Bell Tower, Queen Anne Cottage
Around 1877, Elias "Lucky" Baldwin purchased the 8,500 acre Rancho Santa Anita in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley in southern California for $25 an acre, which was the largest real estate transaction recorded up to that time in the Los Angeles area. In the following years he continued to purchase more land and by 1879 Baldwin owned 46,000 acres of prime land in the beautiful and fertile San Gabriel valley. He is probably best known for the racetrack he built on his property, the Santa Anita Racetrack. He built this beautiful and fanciful cottage for his wife and to entertain their guests. The house is set next to a beautiful lagoon bordered by a lush tropical jungle and has been used for several movie sets. Probably the most well known, however, was for the opening scenes of the TV series in the 70's called Fantasy Island. Can't you just see Tattoo up in that bell tower yelling down to Mr. Roark, (Ricardo Mantalban), "ze plane, ze plane". Now the cottage and surrounding acres belong to the County of Los Angeles and is now a beautiful arboretum. I grew up about 10 minutes away from here.
So now that it's all coming back to you, here's a short clip to help the memory:
(You may have to start the video, then pause it until it loads, then click several times to start it again.)
Congratulations to Tanna and my daughter Amber who guessed correctly, although my daughter probably doesn't count since she's too young to remember the series, and probably remembers because we took our family there many years ago.
12 comments:
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Loved the last photo as well.
Thanks for stopping
Oh this brings back so many fond memories of watching Fantasy Island on Saturday nights with my Dad. Him in this green chair and me on the sofa.... til 11pm!!
I knew it!! Just didn't have enough to commit it to paper!
Well, I have no excuse for getting this wrong! I was an adult when I watched this show every week! Too bad both these actors are no longer with us. This was fun!!!
LOL! I'm amazed. Sometimes those very first thoughts are good ones. LOL!
What a colorful shot this is Karen.
Love towers like this they are fairy like.
Hugs D.
love the photo of the tower. I never watched this show and have not been to CA so now I feel better about my not guessing what it was. thanks for the info and short history lesson. i leanr new things daily by blogging
I never watched that show. Whew, I feel better now. Thought I was losing it at a greater pace than I imagined.
What?! Fantasy Island wasn't an island at all? I'm crushed!! = )
I don't EVER remember being taken there. I remember because I watched EVERY episode of that show with you in your bedroom late at nights while you rocked in your recliner. It was the only way I got to stay up late with you and Dad, but Dad usually fell asleep in his recliner. I absolutely LOVED that show, and wondered if there really was such an island.
Oh, I had to laugh. After moving back down here to So. Calif. my daughter and I rediscovered this place. She doesnt remember the series so I showed her this.
Thanks for finding me. I'm going to be looking around for a bit. Photography is rather new to me and I am enjoying it so!!
Wow for the red accents on the photo. Stunning images. Anna :)
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