F I R S TP R E V944NEXTLAST

Lucky to be Living in San Francicso
In 1886 Elias 'Lucky' Baldwin was the owner of a modest livery stable in San Francisco when he decided to take a long hunting trip. Before leaving Baldwin instructed his broker to sell his languishing shares of Hale & Norcross silver mine stock while he was gone. However he forgot to leave the key to the safe that held the stock so the broker was unable to fulfill his wishes. Upon his return Baldwin found out that in his absence the mine had hit a new lode and that the stock was worth 1000 times its previous value.

Lucky Baldwin used his new millions to build the luxurious 400-room Baldwin Hotel on Market Street, Baldwin's Academy of Music, an 8,000-acre resort on Lake Tahoe, and help establish the Pacific Stock Exchange. Baldwin's later investments also proved fortunate and he continued to increase his wealth. On the romantic front, he married four times and had numerous scandalous affairs. His famous luck favored him once again when, during a paternity suit, the sister of the woman in question snuck up behind in the courtroom, placed a revolver to the back of Baldwin's head, and fired. But in pulling the trigger she jerked the gun, sending the bullet whizzing over his head.

Baldwin luckily survived two other incidents involving gunplay and went on to purchase 56,000 acres of land in Southern California's San Gabriel Valley. It was there that Baldwin built a horse racetrack and named it Santa Anita, after his favorite daughter. Baldwin died in San Francisco in 1909 at the age of 81 but that didn't stop his good luck. After his death geologists discovered oil beneath his San Gabriel Ranch, that find increased his estate by another $35 million.
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