Event Date: Sunday, February 22, 2015, Noon - 3:00 pm
Join us for the National Historic Landmark Harada House Neighborhood Vision Plan
Block Party. This will be a great opportunity for community members, neighbors,
and the Heritage Square Historic District to learn more about the National
Historic Landmark Harada House and what its story means to Riverside. The event
is free and open to the public. The Riverside Metropolitan Museum, in
partnership with the City of Riverside’s Historic Preservation Office, recently
received a grant from the California Fund of the National Trust for Historic
Preservation to engage the community in creating a Neighborhood Vision Plan for
Riverside’s Harada House and the Harada House Interpretive Center(Robinson
House). As a kick-off event, we are hosting a Block Party on February 22nd from
12-3pm on Lemon Street between 3rd and 4th Streets to inform interested
community members about opportunities to get involved with this project.
Attendees will learn about the Haradas’ story and three ways to get involved: 1)
volunteer as guides in “Reading the Sites: The Japanese American Community in
Riverside” tour 2) develop and participate in an ambassadors program to spread
the word about the Harada House 3) develop a Neighborhood Watch program within
the Harada House neighborhood. Following the Block Party, a series of forums,
online resources, and community kits will facilitate discussion leading to the
creation of a neighborhood vision plan.
The Harada House is among the most significant and powerful civil rights
landmarks in California. The house, located at 3356 Lemon Street, was purchased
by Japanese-born Jukichi Harada in the names of his American born children,
successfully challenging the Alien Land Law, which prohibited non-citizens from
owning land in California. Despite legal action pursued by neighbors, the
Haradas were allowed to keep the house, thus providing a major victory not only
for the Haradas, but for civil rights. However, the story did not end
there—during WWII, the Haradas were forced to leave their home and move to
incarceration camps. Unlike many other Japanese American families, the Haradas
did not lose their home, and Jukichi’s daughter Sumi later returned to the house
in 1945, living there the rest of her life. The family donated the house and its
contents to the Riverside Metropolitan Museum in 2004, and since then the RMM
has worked carefully preserve this site as a tool to tell a powerful and
inspirational story of a Riverside family’s pursuit of social justice and the
American Dream.
This project has been funded in part by a grant from the California Fund of
the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Address: 3580 Mission Inn Avenue Riverside, CA 92501 Phone: (951) 826-5273 Hours |
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Closed for Innovation |
Address: 8193 Magnolia Ave. Riverside, CA 92504 Hours Open Sept (1st weekend after labor day) to June. |
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Monday - Thursday | Closed |
Friday - Sunday | Open at 12:00 pm - Last Tour at 3:15 pm |
Closed Major Holidays |
Not Open to the Public |