Riverside-Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange

Built in 1923 at Seventh and Lime Streets in Riverside, this compact office building served the Riverside-Arlington Heights Fruit Exchange, a citrus growers' cooperative and member of Sunkist. Architect G. Stanley Wilson gave the reinforced concrete structure a hipped roof, a recessed porch, and a symmetrical seven-room plan around a central foyer. The front facade carries round-headed mullioned windows, twisted glazed ceramic columns, and panels of blue and green tile with cross motifs. Inside are offices, storage, fruit-testing rooms, and fireproof vaults that still survive. A wisteria arbor and geometric planters were designed with the building. The Exchange is described as the oldest continuously operating exchange in the Inland Empire and a product of the cooperative marketing system that grew out of Riverside's citrus industry. Wilson was a leading figure in Riverside's Mission Revival architecture, and the building shows his attention to business efficiency combined with an attractive facade. Changes since construction have been minor, mainly filled-in windows.