Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker

Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker
Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker
Born	Arcadia Bandini 1825 San Diego, California
Died	1912 Santa Monica, California
Spouse(s)	Abel Stearns, Robert Symington Baker
Parent(s)	Juan Bandini and Marie de los Dolores Estudio

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

Arcadia Bandini was born in 1825 in San Diego, California to Juan Bandini and Marie de los Dolores Estudio. Her father Juan, originally born in Peru, was considered the "first citizen of San Diego," and the Bandini family home, Casa de Bandini, was the center of San Diego society. The social gatherings and dances in the Bandini home and gardens were so renowned that Juan Bandini achieved legend status and was labeled by historian Winifred Davidson as the "Prince of Hosts."

In addition to being social elites, the Bandinis were one of the richest landholding families in the area, which made the three daughters very attractive potential marriage partners to ambitious men seeking land and status in the californio community. Arcadia and her two younger sisters, Ysidora and Josefa, were known as three of the most beautiful women in Alta California.

Juan Bandini, a former revolutionary himself, supported the Anglo American invaders during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt. His extensive business dealings with Anglo American men like Abel Stearns led him to believe that the future of California would be American, not Mexican. Arcadia and her sisters Ysidora and Josefa were said to have made a United States flag out of fabric from their own clothes and put it up at Juan Bandini's San Diego ranch in 1847.