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UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Southern California's Unique Museum-Hotel: Consuming the Past and Preserving Fantasy at Riverside's Mission Inn, 1903-2010 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j6338fv Author McEwen, Emily Ann Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Southern California’s Unique Museum-Hotel: Consuming the Past and Preserving Fantasy at Riverside’s Mission Inn, 1903-2010 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Emily Ann McEwen June 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Molly McGarry, Chairperson Dr. Catherine Gudis Dr. Jason Weems Copyright by Emily Ann McEwen 2014 The Dissertation of Emily Ann McEwen is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements I could not have finished this dissertation without the economic, emotional, and scholarly support of a long list of individuals and institutions. It seems an impossible task to properly convey my gratitude in only a few short pages. Over the last seven years the Mission Inn has become my second home and I would first like to thank the staff and volunteers of the Mission Inn Foundation & Museum. In 2007, then-Executive Director John Worden gave me a shot at my first “real” public history job as the Foundation’s Curator of History, an experience that has defined my academic and professional development; for that I am thankful. A special thanks to Steve Spiller, my former internship adviser, colleague, and now friend, for allowing me free reign over the collections for my research – even those boxes buried in the basement – and for his unending support of this project from start to finish. Nanci Larsen always reminded me to keep chugging, provided an ear to vent my frustrations, and was never shy about telling me to put on my “big girl pants.” Thanks to Jennifer Dickerson for being an optimistic cheerleader; Marge Barr for giving me grief in the best possible way; Deane Wylie for taking an interest and always having a kind word; and Theresa Hanley for her professional advice and letting me know it was alright to take a break from the Mission Inn. Thank you to Dr. Molly McGarry and Dr. Catherine Gudis for first encouraging me to take on this project, and believing, even when I did not, that my perspective on the Mission Inn would contribute something new and worthwhile to the site’s historical interpretation. An additional thanks to Dr. McGarry for guiding this dissertation iv throughout its many stages, offering invaluable feedback, and getting me back in gear when I floundered. Professor Jason Weems provided me with the art historical analytical tools to better discuss the Mission Inn’s diverse collections. I am also appreciative of Dr. Devra Weber and Dr. Larry Burgess for serving on my dissertation prospectus committee when this project was first taking shape. I am grateful to Kevin Hallaran, archivist at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, for his expert local history knowledge, astute suggestions, and his willingness to make me copies of hundreds of essential documents. I started my research at the Braun Research Library of the Southwest Museum where Liza Posas graciously made sure I had all of the archival material I needed. The Braun Library’s entire staff fostered a congenial and collegial environment to begin the dissertation process. Thank you also to Sarah Allison and Dylan James Joy of UCR Special Collections & Archives for helping me sift through the Avery Edwin Field Collection. To Laura McEnaney, Robert Marks, and Greg Woirol at Whittier College. Each guided my history education and nine years after graduation they continue to be my champions. In October 2012, a time when my dissertation was at a standstill, I was invited back to Whittier to give a talk to the history department about the public history field. They greeted me with hugs and greeted my work with excited enthusiasm. Their kindness boosted my confidence and steeled my resolve to finish. Thank you to David Freece for first inspiring me to go into the museum field, for always finding a place for me at the Cowlitz County Historical Museum, and for showing v me that being a successful public historian is not measured through awards and accolades, but through making meaningful connections to people and their pasts. To my Whittier College friends far-flung across the country – Allison Ray, Dustin Ray, Ashleigh Guilbeau, Lynett Yolian, George Gonzales, and Eric Dzinski. Even though we do not have many opportunities to see each other, your emails, cards, phone calls, and occasional meet-ups because of weddings or conferences always lifted my spirits, as did the knowledge that we were all finding our way at the same time. I would not have made it through graduate school without my “cohort buddies,” Jamie Green and Becky Wrenn, who provided affirmations and encouragement, real talk, and sometimes even a cry circle when the stress grew too overwhelming. Throughout the dissertation writing process our standing afternoon date to watch ridiculous reality TV was the highlight of my week. I was fortunate enough to form a tight group of friends during my time at UCR and I would also like to thank my conference travel companion, Sue Hall-Nguyen, for her steady guidance, Sarah McCormick-Seekatz and Chelsea Vaughn for our email support group, and Michael Cox, Jason Sampson, and Robert Miller for making the public history ladies laugh. This dissertation was generously funded through a number of research grants and fellowships. The Los Angeles Corral of Westerners allowed me a full month of research at the Southwest Museum’s Braun Library; a scholarship from the Old Towne Preservation Association enabled me invaluable summer funding; fellowships through UCR’s Dissertation Year Program gave me six months of dedicated writing time; and vi teaching assistant appointments in the History Department saw me through my long research process. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to my family. There are no words to express my thanks to my parents, Randy and Francie McEwen, who offered me unconditional support so I could finish this project and never once questioned the value of my decision to continue graduate school. To Bob McEwen for his encouraging words during holiday walks. In her dissertation acknowledgements, my sister Katie McEwen referred to me as her “best friend of all” and I cannot think of a better way to describe what she is to me. She is the reason I pursued my PhD and I would not have been able to complete this without her. To my number one helper, Andrew Garrison, I share this work with you and breathe a sigh of relief as we embark on our dissertation-free life together. vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Southern California’s Unique Museum-Hotel: Consuming the Past and Preserving Fantasy at Riverside’s Mission Inn, 1903-2010 by Emily Ann McEwen Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, June 2014 Dr. Molly McGarry, Chairperson This dissertation examines the significance of the National Historic Landmark Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside, California, through the lens of public history. This interdisciplinary work considers how history has been made and remade at the Mission Inn throughout the long twentieth century, in so doing connecting the hotel’s local narrative to the broader national and transnational processes of consumerism, tourism, imperialism, urban redevelopment, and the contemporary politics of historical interpretation. First, this work firmly places the Mission Inn within the historiography of Southern California, positing that although the site is largely missing from the major works on the region’s history, through its architecture, advertising campaigns, and historical pageants staged at the hotel, the Mission Inn was as an integral site in the growth of the Southern California tourist industry that was based on a mythic mission past. viii This dissertation then shifts to explore the Inn’s object collections and their central role in the hotel’s enterprise within the context of the nation’s burgeoning consumer culture. The hotel’s elaborate exhibitions are linked to the larger development of the nation’s public and proprietary museums that were used for education, entertainment, and, in cases like the Mission Inn, as moneymaking enterprises. The avenues allowing hotel proprietor Frank Miller to acquire his international collections during the early twentieth century are also inextricably bound to U.S. imperial designs, which gave him access to places around the world to collect exotic treasures for his hotel. From midcentury onward the Mission Inn’s popularity waned and it slowly decayed from years of delayed maintenance. Purchased by the City of Riverside in 1976, the Inn was a contentious hallmark of the city’s redevelopment initiative, mirroring the larger state and national push to renew downtown urban cores. Today, the Mission Inn is a study in the perils of public/private partnerships in the public history field. While the hotel is run as a for-profit hotel a non-profit is responsible for educational programming and stewarding the Inn’s historic collections. The fragile relationship is continually tested based on the organizations’ fundamentally different goals. Interpreting the hotel’s history is always a political quagmire. ix Table of Contents