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Overview

In c. 1840, this linear, one-story adobe was the Pueblo of Los Angeles's most grand residence.

Building Notes

Born in Massachusetts, Abel Stearns (1798-1871), first settled in Mexico and became a citizen of that country, before relocating to the Los Angeles area in 1828, making him one of the first Anglo-American settlers in the region. He obtained huge land grants from the new Mexican government of California and developed a thriving cattle, sheep and horse-ranching operation during the 1830s-1860s. Stearns became the wealthiest Anglo-American in Southern California, and one of the wealthiest in the state, before droughts of the early 1860s decimated his herds. This economic collapse shrank but did not drain all of Stearns's assets.

In 1837, he married, Arcadia (1825-1912), the 14-year-old daughter of another prominent rancho owner, Don Juan Bandini (1800-1859), and this house would become the center meeting spot for Los Angeles society during the mid-19th century. She was 29 years younger than her husband, who spoke fluent Spanish. Arcadia never spoke English, conducting professional and personal affairs in her native Spanish.

Stearns died in 1871, and by 03/1875, 90,000 acres of his huge ranch were being sold by Stearns's San Francisco trustee, Alfred Robinson. (See "The Stearns Ranchos," Los Angeles Daily Herald, vol III, no. 132, 03/03/1875, p. 4.)

Alteration

Erected over a series of years, the Stearns Adobe originally had an L-shape that was later filled in to form a "U." A huge central patio was paved with cobblestones. The Los Angeles Public Library has said of the residence: "Stearns purchased the land from Francisco O'Campo and built a three-room adobe with an attached kitchen. He gradually expanded the adobe from 1835-1838, and the home eventually became U-shaped with a wide-open cobblestone court, and contained a grand ballroom at least 100 feet long. At the time, it was the largest and most magnificent house in the pueblo...." (See Los Angeles Public Library.org, "Abel Sterns adobe," accessed 07/10/2019.)

Demolition

The Stearns House was removed to make way for the Baker Building (1878), one the city's most notable commercial buildings of the 1870s. Arcadia Bandini and her second husband, Robert S. Baker (1826–1894), a landowning Easterner who founded the city of Bakersfield, CA and owned the extensive Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, built this grand office block on the grounds of her former home, surrounding by a rapidly urbanizing context. He and Arcadia would move to the Santa Monica area where they resided for the rest of their lives.

PCAD id: 19104