07/06/2026
This bell was once part of La Placita and now resides at Las Campañas at the historic Mission Inn.
A Board & A Bell
In 1969, Riverside was unsure how much of itself it was willing to lose in the name of progress. The old Carnegie Library was gone. The Mission Inn’s future was on shaky ground. Many of Frank Miller’s treasures had been sold and scattered. And then the arguments over Riverside’s past seemed to gather around an unlikely object: a 956-pound bell.
Things had been simmering all through the 1960s. The Mission Inn, owned since 1956 by San Francisco hotelier Ben Swig, was struggling to stay relevant (and profitable). Swig’s vision was to “modernize” the hotel and jettison the dusty old ballast of Frank Miller’s treasured art and antiquities. Swig hosted several public auctions through the ‘50s and ‘60s, selling off an untold number of original items. We don’t know exactly how many items were removed from the hotel. Their present whereabouts are lost to time for the most part. Curiously, while disposing of Mission Inn treasures, Swig also applied for the protections of state landmark status. In 1961, the Inn was designated California Historical Landmark 761.
In late 1964, the demolition of Riverside’s beloved Carnegie Library became a sobering realization for the community: Modernism was all well and good, but if progress meant the loss of an important part of what makes Riverside special, that wasn’t a good trade off. In a 1966 New Year’s wish, Riverside Municipal Museum Director Charles Hice imagined a “Cultural Heritage Board” that would “assist in retaining the individual character of the city.” By November, plans were being made for how such a board might function. Those plans continued to firm up over the next two years as time marched on for the Mission Inn: Ben Swig sold the hotel to new owners in 1967 (who ultimately coalesced as “M.I.I. Corporation”), and the Inn was designated a Riverside County Historical Landmark in 1968.
After two years of discussion and deliberation, the Cultural Heritage Board was officially established by City Council in November 1968. Its abilities filled a gap in the City’s processes: identify what matters, say so publicly, advise City Council, and review proposed changes to cultural resources. But it had some baked-in restraints: it couldn’t buy property or enforce preservation law on its own. In a city just beginning to understand the impact of “forever decisions” like demolition, even just the power to pause for permit review was meaningful.
The CHB’s first meeting was held in the museum’s conference room in February of 1969, presided by Chairman Pro-tem Art Pick. Included in its roster were some familiar names: Esther Klotz, Herman Ruhnau, and Arthur G. Paul. Among their first actions, Klotz proposed creating a landmark designation for the Mission Inn, and the board discussed an urgent matter: how they could prevent M.I.I. Corporation’s planned sale of a Mission Inn artifact with an interesting local origin.
The “Agua Mansa Bell” was made in 1866 for the Church of San Salvador in what is now Agua Mansa, just northwest of Riverside, a couple miles away from the Trujillo Adobe. A neighbor of the church made a mold in the hillside sand, melted down scavenged or donated metals, and fashioned the bell in exchange for $12 and two horses. The bell was a bit of a dud from the beginning: two holes in its poorly cast body made for muted tone. It was somewhat homely in appearance, but old-timers later recalled its quirky charm and the unique sound of its ringing. After the church was abandoned in the late 19th century (not the bell’s fault), the bell was moved to a church in nearby Colton, Church of the Holy Rosary. In 1918, that church suffered a fire and was destroyed. Mission Inn owner and art collector Frank Miller learned of the loss and made a $1,000 offer to the church for the bell. Busy rebuilding, they initially refused Miller’s offer, but eventually relented. Miller bartered a lighter-weight, better-sounding bell plus $500. He brought the Agua Mansa Bell to join his collection that eventually grew to roughly 750 bells.
Flash forward to 1969: M.I.I. Corporation was selling the Agua Mansa bell to the City of Colton for $400. This, in spite of former owner Ben Swig’s “do as I say, not as I do” admonition to M.I.I. to not sell any mortgaged property, and M.I.I.’s reassurances that they would maintain Miller’s arts and artifacts. Mission Inn manager Carroll Purkey seemed dumbfounded by the community’s outraged response to the proposed sale, saying it was “purely a goodwill gesture.” At the urging of the Cultural Heritage Board, City Council and Mayor Ben Lewis moved quickly and requested a stop to the proposed sale. M.I.I. complied. CHB’s first action was a ringing success.
M.I.I. Corporation filed for bankruptcy in March of 1969 (still not the bell’s fault). The hotel went into receivership and operated for a period as UC Riverside student housing with no captain at the helm. In this uncertain environment, the Mission Inn was designated as the city’s first Cultural Heritage Landmark on April 16, 1969—beginning a robust program of recognition and protection in Riverside. In June of 1969, the volunteer organization Friends of the Mission Inn was formed to help promote the hotel with an uncertain future and to safeguard Frank Miller’s collection.
Buoyed by its early successes, the Cultural Heritage Board closed out 1969 pushing for the preservation of Victoria Avenue, expanding its landmarks list, and advocating for the Mission Inn’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Even as the city was facing profound change with looming widespread demolition and redevelopment in Downtown, there was a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect between the CHB and City Council as they sought to find common ground.
The Agua Mansa Bell was designated by the CHB as Cultural Heritage Landmark Object #5 in 1973. It remains onsite at the Mission Inn, displayed in the patio at the Inn’s Las Campanas restaurant.
📸 Jennifer Cappuccio Maher / SCNG
