Medford Historical Guide

Medford, Oregon was established in 1883 when the Oregon and California (O&C)

Railroad, a forerunner of the Southern Pacific, surveyed the most direct—and most

economical—route through the Bear Creek Valley for their new railroad. To satisfy the

need for a central depot in the valley, the O&C’s choice to locate it here was influenced by

an offer from the site’s major landowners, Iradell Phipps and Charles Broback, of 20 acres

of their land, as well as every other block of the “new town on the valley floor.”

The town was named Medford by David Loring, the railroad’s right-of-way agent. Casting

about for inspiration and not noting any landmarks suitable for a name, he took the site’s

location in the middle of the valley and combined it with the nearby McAndrews Ford, a

half-mile north of town. The final form of the name was inspired by a city near Loring’s

home town of Concord, Massachusetts: Medford. The town narrowly escaped being

named “Grand Central” or “Phippstown.” When the first train pulled into Medford in

January of 1884, wooden stores lined Front Street facing the tracks and ran down Seventh

Street (today’s Main) to today’s Riverside, the county road that connected Medford to the

surrounding towns. The depot, which was originally built in the middle of Main just west

of the tracks, would not be completed for another month.

Incorporated in 1885, Medford prospered and its population grew, surpassing Jacksonville

before 1900. Merchants replaced wood buildings with fine brick ones, and fancy homes

were built near the commercial district. Medford’s first professional architect was W. J.

Bennet, who spent a productive 18 months in Medford in the mid-1890s; the early 1900s

saw the arrival of J. A. McIntosh and then Frank Chamberlain Clark, who designed and

remodeled many of the city’s most important structures over the next 50 years.

With the completion of the railroad, the Rogue Valley immediately found a regional

market for its livestock and grain. As those crops were supplanted by more profitable fruit,

those markets became national and even international. A very few orchards even realized

the astounding income of $1000 an acre, which fact, spread by overzealous promoters,

attracted an influx of investors, many from eastern cities. “Orchard tracts” were sold

and resold to these wealthy “colonists,” inflating real estate prices to astronomical levels.

Newcomers swelled Medford’s population by almost 400% between 1900 and 1910,

making it the second fastest growing city in the U.S. The “Orchard Boom” brought new

building and remodeling as Medford’s prospering downtown modernized. Phones and

electric lines appeared, and Medford built its first publicly owned City Hall in 1908. By

1910 Medford’s population was 8,800, surpassing Ashland and making it the largest city

in Southern Oregon.

Medford quickly adopted the automobile and not only boasted more than 18 miles of

improved road by 1912, for a time it held the distinction of having the highest auto-to-

population ratio in the world. Jackson County was the first county in Oregon to offer a

paved route from end to end; soon Oregon would be the first state west of the Mississippi

able to make such a claim.

One extraordinary year near the end of the Orchard Boom, 1911, saw the construction of

the Hotel Medford, Hotel Holland, Roosevelt and Jackson schools, Sacred Heart Hospital,

the Carnegie Library, the Medford Furniture & Hardware Co. building (Woolworth’s),

the Cuthbert building at Sixth and Central and more. Construction of at least ten multi-

story brick and masonry buildings in one year in a town of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants

exemplifies the exuberance of the boom.

The Orchard Boom ended, as all booms do. The bust was apparent by 1913, the

inevitable result of marketing all the valley’s land based on profits possible on only

those few acres with the best soil and management. Despite record crops, the slide

was triggered by instabilities in fruit markets and a tightening of capital. By 1920,

Medford’s population had plummeted by almost 35%.

During the 1920s the city enjoyed renewed growth as its citizens struggled to pay for

the infrastructure built during the boom years. By 1927 Medford could throw a Jubilee

of Visions Realized, celebrating its 31 miles of pipeline to a source of pure water, its

city airport (the first municipal airport in the state) and its new status as the Jackson

County seat. Medford was prosperous again when the stock market crash of 1929

virtually halted all development other than the façade “improvement” programs of the

New Deal, which offered federal stimulus funds to strip Medford’s historic buildings of

their old-fashioned “gingerbread” and cover them with a layer of streamlined stucco.

