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For 30 years, the Mission Inn Museum was housed in the Mission Inn, specifically, in a corner storefront facing the Main Street pedestrian mall. Tourists bought souvenirs in the museum gift shop and booked walking tours of the hotel.
Then came a legal squabble, bad blood and an eviction.
Now, the privately run museum devoted to the historic hotel has found new lodging — only one block from its original home. After a year in an obscure spot, the museum is again on the mall, at 3598 Main St., across from the famed hotel.
For the nonprofit Mission Inn Foundation, which operates the museum and gift shop, the return to a high-profile space is a relief, and also energizing.
“We’re happy to be back on Main,” said Jennifer Gamble, the foundation’s president, with a smile.
“It’s a game changer,” chimed in Claudia Rodriguez, the board’s secretary. “People expect the Mission Inn Foundation to be on Main Street.”
Most people, Rodriguez said, don’t know the foundation or museum exist, or they equate the two with the hotel.
She said foot traffic, especially during the Festival of Lights, which kicks off Saturday, Nov. 22, is crucial to turning that perception around and generating money to pay off legal bills.
I’ll come back to that. First, here’s a capsule history lesson.
In 1976, the troubled hotel was bought by City Hall. Because a public agency couldn’t legally operate a hotel, an outside entity was needed to oversee operations and serve as a steward for the hotel’s art, artifacts and antiques.
Thus, the Mission Inn Foundation was created.
In late 1992, after a $55 million restoration by the Carley Capital Group, with aid from City Hall’s redevelopment agency, the long-closed inn was bought by businessman Duane Roberts at the fire-sale price of $15.6 million. Roberts reopened the hotel the following May.
Roberts, whose family continues to own the Mission Inn, died Nov. 1 at 88.
With the hotel open again, the foundation opened a museum and gift shop at the corner of Mission Inn Avenue and Main Street, the southwest corner of the hotel property.
If guests inquired at the hotel about tours, and many did, they were sent around to the storefront, where docents led several tours a day, up to 15,000 per year.
When the lease for the space expired in 2023, a renewal proved difficult.
The foundation sued for breach of contract, tried to rally community support and was evicted in May 2024 after losing both its legal case and — ooof — its rights to offer tours inside the hotel.
Reeling, the foundation ousted its leadership, then leased digs nearby on Market Street in November 2024. But the space was smaller and saw little foot traffic or sales.
When T Elliott, a women’s boutique at 3598 Main St., was closing, Gamble pounced. She spent a year talking with landlord Jason Wilson about what the foundation could do for the block. He was persuaded.
A lease was signed and Gamble got the keys. But first she had to find them.
Wilson turned what might have been a routine transaction into a treasure hunt with clues. The keys were located on the Santa Cruz Inn property, which Wilson also manages. Rodriguez said the find was made at 7:54 p.m. Nov. 3, based on an exultant text Gamble sent her.
For her pains, the foundation now occupies 2,500 square feet, comparable to the original headquarters, and at a lower price per square foot than on Market Street. (It’s unknown whether the foundation will make Wilson hunt for its rent check.)
Volunteers hurriedly painted and prepped the new space, packed and moved, then organized everything for the opening Sunday, Nov. 16.
That included installation of an exhibit, “On Peace and Friendship,” focusing on Mount Rubidoux’s Peace Tower, built in 1925 in honor of Mission Inn owner Frank Miller.
Dozens of people showed up Sunday, some of us intending to be there, others lured in off the sidewalk by Rodriguez. The promise of free cookies didn’t hurt.
The move was so fast, there is no business sign, just a sandwich board on the sidewalk. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
The headquarters has three rooms. The largest is for a gift shop selling Riverside books and other items, some branded with the city’s raincross emblem: shirts, socks, jewelry and decor.
The next room is for the museum, although given the small size, Rodriguez said she prefers to think of it as an exhibit space. A third room, now unfinished, will be used for paint and sip sessions, history classes and more.
Sunday was the best day of sales since the original shop closed in 2024, with some items selling out.
The store and Mission Inn are across Sixth Street from each other. Out the foundation’s south-facing window, the hotel’s northwest corner can be seen.
I jokingly asked Gamble how she likes the view.
“It’s breathtaking,” Gamble said as we gazed out the window together. “We’re here to support them however we can. Right now we’re just great neighbors.”
The litigation between the hotel and foundation is over, Gamble said. But the foundation still has its legal bills to pay.
They total $110,000, Rodriguez said.
“It’s a lot for a nonprofit,” she said in a follow-up conversation Tuesday. While the figure is not insurmountable, she said, “it’s a big mountain to climb.”
The foundation continues to sponsor the Mission Inn Run, the 48th annual iteration of which took place Oct. 19.
Tours are offered around downtown and elsewhere in the city — including Olivewood Cemetery, City Hall, the Riverside County Superior Courthouse and Mount Rubidoux — rather than inside the hotel.
A Festival of Lights tour of the hotel perimeter will soon commence. And a tour dubbed “History on the Rocks,” about the Prohibition era, ends at the inn with a drink.
That’s a sign that the foundation and hotel’s relationship, which was on the rocks itself, is warming.
“We’re working constantly to rebuild it,” Gamble said. “They’re allowing us to do that one tour.”
Baby steps. In the meantime, stop in and buy some raincross-branded socks. It’s cold out.
David Allen should probably put a sock in it Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.
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