Almanac note · History and culture
Foothill Boulevard keeps Rialto's Route 66 and rail layer visible
Rialto's older story runs through ranching, the Santa Fe Railroad, Foothill Boulevard, Route 66, Pacific Electric rail, and downtown pieces that still help explain the Inland Empire city.
Rialto can look like a modern Inland Empire city of homes, schools, warehouses, shopping centers, and busy roads. Foothill Boulevard gives you a way to see the older city underneath that everyday traffic.
The city was incorporated in 1911, but its local history reaches through Serrano settlement, Mexican land-grant life, ranching, farming, and railroad growth. The townsite was laid out in 1887 after the Santa Fe Railroad was extended between San Bernardino and Los Angeles.
Then the road story arrived. Foothill Boulevard was repaired in 1913 and later became part of U.S. Route 66. In 1914, Pacific Electric finished its San Bernardino Line through Rialto, with a junction at Riverside Avenue for the Riverside Line. That means Rialto had rail and road layers working through the same growing town.
You can still read pieces of that older map around Riverside Avenue, Foothill Boulevard, Bud Bender Park, and local history stops. It gives Rialto more texture than a freeway glance can show: rail town, citrus-era community, roadside corridor, and fast-growing Inland Empire city all in one place.
Where to see it
Foothill Boulevard, Riverside Avenue, the older downtown area, and Rialto history stops near the Historical Society and Bud Bender Park.
Official sources
Official source trail
Reviewed July 6, 2026
California Porch explains the path. The official source is still the place to confirm the current rule, fee, form, map, deadline, or office decision.
Use the official page before you spend money, file paperwork, rely on a deadline, or change a property.
Connected places
Where it fits on the map
Open a place page for the county layer, nearby places, and other California entries tied to that local page.
Related notes
Keep following this thread.
These are picked from nearby places, shared tags, and the same California topic shelf.
Rialto saved a 1907 church and turned it toward community use
Rialto's First Christian Church, now the Kristina Dana Hendrickson Cultural Center, is a saved 1907 landmark near the local history museum.
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Bud Bender Park in Rialto combines sports fields, picnic space, a community garden, and an early adobe tied to the city's older local history.
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