
7 minute read
Claremont Attractions
Claremont Attractions
Explore Claremont like a local –whether you’re new to town or just cruising through. This guide to nearby attractions reveals what gives the town its character.

BENTON MUSEUM OF ART AT POMONA COLLEGE
Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, also known as The Benton, opened in 2021, showcasing some of Southern California’s most compelling and experimental exhibitions in a 33,000-square-foot facility. For decades, Pomona College has played a key role in shaping the work of innovative artists, including Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, Peter Shelton, the late Marcia Hafif and the late Chris Burden. The museum’s collection includes pieces from these alumni while exhibitions also place emphasis on cutting-edge art from the Los Angeles region. The building, made of a cast-in-place concrete structure accented with wood, glass and a distinctive sloping roofline, is built to LEED gold standards of sustainability.

CALIFORNIA BOTANIC GARDEN
The largest botanical garden dedicated to exclusively California native plants, California Botanic Garden displays about 2,000 taxa of plants spread across 86 acres, including species native to the California Floristic Province stretching from southern Oregon to Baja California. In addition to being able to stroll the garden’s picturesque pathways, visitors can walk among butterflies in the Bird & Butterfly Garden or enjoy music and beer tastings on select summer evenings.

THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES
The Claremont Colleges are a consortium of seven, highly selective institutions of higher education, all within walking distance of each other. Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pomona, Pitzer and Scripps Colleges are among the nation’s top-ranked liberal arts schools. The campuses boast beautiful historical architecture, lavish lawns and numerous pieces of public art. Check out the colleges’ calendars for stimulating presentations, musical productions, art exhibits and other events.

CLAREMONT FORUM FARMERS & ARTISANS MARKET
Rain or shine, the weekly Farmers & Artisans Market, hosted by the Claremont Forum Bookshop, takes place each Sunday along Harvard Avenue in the Claremont Village. This beloved event aims to connect local farmers and artisans with the community to promote wellness, education and art, with a rotating lineup of vendors offering fruits and vegetables, baked goods, artwork, jewelry, cut flowers, clothing, honey and more in addition to booths highlighting nonprofits, community groups and other nearby services.

CLAREMONT HILLS WILDERNESS PARK
Located at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest, the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park offers nature lovers a 5-mile walking loop – one of the most popular in the Inland Empire –along with smaller trails. Enjoy moderate elevation gain and dramatic views stretching to Downtown Los Angeles, Catalina Island and the entire Inland Empire basin. The 2.8-mile Thompson Creek Trail that abuts the park’s southern point is also popular with walkers, runners, bicyclists and leashed dogs.

CLAREMONT LEWIS MUSEUM OF ART
Located in the historic Claremont Depot, the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art celebrates the community’s rich artistic legacy and promotes the cultural vitality of the region by showcasing paintings, sculptures and other works by local artists. Since the 1930s, Claremont has been both a magnet and haven for artists as Millard Sheets, Jean Ames, Phil Dike and their contemporaries cultivated a tight-knit community promoting collaboration, innovation and experimentation.

CLAREMONT PACKING HOUSE
Built in 1922, the Claremont Packing House – formerly the College Heights Lemon Packing House – is the last remaining of four packing houses built along the Santa Fe rail corridor during the height of the citrus industry. Today, century-old architecture comes alive with fine dining, trendy boutiques, wine tastings, art classes, art walks and festivals. In addition to being home to Packing House Wines, Gus’s BBQ, The Whisper House and other great eateries, it houses Studio Claremont and Claremont Chefs Academy classes, plus the Claremont Forum Bookshop, a nationally renowned bookstore that empowers the incarcerated by donating books to prisoners through the Prison Library Project.

CLAREMONT VILLAGE
Claremont Village is a historic, European-style downtown area in the heart of town. Offering more than 150 shops, restaurants, bakeries, art galleries, day spas, boutiques, entertainment venues, hotels and lounges, notable stops include shopping for clothing at Nectar and DeeLux; snacking at Cheese Cave, Some Crust Bakery or Bert and Rocky’s Cream Co.; and dining at Bardot, Union on Yale, Tutti Mangia Italian Chophouse, ¡Viva Madrid! and Walter’s Restaurant & Bar (reopening July 2025). Additionally, experience “Village Venture”, an annual arts and crafts festival held on the fourth Saturday of October. Walking these picturesque streets will make you swear you’re no longer in Southern California.



FOLK MUSIC CENTER
The Folk Music Center has been in Grammy-winner Ben Harper’s family since 1958, and features hundreds of instruments from around the world that visitors can actually touch and play. A museum was incorporated in the 1970s, showcasing rare and antique artifacts and instruments from cultures around the world. Professional lessons are also offered to students of all skills levels. Over the years, it has become a destination for music lovers from as far away as Europe, Japan and Australia.

HISTORIC ROUTE 66
Along Foothill Boulevard, find original buildings from the “Mother Road’s” heyday, including Wolfe’s Market, now shared with The Meat Cellar; the Old School House, home to shops and Elvira’s Finest Foods of Mexico; and the former Griswold’s Stone Cellar and Inn, now Buca di Beppo, DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton Claremont and PianoPiano Dueling Piano Show.

JAMES TURRELL’S SKYSPACE: “DIVIDING THE LIGHT”
Called “one of the best works of public art in recent memory” by the Los Angeles Times, “Dividing the Light” gathers visitors on benches beneath a canopy that frames a window to the sky. At dusk and dawn, a lighting program bathes the canopy in rotating colors, from goldenrod to turquoise, altering the viewer’s perception of the sky. A shallow pool centered beneath an opening above mirrors the daytime sky and reflects a dark echo of the night sky. Visit at 10 minutes before sunset and one hour before sunrise for the complete light show.

MARGARET FOWLER GARDEN
Featured in Westways, this “secret garden” was originally designed as a European medieval-style cloister garden and is a favorite destination on the Scripps College campus. In addition to stunning olive and orange trees, visitors can view interior arcades, one of which is covered by an enormous wisteria vine, as well as a fresco painted in 1946 by Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez.

RAYMOND M. ALF MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY
Dinosaur lovers can discover artifacts of the ancient giants at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, the only nationally accredited museum located on a high school campus in the United States. The museum has two circular exhibit areas totaling 4,000 square feet: the Hall of Footprints and the Hall of Life. The fossil track and trackway collection is one of the largest of its kind in the nation.
RUTH CHANDLER WILLIAMSON GALLERY
Originally designed to help Scripps College acquire, preserve, catalog, research and exhibit works of art from its permanent collection, the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery serve as an important teaching instrument and visual resource for students and the public. Displaying four art exhibitions each year, the gallery showcases historical and modern art ranging from leading paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries, a photography collection and African American contemporary art to Chinese paintings dating back 600 years and a world-renowned contemporary ceramics collection.
