The 'Tawdry' History of the Huntingtons on KPCC's Offramp Program

If you like the Huntington but don't know much about the family who founded San Marino's iconic library, museum and gardens, the KPCC program Offramp has a story for you.

It's a story the station describes as "tawdry" and comes from author Shelley Bennett's new work, "The Art of Wealth."

The write-up on KPCC's website begins: 

She was a winsome teen who blew into post-Civil War New York with a tin-horn gambler on the run from the law. Soon, she was pregnant, and writing to one of the richest men in America, "Dear Mr Huntington, I am so worried I don’t know what to do.” Yes, that Mr. Huntington.

It’s a story never before told in full, in a spectacular new quadruple biography of Arabella, Collis, Henry and Archer Huntington, a fierce family foursome that gave the Southland the Red Car lines plus its most venerated museum, and America two of its greatest fortunes.

Collis Huntington, a former Sacramento storekeeper who became top executive of America’s transcontinental railroad, knew just what to do. He never denied he was father of Arabella Yarrington’s little boy Archer, but just how the married robber baron became such has never been disclosed, according to Shelley M. Bennett’s The Art of  Wealth. 

The full 4 minute and 15 second excerpt of the radio program and the full print story can be viewed on KPCC's website.