Like much of the nation, Medford was slowly inching its way out of the Depression

when huge government investments during World War II brought prosperity. Camp

White, a U.S. Army training facility north of the city, brought 10,000 construction

workers and over 40,000 military personnel. After the war, Camp White was closed,

its hospital converted to a veterans domiciliary, and remaining camp infrastructure

taken over by Southern Oregon’s growing lumber industry. The postwar housing

boom created a huge demand for lumber and a growing economy and population,

and Medford cemented its position as the primary financial, medical and professional

service center for all of Southern Oregon.

By the early 1960s, downtown Medford no longer focused on the railroad and was

bypassed by Interstate 5; competition from other shopping areas increased. No longer

Medford’s primary shopping district, downtown remains a hub of specialty retailers

emphasizing personal service and quality products, fine restaurants, and a performing

arts center. Recognition of downtown’s significant role in Medford’s history led to a

district nomination to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

Explore Southern Oregon History In Medford

A self-guided walking tour.

Downtown Historic District

For more information please call 541-776-4021 or visit

www.visitmedford.org

Please enjoy Medford’s history.

The following walking tour highlights 20 of our most significant historic sites, each with a story to

tell about Medford’s past and the people who helped

make it. Since 1883, when the first building went up in anticipation of the coming railroad line, downtown has been the focus of our community.

There are two tour options: The “Long Tour” follows Main Street to the Jackson County Courthouse. At a leisurely pace, it takes about an hour. A “Short Tour” option, including sites along North Central Avenue, should take about half that time, or you can easily combine the tours and visit all 20 sites. Our entire downtown is flat for easy walking, but if you wish, there are plenty of places to stop and relax, have lunch, or just browse along most of the route.

Have fun walking around our downtown. We hope this guide helps you appreciate Medford’s history. It’s a past we’re both proud of and pleased to present.

Welcome To Medford’s Historic Downtown!

A special thanks to Ben Truwe, George Kramer and the Southern Oregon Historical Society.


































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Medford Elks Lodge – 1915200 N. Central Avenue (NRHP)The Elks commissioned lodge brother Frank Clark to design their Beaux Arts home in 1913, but it took two more years before they could afford to build it. With its huge flight of steps, two-story porch, and classical style, the

Elks Lodge has long been one of Medford’s most attractive buildings. Built after the end of the Orchard Boom, the Elks Lodge was greeted with enthusiasm as 1500 people attended its dedication.

J.C. Penney Company (SOHS) 1948106 N. Central AvenueJ.C. Penney first opened in Medford in 1927, in the Cuthbert Building just on the other side of Sixth Street. After World War II, Penney’s arranged the purchase of this corner lot and

demolished the old “Groceteria.” They opened their spacious new building, designed in the “California Style,” or Streamlined Moderne, in 1948. The new building was constructed of stucco and was designed to dramatize the corner entrance with a spacious terrazzo tile floor. Penney’s remained a downtown fixture until 1986, when the store moved to the new Rogue Valley Mall. Three years later the building was purchased by the Southern Oregon Historical Society and transformed into the History Center.

Davis Building – 190630 N. Central AvenueThe first floor of the Davis Building was Medford’s first “communications center,” housing the Medford Post Office; the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company occupied the southern half. Upstairs, the Odell

Furnished Rooms was a boarding house. The Davis family that built this structure were Medford pioneers, operating the flour mill and helping to organize the Jackson County Bank. The design uses sandstone along the alley, one of the few remaining examples of bearing masonry in southern Oregon. The façade, originally with an arched central entryway, was substantially remodeled in 1954.

