Previously we have discussed both Morningside and Leeds neighborhoods, now let’s look at Riverside. With an amusement park, circus, boat club and pool, this was by far the most active neighborhood in its heyday. Bruguier’s
Previously we have discussed both Morningside and Leeds neighborhoods, now let’s look at Riverside. With an amusement park, circus, boat club and pool, this was by far the most active neighborhood in its heyday.
Bruguier’s Cabin
We’ve also discussed Theophile Bruguier, the first white settler in Sioux City, and who befriended War Eagle. Bruguier’s cabin is located in Riverside Park, and in 1880, after owning this land for twenty years, he sold it to the Riverside Park Land Company.
Riverside during the turn of the century
In the 1890s, the Sioux River was much more calm than it is today. A slow-moving, meandering river, it spanned 200 meters across. Water sports of all sorts were common, as was camping, picnicking, race tracks and fairgrounds.
Local farmers and ranchers brought their livestock to the fair, which became the largest private fair in the nation! The fairgrounds also hosted children’s 4-H competition, fire trucks were raced on the tracks, and 20,000 people came to watch the Ringling Brothers bathe their elephants in the river!
Riverside Men’s Boat club
To bring business to this area of Sioux City, the Men’s Boat Club was founded in 1905. Cost to build was $10,000 and the first floor included a large open dance hall, smoking rooms, parlors, and locker rooms. The basement held showers and a dressing room. Upstairs, the second floor held card and billiard rooms and women’s retiring and bath rooms. And finally, outdoors, it had tennis courts, croquet fields and docks for canoes.
Sadly, it burned down in 1911, but fortunately it only took sixty days to rebuild, and this was THE place to be in Sioux City. It brought citizens together from all over the area. A dance hall, six bowling lanes, six tennis courts, wrap-around screened-in porches, and on-site cottages for members to stay were just a few of the many activities accessible at the Boat Club.
Riverside Dance hall
After going bankrupt in 1928, the Boat Club was sold, and eventually remodeled into a dance hall in 1935, hosting 1940s big bands such as Lawrence Welk and Louie Armstrong, and even the Beach Boys and Chubby Checker in the 1960s.
Due to declining interest in big band dance halls, the building was closed for good in 1965, but just one year later it was purchased by the Sioux City Community Theatre, and has remained open to the public ever since.
Current day Riverside
Today, besides small single-family dwellings, Riverside consists of the Riverside Pool, Riverside Park, Milwaukee Railroad Museum, Missouri River Boat Club, Bamboos Bar, Sioux City Community Theatre, Billy Boy Drive-Thru, Dave’s Flooring, River-Cade Association, and the Riverside Pool.
In addition, the annual Art Splash festival is held at the Riverside Park, along with several other events throughout the year. Keep up to date with social events via their facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/siouxcityparksandrec/), and read more about this neighborhood via Sioux City’s history website (http://www.siouxcityhistory.org/).
