Redlands ( ) is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 73,168, up from 68,747 at the 2010 census. The city is located approximately northwest of Indio and east of Los Angeles.
Redlands was founded in 1881 on land that encompassed native Serrano, Morongo and Cahuilla tribes. Redlands absorbed the communities of Terracina, Idlewild, Plaza, Chicago Colony, Victoria, Barton, Gladysta, and Lugonia along with portions of Mentone, Crafton and Bryn Mawr when it incorporated in 1888. Redlands is home to the Asistencia Mission founded in 1819 by early European settlers. By the early 20th century, it was a major focal point of California's citrus industry and the location of the largest producer of navel oranges in the world.
Throughout its past, Redlands has a history of philanthropic residents establishing lasting legacies. Examples include the Smiley Library in 1898, the University of Redlands in 1907, the Redlands Bowl in 1924, the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in 1932, the Redlands Bicycle Classic in 1985 and the Garner Holt Foundation's "Garner's Garage" for animatronic STEM education and research in 2024.
Today, Redlands is a strong growing community with a diverse economy and a growing population in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. Redlands is home to Esri, the Redlands Historical Glass Museum and the San Bernardino County Museum.
History The area of Redlands was territory that historically was occupied by the Morongo and Aguas Calientes tribes of Cahuilla people. Explorations such as those of Pedro Fages and Francisco Garcés sought to extend Catholic influence to the indigenous people and the dominion of the Spanish crown into the area in the 1770s. The Tongva village of Kaawchama, located just to the west of present-day Redlands, was visited by Fr. Francisco Dumetz in 1810, and was the reason the site was chosen for a mission outpost. Dumetz reached the village on May 20, the feast day of Saint Bernardino of Siena, and thus named the region the San Bernardino Valley. The Franciscan friars from Mission San Gabriel established the San Bernardino Estancia in 1819 and embarked on the usual program of training the native tribes to raise crops and mandating permanent settlements. By 1820, a ditch, known as a zanja, was dug by conscripted native labor for the friars from Mill Creek to the Estancia. . In 1822, word of the Mexican triumph in the War of Independence reached the inland area, and lands previously claimed by Spain passed to the custody of the newly established Mexican government.This Declaration of Independence promised to maintain the Catholic religion and announced recovery of Mexico's "usurped sovereignty" under "the present circumstances in Europe" and "the inscrutable designs of Providence." Vazquez (1999) p. 1368
Townships into Cityhood Lugonia and Redlands Colony In 1842, the Lugo family bought the Rancho San Bernardino Mexican land grant and this became the first fixed settler civilization in the area. The current northwest area of Redlands, that astrides the Santa Ana River, was founded as Lugonia. The region was part of Alta California, a Mexican federal province until 1848, when it became part of the United States after the Mexican-American War. By 1850, California as a US state was established. The area received its first Anglo inhabitants in the form of several hundred Mormon pioneers, who purchased the entire Rancho San Bernardino, founded nearby San Bernardino, and established a prosperous farming community watered by the many lakes and streams of the San Bernardino Mountains. The Mormon community left wholesale in 1857, recalled to Utah by Brigham Young during the tensions with the US federal government that ultimately led to the brief Utah War. Benjamin Barton purchased from the Latter-Day Saints. On this land, he planted extensive vineyards and a winery.
Lugonia attracted settlers including, Barry Roberts in 1869, followed a year later by the Craw and Glover families. "The first school teacher in Lugonia, George W. Beattie, arrived in 1874—shortly followed by the town's first negro settler, Israel Beal."Swett, Ira L., "Tractions of the Orange Empire", Interurbans Special Number Forty-One, Interurbans Magazine, Los Angeles, California, August 1967, Chapter 7, Redlands The Beautiful, page 61. Charles Nordhoff's 1873 book, "California: for Health, Pleasure, and Residence" was published. Nordhoff noted the regions warm winters and abundance of land. It attracted many people to Lugonia suffering from tuberculosis, among other ailments seeking health benefits in a dry climate, and available lands for sale. "The first settler on the site of the present Redlands is recorded to have erected a hut at the corner of what is now Cajon St. and Cypress Ave.; he was a sheep herder, and the year, 1865," reported Ira L. Swett in "Tractions of the Orange Empire".
In the 1880s, the arrival of the Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroads, connecting Southern California to San Francisco and Salt Lake triggered a land boom, with speculators such as John W. North flooding the area now known as the Inland Empire. The Redlands Colony was soon established by Frank E. Brown, a civil engineer, and E. G. Judson, a New York stock broker, to provide a center (along with John W. North's nearby settlement of Riverside) for the burgeoning citrus industry. They named their area, just south of Lugonia, "Redlands" after the color of the adobe soil. So large had the area grown by 1888 that it was decided to incorporate all the local towns into one city. The original townships of Lugonia, Bryn Mawr, Barton, Terracina Colony, Victoria Colony, Gladysta, parts of Mentone, and parts of Crafton Colony were mended into one incorporated city with the newly established Redlands Colony. "A red-letter day in the annals of Redlands", pronounced Scipio Craig, editor of The Citrograph newspaper, of the November 26 incorporation. The newspaper was first published in July 1887 by The Citrograph Printing Company, which remains in 2026 as both Redlands' oldest business and the longest-operating printing company in California. E. G. Judson served as the first mayor of Redlands.
