Riverside, Texas incorporated in May 20, 1968, is located 15miles north of Huntsville.

Riverside was founded in 1872 when Houston and Great Northern Railroad (later International and Great Northern) was being built into the area. Walker County landowners gave earth, timber and rock to the road in order to gain shipping facilities.

The Post Office was moved from Newport (six miles southwest) on February 23, 1872. Riverside developed churches, a four-teacher school and two blocks of businesses. Riverside began as a railroad town and grew alongside the tracks on the west side of the Trinity River and thus was named "Riverside".

G.A. Grow and Ira H. Evans, president and secretary of the railroad made the first map of Riverside on December 27, 1873. It was filed at Huntsville on March, 18, 1874 and shows eight blocks west of the Trinity River. The eight blocks run east and west with Front Street alongside the tracks running
north and south. Another map filed on February 2, 1881, shows front Street with 25 small lots.

The Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Company erected  the Riverside Swinging Bridge in 1904, perhaps the last  surviving railway structure of its type in Texas. The bridge was designed to turn a complete 90 degrees to
permit the passage of steamboats and barges on the Trinity River. The Riverside Swinging Bridge is located  on the mail line track of the Missouri Pacific Railroad across the Trinity River of Riverside. The present
Trinity River Bridge was designed by the Texas Highway Department and completed by P&B Construction Company in 1941. The bridge is no longer in compliance with the Texas Department of Transportation standard guidelines for vertical clearance or width. Construction  is underway for the new River Bridge. The old bridge willbe refurbished and left as a road from the Trinity side to a boat launch.

In 1872 when Houston and Great Northern Railroad was being built in the area, Riverside was being recognized for its cattle, cotton gin and cottonseed oil mill. As the river and the railroad were close at hand, this was a means for shipping these products north. Fuller's Earth a purifying agent used in the drilling industry also played a large part in the economy. Texaco and Conoco both placed pits here, with the first being opened in 1921. Around 1980 the
last pit closed and since that time Riverside has gradually become known more as resort and retirement community on the Trinity and Lake Livingston.

Many major changes have taken place since its incorporation, in 1968, new City Hall building, Volunteer Fire Department, Walker County Sheriffs
Office, new post Office and paved streets. Businesses include real estate offices, beauty shops, convenience stores, restaurants, churches, marinas, gift shops, boat dealers, RV campgrounds, meat market, hobby shop,
Riverside Water Supply and cable television.