11th Avenue and Willamette St. circa 1915

This is an interesting view looking southwest of the intersection of 11th and Willamette streets. Probably taken from the tower of the old First Christian Church it shows from the right the old St. Mary's Catholic Church, next on Willamette is the old Carnegie Library and then the 1912 Episcopal Methodist Church with the then "new" First Christian Church behind it. The tower of Eugene City Hall is on the far left of the photo. The dark outline of a structure between the Library and the Methodist Church is an old Victorian house which was later enlarged toward Willamette and turned into retail space and apartments. It for many years housed a series of Antiques store and most recently housed Puttin on the Ritz, a vintage clothing shop. The building is most certainly a total loss after a major fire June 18th.

650 East 13th Avenue

This little bungalow, shown soon after its completion was built on the Southwest corner of 13th and Hilyard circa 1910. The site has been occupied for the last 20 years buy a parking structure and a series of restaurants.

Mystery House

Does anyone recognize the house on the left? It still stands, though the first floor is greatly altered, along with the grounds. The location will be reveled tomorrow!

Happy Easter!

Alexander and Margaret Mathews House

Like the J.J. Walton Sr. house on High street, I believe the one story wing to the left on the Mathews house was probably the first phase of the structure and that the large and more elaborate block to the right was added later along with the front porch. I have no information on the Mathews or when the house, which stood on the southwest corner of 4th and Jefferson was torn down. By the simple style of the one story portion I would guess it from about 1860 and the larger wing with the bracketed eve and polygonal bay window to about 1880. The site has been an apartment complex since the early 7o's.

The Chrisman Block, Broadway and Willamette

Gabriel Chrisman built this commercial block in 1891 on the southwest corner of Broadway and Willamette streets. It housed Mr. Chrisman's law office and Morris Music House among other business's. This gorgeous building only lasted until 1913 when it was demolished to clear the site for the McMorran and Washburne Department Store. The building was later enlarged to house J.C. Penny, until Penny's moved to the New Valley River Mall in 1969. The building was later renamed the Centre Court building and housed mostly office space until it was deemed unsafe in the late 1990's. The building remained empty until its recent restoration.

The Gabriel Chrisman House

This large and imposing Italianate was built circa 1880 by Gabriel Chrisman, an attorney, Eugene Mayor and County Judge. The house in its original state (top two photos) was among if not my favorite early Eugene dwelling. A very large house for Eugene standards, composing about 12 rooms and much resembling the Hovey House in over all layout, the Chrissman house had more elaborate window trim and two polygonal bay windows. Sometime around 1905 the Chrisman's updated the pure Italianate structure into a more fashionable Colonial Revival (some would argue not very successfully), with a large wrap around porch and two covered second floor porches all with colonial columns. Just the exact time the house, which stood on the southwest corner of 10th and Charnelton was razed it not sure, but it probably came down soon after St.Mary's Catholic Church was constructed as its original site is now a parking lot for the church.