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Santa Anita Assembly Center

1942 establishments in CaliforniaCalifornia Historical LandmarksCalifornia in World War IIInternment camps for Japanese AmericansSanta Anita Park
World War II internment camps in the United States
Santa Anita Assembly Center 38735
Santa Anita Assembly Center 38735

The Temporary Detention Camp for Japanese Americans / Santa Anita Assembly Center is one of the places Japanese Americans were held during World War II. The Santa Anita Assembly Center was designated a California Historic Landmark (No.934.07) on May 13, 1980. The Santa Anita Assembly Center is located in what is now the Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, California in Los Angeles County. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, there was fear that some Japanese Americans may be loyal to the Empire of Japan and Emperor of Japan. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, signed Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 authorized the secretary of war to prescribe certain areas as military zones, clearing the way for the incarceration of Japanese Americans, German Americans, and Italian Americans in U.S. concentration camps. The Santa Anita Racetrack was selected as one of the Southern California detention camps. The other Los Angeles County camp selected was the Pomona assembly center at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California. Pomona assembly center is also a California Historical Landmark (No.934.04). A California Historical Landmark Plaque for the Santa Anita Assembly Center is located Santa Anita Racetrack, 285 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia, CA 91007, in front of the Grandstand entrance.The Santa Anita Assembly Center opened on March 27, 1942. The center at its peak housed 18,719 Japanese Americans. The horse stable was covered to living areas, 500 new barracks were built in the parking lot and single males were housed in the existing grandstand building. Like the Burbank Airport, there was a camouflage net put over detention camp as the center operated under military contract. On August 4, 1942, a riot broke out at the Santa Anita Assembly Center. The camp closed on October 27, 1942. Once the permanent concentration camps were built most of the Santa Anita Assembly Center inmates transferred to Heart Mountain Relocation Center, Rohwer War Relocation Center, Granada War Relocation Center, and Jerome War Relocation Center. In California, thirteen temporary detention facilities were built. Large venues that could be sealed off were used such as fairgrounds, horse racing tracks and Works Progress Administration labor camps. These temporary detention facilities held Japanese Americans while permanent concentration camps were built-in more isolated areas. In California Camp Manzanar and Camp Tulelake were built. Executive Order 9066 took effect on March 30, 1942. The order had all native-born Americans and long-time legal residents of Japanese ancestry living in California to surrender themselves for detention. Japanese Americans were held to the end of the war in 1945. In total 97,785 Californians of Japanese ancestry were held during the war.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Santa Anita Assembly Center (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Santa Anita Assembly Center
San Juan Drive,

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N 34.138480555 ° E -118.04611944 °
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Santa Anita Park

San Juan Drive
91007
California, United States
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Santa Anita Assembly Center 38735
Santa Anita Assembly Center 38735
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Hugo Reid Adobe
Hugo Reid Adobe

The Reid-Baldwin Adobe, formerly called the Hugo Reid Adobe, is an adobe house built in 1839. It is located at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia, California. The Hugo Reid Adobe was designated a California Historic Landmark (No. 368) on April 3, 1940. The Reid Adobe was built by Scottish−Mexican Hugo Reid on the shore of what is now called Baldwin Lake, with the help of local natives. Reid received the full Mexican land grant for Rancho Santa Anita in 1845, which included 13,319 acres of land. Reid farmed some of the land and planted grape vines.Hugo Reid (1811–1852), born in Scotland, was an early resident of Los Angeles County who became a naturalized citizen of California (then a part of Mexico) in 1839. He married Barolomea, a respected Gabrieleño woman, who became known as Victoria Reid. Born at the village of Comicranga and taken to San Gabriel Mission at the age of six, Bartolomea was married at the age of 13 to an older indigenous man, as arranged by the Franciscan fathers. The couple later were given small plots of land for their work at the mission. When the mission was secularized, Bartolomea had been widowed and had remarried, to Hugo Reid. As he was not yet a naturalized citizen, she received a land grant in her name alone. Their marriage elevated Hugo's status, as she was a well-connected mission Indian.Elias Jackson “Lucky” Baldwin purchased Rancho Santa Anita in 1875. In 1879 Baldwin added a wooden wing to the old adobe home. Elias Jackson "Lucky" Baldwin (1828–1909) was a pioneer of California business, an investor, and real estate speculator during the second half of the 19th century. He earned the nickname "Lucky" Baldwin due to his extraordinary good fortune in a number of business deals. He built the luxury Baldwin Hotel and Theatre in San Francisco and bought vast tracts of land in Southern California, where a number of places and neighborhoods are named after him.In 1947 the state and county acquired the land to create an arboretum around the lake and historic Reid-Baldwin structures.