For those of you who have followed Harada House’s history, have you ever wondered why we continue to fund raise for the House’s preservation?  Have you wondered just what has been going on with Harada House after all these years?  I asked that question the other day and now realize just how complicated is preserving Harada House and developing an interpretive center and why so much money has to be collected and on hand.

It is like a game of dominos.  One action triggers several others.  For example, if one were to replace the foundation, which is essential to preserve the house, so many things would shift that there is the danger (or probability) of unexpected things happening like all the plaster on the walls falling off, a not desirable reaction.  On some walls there are scribblings of the past that are a significant part of the family history which would be destroyed. One wall has an inscription written in pencil documenting the day and time the Haradas of Riverside left for the incarceration camps in WWII.  Too, the plaster has its own composition which has survived all these years and speaks to how things were done in the past.

If one were to start dismantling parts of the house for repair, that dismantling opens the house for other needed repairs like electrical, heating and air, preservation of the floor, wallpapers, windows and doors, etc.  Once exposed, it would make sense to address these issues rather than fix one thing, and then have to come back and repeat the process to fix another.  We don’t want to be like road crews where one crew comes along and stripes the road; then another crew comes along and fills pot holes; then another crew comes along and digs up the whole road to relevel it.  The preservation of the House has to be logical and systematic.  It needs to make sure the impact of changes has minimal effect on the character defining features of the House.

As I said, it is complicated.  Who knew?

Volunteering at Heritage House is a passion. We love history, we love the House, and we love sharing everything about the House with guests. If one volunteers at Heritage House, one can take the training and become a touring docent, giving guests an informed tour about the House and how it represents Riverside in the 1890s. One can also be a supporting volunteer and work in the gift shop, help with the Victorian teas, help with 3rd grade school tours, work on keeping the gardens spruced up and period appropriate, and/ or help with our outreach events.

We try to keep the facts about early Riverside interesting and fun. To help us do this, we offer two educational events that are fun for the whole family. One event is the Ice Cream Social (last Sunday in June) where we take guests back to a typical Fourth of July Celebration of the late 19th Century. We serve ice cream flavors popular for that time period, provide games and crafts, provide demonstrations of how things were done ‘back then’, and offer lots of entertainment. We even recruit guest ice cream scoopers from the local government entities, including the mayor, councilmen, and firemen.

Our other event is the Christmas Open House (2nd Sunday in December). On this day, guests are treated to the House fully decorated for Christmas with live greens and trees, our special mulled cider recipe and homemade cookies, crafts, and entertainment. These events are open free to the public and we love seeing everyone and love sharing what we know. It takes us 3 days to decorate the House for the holidays and we have a ball doing it.

The rain on our passion is the rising costs for these events. Local vendors assist us by donating things we need or selling to us at ‘special’ rates, but in order to do it right, it is expensive. One of our most expensive items is the cost of the crossing guards that keep the visitors safe while crossing Magnolia Avenue. They take up half of our budget. It doesn’t stop us, but it is a fly in the ointment.

If history is your passion, especially old houses, talk to us and come join our fun.

Harada House is a National Historic Landmark. This designation is assigned by the Secretary of the Interior to nationally significant historic places because they possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States.

Harada House represents a significant event in our State and Nation’s history. In 1915-17, Riverside became the stage for a challenge to the Alien Land Law when Jukichi Harada, a Japanese immigrant bought a home in downtown Riverside in a predominantly Caucasian neighborhood, in his children’s names. His new neighbors resisted his presence, first by trying to buy him out and then by taking him to court. By mid-1916 California vs. Harada had gained national and international attention due to the sensitive relationship between the United States and the emerging international power of Japan. In the fall of 1918, Judge Hugh Craig of Riverside Superior Court upheld the Alien Land Law but ruled that American born children of aliens were entitled to all the constitutional guarantees of citizenship including land tenure under the 14th Amendment.

As a nation which was built on immigrants, this story showcases the restrictive and unequal laws that were enacted in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries—laws that separated children from parents, restricted target groups from the freedoms of this great country, and reserved human rights to select demographics.

Because of Harada House, Riverside and the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, steward of Harada House, have a highly unusual opportunity that 99% of American museums will never have: the potential to take on regional, State-wide, and national claim to fame. The House and its story allows the Museum to powerfully interpret American’s past struggles as a nation of immigrants, and to thereby shed light on our current and future struggles with these same issues.

Not only is the story of Harada House significant, but its location is critical to the story. We cannot move it, or replicate it and have the same impact. The story and the lessons need to be told in context. To this end, we need to share the Harada significance.

Additionally, in order to present Harada House as it needs to be shared, we need to raise quite a large number of dollars.  Every dollar counts and is appreciated.  You can make donations, either through the RMA for the Harada Stewardship or through the Museum Harada Trust to maintain and preserve Harada House and to develop a top-notch interpretation center in which to pass on the significance of this story.  Both the RMA web page and the Museum web page give specific details on donation options.