The City of Riverside has eight zip codes, from 92501 through 92509. CSDR is located in the 92506 area. How does it compare to other zip codes? Research indicates we are in a really nice neighborhood.
Surviving notes from Perry Seely indicate that he wanted a new Southern California School for the Deaf to be built in a lovely part of the friendly town with two levels of expectations (town as whole and a particular neighborhood). Once Seely arrived in Riverside in 1947, he checked five sites in the order of preference for the State Property Acquisitions Department to check and approve.
With the old Riverside map with five circles in red pencil marks, Alban Branton, ‘81, and I drove around town and checked out all five sites. The first site was an undeveloped land adjacent to the University of California at Riverside campus, which opened in 1954. The second site was Arlington Heights, where CSDR is located. The three remaining sites were near the Riverside Municipal Airport. Alban and I agreed quickly these three sites were not attractive as they were found in rural areas with rough edges and some manufacturing industries. They were not a pretty part of the town.
The state inspectors rejected Seely’s first choice in the 92507 zip code area for the new school site for only one reason: the hillside lot would require extensive grading, adding to the construction cost. Seely thought it would be nice to be next to UCR and provide a panoramic view of downtown Riverside and the great valley.
Next, the inspectors came to the Horace Street and Arlington Ave agricultural farm. See the picture above. The site sits on a gentle slope that requires much less grading than the UCR area. The inspectors sent their reports and black-and-white pictures to the State Property Acquisitions Department in Sacramento for analysis and discussion. Ultimately, the board approved the site on Horace Street for the new CSDR in 1948. The escrow closed in October.
Below is a photograph donated by Bobby Skedesmo, ‘63, of Arizona. His deaf parents drove to Riverside in 1950 to see the new school site where their son, Bobby, would transfer to from CSD Berkeley later in February 1953. Thank you, Bobby, for the priceless picture.
With eight zip codes, CSDR is in the 92506 zip code area. This neighborhood is one of the nicer parts of town with a more affluent demographic. The house market value ($700,000) in 92506 is higher than all other zip codes. The area has a median income of $115,000 compared with $85,000 for the whole town on average.
The 92506 area also boasts the higher education background of the area residents. The zip code area has a relatively low crime rate with a B+. Seventy-five percent of residents are house owners with the remaining 25% renters. The resident median age is 39.
See how many houses were built every ten years between the 1930s and the 2010s. For the 92506 area, the 1950s architecture characterizes the houses we see around CSDR.
Below is the zip code 92507 area where I live. I live on an one-acre home lot with open space around the house. A mile from UCR and nearby CSDR if the inspectors had not objected to Seely’s first choice in 1948.
Kevin Struxness, ‘76, MA
Editor, CSDR Old Times
10 December 2024
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