Of all the world-class botanic gardens in the Los Angeles area, I've probably been to the LA Arboretum the least.
I don't really know why—be it the distance or simply the absence of a miniature train and a corpse flower.
But one thing the Arboretum shares with its counterparts, like Descanso Gardens and The Huntington, is that it's located on the grounds of a historic estate.
This was once the land of pioneer E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin, who came to Northern California in search of gold in 1853. He settled in Southern California in 1875, purchasing the Rancho Santa Anita and later subdividing it to create Arcadia, where the arboretum is now located.
Despite his wealth, Baldwin lived quite humbly in a small adobe home. But in 1885, he built a magnificent Queen Anne cottage for the entertaining of guests—and to show off how well he'd done for himself.
It's a lovely jewel box surrounded by a sag pond and cycads and citrus trees and an herb garden, one that I'd previously only seen from the outside...
...and in the opening credits of the TV show Fantasy Island.
While historically the Queen Anne cottage had been open for educational tours for private groups, and to the public during the holiday season, it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. I wasn't sure I would ever get in.
Then it reopened in 2024—but for just two days around Christmastime. That made 2025 its big comeback year, with "A Victorian Holiday at the Queen Anne Cottage" taking place over the course of three weekends in late November and early December.
A docent greeted us at the front entrance, whose canopy is painted blue to mimic the sky and whose mirrored wall helped guests shake off the dust of their rugged trip to the Victorian dwelling.
Baldwin dedicated it as a kind of memorial to this third wife, Jennie, who died young of tuberculosis in 1881.
He was already on to his fourth wife, Lillie—and even hired her father, Albert A. Bennett, as the architect. But by the time the cottage was completed in 1886 (in Stick-Eastlake design, not technically Queen Anne), they'd split up.
In 1886, the Los Angeles Times described it as "a truly royal lodge" that served as a kind of exhibition space for Baldwin's possessions and particular manner of taste. There's no kitchen, but there's a room that was meant for serving food and drink.
Baldwin died in 1909, after which many of the items of value were removed from the Queen Anne cottage and stored in the neighboring coach barn.
That included stained glass windows, of which there are many, including those of Shakespeare (above, left) and Lord Byron (above, right). 
Many of those architectural elements were moved back into the cottage and put in their rightful places during a restoration that took place from 1951 to 1953.
Today, there are some modern touches—like a certain peacocky design motif as a nod to the noisy, colorful birds that have famously made the grounds their home since Baldwin first imported them from India.
Other stained glass windows with a Pre-Raphaelite influence peek out from behind the tops of Christmas trees...
...and the fringed bottoms of swagged drapery.
However, Baldwin's daughter (with Jennie) Anita disposed of all his furnishings after his death—so whatever is in the four bedrooms now (and the music room) now is simply period-appropriate, and not of a direct Baldwin-related provenance.
As Baldwin was also well known gambler (in racehorses and poker hands), it seems appropriate to position a gaming table in the room set up like a parlor.
So Baldwin leaves behind quite the legacy—as the landowner of the arboretum's grounds, founder of Arcadia (and its first mayor), and four-time husband with a penchant for 16-year-old girls (two of whom became his wives).
But the cottage he built serves as a lovely centerpiece to the botanical garden.
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