Prohibition, Riverside, and the

Mission Inn

Background image courtesy of the Library of Congress

Above: Photograph of Main Street, Riverside, 1875. The future site of the Mission Inn is just out of frame, to the far right.

Left: John W. North’s “A Colony for California,” the publication that helped recruit families to establish the new City of Riverside in 1870.

Mission Inn Museum Collection

Above: Downtown Riverside in 1883, around the time the city split from San Bernardino County and was officially incorporated. Strict regulation and enforcement of alcohol violations followed soon after incorporation.

Mission Inn Museum Collection

Above: Riverside’s Temperance Fountain, placed by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. The fountain is located on the corner of Mission Inn Avenue and Orange Street, in front of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. Men were encouraged to use the fountain to obtain drinking water instead of visiting saloons, where they might be tempted to order alcohol instead.

Mission Inn Museum Collection

Right: Photograph of Mission Inn founder Frank A. Miller, 1925.

Below: Aerial view of the Mission Inn, looking North, circa 1935.

Mission Inn Museum Collection

Left: A 1925 letter from Awoki Kyōsai Zaidan, a Japanese temperance organization, addressed to Frank Miller.

Frank Miller’s extensive travels put him in contact with many like-minded people, including those that supported prohibition.

“[President Hoover] as we know, stands expressly for prohibition. . . I presume he solidifies more and more the prohibition policy.”

Mr. Awoki’s organization claimed to “carry on scientific research work regarding alcohol and disseminate the knowledge obtained thereby: to united individuals and organizations in all nations in securing the abolition of alcohol.”

Mission Inn Museum Collection

Above: 1903 journal entry by Frank A. Miller, describing President Roosevelt’s visit and the President’s decision not to serve alcohol at dinner; a decision favored by early Riverside residents.

Mission Inn Museum Collection

Right: Riverside’s Loring Opera House in 1895, one of the finest and largest opera houses in the western United States, located across the

street from the Mission Inn.

The original Loring Opera House was destroyed by fire in 1990.

Image courtesy of UC Riverside Special Collection and Archives

Left: Carrie Nation and her infamous hatchet. Nation was a guest at the Mission Inn in February, 1903, and spoke on the temperance movement at Riverside Loring Opera House.

Image courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society

Left: Article from Riverside Press, January 15, 1931. Albert Einstein was in town as part of a trip to Cal-Tech.

Members of his party attended a New Years eve party at the Mission Inn and were in awe at the lack of hip flasks, which were common place in other parts of the country, particularly New York City.

“Riverside is one place where the 18th Amendment is being observed.”

Mission Inn Museum Collection

RIVERSIDE ENTERPRISERIVERSIDE, CAL, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1930

RIVERSIDE ‘WHITE SPOT’ IN LIQUOR ENFORCEMENTFEDERAL ‘DRY’ AGENT PRAISES CITY

OFFICIALS-----------------

Can’t Buy Whisky in Town, Prohibition Worker Asserts, Law Rigidly Enforced.-----------------

“Riverside is the white spot of the Southwest, in point of prohibition enforcement.”

Mr. Mathias, in the city for conference with Sheriff Clem Sweeters and Police Inspector Paul Scott, declared that in his wide experience in prohibition work in California and other western states he has found no city where liquor

enforcement has been more effective and efficient.

Drawing from his own personal experiences when he donned paint-splotched coveralls and made a first-hand survey of questionable places in Riverside, the Federal agent declared bootlegging in Riverside has been practically stamped out.

“When I was first assigned to this district,” Mr. Mathias related, “I was anxious to find out through personal experience just what the situation was in Riverside. I put on old clothes and made the rounds where liquor is generally sold. I

couldn’t buy a pint of whisky anywhere in Riverside.”

Transcript of Riverside Enterprise article, December 4, 1930. Available from Riverside Public Library Local History Collection.