Updated:
February 16, 2007
rchitect Arthur Burnett Benton, a native of Illinois, attended the Topeka (Kansas) School of Art and Design and worked for the Union Pacific Railroad before he moved to California in 1891. First employed as a draftsman with the Los Angeles architectural firm of Sidney I. Hass, Benton went on to have a very successful architectural career in which he helped develop and promote architecture inspired by the California missions. In an effort to preserve the California missions, he, along with fellow architect Sumner P. Hunt, newspaperman Charles Lummis, and others founded The Landmarks Club in 1894. In 1911, he wrote,
They (the Missions) advertise the State as nothing else can.
They give a touch of the romantic and historical atmosphere
which is the lure that draws the people to our new America. . .(p. 159).
The most significant architectural project of Benton’s career was the Mission Inn. In 1902, he designed the Mission Wing, and later, in 1910, the Cloister Wing. He was also responsible for the arches along 7th Street (now Mission Inn Avenue) built in 1908, and the employee’s dormitory, connected to the hotel by a bridge over 6th Street, in 1920 (an addition was made to the dormitory in 1927). The success of Benton’s design was, in part, a significant reason why, even today, many people believe that the Mission Inn was once part of the chain of California missions.
The Mission Inn was not Benton’s only Riverside commission. In 1901, the Spanish-Mission Revival First Church of Christ, Scientist was completed. His other projects in Riverside include the Hole Mansion (1912-1915) on Cypress Avenue, the bandstand at Fairmont Park (1920), and the Peace Tower (1925) on Mt. Rubidoux, which was built in honor of Frank Miller. In 1929, he and local architect G. Stanley Wilson designed the Riverside Municipal Auditorium and Soldier's Memorial.
In addition to Benton’s work in Riverside, the Los Angeles architect also designed a home for Miller in Laguna Beach (1918). Named Villa Rockledge or “Mariona” after Miller’s second wife, Marion, the home was located on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
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