Post #508293 by TikiG on Mon, Feb 1, 2010 11:01 AM

I lived in Riverside from 1978 thru 1982 or so.

As teenagers the pre-renovation Mission Inn was a magnet for us thrill seekers.

No supervision from adults meant we could (and did!) sneak into the underground tunnels there to film little monster movies with 8mm movie cameras, have make-out sessions with girls, get stoned etc. The place was pretty much wide open and in bad shape in areas with broken glass windows everywhere, rotten carpet, closed-off areas hidden in the dark, secret passages behind secret doors etc. We expected to see ghosts on numerous occasions - but never did - the Mission Inn back then was honestly one of the most spookiest complexes I had ever visited in my life. The rotunda stairway was wide open back then too when that part of the building basically was deserted and abandoned. Always something new to find every time we went.

Sometime during the mid-1980s the whole historic downtown Riverside area received much needed renovation efforts. The Mission Inn held a series of silent auctions and sales. I went with friends and we each bought some mementos to bring home, things at the sale went for pennies, literally. I remember you could just load up. People walked out of those sales with boxes of stuff, carloads, for cheap (dinnerware, bar ware, decorations, furniture etc.) I was a little miffed that the Inn didn't keep most of this stuff intact for future use. I'm sure that at these sales you could have found and bought whatever tiki stuff was left-over from earlier decades. Everything was for sale, everything had a price.

I've been back to the Mission Inn post-renovation and its beautiful. I always tell people about it, and I always suggest a visit if you're in Riverside. And oh yeah, all of the underground passages have been sealed I've been told...