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Tales of the city briefly told

Written by Jerry Rice

Welcome, Mr. President
William Howard Taft slept here. So did Ronald Reagan.

"Here" is the Mission Inn, which has a presidential past that dates back to Benjamin Harrison in 1891. Will the Riverside landmark be adding to that aspect of its history anytime soon? President Barack Obama missed a chance to do just that when he recently paid SoCal a visit. He stopped in Pomona, Costa Mesa and even beautiful downtown Burbank for a chat with Jay Leno, but Riverside was not on the itinerary.

Granted, Obama’s still in the early days of his presidency so there should be other opportunities. We’ll leave a key under the mat by the front door.

Hail to the chiefs

The Mission Inn has quite a presidential past, considering the number of chief executives who have visited the landmark:

Benjamin Harrison: In 1891, the nation’s 23rd president stopped by the front of the building to accept a bouquet of flowers from Allis Miller, daughter of founder Frank Miller.

William McKinley: Visited as a congressman in the early 1890s. McKinley was president from 1897 to 1901.

Theodore Roosevelt: During a stop at the property in 1903, he re-planted one of the parent navel orange trees in the Court of the Birds.

William Howard Taft: He attended a banquet on Oct. 12, 1909, during his first year as president.

Warren G. Harding: Visited in 1911, a year before giving the nominating speech for President Taft at the Republican National Convention. In 1920, Harding became the first incumbent U.S. senator to be elected president. Two others have since followed Harding in making the jump from the senate directly to the presidency — John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama.

Herbert Hoover: As secretary of Commerce, Hoover visited on March 19, 1922, while en route to choose a site for Boulder Dam. He returned in March 1939, after his term as president, to help Republican Party officials plan for the 1940 election.

John F. Kennedy: Attended the Institute of World Affairs at the Mission Inn in December 1940, shortly after authoring "Why England Slept" during his senior year at Harvard. All of the presidents who have visited the Mission Inn have their portraits in the main lobby. Kennedy is the only Democrat in the group.

Richard M. Nixon: Married his wife, Pat, in the Presidential Suite on June 21, 1940. A bronze plaque in the main lobby memorializes the wedding.

Gerald R. Ford: Eleven years after leaving the White House, Ford, then a resident of Rancho Mirage, attended a fundraiser at the Mission Inn for Congresswoman Mary Bono in March 1998.

Ronald Reagan: The president of the Screen Actor’s Guild and future 40th president of the United States married Nancy Davis at a small church in the San Fernando Valley on March 4, 1952. They drove to the Mission Inn, where they spent the first night of their honeymoon.

In her 1980 autobiography, "Nancy," she recalled their visit: "The manager had placed a beautiful bouquet of roses in the bridal suite. The next morning before we left, we delivered them to an elderly woman across the hall we had learned was quite ill. It somehow seemed fitting to share our happiness."

George W. Bush: As the governor of Texas, Bush was the guest of honor at a fundraising reception on Sept. 29, 1999, early in his presidential campaign. As president, Bush returned to the Mission Inn to meet with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mission Inn owner Duane Roberts in 2003.

Source: Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, Riverside Magazine research

Roll call of the brave
Riverside National Cemetery is looking for a few good men and women to participate in a Memorial Day tribute.

The cemetery’s Roll Call Project needs more than 300 people to read the names of 150,000 veterans who are buried there.

The volunteers, working one-hour shifts in pairs, will alternate in reading aloud the name of each veteran, starting May 16 and continuing — day and night — through May 25.

"We are reaching out to the community to take part in this unique project," said Gill Galo, cemetery director.

Unique indeed. It’s likely the first time something like this has been undertaken at any national cemetery.

For more information, call Jim Ruester at 951-653-8417, ext.

877, or e-mail james.ruester@va.gov with the words "roll call" in the subject line.

Happy trails
Filled with heritage highlights, Riverside Downtown Partnership is out with its walking map of the city’s historic downtown.

All of the major landmarks are featured, including the Fox Theater, Old City Hall, Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroad depots and the Universalist Unitarian Church. It’s illustrated with drawings by artist Marty Tobias.

The walking map joins two other Riverside guides — one listing restaurants and retailers, and the other focusing on arts and culture.

Copies can be found at the Visitors Center, Mission Inn Museum, Metropolitan Museum and Riverside Downtown Partnership.

For more information, call 951-781-7335 or visit www.riversidedowntown.org.

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Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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