The Perris Valley Historical and Museum Association (PVH&MA) was founded in 1964 to gather, protect, and preserve the history of the Perris Valley.
The association collects, catalogues, and displays items of historical interest, in addition to publishing pamphlets on valley history. Collections include artifacts from the Luiseño people, turn-of-the-century clothing, farming equipment, mining tools, and personal effects from the city's namesake, Fred T. Perris.
The Perris Santa Fe Depot normally houses the museum, but many of the collections are now in storage until the renovation of the historic Depot is completed. It is built of red brick, a classic example of High Victorian architectural style, recognized by the Native Daughters of the Golden West, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The PVH&MA hosts Fred T. Perris Day and a silent auction annually and participates yearly in the Potato Festival, Christmas Parade, and Southern California Fair. The current president of the Association is Midgie Parker.
Perris is an old railway city in Riverside County, California, United States, located 71 miles (114 km) east-southeast of Los Angeles and 81 miles (130 km) north of San Diego. It is known for Lake Perris, an artificial lake, skydiving, Southern California Railway Museum, and its sunny dry climate. Perris is within the Inland Empire metropolitan area of Southern California. Perris had a population of 78,700 as of the 2020 census.
History Park at Kelley Park in San Jose, California, USA is designed as an indoor/outdoor museum, arranged to appear as a small US town might have in the early 1900s (decade). Since its inauguration in 1971, 32 historic buildings and other landmarks have either been moved from their original San Jose locations or are represented by replicas.
Empire Mine State Historic Park is a state-protected mine and park in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Grass Valley, California, U.S. The Empire Mine is on the National Register of Historic Places, a federal Historic District, and a California Historical Landmark. Since 1975 California State Parks has administered and maintained the mine as a historic site. The Empire Mine is "one of the oldest, largest, deepest, longest and richest gold mines in California". Between 1850 and its closure in 1956, the Empire Mine produced 5.8 million ounces of gold, extracted from 367 miles (591 km) of underground passages.
The California Southern Railroad was a subsidiary railroad of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in Southern California. It was organized July 10, 1880, and chartered on October 23, 1880, to build a rail connection between what has become the city of Barstow and San Diego, California.
Fred Thomas Perris was Chief Engineer of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, who oversaw the construction of the last leg of the 2nd Transcontinental Railroad from Barstow, California through Cajon Pass and down to San Bernardino and Los Angeles, a task that employed six thousand laborers and is still in use by BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad He also laid track from Riverside, California to San Diego, California, laying out a series to town sites along the track, one of which, Perris, California was named in his honor. The city of Perris, California, a station on the California Southern Railroad, was named in his honor.(Its Cajon Pass. Not El Cajon Pass according to Chard Walkers "Cajon. Rail Passage To The Pacific")
Laws is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. Laws is located 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Bishop on U.S. Route 6, towards the Nevada state line.
The Fullerton Transportation Center is a passenger rail and bus station located in Fullerton, California, United States.
A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of standards, including those of the International Council of Museums. Houses are transformed into museums for a number of different reasons. For example, the homes of famous writers are frequently turned into writer's home museums to support literary tourism.
Southern Hotel in Perris, California was built in 1886. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. It is located at 445 S. D Street in the center of the city. Along with the Perris Depot, this is one of the two significant 19th century buildings still standing in the city.
The San Jacinto Valley is a valley located in Riverside County, in Southern California, in the Inland Empire. The valley is located at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains in the east and Santa Rosa Hills to the south with the San Gorgonio Pass to the north. The average elevation is 1,500 feet (460 m), with the highest points in the foothills south of Hemet and the western slopes of the San Jacinto Mountains. It is home to two cities, Hemet and San Jacinto, and several unincorporated communities. According to the 2020 census, the valley has a combined population of over 190,000 residents, including more than 143,000 residents within the city limits of Hemet and San Jacinto. The valley is also where the story and play "Ramona" was set; the story was written after author Helen Hunt Jackson visited the valley in the 1880s. The valley is also known for being an area of agriculture, which has given way to more urbanized development.
Santa Susana Depot is a train station building located near the Santa Susana Pass in Simi Valley, California. Originally located on Los Angeles Avenue at Tapo Street, the depot opened in 1903. The station was named after the Santa Susana Mountains at the east end of the Simi Valley. The Southern Pacific Railroad used the double-"N" spelling of Susanna on the depot sign facing west, and the single-"N" spelling of Susana on the sign facing east. The Santa Susana Tunnel opened the next year, reducing the distance and transit time between Montalvo and Burbank on the Coast Route linking Los Angeles and San Francisco. Plans and construction for the building were based on Southern Pacific Railroad standard design Two Story Combination Depot No. 22. The depot served the community of Rancho Simi as a passenger station, telegraph office, and freight depot where farmers could deliver crops for shipping and pick up farming equipment delivered by the railroad.
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.
The Santa Fe Passenger and Freight Depot is a former Santa Fe Railroad station located at 150 Central Valley Highway in Shafter, in the southern San Joaquin Valley within Kern County, California.
The California Central Railway was incorporated on April 23, 1887, with headquarters in San Bernardino, California. George O. Manchester was the President of the corporation.
Perris–Downtown station, also known as the Perris Station Transit Center, is a transport hub in Perris, California, that opened on January 11, 2010, with an eight-bay bus platform used by the Riverside Transit Agency. Train service to the station began on June 6, 2016, with the 91/Perris Valley Line extension of the Metrolink commuter rail system. It is located near the historic Perris Depot.
The Southern California Railway Museum, formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is a railroad museum in Perris, California, United States. It was founded in 1956 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles before moving to the former Pinacate Station as the "Orange Empire Trolley Museum" in 1958. It was renamed "Orange Empire Railway Museum" in 1975 after merging with a museum then known as the California Southern Railroad Museum, and adopted its current name in 2019. The museum also operates a heritage railroad on the museum grounds.
The Eastern California Museum is a history and heritage museum in Independence, California. It was founded in 1928 and showcases the history of the region of Eastern California. It is operated by Inyo County.