West Riverside — now Jurupa Valley — was touted in 1892 for beauty, citrus

In 1892, the Riverside Daily Press published a special edition of the newspaper, which gave an overview of Riverside and the areas around it. Special editions such as these were produced to be sent back east, in the hopes of attracting investors and new residents to the area.

One of the areas mentioned in the edition was West Riverside, which at that time was a rural farming area on the other side of the Santa Ana River from Riverside. The article about West Riverside gives a glimpse into what that area, now the city of Jurupa Valley, was like more than 130 years ago.

At that time, the entire area was known as West Riverside. It was not until 1909 that areas within West Riverside began to rename themselves, to distinguish one community from another.

The article started by saying West Riverside was “one of the most picturesque and otherwise interesting localities to be found anywhere.”

Let the marketing to the eastern reader begin!

The paper first highlighted the substantial wooden bridge under construction over the Santa Ana River at a cost of $15,000. This bridge, the first built between Riverside and West Riverside, would make it far easier and safer for traffic from the west to reach Riverside.

The river area was much wider back then, with only a small portion of that width taken by flowing water. That left lots of land for farming. So the paper mentioned that the river bottom had extensive pastures for grazing animals, lots of alfalfa fields as well as some choice vineyards and orange orchards. There were also pear, peach and apricot orchards and a large Chinese vegetable garden growing in that area.

What the newspaper called a “large and commodious brick school-house” was only 5 years old and placed adjacent to the Jurupa Canal, so there was plenty of water to plant and care for the grounds of the school.

Beyond the school house was a sharp slope that led to the citrus growing lands of West Riverside, which the paper claimed were “as good as any to be found in California …” Above that, reached by County Avenue (now known as Mission Boulevard) was the Sunny Slope tract, consisting of about 2,000 acres, several hundred acres of which had recently been planted with orange and lemon trees, significantly expanding citrus growing in West Riverside.

The article mentioned a third area of West Riverside, lying west of the Sunny Slope tract and separated from it by a range of hills. The hills mentioned are what are now known as the Pedley Hills.

In this area, the newspaper said there was a beautiful tract comprised of several thousand acres of land laid out in blocks with graded streets, bordered on either side by rows of young ornamental trees. More than 20 miles of those streets had been graded and planted recently. That area had already seen many orchards planted and several new homes built. Based on this description, they are likely talking about what is today known as the Pedley area, which now comprises the center portion of Jurupa Valley.