In a bold move, the City of Riverside in 1976 purchased the treasured, yet shabby and somewhat neglected Mission Inn. The city’s redevelopment agency was not in the hotel business. They created the Mission Inn Foundation to operate and serve as stewards of the Mission Inn, the collections, and the history of the “crown jewel” of the Inland Empire. This was a difficult time filled with hope that the Mission Inn could and would be saved. The official date of incorporation was August 20, 1976. Several key and influential community leaders were members of the founding board.  

Ten years later the city had sold the hotel to a developer and restoration commenced. Nearly ready to open a few years later, the lending bank foreclosed on the property. In 1992 local entrepreneur Duane R. Roberts stepped forward to purchase and operate the hotel. The Mission Inn Museum opened in 1993 in the former Banks drugstore at the corner of Main and 7th Street (now Mission Inn Avenue). The Mission Inn Foundation had a corps of well-trained docents in-place ready to meet the tremendous demand for tours of the National Historic Landmark hotel when it reopened in 1993.

Today, the mission of the Mission Inn Foundation remains the same — to preserve, interpret, and promote the cultural heritage of the Mission Inn, Riverside, and the surrounding southern California communities through its museum services, educational programs, although we no longer operate the hotel. The Mission Inn Foundation has a changing exhibition program, has strengthened the tour program, reached out beyond the walls to provide educational opportunities to students in Riverside and the surrounding school districts, created a Youth Ambassador’s corps, and made a commitment to invest in full time professional staff to support and direct the Foundation’s existing and future efforts. The Board of Trustees of the Mission Inn Foundation are committed to advancing the goals and objectives of the organization in the spirit of those who founded the Mission Inn Foundation in 1976.