Welcome to Riverside!

Riverside is the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States and is also a focus city of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The city is named for the nearby Santa Ana River. As of 2006, Riverside had an estimated population of 305,255.  In 2005, Riverside was the largest city in the Inland Empire region, the 61st-largest city in the United States, and by one measure part of the 14th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. (Or part of the second, if Greater Los Angeles is classified as a single metro). Riverside's downtown area includes the "Mission Inn District", after the Mission Inn, a hotel that was modeled after the missions left along the California coast by Franciscan friars in the 18th century. Contrary to popular belief, the Mission Inn Hotel is not a mission, but was built in the mission revival style of the 1930's. Although missionaries of the era actually came as far inland as San Bernardino (San Bernardino Asistencia), east of Riverside, there was no actual Spanish mission in what is now Riverside. After secularization of the missions, the land was designated Rancho Jurupa and was granted to Juan Bandini, who later divided the rancho into two parts and sold them to two Yankees-turned-ranchéros, Benjamin D. "Benito" Wilson and Abel Stearns.
The city was founded in the early 1870s beside the Santa Ana River by John W. North, a staunch temperance-minded abolitionist from Tennessee, who had previously founded Northfield, Minnesota. A few years after, the navel orange was planted and found to be such a success that full-scale planting started. Riverside was temperance minded (few saloons if any were allowed in Riverside proper), and Republican. Investors from England and Canada transplanted traditions and activities adopted by prosperous citizens. As a result, the first golf course and polo field in Southern California were built in Riverside.
The first orange trees were planted in 1871, but the citrus industry Riverside is famous for began two years later when Eliza Tibbets received two Brazilian navel orange trees sent to her by a friend at the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC. The trees thrived in the Southern California climate and the navel orange industry grew rapidly. Within a few years, the successful cultivation of the newly discovered navel orange led to a California Gold Rush of a different kind: the establishment of the citrus industry, which is commemorated in the landscapes and exhibits of the California Citrus State Historic Park and the restored packing houses in the Downtown's Marketplace district. By 1882, there were more than half a million citrus trees in California, almost half of which were in Riverside. The development of refrigerated railroad cars and innovative irrigation systems established Riverside as the wealthiest city per capita by 1895.
As the city prospered, a small guest hotel designed in the popular Mission Revival style, known as the Glenwood Tavern, eventually grew to become the world famous Mission Inn, favored by presidents, royalty and movie stars. Inside was housed a special chair made for the sizeable President Taft. Postcards of lush orange groves, swimming pools and magnificent homes have attracted vacationers and entrepreneurs throughout the years. Many relocated to the warm, dry climate for reasons of health and to escape Eastern winters. Victoria Avenue with its landmark homes serves as a reminder of European investors who settled here.
In 1915 a Japanese immigrant named Jukichi Harada, proprietor for many years of a local restaurant, purchased a home in Riverside in the names of his American-born children in order to provide access for them to the public school system. Neighbors formed a committee and charged him with violating the California Alien Land Law of 1913, which barred aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning land. The case, The People of the State of California v. Jukichi Harada, became a test of the constitutionality of the law and progressed to the state Supreme Court, where the Haradas won. The Metropolitan Museum of Riverside now owns the house, which has been designated a National Historic Landmark.