Updated: February 16, 2007
In 1874, seventeen-year-old Frank Miller left Tomah, Wisconsin with his mother, one brother, and two sisters to join Frank’s father, Christopher Columbus Miller, who was already in Riverside. By 1876, the family had completed a 12-room cottage made of adobe bricks and wood, located at corner of 7th Street (now Mission Inn Avenue) and Main Street. The family began taking in boarders that same year. Additions to the house were made in 1878; two years later, C. C. Miller sold the home to his son, Frank. In 1882 and 1888, more additions were made to what had become the Glenwood Inn.
Frank Miller began working to create a new hotel on the site of the family’s home soon after he purchased it from his father. The growing economic strength of Riverside’s citrus driven economy justified the need for a hotel. Various ideas were proposed, including a structure inspired by the Colorado Hotel in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The proposal was impressive, but the architectural style would have been equally accepted on the East Coast, in the mid-West, or in California, and didn't offer any unique regional interest. Financing the project proved a challenge for the young businessman, who had not yet reached his 30th birthday.
Miller kept trying, and eventually adopted the Mission Revival style for his hotel. With the financial support of capitalist Henry Huntington, architect Arthur Benton was hired, and construction of the new hotel began in 1902. A portion of the original Glenwood Inn was retained and named the “Old Adobe," melding Frank Miller's family history with his vision for the hotel's future. |
