Updated:
October 8, 2006
his welcome sign, spelled out in oranges at the Glenwood Tavern, celebrated the Seventh Street Citrus Fair. First held in 1879, the annual festival was a great success. In 1882, a newly built pavilion at Main and 7 th Street served as the fair’s headquarters. The fair continued to flourish; in 1885 it was held over a three-day period to celebrate the growth of the industry. Riverside boasted five operating packinghouses at the time, with many more in the works (Klotz, Lawton & Hall, 1989).
Fairs and other events did much to promote the citrus industry in Southern California. Visitors to the National Orange Show in San Bernardino could watch a demonstration of the sorting and packing process while drinking fresh-squeezed orange juice. Displays of oranges and other citrus fruits were common at such events, with competitions honoring the most creative arrangements. Spectators marveled at the large-scale train engines, garden scenes and other designs, all crafted from fruit. In 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, an enormous Liberty Bell constructed of 6,500 oranges introduced an even wider audience to the California citrus industry (Sackman, 2005).
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