How streets in Riverside’s Arlington Heights area got their names

Monikers of many roads, from Victoria Avenue to Dufferin Avenue, can be traced to Matthew Gage

By Steve Lech | backinthedaype@gmail.com | Contributing columnist

PUBLISHED: April 18, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. | UPDATED: April 18, 2024 at 4:13 p.m.

In the early 1890s, Matthew Gage, an Irishman by birth but a Canadian by citizenship, had completed a water canal from the Santa Ana River to the Sycamore Canyon area.

He had wanted simply to irrigate a 640-acre parcel of land that is essentially today’s UC Riverside citrus groves between the campus and Chicago Avenue. However, Gage had bigger prospects and had secured thousands of dollars in British investment to continue his canal southwest along the foothills south of town. When the canal was built, this area took on the name “Arlington Heights” because it was the high ground of the Arlington area of Riverside.

Since his purpose was to make money selling land, Gage prominently featured a boulevard that paralleled and copied the Riverside Land and Irrigating Company’s Magnolia Boulevard. Because of the British investment, he sought to name the boulevard after the popular Queen Victoria.

When Samuel Cary Evans, of the Riverside Land and Irrigating Company, laid out Magnolia Avenue, he also laid out parallel roads both north and south, named California and Indiana avenues for his home state and adopted state. In a similar fashion, Gage and his associates laid out parallel streets to Victoria, but named them Lincoln and Cleveland for the very popular president associated with the recent Civil War, and the current president, Grover Cleveland.

All of these avenues made sense from the standpoint of the times. However, one that was baffling was the avenue south of Cleveland – namely, Dufferin Avenue. As it turns out, we need to examine Gage’s Canadian roots for the origins of that name.

By the 1870s, a man with the lengthy name of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood had already accomplished much in British society, especially in Syria and the Middle East. In 1872, he was appointed governor general of Canada and spent the next several years propelling that position into one of prominence. During his tenure, Prince Edward Island was admitted to Confederation, the Supreme Court of Canada was established, as was the Royal Military College of Canada. Needless to say, Gage would have known of Blackwood and probably admired him greatly.

In 1871, through birthright, Blackwood was raised to the position of Earl of Dufferin. For the rest of his life, he was known as Lord Dufferin. Since two presidential streets paralleled Victoria, Gage probably saw it fitting that the last one be named for someone prominent in Canadian politics.

Perpendicular to these boulevards are roads that are generally extensions of the presidential streets originally laid out as part of Magnolia Avenue. However, there are some others. At the far northeastern portion of the property lie Anna, Horace, Maude, Jane, and Mary streets. Jane Gibson was Gage’s wife, and the others were some of their children. Two other streets farther to the southwest are Gibson and Irving, paying homage to Gage’s wife and his brother-in-law, William Irving, who surveyed the Arlington Heights portion of the Gage Canal.

Most other streets in that area bear what sound like peoples’ names, such as Gratton, McAllister, Stewart and St. Lawrence, but research has not shown the origins of those names.

If you have an idea for a future Back in the Day column about a local historic person, place or event, contact Steve Lech and Kim Jarrell Johnson at backinthedaype@gmail.com.