Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker

rdf:langString Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker

rdf:langString Santa Monica, California, U.S.

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rdf:langString Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker

rdf:langString Juan Bandini and Marie de los Dolores Estudio

rdf:langString Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1827–1912) 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, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker 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. Because she had no children and did not leave a will, her death prompted an infamous court battle for control of her estate.

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