Northside - City of Riverside

doubled, with the largest jump occurring between 1900 and 1910 when the number
of residents soared from 7,973 to 15,212 (Census Bureau, Census 1900-1920).
Perhaps more than the simple addition of Riverside natives over these years, this
local population growth may be fueled by an influx of people from regional or
national locales who sought to reverse their finances in a town, which by now must
have a established an even-keeled reputation for riding out both the boom times and
the down times as experienced in the last decades of the 19 th century, perhaps to try
their hand at citriculture. While the Cityscape grew increasingly larger through the
efforts of Miller and other boosters and the addition of fine public, civic, and
research facilities on a grand scale, the sheer numbers of people looking to settle
made the face of Riverside’s neighborhoods like those of the Northside largely into
compact, modest-scaled streets.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Residents of the Northside continued to enjoy the neighborhood places and spaces
of informal recreation established in the earliest period of development like
Fairmount Park and White Sulphur Springs, and during this period, an established
Riverside attraction was relocated to the Northside – the Riverside County/
Southern California Fair - and became associated with Fairmount Park. The historic
Riverside Fairgrounds border the survey area, but as with other early areas of
recreation, their significance to residents within the Northside warrants inclusion
here. In addition, the Northside gained an elementary school during this period –
Fremont Elementary – that is located just north of SR-60.
Riverside Fairgrounds
The former Riverside Fairgrounds is located within the Northside, just northwest of
the survey boundaries. The fairgrounds located in the area roughly bounded by
Strong Street to the north, Fairmount Boulevard to the east, the
Crestmore/Riverside-Rialto Line of the PE (later Crescent City Railway) roadway
(now the Market Street alignment) to the south and the Santa Ana River to the west,
near the northern edge of Fairmount Park. While in operation, the fairgrounds were
commonly associated with the parkland by area residents but the connection was
severed by the construction of SR-60 through the area in 1960-63. Fairgrounds Street
is still extant alongside the freeway to the north.
Before the area was developed for use as a fairground, a county fair was held for a
number of years at Chemawa Park (8830 Magnolia Avenue), a 23-acre community
space owned and maintained by the Pacific Electric Railway. Chemawa Park opened
in the late 1890s and provided open space for leisurely pastimes, such as picnicking,
fairs and athletic recreation. According to long-time resident Theresa Gordon, the
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