3 Best Sights in Redlands, The Inland Empire

Franciscan Fathers built the mission in 1819, but it functioned as one for only a few years. In 1834 it became part of a rancho and later served as a school and a factory. The current mission is a replica. The landscaped courtyard contains an old Spanish mission bell, and one building holds a small museum.

In 1897 Cornelia A. Hill built what's now Kimberly Crest House and Gardens to mimic the châteaus of France's Loire Valley. Surrounded by orange groves, lily ponds, and terraced Italian gardens, the mansion has a French-revival parlor, a mahogany staircase, a glass-mosaic fireplace, and a bubbling fountain in the form of Venus rising from the sea. Alfred and Helen Kimberly, founders of the Kimberly-Clark Paper Company, purchased the estate in 1905, and their daughter, Mary, lived here until 1979. Most of the 22 rooms are in original condition.

The shrine houses the largest collection of Abraham Lincoln artifacts on the West Coast. You can view a marble bust of Lincoln by sculptor George Grey Barnard, along with more than a dozen letters and rare pamphlets. The gift shop sells many books, toys, and reproductions pertaining to the Civil War.