Baldwin ancestor shares stories, memorabilia

Margaux Viera, great-great-great granddaughter of Arcadia founder Elias “Lucky” Baldwin held nearly 50 attendees in rapt attention at Sunday’s (Jan. 22, 2012) Arcadia Historical Society General Membership quartely program at the Lutheran Church of the Cross.

She discussed her plans to build a statue of Baldwin, work with Society on a related Historical Marker at the statue, restore several key elements at the L.A. County Arboretum, and pursue the production of a movie depicting the story of Baldwin.

Margaux decribed the statue of Lucky that she is commissioning to be built and placed near the west end of the Community Center parking lot in the rose garden at the point of property at which Campus Drive splits off from eastbound Huntington Drive.

The mother of a young daughter, and a son on the way, said that with the death of her grandmother (called Anita after Lucky’s daughter of the same name) and her father in recent years, she has become interested for the first time in learning more about her ancestors. She also now has the resources to fund the statue and other projects that will revive the memories of the woman she admires and Anita’s multi-talented and accomplished father, Lucky.

Lucky Baldwon's relatives meet for first time at Society event: Lucky's great-great-great granddaughter Margaux Viera (left), Lucky's great-great-great nephew Michael Golden (right), and Michael's son David Golden (center).

She is working with L.A. County Arboretum CEO Richard Schulhof to dredge and restore the lake in front of the Queen Anne Cottage, and plans to direct some of the “large donation” she is making to the Arboretum to the restoration of what is now known as the Hugo Reid Adobe. Like the Baldwn Adobe Restoration Committee, Margaux would like to see the adobe returned to the way it stood when it was the home place  for Lucky Baldwin, who lived and died in a leg of what was then an “L” shaped building that was torn down decades ago. Hugo Reid never lived in the adobe, which he built as more of a tool shed to comply with a land ownership requirement that he have a structure on the premises which he visited infrequently.

Margaux said she has begun meeting with screenwriters in hopes of getting a movie produced about Lucky to show how many things he accomplished in his life, from building several elaborate hotels to employing many minorities at his ranch and creating and managing a vineyard. She answered many questions from the interested audience, and was even introduced by Society President Gene Glasco to two distant cousins in the audience whom she had never met, Lucky’s great-great-great nephew Michael Golden and his son David Golden. Michael Golden is David’s father.

She also showed and described family items she has inherited over the years, including her favorite, a locket of Anita’s with a tiny flip-book of photos from Europe. She also shared framed photos of her family as well as  two jackets, one of which belonged to Anita that her sister Heather wore at her school prom and which Margaux wore at her wedding.

Dozens of attendees stayed after the program to visit with Margaux, one of whom asked her to autograph a 2003 anthology book edited by current Mayor Gary Kovacic called Visions of Arcadia.

— By Scott Hettrick