The Irvines built this French Chateau-style home on Brockton Avenue

Stella B Irvine

Stella Irvine moved to Riverside in 1893 with her husband, Lew, and bought an existing orange grove that occupied three city blocks between First and Fourth Streets and Locust Street and Brockton Avenue. Stella was very active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

They built an impressive French chateau-style house on the corner of First Street and Brockton Avenue. The 16-room home was designed by Seehorn & Preston in Los Angeles and featured a shiny zinc roof and a circular tower complete with fleur-de-lis finial. Set into one window was a memorial portrait of the Irvine’s daughter, Lucille, who had died as an infant. Her high chair was placed below the portrait as a remembrance. After the house was sold in 1938, an incident of purported haunting took place. A little girl, presumably Lucille, is said to still haunt the house and can occasionally be heard crying.