Recently, while preparing a talk on the history surrounding Mount Rubidoux, I came across once more four postcards in my collection showing the development of houses below Mount Rubidoux along Seventh Street (today, Mission Inn Avenue). They show how, from late 1906 until 1914, four historic homes appeared at the mountain’s base.
The first postcard is from late 1906. By October 1906, Huntington Drive, the road up and down Mount Rubidoux, was finished enough for limited access. According to several sources, Billy Herbert, Mission Inn doorman and greeter, drove the first automobile up the mountain over the new road. Naturally, Frank A. Miller was one of the passengers. Herbert often chauffeured Miller on his excursions. A similar photograph to my postcard is credited to Billy Herbert’s scrapbook in one collection. Huntington Drive was formally dedicated in a ceremony at Fort Chittenden on Feb. 22, 1907.
In late 1906, no houses were located along Seventh Street between Pepper (now Redwood) and Mt. Rubidoux Drive. Seventh Street enters from the right side of the postcard. The road slants slightly to the left and becomes Buena Vista Avenue as it passes under the bridge leading to the mountain road. The stone bridge is seen at the bottom of the picture.
The next postcard of the four-card set shows one lonely house along Seventh Street between Redwood and Mt. Rubidoux Drive. A scattering of other houses had cropped up in the area. In 1907, about a year after the previous picture, contractor G. Stanley Wilson began constructing this house at 4567 Seventh for Judge Frank E. Densmore. Densmore arrived in Riverside in 1903 and set up the law firm of Gill and Densmore. In 1906, he was appointed as a Superior Court judge, married, and began planning his new home—an eventful year for him.
Judge Densmore suffered a heart attack and died on March 11, 1916, at the age of 47. Friends claimed that his concern over cases before him led to his sudden death at a young age. In a eulogy, a fellow lawyer praised him:…