Home
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.
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 yearsBilled 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…
