page_title: University of California Citrus Experiment Station
section_title: Expansion and relocation to Box Springs
hierarchical_section_title: University of California Citrus Experiment Station / The University of California Citrus Experiment Station / Expansion and relocation to Box Springs
caption_attribution_description: View of Citrus Experiment Station (c. 1916) — at Box Springs Mountains, in Riverside, California
context_page_description: The University of California Citrus Experiment Station is the founding unit of the University of California, Riverside campus in Riverside, California, United States. The station contributed greatly to the cultivation of the orange and the overall agriculture industry in California. Established February 14, 1907, the station celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007.
context_section_description: In 1913, a record killing freeze caused a panic throughout the $175 million Southern California citrus industry, which demanded more state-funded agricultural research. Three acts of the California Legislature in 1913 provided $185,000 to fund an enlarged Citrus Experiment Station to be located in one of the eight southern counties. Developers of the San Fernando Valley, recently opened for settlement by the 1914 completion of the Owens Valley aqueduct, lobbied intensively for the CES to be relocated there. Herbert John Webber, professor of plant breeding and the newly appointed CES director from Cornell University, considered various site proposals but ultimately worked with Riverside officials and local growers to assist in drafting and endorsing a proposal for the station to be relocated to its current site on 475 acres (1.92 km²) of land 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from downtown Riverside, adjacent to the Box Springs Mountains. On December 14, 1914 the UC Regents approved the selection, news of which caused jubilation in downtown Riverside: "The entire city turned into the streets, the steam whistle on the electrical plant blew for 15 minutes, and the Mission Inn bells were rung in celebration." It was, according to Reed as quoted in the Riverside Daily Press: "...the most important day that has occurred in all the history of Riverside."
  The new station was to be governed autonomously under Webber's direction. He spent the next few years personally recruiting the founding research team, eleven scientists organized into six divisions of agricultural chemistry, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, plant breeding, and orchard management. Webber also initiated the development of the Citrus Variety Collection on 5 acres (20,000 m²) planted with approximately 500 species of citrus from around the world, which grew to become the greatest such variety collection internationally. He also planted hundreds of other subtropical crops, including 70 varieties of avocado, imported from Mexico, that produced more than 45,000 hybrids through controlled pollination. (He also engaged in agricultural extension activities by founding the California Avocado Association in 1914, and by organizing the annual citrus institute of the National Orange Show in San Bernardino and the Date Growers Institute of Coachella Valley.)
  The original laboratory, farm, and residence buildings on the Box Springs site were designed by Lester H. Hibbard of Los Angeles, a graduate of the University of California School of Architecture, in association with a colleague, H.B. Cody. Built at a cost of $165,000, the architecture followed the Mission style suggesting the Spanish colonial heritage of Southern California. The site, which became the early nucleus of the UCR campus, eventually opened in 1917, although the Division of Agricultural Chemistry continued to occupy lab space at the Rubidoux site. (The Rubidoux site is today occupied by the UC Center for Water Resources.)
caption: Citrus Experiment Station, circa 1916
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