I admit I was skeptical. I was raised in Southern California and was only too happy when I was able to officially claim Colorado as my home state after moving away. All I knew of Riverside was it’s out in the middle of nowhere and known for oranges. Not massively appealing. But then, I stumbled upon this event and saw this:

It set my little history buff heart aflutter. I knew I couldn’t not go to this event!

I was so justified in my conviction, let me tell you. The hotel is a sprawling, mission revival style mashup taking up an entire city block and is absolutely gorgeous. It began as a boarding house in the late 1800s and the owner, Frank Miller, steadily added to it over time. It seems he was an eccentric type with a flair for the dramatic in his marketing. He was known to dress in monk’s robes and hand out oranges to people riding the train, regaling them with stories of the inn and inviting them to visit.

His interests and quirks abound in all aspects of the hotel. He had a fascination with flying, commemorating parts of the hotel to pilots and incorporating a chapel to St. Francis (patron of “bird men” or pilots). The entire building is a museum, housing priceless artifacts and works of art. Hundreds of bells (think mission bells/temple bells) are scattered throughout and there is even a replica Buddhist temple.

The place is a labyrinth of endless beauty, I spent most of my free time just wandering the halls in awe. Even the rooms had an old world feel, mine had a large wooden door and exposed ceiling beams.

True to my writer’s blood, I came away inspired to research a part of California history I’d never paid much attention to, that of the missions. I’m now scheming a trip to visit them all in the hopes of finding even more inspiration and future backdrops for my books!

Have you visited this hotel? If not, I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list!