Postcard: Beautiful Riverside, California

Here’s an aerial view from approximately 1960 over downtown Riverside. The view is looking north from Fourteenth Street, with the intersection of Fourteenth and Market/Magnolia at bottom-left.

At top-right is the then relatively new Riverside Freeway (Highway 91), with southbound off-ramp at Seventh Street (now Mission Inn Avenue) and southbound on-ramp at Ninth Street (currently being re-configured to enter the freeway at Tenth Street).

Notice the lack of today’s modern, mid-rise buildings, which began with the 5-story County Health building (@1961/62) and 8-story, former Citizen’s/Crocker Bank building (1965). Also not yet present is the Main Street pedestrian mall, which replaced four blocks of Main Street in 1966.

Notable in the postcard as well are:

• Image One: The First Baptist Church and the Arlington/Tetley/Riverside Hotel (where the J.F. Davidson building and the new downtown fire station are today)
  
• Image Two: The parking lot (where Riverside High School once stood and the 8-story Riverside Centre now stands)
  
• Image Three: The blocks of housing (where the Riverside County Administrative Center and adjacent Federal/Bankruptcy courts now reside)

Image One

Image Two

Image Three