Northside - City of Riverside

One potential historic district, the North Hill Historic District, was identified during
the survey process and represents the cohesive development of a small, exclusive
area overlooking Fairmount Park with a concentration of large-scale, high style
single-family residences in a mix of period revival style architecture of the eclectic
1920s and 1930s: Tudor Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Monterey Revival, French
Eclectic, Pueblo Revival, and Minimal Traditional styles. Most residences are
architect-designed, and unique, contributing light standards extant on Randall
Street, the west end of Houghton Avenue, and Pine Street, were likely specifically
selected for this development as they appear no where else in the survey area or in
the City. As mostly small-scaled, turn-of and early-century residences boast style
popular before period revival styles took over the face of 1920s and 1930s
subdivisions in Riverside, the presence of large, high-style examples is made more
striking (see Survey Findings).
Residents who settled on the Northside during this time may have been new arrivals
or may have sought relief from population pressures in the Mile Square. Although
the City’s population roughly doubled, construction within the survey area during
this time more than tripled with over 330 new homes constructed (County of
Riverside 2003), indicating that many chose to settle on the Northside According to
city directories, Northside residents in the 1920s and 1930s were a mix of blue- and
white-collar workers, including laborers, painters, teachers, clerks, carpenters,
engineers, electricians, contractors, farmers, mechanics, and janitors.
As elsewhere, residential development stalled during the depressed early 1930s,
and, though building picked up in the survey area in 1936, a paralyzing freeze in
1937, which decreased citrus production 37% (Patterson 1996:379-80), kept
construction in a general slump. Though three tracts are divided in the 1930s (see
table below), of the 21 years within this period of development, about 75% of
construction was completed by 1930. With the onset of another world war, strong
residential development would take years to rebound.
COMMERCIAL/INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
During this period, decreased dependence on agriculture and citrus both
contributed to and was influenced by the diversification of commercial/industrial
interests. Population increases, particularly in the 1920s, necessitated diversification
as much as the depression and devastating nighttime freeze that followed did in the
1930s. While economic interests became broader, geographically, commercial and
industrial enterprise seemed to consolidate as some areas became increasingly
associated with these uses. Neighborhood stores and shops like Dodge’s Grocery
(1923 to ca. mid-1960s), a City Structure of Merit (#541) and contributor to the
Heritage Square Historic District at 3339 First Street and another at 4041 First Street
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