Riverside rooming house draws fond memories when torn down – Press Enterprise

A large old Victorian rooming house was razed in July 1954 in the name of “progress” to make way for business property. The house had been the home of Urban and Minnie Alguire, both were considered to be true “pioneers” of Riverside.

Urban Alguire was born in 1859 in Canada, and Minnie in 1863 in Michigan. Minnie came to Riverside first, arriving in 1873 with her parents. Urban came in 1883, and began a career in the carriage and carriage implement business, first with Stewart and Lett, and then on his own. The two were married in 1886. They had no children.

The carriage business must have been good for Urban Alguire, because in the 1890s he was able to purchase lots at the northeast corner of 8th and Chestnut streets in downtown Riverside and build a spacious home. The Alguires called that their home for more than 30 years, until Urban Alguire died in April 1930, at age 71.

While Urban Alguire conducted his carriage business, Minnie conducted a rooming house in their home. For more than 30 years, Mrs. Alguire’s house, as the Riverside Press described it, “held Riverside’s standards highly.”

Reminiscing in 1954, when the house was torn down, Grace Murray, the longtime principal of Bryant Elementary School, recalled that the Alguire home was “a most delightful place … we were guests.”

Murray recalled that several people known throughout certain circles stayed with Mrs. Alguire, including Dr. Alfred Boyce, the director of the Citrus Experiment Station, Carlyle Bennett, director of the Riverside project of the USDA, Charles Pershing, director at Stauffer Chemical Labs, Margaret Buvens, librarian at the Citrus Experiment Station, and Charles Woods, Riverside city librarian. There were people from India, Arabia, and all over Europe who added to the dinnertime conversations.

Each dinner, according to Murray, was a party, and the conversation was lively and stimulating. After dinner, the rugs were rolled up, the table was moved, and there were dances, often with musical accompaniment by one of the tenants, or by a large Victrola in the main part of the house.

Throughout the first part of the 20th century, the Alguire place was the place to be in some social circles in Riverside. But, as Beth Teters of the Riverside Press explained in 1954, things began to change. Minnie Alguire was getting older, and many of those who had stayed there, whether long-term or seasonally, moved on themselves. With the death of Urban Alguire in 1930, the responsibility for the house and rooms became solely that of Minnie.