Freeway and Street Signs Advertising CSDR

We have road signs to guide drivers going the right way to the school for the deaf on Horace Street. One of the guide signs is posted on Riverside Ave where the freeway ramp ends. The sign shows the left arrow to alert the drivers to make a left turn on Arlington Ave.

In the early years, there was another sign posted on the avenue approaching Horace Street where the school is located on the right side. Down on Horace Street, the driver would spot the famed entrance sign spelling out “California School for the Deaf, Riverside.”

For your historical interest, when the school opened in 1953, there was no Freeway 91 in existence. The new freeway stretch at the Arlington Ave exit opened later in 1957. The drivers coming from Southern Los Angeles used Santa Ana Canyon Road and Magnolia Ave as the main route with many stops in towns in between. Jet Hurley, ‘75 adds that he lived in Orange County and had to travel on streets from OC to Riverside. The freeway finally connected to OC in the mid-1960s. Further, the east-west route which passes through southern Los Angeles County, northern Orange County and western Riverside County, is 58 miles in total length.

At the intersection of Magnolia Ave and Arlington Ave, there was a white guide sign pointing the right way to CSDR. You can see the small white sign on the postcard below.

Pat Davis, ‘63 and I are proud to have the old white sign in our museum care that used to be posted on Arlington Ave for decades. The old sign looks weather-beaten from decades of exposure to all weather elements.

Semi-trucks with four axles are forbidden to drive on Horace Street. The trucks going to CSDR, Gage Middle School or Riverside County Adult School on Lincoln Ave must drive on Maude Street instead. There is an entrance and exit gate on Maude Street for CSDR. See the street sign posted for Gate 14.

Seventy years after the school opened, we now have three public signs with two on both sides of Freeway 91 and one on Riverside Ave. The signs help remind 400,000 people traveling on the freeway and street every day that the special state school for Deaf children is in town.

As a side note, it may strike you as odd, but I stick to my habit that I make a military salute every time I see the signs on the road and freeway. Why? My father served in the Air Force for twenty years and retired as Chief Master Sergeant in 1970. Drs Brill and Lennan also served in the US Navy before coming to Riverside. I have a profound sense of respect for military people.

Kevin Struxness, ‘76, MA

1 October 2024

Editor, CSDR Old Times