mistaken for each other. In this photo the stands are full and there are eight horses with jockeys on the track.
Aerial view taken from about over what became Campus Drive and Arcadia High School, and looking toward (NW) Pasadena and Sierra Madre at foot of San Gabriel Mountains. Photo shows Santa Anita Park Race Track possibly just a few years after opening.