As you may recall, our recent Installation Dinner at Arcadia’s Community Center was catered by the Derby Restaurant. More recently our daughter Deirdre treated us to dinner at the Derby Restaurant. The menu included an outline of the restaurant’s own history. It seems that before the Derby was purchased by George Woolf (Seabiscuit’s jockey) in 1938, and before it was moved to its present location in 1931, it operated in a different place under a different name.

The Derby was founded in 1922 by Hudson M. Proctor. Originally known as Proctor’s Tavern it was located on Foothill Boulevard in close proximity to Santa Anita Race Track. There its customers included both horse owners and wagerers. Nine years later the main thoroughfare in Arcadia had shifted from Foothill Boulevard to Huntington Drive. Proctor then moved the restaurant to its current location, 233 E. Huntington Drive.

Why did the name “Hudson M. Proctor” sound familiar? Well, if we look at the list of Past Presidents in Arcadia Rotary’s Membership Roster we find that our club’s first President (1927-1928) is a man named “Hudson Proctor” who is elsewhere mentioned as a “charter member.” (http://www.iamnotastalker.com/2013/08/16/the-derby-restaurant-from-step-brothers/ ) It thus appears that Arcadia Rotary and the Derby Restaurant have a connecting link which dates back to their respective foundings (the Derby in 1922 and Arcadia Rotary in 1927).