Medford Furniture & Hardware – 191129 N. Central AvenueJohns and Turner designed and built this four-story structure for a furniture company that lost the building with the collapse of the Orchard Boom soon after construction. The original

cost was estimated at over $100,000. In 1922 the M.M. Department Store moved in; the offices on the upper floors were long the hub of Medford’s medical community. The F. W. Woolworth Co., the national five and dime, occupied leased space in 1937; when they left town in the late 1980s they occupied the entire ground floor. In 1949 the original windows and cornice were removed, the elevator tower added, and the building’s exterior was modernized with glazed terra cotta tile. The letters on the façade that read “Woolworth Building” are actually reproductions based on the original wood letters; some of the red and silver banner on which they are mounted is original.

until 1962. Williams Inc., of Eugene, made bread here until 1972. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and restored in 1982. Paint removal in 2004 revealed the Fluhrer’s Bread “ghost sign” on the west side of the building, which was repainted in faded hues.

First Presbyterian Church – 192685 S. Holly StreetOriginally housed in a brick building on the corner of Main Street just north of here, the new First Presbyterian Church was constructed in 1926. Portland architect F. Manson White first presented designs with lavish

detailing completely covering the exterior, but the final design was trimmed to the elaborate door and window surrounds that now accent the plain stucco walls. As the congregation has grown, they’ve added onto the building with a classroom addition (1951) and a bell tower (1983), while always respecting the character of White’s original design.

The Library Park – 1888Holly & Main streetsIn 1904 the city developed the present design with diagonal pathways; a bronze fountain was added to its center the next year. In 1935, Callie Palm, in memory of her husband, Charles, replaced the original fountain with one

depicting a “youth, strong, happy and hopeful” along with two dogs, “his loving companions.” The Palms developed much of downtown during its first fifty years. In 1985, library park was rededicated as “Alba Park,” in honor of Medford’s Italian sister city.

Carnegie Library – 1911Ivy & Main streets (NRHP)In 1910, women of Medford’s library association began petitioning Andrew Carnegie for funding to build a permanent home for the city library and agitating for a serial levy to operate it. When a letter arrived from

Carnegie on January 19, 1911 offering the association $20,000, John A. McIntosh was hired to design the building, which was erected on the second of the city’s park blocks. The $19,360 structure opened February 8, 1912. The Library was expanded to the rear in 1951. By the early 1980s, it was considered outdated and too small, but plans to raze the building were met with public outcry. After being listed on the National Register, it was thoroughly renovated. Its days as a library finally came to an end in 2004 with construction of Medford’s Central Library downtown. Today the Carnegie is slated for conversion to a new life as a public meeting space.

Jackson County Courthouse – 1932

10 S. Oakdale Avenue (NRHP)An election in 1926 moved county government from Jacksonville to Medford, which offered the County free use of its newly completed city hall on the corner of Fifth and Central.

Architect John G. Link was selected to design a new Jackson County Courthouse, and the building opened in 1932. Jackson County soon became embroiled in one of the worst political fights in Oregon’s history, complete with stolen ballots, some of which were found burned in the courthouse’s incinerator, some floating in the Rogue River. Jackson County received adverse national attention, and armed thugs and state policemen patrolled the streets. Found to be involved

in the ballot theft, Judge Earl Fehl was arrested; when Constable George Prescott attempted to arrest newspaper publisher Llewellyn Banks on similar charges, Banks shot him dead. For its valiant reporting of what is called the “Jackson County Rebellion,” the Medford Mail Tribune was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1933.

Medford Central Fire Hall –1908/192146 Front Street (NRHP)In 1907 the city commissioned architect John A. McIntosh to design its first city-owned offices. The Central Fire Hall, with the council chambers and town library upstairs, had large

doors for “Skinny and Rastus” and the city’s horse-drawn engine. The grooves in the sidewalk were no longer needed for the horses’ traction when the department was mechanized in 1912. By 1915, city government had outgrown the building, but it wasn’t until 1921 that the matching addition to the south was built. In 1932 Medford government moved and Central Fire Hall was rented out; the upper floor became Civilian Conservation Corps offices. Four years later the old fire doors were removed and the corner entry built to make the building more attractive for retail uses. In 1942 the city sold the building. At the head of the stairs is a photo of Skinny and Rastus the fire horses (along with “Dick” the Dalmatian) posed in front of the town’s water tower, which stood on the site of the Carnegie Library.

