Redlands

Callback Phone : Question

At the turn of the 1900s, Redlands was the "Palm Springs" of the next century, with roses being planted along many city thoroughfares. Some of these plantings would survive as wild thickets into the 1970s, especially adjacent to orange groves where property management was lax. Washingtonian palms were planted along many main avenues. In fact, Redlands was the first city to have center medians with trees or gardens in between roads. So beautifully kept was the area, with the dramatic mountain backdrops, that for several years the Santa Fe Railroad operated excursion trains along the loop that passed through the orange groves of Redlands and Mentone, across the Santa Ana River, and back into San Bernardino via East Highlands, Highlands and Patton, and advertised as the "Kite Route" due to its multi-sided alignment.


The city has been visited by three Presidents, President McKinley was the first in 1901, followed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1903 and President William H. Taft. Local landmarks include the A.K. Smiley Public Library, a Moorish-style library built in 1898, and the Redlands Bowl, built in 1930 and home of the oldest continuously free outdoor concert series in the United States. Located behind the Smiley Library is the Lincoln Shrine, the only memorial honoring the "Great Emancipator", the sixteenth president, west of the Mississippi River. Other famous homes include ?America?s Favorite Victorian,? the Morey Mansion,[18] on Terracina Boulevard, and the Kimberly Crest House and Gardens, a home museum featured on the PBS series ?America?s Castles.? Named after the family that purchased the house, the owners of Kimberly-Clark (makers of paper goods and Kleenex), it is a beautiful mansion set high on a hill overlooking the whole valley. Redlands is still regarded as the "Jewel of the Inland Empire."