The
California Silk Center Association was established in November, 1869, and included some of the land that would later become Riverside. The Association dissolved in April, 1870, when Louis Prevost, the only member of the Association knowledgeable on silk farming, died unexpectedly. On September 12, 1870, the
Southern California Colony Association of Jurupa was formed, and on September 14 they purchased much of the Silk Association's land and water rights. Initially the new colony was referred to as Jurupa, for the name of the original Rancho that occupied the area, but the Colony Association formally adopted the name Riverside on December 18, 1870.
Citrus history , also known as the Washington, Riverside, or Bahia navel. In 1873
Eliza Tibbets convinced
William Saunders, Superintendent of the fledgling
Bureau of Agriculture, to make her a test grower for his new seedless oranges from
Bahia,
Brazil. By planting and nurturing the orange trees that Saunders sent her, Tibbets revolutionized the citrus industry. Introduction of these oranges, later called the
Washington Navel Orange, proved to be the most successful experiment of Saunders' tenure, and one of the outstanding events in the economic and social development of California. For the next 60 years and more, a great industry was built up from the two small trees planted in Riverside by Eliza Tibbets. Agriculture officials attribute the success of the two trees that did flourish to Eliza Tibbets' care. When the Washington navel orange was publicly displayed at a fair in 1879, the valuable commercial characteristics of the fruit, including their quality, shape, size, color, texture, and seedlessness, were immediately recognized. Tibbets' orange was also ideally suited to Riverside's semiarid weather, and its thick skin enabled it to be packed and shipped. The contrast between this new fruit and that of seedling trees was so striking that most new grove plantings were of Washington navel oranges. Tibbets sold budwood from her trees to local nurserymen, which led to extensive plantings of nursery trees cloned from hers
Legacy of introduction Tibbets' success with the navel orange had led to a rapid increase in citrus planting, and the citrus planted was predominantly the Washington navel orange. The commercial success of these early orchards soon led to a widespread interest in this variety, so that by 1900 it was the most extensively grown citrus fruit in California. The growth that the Washington Navel Orange (WNO) produced in Riverside spread throughout the state, driving the state and even the national economy. Citrus assumed a major place in California's economy. By 1917 WNO culture was a $30 million per year industry in California. By 1933 the WNO industry in CA had grown to an industry with an annual income of $67 million. From one million boxes of oranges in 1887 to more than 65.5 million boxes of oranges, lemons, and grapefruit in 1944, despite the depression years of the 1930s, the California citrus industry experienced nothing short of explosive growth. By 1893 Riverside was the wealthiest city per capita in the United States. Money poured into California. Tibbets' orange led to an estimated $100 million of direct and indirect investment in citrus industry over the next 25 years. But Eliza Tibbets' orange did not merely feed the wealth and growth of existing towns; new cities and towns popped up whose birth, existence, and future depended upon the condition of the orange market. In 1886 alone new citrus towns were laid out in Rialto, Fontana, Bloomington, Redlands, Terracina, Mound City (Loma Linda),
Guasti and South Riverside, (Corona). Irrigated communities like Etiwanda, Redlands, Ontario and many others were launched. The rapidly expanding citrus industry also stimulated the capital market for
real estate. As the industry grew, land which had been regarded as worthless dramatically increased value. Not only did orange culture feed the land boom of the 1880s in Southern California; it allowed Riverside to survive when the land boom collapsed in 1888. (See also:
Panic of 1893.) The success of Tibbets' orange stimulated related industries. Citrus built the foundations of the region's economic modernization before the great flood of defense funds began in World War II. Tibbets' introduction of the Washington navel orange was largely responsible for the fruit
packing houses, inventions in boxing machines, fruit wraps and the iced railroad car. At the turn of the century, Stebler and Parker began manufacturing citrus packing machinery in Riverside independent of each other. The companies, which merged in 1922, became the California Iron Works, and later still Food Machinery Corporation (today's
FMC Corp.). A U. S. Department of Agriculture scientist helped growers to harness nature's biological wrath during the "decay crisis" of 1905–1907, when alarming proportions of fruit spoiled in transit, and wed the industry to the scientific expertise of the USDA. Growers, scientists, and workers transformed the natural and social landscape of California, turning it into a factory for the production of millions of oranges. Orange growers in California developed the commercialized agriculture that only spread to the rest of the country a generation later. In 1906,
University of California established in Riverside its
Citrus Experiment Station, the beginnings of the
University of California, Riverside. Originally located on the slope of
Mount Rubidoux, the station institutionalized the scientific expertise, support, and presence of the state's university and the federal government in the citrus industry, and brought quality control to the first link in the corporate agricultural chain. Sometime about 1880, many agriculturalists in the
central valley and Southern California began to convert to fruit. Soil and climate were obviously conducive to such a conversion. After the turn of the century, wheat exports began a rapid decline prompted by intense Canadian and Russian competition and declining grain yields due to soil depletion. used to exist along the railroad tracks, which would fill with thousands of workers during the citrus harvest. Many of Riverside's
Asian Americans live in the sections of Arlington and La Sierra, the majority being
Chinese American and
Korean American. The largest Korean American church in the city is Riverside Korean Baptist Church near Arlington. Riverside's first Chinatown was located in Downtown Riverside, but growing anti-Chinese sentiment and a series of city ordinances, including one that outlawed laundry businesses in the Downtown Mile Square, precipitated the Chinese community's relocation to an area bounded by Brockton and Tequesquite Avenues. The last resident of this Chinatown, George Wong (Wong Ho Leun), died in the 1970s and the remaining buildings were razed. A proposed development spurred archaeological investigations of the Chinatown site in the 1980s. Artifacts that were unearthed during these investigations are housed at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum across from the Mission Inn Hotel. Following the archaeological study, the Chinatown site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site had previously been landmarked as a State Point of Historical Interest, County landmark, and City Landmark. In 2008, the Save Our Chinatown Committee was formed to protect the Chinatown archaeological site from commercial development and increase awareness of Riverside's Chinese American history through public programming. 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, which ruled that the Harada children could own land. The Metropolitan Museum of Riverside now owns the
Harada House, which has been designated a
National Historic Landmark.
Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian-born politician elected to the United States Congress (and the only Sikh-American), was voted into office in 1956 to represent a district that included Riverside. A substantial community of
Indian Americans including
Sikhs and
Punjabis lived in Riverside with the Inland Empire and the
Colorado Desert regions (i.e.
Imperial Valley) for nearly a century.
Filipinos (see
Filipino American) have been in Riverside for over 100 years. Known as the
Pensionados, they were Philippine nationals sent to live in the United States to learn the principles of liberty and self-government. Since the US annexed the
Philippines from 1898 to its independence in 1946, the Filipino community of Riverside and Riverside county are well numerous (i.e. in nearby
Moreno Valley).
African-American history At the intersection of Howard and 12th sits the last remnants of a formerly thriving
African-American neighborhood. The old Wiley Grocery store now houses the activities of "Black" Prince Hall Masons. Nearby is the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a pilgrimage site complete with shrine. Built and destroyed three times, the current incarnation dates from the 1920s. And the
Bobby Bonds recreation center named for the major league baseball legend. Extensive information on Riverside's African American Community can be found on the Riversider.Org website. . It was open from 1957 to 1989.
Sports history Riverside was home to the
Riverside International Raceway from September 22, 1957, to July 2, 1989. Races held at the Riverside International Raceway included Cal-Club (
SCCA),
Formula One,
NASCAR,
Can-Am,
USAC,
IMSA,
IROC, and
CART. The raceway was closed in 1989 to make way for a
shopping mall and housing development five years after the raceway property was
incorporated with the city of
Moreno Valley in 1984. In 2003, plans were announced to build a 3-mile (4.8 km) road course near
Merced, California, based on the design of the Riverside layout. The new track would have been known as the
Riverside Motorsports Park. Riverside has had three
minor league baseball teams: one in 1941 known as the
Riverside Reds, and two from the class-A
California League – the
Riverside Red Wave from 1988 to 1990, and the
Riverside Pilots (a Seattle Mariners Class-A minor league affiliate) from 1993 to 1995. The teams played at the
UC-Riverside Sports Center also known as the Blaine Sports Complex. The Red Wave moved to Adelanto in 1990 to become the
High Desert Mavericks and the Pilots moved to Lancaster in 1995 to become the
Lancaster JetHawks. The Pilot's move occurred after a long-standing dispute between the Pilots, the California League, and the city to build a new facility to replace the Blaine Sports Complex. Today, a semi-pro collegiate team, the Inland Empire Rockets, plays some home games in Riverside and Moreno Valley. In the early 1940s before the start of World War II, the
Riverside Rubes a.k.a.
Riverside Reds whom played cross-region rival the
San Bernardino Bucs a.k.a.
San Bernardino Stars when two
major league teams – the
Cincinnati Reds and the
Pittsburgh Pirates held
spring training in the area, followed by the
California Winter League and in the 1950s, was the site for the
Chicago White Sox and
Philadelphia Phillies as well the
St. Louis Browns (
Baltimore Orioles). Riverside is the hometown of
Bobby Bonds and his son
Barry Bonds, and
Dusty Baker, current manager of the
Houston Astros, and former manager of the
San Francisco Giants,
Chicago Cubs, and
Washington Nationals. Although from Donora, Pennsylvania,
Ken Griffey and his son
Ken Griffey Jr. have residences in Riverside. == Timeline ==