Exhibition: January 18–March 29, 2020

By 1930, the California Style dominated Southern California. Anchored by Frank Miller’s renowned Mission Inn, Riverside stood at the center of it all. From 1910 to 1930, Miller, city leaders, and developers commissioned signature architects for variants of the California Style, enhancing Riverside’s status as a mythical Mediterranean oasis. Henry L. A. Jekel helped them do it.

Born in Buffalo, NY, in 1876, adjacent to the Erie Canal District, once called the “nostrils of hell”, Jekel spent his early career in the bare-knuckle arena of early skyscraper construction. By 1921, he re-emerged in Riverside as a studio architect of the eclectic California Style. His designs anchor several of Riverside’s historic districts and some are designated Landmarks of the City of Riverside, eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Based upon the book by H. Vincent Moses and Catherine Whitmore, this exhibition (co-curated by them) means to preserve his legacy.