Editing Arcadia, California (section)

====Inter-war decades====
[[Image:ArcadiaBalloonhangers-1922.jpg|thumb|U.S. Army's [[Ross Field (airfield)|Ross Field]] Balloon School hangars]]

During [[World War I]], Arcadia was home to the U.S. Army's [[Ross Field (airfield)|Ross Field]] Balloon School, at the present-day Santa Anita Park site. Army observers were trained here in techniques to observe enemy activity from [[hot air balloon]]s.

After World War I, Arcadia's population grew and local businesses included many chicken ranches and other agricultural activities. During the 1920s and 1930s, Arcadia began its transition to the residential city that it is today, as small farms and chicken ranches gave way to homes and numerous civic improvements, including a city library and a city hall. Scenes of many of Arcadia's interesting older sites can be viewed in a series of historic watercolors painted by local artists Edna Lenz and Justine Wishek.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.ci.arcadia.ca.us/dbtw-wpd/queries/arcPAINTquery.htm |title=Edna Lenz and Justine Wishek Paintings |publisher=Library.ci.arcadia.ca.us |access-date=January 24, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729234233/http://library.ci.arcadia.ca.us/dbtw-wpd/queries/arcPAINTquery.htm |archive-date=July 29, 2013 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> The city was on historic [[U.S. Route 66 in California|U.S. Route 66]], present-day [[Colorado Boulevard]], with businesses serving travelers on it.

[[Thoroughbred horse racing]] had flourished briefly under Lucky Baldwin, who founded a racetrack adjacent to the present site, until it was outlawed by the state of California in 1909. It returned to Arcadia when racing was legalized again, with the opening of [[Santa Anita Park]] in December 1934. Architect [[Gordon Kaufmann]] designed its various buildings in a combination of [[Colonial Revival architecture|Colonial Revival]] and [[Streamline Moderne]] styles.

[[File:Arcadia, California. Persons of Japanese ancestry arrive at the Santa Anita Assembly center from Sa . . . - NARA - 537040.tif|left|thumb|[[Japanese American]] citizens arrive in Arcadia, relocated to the Santa Anita Assembly Center.]]
[[File:Santa Anita Assembly Center, Arcadia, California. A panoramic view of the Santa Anita assembly cent . . . - NARA - 536812.jpg|thumb|left|Santa Anita Assembly Center tarpaper barracks, at the [[Santa Anita Park]] racetrack]]