Railroads
The Redlands Street Railway Company was incorporated on March 22, 1888, acquiring on June 5 a franchise from the San Bernardino County Supervisors dating to December 1887, conveying the right to construct, operate and maintain for a term of 50 years a line of street railways in Redlands, Terracina and vicinity.Swett, Ira L., "Tractions of the Orange Empire", Interurbans Special Number Forty-One, Interurbans Magazine, Los Angeles, California, August 1967, Chapter 7, The Horse Cars of Redlands, page 34. The initial operations began in June 1889 with a single-track line operating two-mule-team cars, the first street railway company of several to provide service to the community. Electrification and new rails replaced mules in 1899,Swett, Ira L., "Tractions of the Orange Empire", Interurbans Special Number Forty-One, Interurbans Magazine, Los Angeles, California, August 1967, Chapter 7, Official Corporate (PE) Histories – The Redlands Street Railway Company, page 35. with electrical operation beginning in December.Staff, "Historic Redlands Lighting System Today 50 Years Old - Street Illumination Proved Feasibility Of World's First Long Transmission Line", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Friday August 6, 1943, Volume 49, page 12. Most Redlands street railways would pass to the San Bernardino Valley Traction Company in a consolidation on June 3, 1903,Swett, Ira L., "Tractions of the Orange Empire", Interurbans Special Number Forty-One, Interurbans Magazine, Los Angeles, California, August 1967, Chapter 7, The Redlands Street Railway Company, page 54. and thence to the Pacific Electric in the "Great Merger" of Huntington properties under new ownership by the Southern Pacific Transportation Company on February 8, 1911.Swett, Ira L., "Tractions of the Orange Empire", Interurbans Special Number Forty-One, Interurbans Magazine, Los Angeles, California, August 1967, Chapter 21, Pacific Electric Waxes and Wanes, page 235. Henry E. Huntington, nephew of late Southern Pacific president Collis P. Huntington, had gained control of the streetcar line of the Redlands Central Railway Company in 1908.
The Pacific Electric Railway (PE) completed an interurban connection between Los Angeles and San Bernardino in 1914, providing a convenient, speedy connection to the fast-growing city of Los Angeles and its new port at San Pedro, bringing greater prosperity to the town and a new role as a vacation destination for wealthy Angelenos. Redlands was the eastern terminus of the "Big Red Car" system. At its peak, PE operated five local routes in Redlands, with streetcars running to Smiley Heights and on Orange, Olive, and Citrus Avenues. Pacific Electric's interurban service to Redlands was abandoned on July 20, 1936, with of track into the city lifted, although PE and Southern Pacific (parent company of PE) provided freight service as far as the Sunkist packing plant at Redlands Heights on San Bernardino AvenueSwett, Ira L., "Tractions of the Orange Empire", Interurbans Special Number Forty-One, Interurbans Magazine, Los Angeles, California, August 1967, Chapter 7, The Redlands Interurban Line, page 85. into at least the 1970s. The Smiley Heights line was abandoned at this time, as well. Bus service operated by the Motor Transit Company, a subsidiary of Pacific Electric, began on July 20.Staff, "Rail Service On Interurban Lines Dropped - Abandonment Effective Monday Of Car Service; Busses To Be Substituted", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday July 19, 1936, pages 13, 23. This also affected mail delivery in Redlands as "Approximately 80 percent of our mail from all directions arrives on the 5 a.m. electric car," explained Postmaster James B. Stone. "This dispatch is sorted and morning deliveries started by 8:30 a.m. on most routes. The post office department has temporarily arranged for this mail to be brought in by the Santa Fe train at 6:05 a.m. As this arrival is an hour later, our service will be one hour later."Staff, "Late Mail To Result From P.E. Stoppage", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday July 19, 1936, page 15. The abandoned Pacific Electric La Quinta trestle over the Santa Ana River stood immediately south of San Bernardino International Airport into the 2010s but was removed when an Amazon facility was built adjacent to the site.
Electricity "History was made in the electrical industry July 27, 1892, when a franchise was granted to the Electric Light & Power Co., which was incorporated Oct. 6 and began building a powerhouse in Mill Creek canyon. Thus the groundwork was laid for the world's first (three)-phase transmission line, which brought electricity to Redlands and later became a unit in the Southern California Edison Co.""Golden Jubilee, Redlands, California: 1888–1938", Citrograph Printing Company, Redlands, California, 1938. The 250 kilowatt AC Mill Creek No. 1 Hydroelectric Plant was designed by Almirian Decker.http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:Mill_Creek_No._1_Hydroelectric_Plant,_1893 IEEE Milestones, Mill Creek No. 1 Hydroelectric Plant, Retrieved January 4, 2012 Electric arc lamps were first illuminated over Redlands streets on August 5, 1893. George B. Ellis, one of seven men who spearheaded the undertaking, is largely credited with originating the plan.