Museum of Riverside

Closed for renovations according to sign at the door. Wish I knew this before walking over. Sounded interesting by other reviews.

Went through during the Dickens Festival. Seeing people in Victorian garb walking through this historic building, seemed to add to the experience. A lot of it was closed off as they appeared to be doing some remodeling. Pretty neat museum, and it's FREE. There's a lab upstairs with live animals (lizards, fish, frogs, spiders and insects mostly) and volunteers cleaning up recently uncovered fossils that were shipped to the museum. The volunteers in there are very kind and love answering questions and letting you get a closer look at whatever's in there. Mission Inn Ave is also pretty cool with all the old buildings and the pagoda across the street. It's worth a nice day trip if you've got something to go to in the area.

This is a nice little museum. My wife and I stopped here when we were staying at the Mission Inn. A lot of exhibits of native wildlife. They have a lot of exhibits that tell the history of the Riverside area. They also have a lot of interesting Native American artifacts. Very much worth your time to come and explore.

I hate on Riverside a lot, so I'm trying real hard to find things about this town that make it a real destination town! This museum isn't really one of them, but it's a good way to get a feel for the history, wildlife and shrubbery that occupy(ied) this fair land called Riverside. I was here during art walk and admission was free (not sure if it's free all the time). Did a walk through of the first floor and yeah that was that. Noticed there was a window towards the front entrance that said "Stamps" and asked the docent at the info booth if this place was always a museum and she said it used to be the following: a post office, police station, World War II Veteran hospital. Also, if you look up, the ceiling has an art-deco tile feel. I know there's so much more rich history to this building, but due to the limited time I didn't get to absorb all the knowledge that was in it, but I think that first floor was pretty much it. If you're in town and you miss the Riverside Met you're not missing much, but if you're an alien that just landed in the desert here, feel free to get your bearings by doing a walkthrough of the first floor.

Small but mighty! Currently they have a "Rising Above" exhibit and a "Cahuilla" exhibit. Both are cool and have history to tell. This museum also organizes various events such as activities on First Sundays, activities on Second Saturdays at the Sycamore Canyon, activities during First Thursday Riverside Arts Walk and they have Discovery Days with different activities too. Their Annual Insect Fair is also coming up on April 29th.

Took a quick tour while waiting for the lights to go on at the Mission Inn. Fabulous little gem of a museum. Lots of local history and nature. Worth a visit, free, nice restooms, historic building.

Great place to take your Family. The Museum shows historical finds in Riverside County areas. Many Birds and Animals and Military history located in many RIV Cnty cities. The Museum celebrates many Cultures I like that very much. You will learn many things about the City and be glad you visited.

Decided to take the kids to something new and this is where we went!. This is a *small* museum that has lots of history in downtown riverside. My kids ages 6&12 were not totally amused by the place. I thought it was interesting. There were Lots of fossils and taxidermy animals that are native to the area & Native American artifacts. The history of the building was pretty amazing. Overall I'm glad we came in; We learned a few things. There is a suggested donation of $3 adults and kids 12 and under free. Considering this visit cost me $3 I'm happy. I don't feel it would be worth much more. I wish there were tours that could show you around as maybe it would be more informative that reading every piece of paper on the walls.Tip: this will only take 30-45 minutes to walk through so plan accordingly...

I came here last week to try and explore the Riverside area. This is a pretty small museum, with about 4 exhibits and a nature lab. They currently have an area dedicated to Riverside's history with the citrus industry, several quilt displays talking about the significance of quilts in culture, an area about the desert wildlife, and I went to visit on the opening day of a "Peanuts" exhibit (yes, the cartoon by Charles Schultz).It was mildly interesting. It is a piece of culture in Riverside, though it only took my boyfriend and I maybe 30-45 minutes to look at everything we wanted to see. The "Peanuts" exhibit has a collection of different memorabilia collected by locals and also explanations of Schultz's work/life and his characters.This is probably someplace I would go once just to see what it's like and not return...unless there was a new exhibit that really caught my eye. It's definitely somewhere nice for parents to take their kids to come and learn and do hands on activities.

The most wonderful place on Earth. I love the museum and all of its attractions from Taxidermy animals native to the area and surrounding areas too art and pictures of the History of Riverside which is all incredible. There is much to learn and especially on the second floor there is a Nature Lab open Mondays through to the weekend on some dates and has live animals from turtles on land and in water, frogs, cockraoches of Madagascar, snakes, tarantula, fish, crayfish, scorpion, and the list goes on. Very very great people throughout the entire museum especially Danielle and Teresa, and shout out to the Nature Lab volunteers and student workers your doing a great job keep it up! See you at the museum!