Northside - City of Riverside

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Early residents of the Northside enjoyed many neighborhood places and spaces of
informal recreation, but three areas of organized recreation within the historic
boundaries of the Northside offered facilities and attractions that also drew
participants from downtown and, sometimes, beyond. Athletic Park was located
within the survey boundaries while White Sulphur Springs and Fairmount Park
border the survey area, but their significance to residents within the Northside
warrants inclusion here. Only Fairmount Park is still in use as a public park, but is
now drawn outside the City’s newly perceived boundaries of the Northside, whose
southern boundary is increasingly recognized as SR-60.
White Sulphur Springs
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.
Historic accounts indicate that the property was either more extensive or was
considered to be located on North Orange Street.
First used by local Native Americans, likely Cahuillas and Gabrieliños, the natural
hot springs and adjacent tulle bog were purchased by Dr. James P. Greves, a
Founding Father and Riverside’s first postmaster, in 1876 for their alleged medicinal
and curative properties. It was in 1886 that William Elliott, a newcomer from Illinois,
acquired the springs and capitalized on its healthful and recreational potential. By
1896, Elliott sank the first well on the property and began construction on a plunge
to capture the natural mineral waters. The Riverside Press and Horticulturist (RP&H)
reports that by September 1897, Elliott was still in the process of improving the
property and indicates that the undertaking may have been in response to a public
clamoring for specific recreation facilities:
Some months ago we alluded to the question of a public bath and
picnic grounds, and the matter has been agitated considerably on the
streets. And we believe we voice the sentiments of every man, woman,
and child in Riverside when we say that the necessity of a good system
of plunge and swimming baths is almost imperative ( RP&H 1897:n.p.).
By May 1898, RP&H reports that the 40x60-foot natatorium, or swimming pool, was
complete and that the construction of a glass-roofed building housing 60 dressing
rooms, galleries, offices, and more was planned and funded by the sale of advanced
tickets, indicating the popularity of and demand for such a facility.
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