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Medford in 1925 MEDFORD. Jackson County. Population 9,000. Is the commercial and business center of famous Rogue River Valley, Southern Oregon. It is located on the Southern Pacific railway and on the Pacific Highway. It is a terminal for the Medford Coast Railroad, which line is electrified. The elevation of Medford is 1,368 feet. The average temperature for the past 20 years has been 55 degrees. The annual rainfall is from 18 to 22 inches. Surrounded by 25,000 acres of irrigated lands. Medford is the gateway to Crater Lake. Auto stage every day during season. It has a cosmopolitan population; people from every state in the Union have come here to make their permanent homes. The following are some facts about Medford: The best paved city for its size in the world, having 22 miles of pavement; 26.21 miles of sewers; water mains 28.45 miles, cement sidewalks, 4 grade schools and one high school, St. Mary's Academy, business college, conservatory of music, and a kindergarten. Modern-equipped fire department, electricity and gas for lighting, heating and power purposes, 4 banks, a public library, 3 modern hotels, 3 second-class hotels, 5 restaurants, 6 apartment houses, 3 weekly and 1 daily newspaper, city park, baseball park, fair grounds, auto camp grounds, country club, 2 golf courses. Five ladies' clubs, farm bureau cooperative exchange, Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, Kiwanis Club, Craters Club, Business and Professional Women's Club, Greater Medford Club. All denominations of churches, 3 hospitals, opera house, two movie houses, a natatorium and $80,000 armory. All leading lodges and societies. Federal building and offices of weather bureau, district forestry, U.S. [plant] pathologist. Public market, jobbing and wholesale center, aviation landing field. Auto stages--interurban auto routes to all points of Southern Oregon, hourly service to Ashland. Auto stage to Roseburg and Klamath Falls, stops at all towns along line; also auto stage station on line from Los Angeles to Portland. Has 3 lumber mills, one of which has a daily capacity of 125,000 feet. One box factory, 2 large creameries, fruit and vegetable canneries, pickling and catsup works. Eight fruit associations with 2 large pre-cooling plants. The district surrounding Medford is the greatest pear country on the coast and one of the best apple-growing districts. Stock raising, lumbering and diversified farming are among the greatest resources of the valley. Independent Telephone Co. Telegraph Western Union and Postal. Express American Railway. R. L.
Polk & Co.'s Oregon,
Washington and Alaska Gazetteer and Business Directory 1925-26,
page 270 Abbreviations spelled out to facilitate searching. OVER A MILLION SPENT IN NEW BUILDINGS, 1925
Best Previous Record More Than Quadrupled During the Past 12 Months-- 165 New Residences Put Up, 38 New Business Blocks. The
most extensive building program in the history of the city of Medford
was completed in 1925 with an estimated total of $1,225,000, an amount
over $700,000 greater than the 1924 figure. Homebuilding was a feature
of the year as 156 new homes at an average cost of $2500 each were
constructed. Improvements in the mill district totaled $500,000;
residences over $450,000, business structures, public buildings and
miscellaneous expenditures along building lines comprise the remainder,
according to estimates.
In the city 375 building permits were granted, made up of 156 for residences, 38 for business structures and 181 for remodeling, additions and repairing. In 1915, figures show, permits totaled $146,415, with three business and nine residence structures erected. That year witnessed the completion of the Ellis building and the Barnum apartment house [the Grand Hotel], together at a cost of $60,000. This year witnessed the erection of Medford's new high school, to be completed May 1, 1926 at a cost of $185,000, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a new city warehouse, and among other things, the disappearance of the last wooden building on Main Street, now replaced by a modern concrete structure. A new $60,000 apartment house was started last fall and will be completed in February, according to present plans. The Page Theatre corner, Riverside Avenue and Main Street, where a hotel was once planned, was entirely built up with modern concrete structures, all of which are now tenanted, with the exception of two in the course of construction. Business and other structures erected in the city for the first half year include: O. O. Morton, mill, West Jackson Street, $5000; Wallace Woods, lumber shed, South First, $2000; Medford Ice and Storage Company, addition, South Front, $50,000; E. P. Power, garage, South Riverside, $4250; Jerry (E. C.) Jerome, store, South Riverside, $4000; H. U. Lumsden, concrete structure, North Bartlett Street, $5000; Earl H. Fehl, concrete building, Sixth Street, $4000; J. W. Johnson, garage, South Bartlett, $8500; Walter Bowne, garage, East Main, $4000; John Billings, garage, South Riverside, $6500; Medford Concrete Company, North Riverside, office, $500; O. L. Cornwall, store, South Riverside, $7000 and Rogue River Valley Canning Company, storage plant, South Front, $6000. Second half includes these: Jerry Jerome, store, East Main, $6000; Guy Conner, packing house, $800; Oregon Granite Company, plant, 4th Street, $9000; Puccinelli Dehydrator, plant, North Central, $10,000; Laura M. Knight, store, East Main, $3500; Cooley and Neff, store, North Central, $11,000; H. U. Mitchell, North Riverside, $1000; I. E. Schuler, apartment house, North Oakdale, $60,000; School District No. 49, high school building, West Second Street, $116,000; Palm and Niedermeyer, store, South Front, $2500; Elmer Childers, store, East Main, $4500; Seventh Day Adventists, church, Beatty Street, $4000; Emil Mohr, store, East Main, $3500; J. A. Heston, service station, West Sixth Street, $2500; Mrs. Julia Larsen, storage garage and battery factory, South Riverside, $21,000 and the City of Medford, warehouse, West Jackson, $8000. The improvements and buildings in the mill district was largely limited to the Owen-Oregon Lumber Company sawmill and plant. During the year dry kilns were built as part of the improvement program, but a greater stride was the erection of a new and additional planing mill and a large lumber shed with car loading facilities. The program for 1925 cost the Owen-Oregon interests approximately $500,000, and they plan to spend a like amount next year for further improvements. In fact, building promises to continue there steadily. Although 1925 was a record-breaking year, building experts look forward to 1926 as being as good if not better. Excerpt, Medford Mail
Tribune, December 31, 1925, page 6
Last revised November 25, 2011 |
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