Riverside Legion Clubhouse Marks 100 Years

Riverside’s American Legion Post 79 clubhouse turned 100 this month, marking a century on the shore of Lake Evans in Fairmount Park. (raincrossgazette.com) Post 79 laid the building’s cornerstone on August 8, 1925, and dedicated the clubhouse on April 9, 1926. The post traces its roots to October 15, 1919, when 16 charter members in Riverside voted to join the new American Legion movement formed after World War I. (raincrossgazette.com) The site came together through city and civic donations. Mayor Samuel C. Evans Jr. donated 40 acres in 1923 to expand Fairmount Park and create Lake Evans, then offered parcels near the new lake; Post 79 accepted a three-quarter-acre lot in April 1925, and the deed was recorded on July 24, 1925. (raincrossgazette.com) Lake Evans itself was part of a larger park-building push in the 1920s. Riverside dedicated the new lake on July 4, 1924, after city-backed work crews and hired labor moved 50,000 cubic yards of earth and built the surrounding road later named Dexter Drive. (raincrossgazette.com) The clubhouse has remained in use while much of Riverside changed around it. Post 79 says the building has hosted veterans’ social and charitable events since 1925 and helped fund scholarships, aid for local veterans, and other community programs. (americanlegionpost79riverside.com) The anniversary also pulls another Riverside landmark into view: the “Water Buffalo” across the street from the post. Post 79 says it installed the plaque on the FMC-built Landing Vehicle, Tracked, in 1949, dedicating it to civilian war workers from World War II. (americanlegionpost79riverside.com) That vehicle ties the clubhouse to Riverside’s wartime factory history. The amphibious LVT, nicknamed the Water Buffalo, was built in Riverside during World War II, and local accounts place testing at Lake Evans before one was set up as a memorial near the post. (tank-afv.com) (waymarking.com) Fairmount Park is now in the middle of a new planning cycle, with the City of Riverside describing a master plan meant to preserve the park’s cultural heritage while updating access and infrastructure. The Post 79 clubhouse enters its second century as one of the park’s long-standing civic landmarks. (riversideca.gov) (raincrossgazette.com)