Riverside, California is a city with a rich history. Founded in 1870 by John North and a group of Orientals who wanted to create a colony dedicated to education and culture, Riverside was built on land that was once a Spanish ranch. It is the birthplace of California's citrus industry and home to the Mission Inn, the largest Mission Revival Style building in the United States. It is also home to the Riverside National Cemetery and the Eastern Division of the Federal District Court for the Central District of California. The Mission Inn was developed out of Glenwood Tavern, owned by Captain Christopher Columbus Miller, who moved to Riverside in 1874 to study the land of the Gage Canal, which brought water to Riverside.
Riverside Municipal Airport is an airport within the city limits of Riverside, but it has no commercial airline service. As the seat of Riverside County and the most populous city in the Inland Empire, Riverside is also home to several law, accounting, engineering and banking firms. In 1916, a community college was established in Riverside, and the city is also home to La Sierra University (1922; Seventh-day Adventist) and California Baptist University (1950).On March 8th 1870, a group of former Midwesterners who would soon call themselves the Southern California Colony Association bought the land on which downtown Riverside now stands and began their new colony. This marked the official founding of Riverside. Riverside is now the 61st largest city in the United States, the twelfth largest city in California, and the largest city in the Inland Empire metropolitan area of California.
In the California state legislature, the city of Riverside is in the 31st Senate District, represented by Democrat Richard Roth. The first European visitors to what is now known as Riverside were Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and his thirty-four veteran soldiers, who arrived in 1774 from Arizona in search of a land route to California.
