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The original Glenwood Resort emerged from a personal residence/boarding house that the Miller family, formerly of Tomah, WI, operated in Riverside by 1876. The Miller House was built between 1874-1876, and the boarding house opened in the latter year; originally, the Millers built an adobe-walled, 12-room cottage at the intersection of 7th Street and Main Street. This house formed the nucleus of what would become the Glenwood Resort that would, in turn, develop into the Mission Inn. This resort, occupying 2 1/2 acres, was operated from 1880-1902 by Frank Miller, the son of the adobe house's first owner, his father, Christopher Columbus Miller.

According to an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times, the Glenwood was described as such: "It occupies an entire block of two and one-half acres, centrally located, with pleasant surroundings in the way of fruit and ornamental trees, flowers and shrubbery. Around the building, on both floors, are broad balconies, forming fine promenades, aggregating a quarter mile in length, part of which are encased in glass and trellised with vines. The sunlight reaches every room, and they are all easy of access from broad halls and balcony. Baths and closets, electric bells, and all the modern improvements to be found in a first-class hotel. Open grates and stoves afford opportunity for fires when desired. Parlors, reading room, office and dining room all on first floor, spacious, sunny and convenient." (See Glenwood Resort advertisement, Los Angeles Times, 03/17/1883, p. 0_1.)

Additions to the Miller House/Glenwood Inn occurred in 1878, 1882 and 1888 to form this hotel's fullest extent.

Much of the original Glenwood Resort was demolished to make way for the newer Mission Inn owned by Frank Miller. A portion of the original Miller House/Glenwood Resort, called the "Old Adobe," was incorporated into the Mission Inn when it was started around 1900.

PCAD id: 12481