Centrally located within the Orange Empire, the City of Riverside is the region's largest city and second oldest following San Bernardino. The city is rich in historical context and cultural significance and is one of the 'grand' cities of California's romantic past.

Founded by John W. North and his Southern California Colony Association, the city was originally known as Jurupa. However, upon incorporation in 1883, the town's name was changed to Riverside in reflection of the adjacent Santa Ana River. The streets within the colony's original downtown 'Mile Square' district were patterned after downtown Philadelphia.

East coast banker and philanthropist S.C. Evans also played a key role in the early development of Riverside. His Riverside Land & Irrigation Company laid out the city's 'Presidential Streets' and built the park-like Magnolia Avenue, which stretches well over 10 miles south into the City of Corona (then known as South Riverside).

Shortly after incorporation, the struggling colony - and Southern California as a whole - was forever changed by the inconspicuous arrival of an experimental citrus variety obtained from the Department of Agriculture in Washington DC.

Planted in 1873 by Luther and Eliza Tibbets, these two bud stocks - derivatives of a Brazilian navel orange - took surprisingly well to the area's semiarid climate. Local lore has it that Mrs. Tibbets used dishwater on the trees when water supplies were low.

Word quickly spread of the succulent seedless oranges leading local growers to begin requesting grafts straight off the Tibbets' very trees.

Parent navel orange tree

In no time, large expanses of groves began popping up throughout the city and nearby region. To supply water to the groves, a gravity-fed canal system was built stretching over 10 miles across Riverside's southern boundaries. Known as Gage Canal, the water system is still in use today.

Within two decades, the Tibbets' two trees had managed to spawn Southern California's entire navel orange industry and by 1895 - thanks to this amazingly sweet navel orange - Riverside was listed as the richest city per capita in the nation.

In 1893, Riverside took on an even greater role as county seat for newly created Riverside County, which was formed from portions of San Bernardino and San Diego counties. The new county was the result of a tax dispute in which Riverside area residents claimed San Bernardino was, among other things, unfairly taxing their greater per capita wealth. Thus, on May 9th 1893, Riverside County was officially born.

The enormous wealth produced by the navel orange created strong civic pride and afforded numerous cultural amenities, much of which can be seen throughout the city today in its many Victorian, Craftsman, and California Bungalow homes, older civic buildings, and in particular, the Mission Inn.

Mission Inn downtown

Originally built in 1876 as a 12-room adobe cottage, the Glenwood Mission Inn eventually grew to encompass an entire city block. Built primarily between 1902-1930, the Mission Inn is often referred to as the best example of Mission Revival architecture in America, however, it is in fact a collection of many different styles including Moorish, Spanish, Oriental and European. In short, its eclectic collection of architectural styles transformed the entire downtown landscape.

The opulence of the Mission Inn's past is still readily evident as the completely refurbished hotel continues to invite guests in experiencing the wonders of early California. Today, the Inn remains a popular location for movie shoots as well as a unique place for famous weddings and honeymoons: Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and former presidents Nixon and Reagan.

Will Rogers once wrote: "...the most unique hotel in America...If you are ever in any part of Cal don't miss the famous Mission Inn at Riverside."

Carillon Bell Tower UC Riverside

With the success of the navel orange, the University of California ushered in higher education to the region via the creation of the Citrus Experiment Station. Commissioned in 1907, the station became instrumental in maintaining Southern California's citrus industry as the worldwide leader.

In 1954, a liberal arts college was established alongside the Citrus Station. With a small professor-to-student ratio, the tiny liberal arts college soon garnered the reputation as being "the Swathmore of the West." By 1960, both the Citrus Station and the college officially became a general campus of the UC system.

Today, along with its sister campuses, the University of California at Riverside is regarded as one of the top public universities in the nation.

In 1918, an Aero Squadron training facility - March Field - was established on a dusty plain just southeast of Riverside. Created to train a new breed of the nation's military - airplane pilots - March Field was the first such base of its kind on the west coast and played a significant role during the the early years of the fledging Army Air Corps (later to become the autonomous US Air Force).

Training took place using JN-4 'Jenny' planes of WWI fame and continued throughout WWII as thousands of recruits passed through March - including Hoyt Vandenberg and Curtis LeMay - only to see many return for the warm California sunshine following the war.

March Field Museum

During the post-WWII nuclear age, March Field transformed into March Air Force Base - a major Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber base and headquarters for the 15th Air Force. Though never acknowledged at the time, the base stored a large arsenal of nuclear weapons and, at one time, the 15th Air Force oversaw nearly 75% of the nation's ICBM arsenal on the west coast.

March's Cold War duties continued as a bomber base with B-52s stationed at the base until 1982, after which the base's primary mission changed from bomber base to refueling base using KC-10s and KC-135s.

Currently, the base is known as March Air Reserve Base and is the largest reserve base in the US serving every division of the armed forces. The primary mission of the base is now that of airlift, transport, and refueling.

The base is also home to a branch of the California Air National Guard as well as the location of the US Armed Forces Radio and Television Unit and the US Customs Southwest Interdiction Unit.

March is the oldest Air Force base on the west coast and at 13,000ft, the airstrip is Southern California's longest paved runway. Currently, the US Air Force jointly shares the airstrip with the commercially oriented March Inland Cargo Port.

California Tower downtown

Today, after phenomenal postwar growth, Riverside is the 11th most-populous city in California. The City has the largest employment of all Orange Empire cities and boasts the area's most significant cultural entities.

And with the region's largest concentration of governmental, financial, cultural, and judicial services - including branches for US District and California Appellate courts - the downtown core is considered to be the 'downtown' for the Orange Empire region.

Even with the phenomenal growth, the city has preserved much of its historical charm particularly in the immediate downtown business and residential districts. The city also retains a significant portion of its historical greenbelt - the largest such citrus greenbelt in Southern California.

With 3 universities and 1 major community college system, the city hosts one of the largest student populations in all of California. The region's flagship university - UC Riverside - continues to mature into one of the nation's highest-rated research institutions.

From charming turn-of-the-century historic districts to master-planned residential communities, the City of Riverside offers one of California's most diverse landscapes, and indeed, remains one of California's 'grand' cities.