Harada House

The city's bronze calls the case a successful challenge to the 1913 Alien Land Law, and it was not one. Judge Hugh Craig upheld the law in September 1918 and ruled something narrower: the children were born here, were citizens, and a citizen's title could not be voided for a parent's ancestry. The Haradas kept their house while the law barred every other Issei family from owning one for thirty-four more years, until the state supreme court struck it down in 1952. No state plaque stands here; the 1990 landmark tablet sits beside the city's.

What the plaque says

Harada House 1884 This house was purchased in 1915 by local restaurant proprietor Jukichi Harada in the names of his three American-born minor children. It was remodeled and expanded to two stories in 1916. The question of legal ownership of this house resulted in the first test—and successful challenge—of the 1913 California Alien Land Law which prohibited aliens from legally owning property in the state. Jukichi Harada died in 1944. Cultural Heritage Board Landmark No. 23 City of Riverside Harada House has been designated a National Historic Landmark This building possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America 1990 National Park Service United States Department of the Interior

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Harada House — steps away
  The 1884 cottage a Japanese American family bought in their children's names, and kept in court.
• Riverside Chinatown Site — 1.3 mi
  Riverside's second Chinatown — an empty lot on purpose, with eighty percent of it still underground.
• Mount Rubidoux — 1.4 mi
  The mountain all of Riverside walks — and the half-acre at the summit the city sold rather than go to court.
• Sherman Institute & the Sherman Indian Museum — 5.7 mi
  The federal Indian boarding school Riverside lobbied to get — still a school today, its 1902 building now a museum.

More markers nearby

• Mission Inn — 0.3 mi
• Site of Old Rubidoux Grist Mill — 2.3 mi
• Site of Louis Rubidoux House — 2.3 mi
• Cornelius and Mercedes Jenson Ranch — 2.8 mi