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 1950s as a bold vision among three local car dealers — George Reade Sr. (Chevrolet), Charles W. “Bud” Dutton Sr. (Cadillac/Oldsmobile), and Julian Adrian “Red”…
Six months after being announced, the Riverside Plaza store of Nordstrom Rack is nearing its April 3rd opening date. The sibling of the high-end retailer will take up residence within a portion of the former Harris/Gottschalks/Forever 21 building, taking up a reported 45,000 sq. ft. on the ground level. The 3-story building underwent an extensive…
In April 1928, reports surfaced that retailing giants Sears and Montgomery Ward were both considering stores for Riverside, possibly at Seventh and Lime, and Ninth and Orange streets respectively. However, these sites would not come to fruition as both retailers eventually ended up elsewhere in downtown. Just before the opening of Sears at Fifth and…
(UPDATE, Aug. 27: Thanks to commenter Matthew, we’ve added new images showing the exterior changes being made to the former Harris’ building. Note the designs, however, have changed somewhat from what is depicted within the images — namely, the reversing of the exterior escalator.) Construction has been underway for the past several months retrofitting the…
One of the charms of downtown Riverside is the handful of small, one-of-a-kind shops, boutiques, bars and eateries, most of which are located on or near the Main Street pedestrian mall. Two such clothing boutiques — The Parrott and Toni Moore — were spotlighted this week by reporter Laurie Lucas of The Press-Enterprise. Owned by…
For nearly 85 years, national retail giant Sears has operated a “brick & mortar” store at three different locations in Riverside, with almost 50 of those years spent at its current Arlington Avenue location. However, the first two Sears stores were both located downtown, with the original store opening in February 1929 on the northwest…
As expected, clothing retailer Forever 21 closed its Riverside Plaza location this past weekend, leaving the Plaza’s largest building vacant. F21 opened at the Plaza in August 2009 replacing Gottschalks, which closed a month earlier as that chain ceased operations. The building dates back to 1957 when constructed for San Bernardino-based Harris’, which remained in…
Several new additions to the downtown Riverside entertainment and shopping mix have recently opened (or are readying to open), adding to the area’s already decent collection of eateries, bars and shops. Already open — 9th Street Italian Deli (Ninth & Market), Pixels Bar (near University & Lemon), and Beyond the Olive, which is inside the…
What does one find upon entering a building that’s been out of public use for much of the past 40 years? A few weeks back, we were lucky enough to find out as we ventured along with fellow Old Riverside Foundation members into the long-shuttered Franzen’s/Westbrook’s/Imperial hardware building located on the pedestrian mall at 3750…
Following 5 years of vacancy — and several months of renovation work — the former Broadway / Macy’s department store at Riverside’s Galleria at Tyler mall is once again occupied. Last weekend, the doors to the distinctive building reopened as Forever 21 relocated its smaller inline mall store into the much larger pad located at…
