Southern Hotel in

Perris, California Perris is an old railway city in Riverside County, California, United States, located east-southeast of Los Angeles and north of San Diego. It is known for Lake Perris, skydiving, the Southern California Railway Museum, and its sunny dry cli ...

was built in 1886. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1992. It is located at 445 S. D Street in the center of the city. Along with the

Perris Depot The Perris Depot is a railroad depot built in 1892 to serve Perris, California. The station replaced a previous wooden structure at the same site on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line, originally the California Southern Railroad. Hi ...

, this is one of the two significant 19th century buildings still standing in the city.

History

Southern Hotel is the oldest surviving commercial building in Perris, built by

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

immigrant couple, Bernardo and Marcellina Bernasconi. Bernardo Bernasconi was a rancher, and the family had six children. It was used as a hotel serving the San Jacinto - Perris stage line until approximately 1919, when it was converted into Bernasconi family residence. Matilda Bernasconi, the oldest child of the original builders, lived in the building until her death, after which the structure fell into a state of disrepair. In 1987, there were two

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

fires, and the building was close to being demolished. In 1990, it was bought by the Motte brothers, restored, and converted into a museum (Motte Historical Museum). Before 1885, the area was known as Pinacate, now in the southern part of the city of Perris. Perris received a railway station in 1886 and soon after the Southern Hotel became one of the first buildings in the area.

Architecture

The hotel is a Victorian Era style building, two-storey wooden and rectangular. It bears a number of

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

features and decorative elements. Proviously, the building was adjacent to other commercial structures, but currently it stands alone. The front of the building faces west (S. D Street) and is made in horizontal sidings. It features a door, two windows with decorative crowns, and an open wooden porch with four support posts.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Riverside County, California Perris, California Hotel buildings completed in 1886 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Riverside County, California 1886 establishments in California Hotels established in 1886 Italianate architecture in California