On Saturday, we drove inland to Downtown Riverside to see the Mission Inn. The Mission Inn is a hotel built in the Mission Style. It was never meant to be a mission at all but the owner, a bit eccentric, built it in this style and often dressed as a monk to draw guests to his hotel (even though he was a quaker). It was started in 1874 but took off as a destination hotel in the early 1900's.
Frank Miller, took over the hotel from his father and created an amazing place. He traveled across Europe and bought what he could from different places. If he couldn't buy it, he would sketch it and have his builders re-create it. If he didn't have a place for it, he would build one. Which makes the hotel a bit of a maze with all sorts of different pathways and art within it's walls.
Although Riverside isn't very highly regarded these days, back in the early 1900s it used to be quite the destination spot primarily because of the Orange industry. People would spend several months in the area and many of them stayed at the Mission Inn. Including several Presidents, movie stars, and writers.
It is now a National Historic Landmark and is protected from any alterations. It was a beautiful hotel and it would be pretty fun to stay there for a night. While we were there, the Dickens Festival was going on just down the street from the hotel. It was a bit funny to see people in Victorian dress walking up and down the streets and around the hotel. It was also interesting to see the different interpretations of Victorian dress. The home made soldiers outfits were definitely interesting. We've decided people just like to dress up and if they can why not, lol.
