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Orange Crate Labels - Riverside, California

Welcome

This site explores the past, present, and future of downtown Riverside, California — one of Southern California’s truly historic downtowns, and indeed, a nice surprise within the suburban sprawl that is Greater Los Angeles.

The name Raincross Square comes from a downtown civic plaza of the 1970s and 1980s. It is also a derivative of “Mile Square,” the original 1870s street grid for the City of Riverside.

Within the Mile Square district of downtown are numerous historic homes and buildings, a handful of museums (including The Cheech), a four-block pedestrian mall, and the magnificent Riverside County Courthouse as well as the eclectic Mission Inn. Many stand as testament to the riches attained from Southern California’s once-mighty navel orange industry, which originated in Riverside in the mid-1870s.

Downtown Riverside, California
Riverside County (California) Courthouse
Rotunda - Mission Inn - Riverside, California
Main Street Pedestrian Mall - Riverside, California

Latest Posts

  • Mixed-use back as part of the mix in downtown Riverside
    Since the early 2000s, Riverside has sought and encouraged more mixed-use and higher-density residential developments within the downtown core, specifically on portions of Market Street and along the Main Street…
  • We’re back! Well, sorta …
    2024 UPDATE: After remaining dormant since June 2014 — due in part to a multi-year, out-of-state relocation — RaincrossSquare.com has been resurrected (May 2024). Initially, the site will serve as…
  • Riverside Auto Center nearing 50 years
    Billed as the “World’s First Auto Center,” the 1965 opening of the Riverside Auto Center transformed the car-buying landscape in America, if not the world. What began in the early…