An Inland Empress

The sign on the Caprice Cafe on State Street downtown promised “Heated Patio”--as if we needed it on this day when temperatures topped 100 degrees. Like an obnoxious aunt who you know won’t go home soon, hot weather had arrived in the Inland Empire, bringing with it its disagreeable cousin, smog.

Those are two good reasons to avoid this city of 67,000 in San Bernardino County from May through October. But there are scores of other excuses for a weekend visit any time: the 4,000 structures that, the city boasts proudly, have been standing a half-century or more.

It may have been my approaching birthday that made me want to spend time in a place where things are older than I. So, on a Saturday morning in late May, I pointed the car east on Interstate 10, picked up my friend Janette in Fontana and headed for the onetime winter home of the wealthy.

Armed with a booklet from the Redlands Chamber of Commerce outlining a driving tour of the city, we decided to use the car to beat the heat while seeing the sights. It would also give me a chance to reacquaint myself with the area. As a resident of nearby Highland for two years in the mid-1990s, I was definitely a Redlands wannabe. Who would not want to be part of a city that appreciates and preserves its past?

Still, Redlands doesn’t appear to be a bastion of history the first few blocks after turning right from the I-10 Orange Street ramp, where the usual chain stores line the way. But then you reach State Street, with its brick buildings and angle parking, and the town’s character begins to emerge.

Redlands, founded in the late 1800s, reflects the people who settled here: It’s Midwestern and East Coast with a dash of California. Frank Brown, who, with E. G. Judson, co-founded the town, first called it the Red Lands Colony, for the color of its soil.

Judson, a stockbroker from New York, and Brown, a civil engineer from New Haven, Conn., realized the agricultural potential of their new enterprise and harnessed water to turn their colony into a center for citrus, particularly the navel orange. At its peak, Redlands had 9,000 acres in citrus; today, that number has shrunk to about 1,500.

Along these streets--Brookside, Olive, Fern, Cypress, Palm and Highland--you can see a mix of older homes, from Craftsman style to Queen Annes and Italian villas, many lovingly preserved. The granddaddy of them all is the Morey Mansion at 190 Terracina Blvd.

If you experience a sense of deja vu as you look at this architectural Mixmaster of a house, it’s because you’ve probably seen it before. Dubbed “American’s Favorite Victorian Home,” it appears in books and ads and even starred in the 1952 movie “Talk About a Stranger,” with George Murphy and Nancy Davis Reagan.

It was not cinema but citrus that gave rise to this three-story dwelling with the onion dome, French mansard tower and plenty of Queen Anne touches. In the 1880s, Sarah and David Morey, already fairly well-to-do, arrived in Redlands. The enterprising Sarah Morey owned orange trees in a nursery down on Brookside, and she sold all 25,000 of them in 1890, raising the $20,000 she needed to build her dream house. Terracina leads to Smiley Heights, which turns into Serpentine and Sunset Drive. Industrialist Andrew Carnegie and brewing magnate J. R. Pabst lived up here. The newest mansions have outstanding views out of smog season. On this day, the “curtain,” as it’s called, was partly up, affording us views of the San Bernardino Mountains.

The road passes Memorial Cemetery, then loops down Alessandro. We stopped to see the historic mansions (from the street only, because these are private residences, remember), then headed to the Nordhoff residence at 1125 Pacific St., built for $15,000 just as the last century was ending.

The genteel, buttery-colored house, with white trim and a circular veranda, was the home of Walter Nordhoff, whose father, Charles, wrote “California: For Health, Pleasure and Residence, a Book for Travellers and Settlers,” widely credited with inspiring people to move to California.

Back in my car, it was two women against the heat, so we paused in mid-tour to head downtown, seeking refuge inside the Caprice Cafe. With its exposed beams, skylights and plants--and temperatures at least 30 degrees cooler than the outdoors--the Caprice already had much to recommend it. Janette had the Indo-Chinoise salad, with buckwheat noodles and tofu, and I tried the grilled brie with portabello mushrooms. We left feeling cool and well-fed.

The tour winds up through Caroline Park and down around Prospect Park. Nearby is Kimberly Crest House and Gardens, among the most enduring and endearing houses in Redlands. It is open to the public, so we chose to return the next day for a proper look.

We’d learned quite a bit about the movers and shakers of Redlands save two: Alfred H. and Albert K. Smiley, twins whose statue stands on the grounds of the A. K. Smiley Public Library. Often called the “Patron Saints of Redlands,” they are the institutions behind the institutions.

The Mission-style Smiley library, 125 W. Vine St., was dedicated in 1898 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside, there’s a bit of cognitive dissonance: the Mission-style furnishings, along with the oak bookcases, share the room with computers.

The last stop of the day--well, almost the last--was Dynasty Suites. The biggest disappointment of Redlands is the absence of historic lodgings. The lodging, rehabbed into a Dynasty, had been open only a couple of months. It’s near the more commercial parts of the city, and the price was so reasonable that I worried about its quality. My fears were unfounded. For $62, we had a double queen room with a small refrigerator and a microwave. The cookie at check in was a nice touch.

That wasn’t quite enough to hold us, so we headed back downtown to try an old favorite for dinner: Joe Greensleeves on Orange Street.

Joe’s was always a special occasion restaurant. Its impeccable service, quiet clubby atmosphere and excellent wine list have made it worth returning to. I always start with the “soup of two soups.” This evening, it was squash and broccoli. The sweet squash stayed on its side, and the buttery broccoli held the line. Magic.

For an entree, I chose the pork tenderloin with a honey glaze sauce and Janette had the rack of lamb. Mine was tender and not too sweet; Janette was less than impressed with the lamb. (In the lamb’s defense, I should note she ordered it well done.) We had a glass of wine each; with tax and tip, the bill was $90.

Redlands goes to bed early, and we did too. The next morning was the grand finale: Kimberly Crest.

The French Chateau-style house was built in 1897 as an orange grove house. It was sold in 1905 to John Alfred and Helen Kimberly. Their daughter, Mary Shirk, widowed at a young age, moved here in 1920 to care for her aging parents and stayed until her death in 1979. Money was not an object for J. Alfred Kimberly, a co-founder of the Kimberly Clark Corp., and so Italian gardens were added.

Nearly all the furnishings in this 7,000-square-foot home are original, and the house reflects Mary Shirk’s personality. In the room off the formal parlor, you can see an elegant signed Galle vase.

A wedding was in progress, and although tours don’t stop because of them, we felt like intruders, so we crept down the drive as strains of harp music drifted over us. The temperature was hovering around 104, and I’m sure some guests entertained, as I did, notions of cooling off in the fishponds. I didn’t, but on this weekend, I’d found a sort of psychic fountain of youth that suggested age, worn well, can be most becoming.

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Budget for Two

Dynasty Suites, one night: $69.25

Lunch, Caprice Cafe: 27.06

Dinner, Joe Greensleeves: 90.34

Admission, Kimberly Crest: 10.00

Gas: 15.56

FINAL TAB: $212.21

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Dynasty Suites, 1235 W. Colton Ave., Redlands, CA 92374, telephone (909) 793-6648, fax (909) 792-5219, Internet https://www.dynastysuites.com; Kimberly Crest Mansion, 1325 Prospect Drive, Redlands, CA 92373, tel. (909) 792-2111, Internet https://www.kimberlycrest.com. Tours 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays. Redlands Chamber of Commerce, 1 E. Redlands Blvd., Redlands, CA 92373; tel. (909) 793-2546, fax (909) 335-6388.

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Catharine Hamm is deputy editor of the Travel section.