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One of the great beauties and richest and influential women of her day, Arcadia Bandini was born in Los Angeles around 1825 and died in Santa Monica in 1912. At her death she left a fortune estimated at between $7-8 million, at that time the largest probated estate in Los Angeles history . Arcadia's parents were the well-known ranchero, Don Juan Bandini and his San Diego-born wife, Dolores Estudillo, the daughter of Jose Estudillo, a comandante at Monterey. In his 1840 book, Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. described Arcadia's father: "He had a slight and elegant figure, moved gracefully, danced and waltzed beautifully, spoke the best of Castilian with a pleasant and refined voice and accent, and had, throughout, the bearing of a man of high birth and figure." It was said his eldest daughter inherited her father's grace and style. But when Dana described him Juan Bandini was feeling the financial pressures of shrewd and aggressive Yankees who were finding money-making opportunities in the fading Mexican pueblo.
One of the most successful of these immigrants from the United States was Abel Stearns who arrived in 1829. He became "Don Abel Stearns" after adopting Mexican citizenship and converting from his Jewish heritage to Catholicism. Stearns was a imposing, if controversial figure, nicknamed Cara de Caballo ("Horse Face") because of his long-jawed countenance. Once accused of being a smuggler, Cara de Caballo was amassing the largest fortune of his day when he married Arcadia Bandini. She was 14. He was 43.
Arcadia brought with her a sizable dowry in land. Stearns enlarged it in 1842, acquiring Los Alamitos Rancho, near present day Long Beach and Seal Beach. The couple summered there. Stearns added his young wife's name to one of his early investments, one of Los Angeles' first American-styled commercial developments, the Arcadia Block. Arcadia, now considered a "noted belle," was mistress of one of Los Angeles's most elegant adobes, El Palacio, at Main and Arcadia streets. She could be seen riding through the pueblo in a proper Bostonian carriage. Carol Dunlap, in her book California People, reports that Mrs. Stearns once gave the Empress of China some sheep as a gift.
Abel and Arcadia never had children, but the marriage was considered a happy one. When Abel Stearns died in 1871, he had fallen on hard times, but three years later Arcadia survived to marry another wealthy Anglo-Angeleno, Col. Robert Symington Baker, owner of the San Vicente Rancho. With John P. Jones he was co-founder of Santa Monica. Baker tore down El Palacio, replaced it with a commercial structure, the Baker Block, and moved his household to Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica where he named the town's most impressive hotel after his new wife. Los Angeles chronicler Harris Newmark described The Arcadia: ". . . built on a bluff, [it] was four stories high and had a great veranda with side wings; and with its center tower and cupola was more imposing than any hotel there today [1915]."
According to Carol Dunlap, in her later years Arcadia "maintained a salon furnished with Aubusson carpets, period furniture, and Sevres china . . . living in Santa Monica dispensing financial aid to a large circle of impoverished relatives." When she died in 1912 she left no will and her $7-8 million estate became one of the most contested in Los Angeles history. Dunlap reports that "32 lawsuits were filed by 86 hopeful heirs: 35 Bandinis, 41 Stearns, and 10 Bakers . . ." It was a ignominious ending to the life of one of Southern California's most elegant and admired women.
-- Contributed by Jon Wilkman, 1999