Northside - City of Riverside

formation of the Riverside Community Players (1925), the Riverside Art Association
(1931), and the Riverside Opera Association (1932) (Patterson 1996:383,402). In the
depressed 1930s, local public projects benefited from national relief programs like
the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which assisted in the construction of
public improvements, such as the concrete parking stops installed along North Main
Street shops, and also contributed to arts and education projects like the
construction of a new building for the Chemawa Junior High School (1928) in 1939-
40 (demolished 1973).
According to Riverside census records, from 1910 to 1940 the City’s population more
than doubled from 15,212 to 34,696, with the largest increase of 10,355 new residents
between 1920 and 1930. It is unclear how these figures represent the population
growth within the Northside, specifically, but the onset of large-scale residential
development there during this period evidences the relative increase to the boost in
the larger Riverside population.
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
In response to dramatic increases in population, residential development in
Riverside increased again in the peacetime climate between WWI and WWII, which
was typical throughout southern California. In Riverside, previously undeveloped
land was subdivided as new residential tracts were developed. Extensive grove and
agricultural properties were carved up, and new, smaller homes were built near
large grove houses or filled in vacant residential lots (RCPD February 2003:16). On
the Northside, however, much of the land within the survey area had already been
readied for development, and within this period, only two tracts were developed in
the Fairmount Heights area of the Northside – the Redwood Tract (1924), which
resubdivided the 1916 Amended Indian Hill Tract, and City Park Tract (1926). In the
Southeast Quadrant, Russell Tract Nos. 1 & 2 (1936, 1937) and the Rusora Tract
(1937) were developed, and developers began to consider the area in the northeast
area of the Southeast Quadrant, now the Freeway Industrial Interchange, and the
C.C. Pond Subdivision (1941) was laid out there (Figure 16). Speculation in this area
may have waited too long. WWII slowed development, and by the time the war
came to a close, the area appeared suitable for large-scale industrial and
manufacturing.
Area of Development Tracts Date Map Book/Page
Fairmount Heights Redwood Tract 1924 11/77
City Park Tract 1926 13/82
Freeway Industrial
Interchange
C.C. Pond Subdivision 1941 20/7
103