Redlands absorbed the communities of Terracina, Barton, Gladysta, and Lugonia along with portions of Mentone, Crafton and Bryn Mawr when it incorporated in 1888.

The area now occupied by Redlands was previously part of the territory of the Morongo and Aguas Calientes tribes of Cahuilla people.

Explorations such as those of Pedro Fages and Francisco Garcés sought to extend Catholic influence to the indigenous people and the dominion of the Spanish crown into the area in the 1770s.

In 1842, the Lugo family bought the Rancho San Bernardino Mexican land grant and this became the first fixed settler civilization in the area.

[16] "The first settler on the site of the present Redlands is recorded to have erected a hut at the corner of what is now Cajon St. and Cypress Ave.; he was a sheep herder, and the year, 1865," reported Ira L. Swett in "Tractions of the Orange Empire."

North and others saw the area, with its hot, dry climate and ready access to water as an ideal center for citrus production.

The city of Redlands was soon established by Frank E. Brown, a civil engineer, and E. G. Judson, a New York stock broker, to provide a center (along with North's nearby settlement at Riverside) for the burgeoning citrus industry.

"A red-letter day in the Annals of Redlands," pronounced Scipio Craig, editor of The Citrograph newspaper, of the November 26 incorporation.

[22] The Redlands Street Railway Company was incorporated on March 22, 1888, acquiring on June 5 a franchise from the San Bernardino County Supervisors dating to December 1887, conveying the right to construct, operate and maintain for a term of 50 years a line of street railways in Redlands, Terracina and vicinity.

[28] The Pacific Electric Railway (PE) completed an interurban connection between Los Angeles and San Bernardino in 1914, providing a convenient, speedy connection to the fast-growing city of Los Angeles and its new port at San Pedro, bringing greater prosperity to the town and a new role as a vacation destination for wealthy Angelenos.

At its peak, PE operated five local routes in Redlands, with streetcars running to Smiley Heights and on Orange, Olive, and Citrus Avenues.

[29] Pacific Electric's interurban service to Redlands was abandoned on July 20, 1936, with 2.07 miles (3.33 km) of track into the city lifted,[30] although PE and Southern Pacific (parent company of PE) provided freight service as far as the Sunkist packing plant at Redlands Heights on San Bernardino Avenue[31] into at least the 1970s.

"[33] The abandoned Pacific Electric La Quinta trestle over the Santa Ana River stood immediately south of San Bernardino International Airport into the 2010s but was removed when an Amazon facility was built adjacent to the site.

Thus the groundwork was laid for the world's first (three)-phase transmission line, which brought electricity to Redlands and later became a unit in the Southern California Edison Co."[34] The 250 kilowatt AC Mill Creek No.

[25] "The first line was extended from the Mill Creek powerhouse to East Citrus avenue, thence to Redlands and to Mr. Ellis' Terracina hotel.

The United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) won 13 National Labor Relations Board representation elections in the Riverside-Redlands area in 1943.

In 1945, the first annual Orange Queen Ball at the Redlands City Auditorium was held to raise funds for the union.

So beautifully kept was the area, with the dramatic mountain backdrops, that for several years the Santa Fe Railroad operated excursion trains along the loop that passed through the orange groves of Redlands and Mentone, across the Santa Ana River, and back into San Bernardino via East Highlands, Highlands and Patton, and advertised as the "Kite Route" due to its multi-sided alignment.

The Southern Pacific branch line from the San Timoteo Canyon to Crafton was abandoned after the downtown packing house business died.

It was completed in 2022, a Metrolink branch from San Bernardino to end-of-track on the eastern side of town adjacent to the campus of the University of Redlands.

Named after the family that purchased the house, the owners of Kimberly-Clark (makers of paper goods and Kleenex), it is a beautiful mansion set high on a hill overlooking the whole valley.

"[41] In the mid-late 20th Century, Redlands was home to various light manufacturing firms, and became a bedroom community for the military personnel and contractor employees of the aerospace industry that supported missions at Norton Air Force Base, as well as the Lockheed Propulsion Company plant in Mentone.

The former Air Force Base is now the home of the San Bernardino International Airport and a variety of other business concerns also utilize the space.

[51] Prior to European colonization, local tongva Serrano people practiced spirituality for millennia, web of life customs.

The catholic San Bernardino de Sena Estancia by Francisco Dumetz was established in 1819 on the feast day of Saint Bernardine.

Part of an outpost of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel located 56 miles from Los Angeles, CA., a days trip walking.

With Spanish colonization and the subsequent Mexican era, San Bernardino Valley was a sparsely populated land grant rancho, considering it unsuitable for an actual mission.

[52] Jose del Carmen later sold his land grant of the San Bernardino Valley, including the estancia to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members Amasa Lyman and Charles C. Rich, establishing a Mormon colony in nearby San Bernardino, CA.

Judaism Congregation Emanu El, formerly located in nearby San Bernardino, in 2013 dedicated its new building on Ford Street in Redlands.

[92] The San Bernardino Line of the Greater Los Angeles regional transportation system Metrolink services Redlands–Downtown station.