Southern Pacific Passenger Depot – 1910147 N. Front Street (NRHP)Edward Harriman, president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, visited Medford in 1909 and was so impressed by the bustling city, then at the height of the Orchard Boom, that he decided

to build a depot to match the city’s aspirations. Medford, a city of under 6,000, was to have a depot designed for a population of 25,000. The depot was completed in October 1910, but the boom went bust, and Medford didn’t reach that population until the 1960s. After several stops and starts, rail passenger service ceased for the last time in 1955. When Southern Pacific finally sold the line in 1995 the Medford depot was in poor shape. Purchased by a local contractor, the building was soon listed on the National Register and underwent a complete restoration. Directors of the project were careful to retain the numerous penciled graffiti on the track side of the building that display the names of bored travelers, the monikers of hoboes and, more poignantly, the ranks and units of GIs waiting to ship out during World War II.

Hotel Barnum (Grand Hotel) –1915216 N. Front Street (NRHP)William S. Barnum, after selling the five-mile-long Rogue River Valley Railroad between Medford and Jacksonville, commissioned Frank Clark to design this $75,000 four-

story structure in 1914, opening it the following year. In 1925 the building was sold, and the new owners christened it the “Grand Hotel.” Primarily a residential hotel long overshadowed by the more stylish Hotel Medford, the Grand was in poor condition before it was listed on the National Register in 1983 and now provides subsidized housing following a major rehabilitation effort.

First National Bank (Bathmat Bldg.) – 1911/1955120 E. Main StreetUnder this modern “bathmat” exterior is a building dating from 1911. The façade was designed by Besser Brothers, Seattle architects, for First National Bank of Medford. Huge, fluted ionic

columns of polished granite created a “Temple Front.” The opulent interior included counters of breccia opal from Italy, black and gold marble from Abyssinia, veined marble from Knoxville, Tennessee and African mahogany from the Congo Free State. By 1936 it was out of date, and the bank was remodeled twice within five years. After World War II, the building was sold and the new owners found the granite front old-fashioned, had the columns removed, and installed this modern sheet metal façade—initially painted a bright pink.

Medford/Jackson County Chamber101 E. 8th StreetStop by The Chamber to view historical photos and learn more about Medford.

Weeks & Orr Building – 1907114 W. Main StreetJohn and Fred Weeks started Weeks Brothers Furniture in 1894 on Front Street, as an outlet for their Phoenix furniture factory. After a series of partnerships, Weeks & Orr Furniture and Undertaking started construction

of this building in 1907. They sold off the undertaker side of their business in 1917. The family continued selling furniture here under the Weeks & Orr name until 1984, selling the business to a successor that carried the tradition on into 2010. A false front added in 1953 by architect Ben Todd was removed in 2002, revealing the original brick façade.

Garnett-Corey Hardware – 1910201 W. Main StreetGarnett-Corey Hardware Company completed construction of Medford’s first “skyscraper,” at four stories, in 1910. It’s still the second tallest building in downtown. Architects Power & Reeves designed the structure

with red brick walls and stringcourse bands of locally quarried granite. In 1921, the year a basement fire forced “Shortie” Garnett to close his business, the upstairs offices housed medical, dental and legal offices, as well as the U.S. Weather Bureau. Flags flown from the roof alerted residents to the region’s weather forecast. By World War II the second floor housed government offices, including a maternity clinic for wives of Camp White soldiers. In 1977, near condemnation, the building was listed on the National Register and modernized for use as office space.

