Lower Rancho, Arcadia, CA

Lower Rancho holds the two places that put Arcadia on the map, Santa Anita Park and the Los Angeles County Arboretum, and the homes around them share a backdrop of Art Deco grandstands, old gardens and the San Gabriel Mountains. Santa Anita Park opened on Christmas Day 1934 and still races in winter, spring and fall, with a bronze statue of Seabiscuit on the grounds. Across Baldwin Avenue, the Arboretum spreads 127 acres of gardens around Baldwin Lake, with the Queen Anne Cottage that opened every episode of Fantasy Island. Homes are single-family houses on generous lots, many of them one-story ranch houses from the postwar years, alongside larger newer builds that have replaced some originals. Streets are wide and quiet away from the big venues, and yards lean toward mature trees and big lawns. For everyday outdoor time, Arcadia County Park on South Santa Anita Avenue has a pool, picnic lawns under oaks and the Santa Anita Golf Course next door. Newcastle Park on West Colorado Boulevard adds tennis courts. The Arboretum works as a backyard for many, with shaded paths that feel far from Huntington Drive. Dining clusters along Huntington Drive. Monarch Donuts on West Huntington handles the morning run, and the Peacock Cafe inside the Arboretum makes a garden lunch easy. Downtown Arcadia's restaurants and the Metro A Line station are a few minutes east. The tradeoff is event traffic, since big race days, Arboretum festivals and the nearby mall all pull crowds onto Huntington Drive and Baldwin Avenue. On an ordinary weekday morning, though, you can hear the peafowl in Lower Rancho before the traffic starts.