Northside - City of Riverside

park also offered a roller skating rink (Gordon 1994:6). The Riverside Polo Club
(circa 1890) drew a wealthy membership and played on the well-known polo field at
Chemawa Park, which was considered the meeting place of the “elite among British
leaders of Arlington and Riverside society (Patterson 1964:103). The Riverside
Driving Association (1890s) also used the track at Chemawa Park for harness racing
from about 1913-1915 (Patterson 1996:227). Although such parks were considered a
“standard device of street railways at the time, to build business,” (Patterson
1964:103), the Pacific Electric also offered a unique entertainment to its passengers,
an amusement park and small zoo, which housed brown bears, monkeys, an aviary,
and more.
By 1913, the Riverside County Fair had become a formally sponsored event and,
though already hosted for several years at Chemawa, the “First Fair of Riverside
County” was officially held that year in the park. In 1915 the annual event was
moved to the former Riverside Fairgrounds site north of Fairmount Park. The
annual fair became the Southern California Fair in 1918 after the abolishment of the
Riverside County Fair Board, and became governed by a countywide Board of
Directors. The 1926 Southern California Fair was the last under the local regulation
of the county as shortly afterward, heavy financial burden caused the State of
California to take over the governing and funding of the annual fair. The following
year, the state created the 46 th District Agricultural Association, a state agency, to
manage the fair. The last Southern California Fair was held at the fairgrounds site
north of Fairmount Park in 1930 after which the directors of the Southern California
Fair and the Los Angeles County Fair signed an agreement to combine the two fairs.
With the newly opened and more centrally located Pomona Fairgrounds (1922), the
state forwarded the funding intended for the 46 th District Agricultural Association to
the 9 th District Agricultural Association, which administered the LA County Fair.
The Riverside Fairgrounds acreage was given to the City of Riverside by Quitclaim
Deed, and, though in 1931 and 1932 the LA County Fair was held jointly with the
Southern California Fair in Pomona (Fairplex 2005:n.p.), the 46 th District Agricultural
Association lay dormant for a few years before opening the Hemet Turkey and
Utility Show in Hemet and later moved to Perris (Diederich 2005).
While at Riverside, the Southern California Fair offered many traditional attractions
such as livestock exhibits, a jumping frog contest, art shows and a junior fair along
with some unexpected activities. A grandstand and racetrack facilitated horse racing
by the Riverside Driving Association, and later automobile and motorcycle races.
Races, and aeronautical exhibits and flyovers are remembered by many Northside
residents (LSA 2005:10). The fairgrounds also featured aeronautical exhibits and
flyovers, and hosted well-known performers such as Roman Warren, the Cowboy
Aviator who staged horse stunts and a daring flyunder the bridge.
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