Northside - City of Riverside

Circa 1930 photo of the lawn bowling green and play at Fairmount Park from the Avery Field
Archive, Special Collections Library University of California, Riverside
Fairmount Park has been extensively studied and is designated a City Landmark
(#69; 1985) along with two remaining individual features within its boundaries, the
Bandshell (#10) and the Montezuma Bald Cypress Trees (#61). In 1997, the park was
formerly evaluated and determined eligible for listing in the NRHP under Criteria A
(Hartig & McCoy 1997), however, subsequent study (Hathaway & Associates 2002
and Tang 2002) has concluded that the resource does not meet the threshold for
integrity to qualify for NRHP designation but is eligible for listing in the CRHR at
the local level of significance under Criteria 2 for its association with several
individuals significant to the history of the City of Riverside.
Though the popularity of the park has ebbed and flowed over the decades, it has
regularly accommodated thousands of visitors on any typical, summertime Sunday
(RCPD 19766:80-81). Many Northsiders fondly recall picnicking in the park and
holiday celebrations, particularly for Easter. Fairmount Park was the main
recreational draw for Northside children and adults, and oral history participants,
Bessie Brooks, Frances McArthur-Wright, and Jane Margison, whose family owned
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