Northside - City of Riverside

Northsiders as well as Riversiders in general patronize many of the shops on Main
Street, which before the arrival of the SR-91, acted as a highway of sorts to local
Riversiders and travelers. Most well remembered stores include Vic’s Grocery
between Poplar and Spruce Street, Save-a-Minute and the Fish Market on the east
side of Main Street, and Bader Motors. The Main Street Industrial Corridor
continues to be a major arterial between Riverside and points north with roadside
buildings catering to the consumer needs of the traveling motorist, local Northside
residents, and the community at large.
Property Types
The property types related to this period of residential development are single- and
multi-family residences that, while less associated to agriculture than in the previous
period, may be associated with smaller rural lots, particularly to north of SR-60.
Some two-story examples are extant, and many more duplexes were constructed
during this period, but both are far outnumbered by the more common, one- and
one-and-a-half-story single-family dwellings on scaled down urban parcels.
Though scattered commercial enterprise existed within a residential context,
commercial property types must be associated with the development of the Main
Street Industrial Corridor and include both vernacular and stylized single-story,
commercial, industrial, or manufacturing buildings, or portions of extant buildings.
Related features and objects such as historic commercial signs, street architecture,
and ancillary structures may be extant from this period, but could not be identified
in the field or through the limited historic maps and other materials currently
available. Other associated property types include railroad-related elements that
facilitated commercial/industrial production and distribution in this corridor and
may include extant tracks, spurs, bridges, and signs along the historic route of the
Southern Pacific Company, although no such railroad-related resources have been
noted within the Southeast Quadrant or Main Street Industrial Corridor from the
public right-of-way. Further research is recommended to decipher the construction
and alteration history along the Corridor as historic materials are inconclusive (see
Resources Evaluation).
Architectural Styles
The extant dwellings of this period rather than those constructed for
commercial/industrial use elucidate the architectural trends that shaped their
design, though some stylistic commercial/industrial examples mimicked some of
the residential designs of the period such as Spanish Colonial Revival as well as
Contemporary Folk, Western False Front, and Saw tooth Commercial examples are
extant. Exploration of these styles used on commercial construction will be explored
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