In 1870, John North and a group of Orientals had a vision to create a colony that would be dedicated to education and culture. This colony would become Riverside, California, the birthplace of the state'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. On that day, a group of former Midwesterners, who would later be known as the Southern California Colony Association, purchased the land where downtown Riverside now stands and began their new colony.
Riverside Municipal Airport is located within the city limits but does not offer commercial airline service. As the 61st largest city in the United States, the twelfth largest in California, and the largest in the Inland Empire metropolitan area, Riverside is home to several law, accounting, engineering and banking firms. In the California state legislature, Riverside is represented by Democrat Richard Roth in the 31st Senate District. The first Europeans to visit this area were Captain Juan Bautista de Anza and his thirty-four veteran soldiers who arrived from Arizona in 1774 in search of a land route to California.
In 1916, a community college was established in Riverside and La Sierra University (1922; Seventh-day Adventist) and California Baptist University (1950) are also located here. Riverside is home to many historical sites such as Glenwood Tavern which was 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. This tavern eventually became what we know today as The Mission Inn.
