When I came to Drury to attend college many years ago, one of the first local icons I heard about was Riverside Inn. Nestled on the banks of the Finley River just east of Ozark, Riverside Inn was the scene of many fraternity and sorority formals during my Drury days. My mother-in-law was a huge fan of Riverside Inn and I remember fondly having birthday and anniversary celebrations there during the 70′s and 80′s – even attended a Junior League Charity Ball there and can recall dancing on the patio on a lovely spring evening.
Riverside was built in 1923 when flooding on the Finley River was not a concern. Sadly, over the last 76 years, environmental issues have shifted the course of the river and now it floods quite frequently. I’ve often wondered how they get insurance because common sense dictates that with continued building in the area, flooding is just going to increase but heh, they didn’t ask me!
Enter government (that’s really “taxpayer”) money to the rescue. To the tune of $1.7 million (small change to Washington, DC), Riverside Inn will be bought by the city of Ozark, town down and turned into a park. No more insurance claims for flooding, no more fried chicken and corn fritters from Riverside either.
Last week the owners announced that their last day of business will be December 12th. I quickly got on the phone and called for reservations for Saturday night and then called our friends Larry and Nancy to join us. They are fairly new to Springfield and while they had heard of Riverside, they’d never eaten there – we didn’t want them to miss the experience.
The place was packed when we arrived at 7:30 but we were immediately led to our table which was covered with white linens and set with lovely china (and charger plates) and real silver (who cares that my soup spoon needed to be polished – it was silver!). Within five minutes our waiter had placed a plate of cheese, fruit, olives and pickles on our table along with some super-yummy breadsticks. We ordered a bottle of wine and started perusing the menu which included old photos and a history of Riverside Inn along with the appetizer, dinner and dessert choices.
Burl chose the traditional fried chicken and I opted for the salmon – both served with homemade chicken noodle soup and an excellent salad. By time our meal arrived, I was already getting full! My salmon was a generous portion (I’m guessing 7-8 ounces) accompanied by new potatoes and carrots and green beans that were flavorful although a bit overcooked. The waiter guessed correctly when he automatically brought to-go boxes at the end of the evening.
So – we enjoyed one last night at Riverside Inn. We walked through the numerous rooms and admired the murals that Howard Garrison painted on the walls many years ago. I looked for ghosts of college friends and reminisced the excitement and sophistication I felt going to formals there. And I thought about my mother-in-law, Lucille, and how much she would have enjoyed one last evening on the banks of the Finley River.
Looks like the next time I ride my bike through that area, I’ll be greeted by a park instead of a historic Inn.
Thanks for the memories, Riverside Inn.
Gladys Loveland. She was a neighbor on my childhood street. She was a hostess at Riverside for a long time. She also loved art, and made and sold her decoupage there. It was mostly of animals and nature. You might remember her, she was a tiny, little lady. She passed several years ago, she was 85. I loved hearing her stories of Riverside Inn.
Thanks for the reminder about Riverside closing. We were trying to decide on where to go out to eat for our anniversary in a couple of weeks, and this settled it – one last time at Riverside. I’m just glad we got to experience it as much as we did.