Fluhrer Bakery Building –1933/194129 N. Holly Street (NRHP)William “Heinie” Fluhrer operated his successful bakery from a series of buildings, and in 1933 he hired Frank Clark to design the first, central portion of this building facing Holly

Street. In 1941, Clark designed a matching addition, and the small L-shaped gas station on the north, facing Sixth Street, was also remodeled. Fluhrer died in 1948 when his plane crashed into Lake of the Woods, and his widow Margaret continued to operate the bakery

Medford Historic Walking Tour

Map

Sparta Building – 191112 N. Riverside Avenue (NRHP)John Root, from Sparta, Wisconsin, contracted architect Frank Clark to design this gleaming glazed white brick building in 1911. The curved corner, originally framed by twin ionic columns, created the perfect showplace

for the valley’s first Ford dealership. Soon, Riverside Avenue became the natural location for many auto dealers and repair shops, earning the thoroughfare the name Auto Row. In 1926 radio station KMED,

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the first commercial station between Sacramento and Portland, moved to the second floor. The station installed twin towers on the roof, stretching their antenna wires between them.

Derick’s Cafeteria (The Spot) –192417 S. Riverside AvenueExperienced restaurateur Hubert Derick hired architect Frank Clark to design this building as Medford’s first roadside eatery. In 1934 John B. Cox bought the building and opened

The Spot, an “artistically arranged beer parlor and sandwich shop.” He installed a 25-foot-long bar and private booths “for the special benefit of ladies and men who wish a suitable place for their friends and families.” The Spot operated, under successive ownerships, in this location for over sixty years,

Hubbard Hardware – 1906335 E. Main StreetIn 1883, Fortunatus Hubbard began selling farm implements in Jacksonville, relocating his company to the fledgling town of Medford when the railroad arrived in the valley the next year. Eight years later he turned

the business over to two of his sons, who in 1906 tore down the wooden building on this corner and built a modern brick one. By 1934, grandsons Chester and Roland Hubbard were in charge of the family business; they bought the building next door and remodeled both in the latest Art Deco style. A 2007 restoration undid much of an ill-advised 1954 remodel, creating the present exterior appearance. If you look closely, you can still see pieces of the 1934 remodel (ribbed columns at the corners) and even the original 1906 design (granite blocks at the bases of the columns and the stone stringcourse just below the second floor windows).

Tayler-Phipps Building – 1909221 E. Main Street (NRHP)Ira D. Phipps, dentist son of one of the town founders, joined shoemaker Albert C. Tayler in hiring architects Power and Reeves to design this two-story brick building. Before construction began Tayler sold his business to C. M. Kidd,

who later joined with V. A. Norris and Harvey Field in the shoe trade. In 1937, Nor-Field Shoes and Company remodeled the storefront with Carrera glass. The brass footprints embedded in the sidewalk take the place of those Tayler painted on board sidewalks in the 1890s. The metal versions probably date from Mr. Kidd’s day and still lead you into the shoe store.

Wilkinson-Swem Bldg – 1895217 E. Main Street (NRHP)Butcher Ed Wilkinson wanted a meat market downstairs with an upstairs apartment (hence the balcony) when he hired W. J. Bennet to design this elaborate “Queen Anne Commercial” building in 1895. The fancy interior

was filled with wood and stained glass. After Ed retired (he continued to live upstairs) the first floor was rented out, first to other butchers and eventually to T. W. Swem, who sold photos and gifts for over sixty years. Wilkinson’s apartment was turned into a retail mezzanine and sometime dance studio during the Swem years. Today, the upstairs has returned to its original use, now as an ultramodern apartment, but it retains the original 1895 ornate oak mantelpiece carved by the Weeks Brothers in neighboring Phoenix.

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RETuRN ROuTE OPTiONS:Continue to 6th Street, walking past these sites toward the beginning point. You may also choose to pick up the “short tour” at site No.14 (Central Fire Hall), at the intersection of 6th and Front streets.


































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Documents

Medford Historical Guide