We came to Redlands, part of the Greater Los Angeles metro area, for some repair to the coach. We have spent time in Redlands Truck and RV Performance campground waiting for work to begin and then we took some time to get to see Redlands.
Our search turned up a big surprise, a Lincoln Shrine, the only such west of the Mississippi. I thought maybe a statue in a park, but this is what we found:
Originally built in 1932, the center section contains a wonderful marble bust of Lincoln and some memorabilia. The two wings were built in 1998 and contain a timeline of Lincoln’s life a tremendous library and many more memorabilia from his life and from the Civil War. There is also a Norman Rockwell oil commemorating Lincoln. The center building is painted by Dean Cornwell who did a major interior at the Los Angeles Library. I could not do the dome and murals justice with my phone. For much more detail about the shrine here is a link http://www.lincolnshrine.org/
The shrine is on the grounds of A. K. Smiley Public Library dating back to 1898.
We toured the interior and were very impressed with the collections in addition to the books. A local stained glass worker has been adding windows as recently as last year. For a VRtour http://www.akspl.org/about/#360vrtour will also provides links to history. The architectural detail is very attractive as well:
This is just one of the many columns.
We did a bit of shopping – food mostly – and returned to the coach for a bit. We found one of the doors restored and work proceeding on the rest. We elected to go out for dinner and returned to the center of the city to Eureka Burger. We enjoyed our meal, Carol found a veggie burger made of beets with more salad than she could contemplate eating. I had a specialty burger and enjoyed it a lot. We would go back . A warning, it is noisy.
Today, Wednesday, we have a museum and a mansion on the agenda after lunch. The rain has cleared and painting is proceeding.
And not far from home, very nice