Northside - City of Riverside

the little store, recall the haven the Fairmount Grocery, where the tennis courts are
located now, offered many days while playing at the park (Mermilliod & Klure
2005b). Historic amenities in Fairmount Park that have been altered and improved
over the decades and features that have been lost, including the Riverside Municipal
Auto Camp (1914-1927), zoo and historic tennis courts (1933-1935), an aviary (circa
1910-unknown), the plunge and a sulphur spring, and an amusement park with
carousel (1947-1978) (Tang 2002:15-16). It was the C.W. Parker carousel (1912), which
was designated in 1978 as City Landmark Object No. 27, that two Northsiders –
Frances McArthur Wright and Bessie Brooks - remember best as each of them
accepted marriage proposals there.
RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
The boom of the 1880s coincided with the completion of the California Southern and
ATSF rail lines and the construction of the Gage Canal, which brought water to
Riverside’s eastern plain and opened lands on the Eastside for large-scale
subdivision. Thus, substantial residential tract development first expanded beyond
the Mile Square to the east or separately in the Arlington community to the south,
beyond the Government Tract. Some early residents of the Northside purchased
land directly from the Southern California Colony Association and found the rural
landscape of the Northside ideal for agricultural production and grove house
construction, while others built homes designed for urban living. In Riverside, the
boom time continued beyond the regional depression around 1887, with Victorian
era homes constructed mainly in the Mile Square, but also scattered throughout the
accessible areas of the City. While the national financial crisis of 1893 did slow
residential construction, five tracts were delineated in the survey area between 1893
and 1895, all in Fairmount Heights (Figure 14). Examples from throughout the late
19 th century are found here and throughout the survey boundaries on individually
developed parcels, and nearly 200 residential properties constructed or estimated as
constructed in the 1890s are recorded in the City’s Historic Resources Inventory
Database (City of Riverside 2005).
Area of Development Tracts Date Map Book/Page
Fairmount Heights Fairmount Heights Tract 1893 unknown
Fairmount Heights Tract No. 2 1893 1/3
Wright’s Subdivision 1894 1/14
Fairmount Heights Tract No. 3 1895 1/29
Fairmount Heights Tract No. 4 1895 1/46-47
Figure 14. Table showing tract development from 1870-1900
Many Victorian Era single-family residences are extant in the survey area, but are
concentrated south of SR-60. Some of these homes were built on parcels suited for
63