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Medford History

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History of Medford, Oregon

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In 1883 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 route. 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 Chicago, Illinois. “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 third 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 2010Historic-Guide-coverSouthern 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. Incredibly, the slide was actually triggered by the collapse of the London apple market. 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 pure water source, 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.

 

 

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Take a peek into one of the most colorful ereas in our regions history, the COPCO Film of the 1920's.

You will need Real One Player to view the video.  Download it for free at http://www.realone.com.

Special thanks to the Southern Oregon Historical Society and Pacific Power for creating the unique partnership which has been able to preserve and keep alive priceless footage of a bygone erea.