Northside - City of Riverside

and was not investigated for significance; further study is recommended to
determine the channel’s historic importance in terms of irrigation/agricultural
history to the Northside and to Riverside.
Since 1876, thousands of Riversiders as well as local and eastern visitors have
enjoyed the waters of a natural hot spring captured for use as a bathing and
swimming plunge. White Sulphur Springs, a name that has changed many times, is
located at 3723-25 Strong Street, near Main Street, just north of the survey area. First
used by local Native Americans, likely Cahuillas and Gabrieliños, the natural hot
springs may have also served the bathing needs of Victorian Riverside as the
availability of private, full-immersion bathing was not yet common and was also a
source of bottled drinking water and a draw for Hollywood filmmakers. The facility
continued to operate as a pay-for-use public pool until the late 1960s, and the
recreational facilities
and several associated buildings have been severely neglected
for some time. Though the historic context for this survey is complete for the hot
springs, as the property is outside the survey boundaries, site-specific study and
evaluation is recommended during Phase II.
The Spring Brook Golf Course was developed late in the period of this study for the
Northside Survey, but the recreational facility likely influenced and was influenced
by the increase in residential development and settlement on the Northside, and
future study should include an examination of its association with residential and
industrial development and its significance as a recreational and event locale for
Northsiders.
Located north of the Riverside Fairgrounds, outside of the survey area, the Alamo
Tract (1912) straddled the Santa Ana River, which provided irrigation and drinking
water to each of the large, deep lots designed to support family farms. Parcel owners
not only owned the land, but the water, too, as each property holder was also
proportionate shareholder in the Alamo Water Company. The current president of
the water company is Northsider Sam Gregory, who still farms and irrigates his
rural parcel west of the survey area. As Alamo Tract lands have changed hands and
been reduced to smaller lot sizes throughout the 20 th century, shareholders have
dwindled, but the company remains the only privately-owned water company in
the City. The history
of the tract, water use, and association with Northsiders can be
supported by the early settlement theme and irrigation history developed here.
Several original above- and below-ground structures of the well-and-canal irrigation
system are still extant outside the survey area, and the Alamo Water Company lands
and any associated buildings, structures, or objects are recommended for further
study in Phase II.
In addition to these properties, an Immigration and Ethnic Diversity theme could
not be developed within the scope of this phase of the survey project as the historic
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