HISTORY

REDLANDS, A MONOLITH OF THE CITRUS BOOM

RPM resides in what was once the Mutual Orange Distributors (MOD) Packing House. A part of Redlands' rich Citrus Industry History, much of that history is still present today in the distinct architecture, scenery, and accents inside and around the building.

Downtown Redlands, one of the epicenters of the navel orange industry, historically and even today has the largest array of citrus-heritage buildings in Southern California. At the Citrus industry’s peak in 1928 there were 14 packing houses in downtown Redlands. Eight have been demolished and the “MOD Packing House” was heading towards the same fate when, following community protest, the City elected to sell the derelict structure for redevelopment.

A small portion of this packing house was originally built in 1894 as Packing House Number 2343214. It was upgraded in 1900 and again in 1906 by the founder Arthur Gregory when it was rebranded and affiliated with Mutual Orange Distributors, an early competitor of Sunkist.

In 1929 MOD reorganized as a non-profit organization, the Redlands Mutual Orange Company, and that year handled about 224,000 packed boxes of citrus fruit and up to four railroad box cars per day along the Southern Pacific rail line (now abandoned on the south side of the building). To accommodate the high demand, in 1930 the sum of $30,000 dollars was spent to upgrade to a new steel truss and corrugated metal roof with north facing clerestory windows, creating the Packing House we see from the inside today.

Our Packing House ceased operations by 1960 and thereafter housed a variety of businesses until it was abandoned in 2000 and finally sold to the City of Redlands in 2006. Arteco Partners was able to purchase the building from the City and after several years of planning and an $11 million dollar renovation from top to bottom (following Secretary of Interior Standards for Historic Rehabilitation) finally reopened Packing House Number 2343214 as Redlands Public Market in February 2025.

seriously worked 3D graphic drawing of a freestanding freight elevator with both gates open & raised, revealing six vintage orange crates stacked inside.

THE FREIGHT ELEVATOR

This freight elevator was installed in 1931 and carried crates of navel oranges stored in the cool basement common to packing houses.

THE VAULT

There is a brick office addition, and its built-in safe with 12-inch concrete walls was built in 1908.

photoreal illustration of big black steel vault door, open, with the classic central spinner handle, outer frame, no wall, and we cannot really see inside, just a shadow

THE JUICE-CHUTES

The juice bin and chutes:

Circa 1938. A conveyor belt carried culled oranges up into the wooden “tower” for storing and when full oranges would slide down the two “juice chutes” into the back of a truck to head to the plant to make orange juice.

an animated black & white drawing graphic of the Juice-Chutes at RPM, with orange-colored oranges dropping into the top opening and then being dumped out the pair of raising and lowering twin juice-chutes off the frame, presumably into trucks parked there to catch them.

OLD GROWTH, LOCAL LUMBER

a photoreal black & white drawing illustration of a stack of railroad ties, perhaps 12 or so, rather loosely stacked, at an angle and casting a shadow.

Our salvaged heavy timbers likely date to 1904 – likely harvested in the San Bernardino mountains and provided structural support in the basement of this Packing House.

PUTTING A LABEL ON IT

These are some of the original orange crate labels that we can definitively identify as the brands that were packed in this building by looking closely at archived interior photos dated to the 1900’s.

an overlay graphic that moves around depicting some of the things written on the walls of the old packing house at RPM

LEFT THEIR MARK

Near the once open air loading dock for trucks coming from the orange groves. In multiple locations along the once exterior brick wall painted white is the markings of men who worked here- the oldest from 1908.

a composited black & white photo composition consisting of four men standing, cut out, in front of an old plaster covered, but distressed showing large worn-away areas revealing brick underneath, and one other man with a handtruck loaded with for orange crates, all of them are looking at the camera

STANDING STRONG

Some brick walls dates to 1908 when the Packing House was expanded at joined the Mutual Orange Distributors; a competitor to Sunkist. All buildings in downtown Redlands were required by law to be made of brick until the great Long Beach earthquake of 1931, when the decorative brick parapet was removed (or fell during the earthquake), and the exterior brick stuccoed over. A preservation company attempted to remove the stucco to return the building to a brick façade, but it turns out 100 year old stucco sticks a little too good to brick.

Three steel I-beams laying side by side, in black & white photo-real illustration, at an angle, of different lengths, and casting a shadow

AS STRONG AS STEEL

In 1930, $30,000 was spent to upgrade the building from wood to a new steel truss roof with north facing clerestory windows, creating the Packing House we see today. In 2024, 124 tons of steel was added to the structure to seismically retrofit the building to withstand earthquakes.

PRESERVING THE PAST

Rough-sawn 2 x 12 lumber dating to 1904 is the salvaged sub-floor of the Packing House; that took two-men two-weeks to remove all the nails.

a black & white photo-real illustration of a short length of 2 x 4 rough-sawn lumber with nails pounded into its four corners, one all the way through, two on the way through, but not yet, and one bent horribly that will have to be pulled out.

ORIGINAL METAL

Original corrugated metal sliding freight doors.

A black & white photo-real illustration of sliding corrugated metal freight door on tracks above and below.

HISTORICAL PHOTO GALLERY