Springfield
From Lane Co Oregon
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History
on the road as well exposing them to the beutay of a city as unique as Eugene. Eugene Oregon Hotels [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption] Eugene Orego mons/thumb/5/5b/Eugene-via.jpg/300px-Eugene-via.jpg" alt="Broadway Avenue, Eugene, Oregon, Usa"
1860s
For a time Springfield was head of navigation on the Willamette River. Steamboats used to come up the river, but the flood of 1861-1862 changed the course of the river and ended that mode of transportation.[1]
[1] Dr. Silvy Kraus. Lane County Historian. "The Saga of Springfield." Lane County Historical Society. Vol. XV, No. 2, Summer 1970, printed in Eugene, Oregon. p. 23.
1870s
Residents of the Springfield precinct totaled 649, with a majority of the citizens still listed as farmers in 1870. During the decade of the 1870s, Springfield had a hotel, two blacksmiths, a general store, meat market, harness and saddlery shop, physician, druggist, four carpenters and a painter.
Industry in Springfield continued to be centered around the mills although small manufactories are listed in the business directories, including wagon maker, tannery, chair manufacturer and sash and door factory (Pacific Coast Business Directory 1871:338; Murphy 1873:254-255; gill 1881:651; McKenny 1883:1090-1091). The 1870 census lists two workers in a cheese factory (U.S. Census Office 1870).
1880s
By 1880, the Lane County population had grown to 9,411 and Springfield residents numbered 771 and a diversification of occupations began to be evident (U.S. Census Office 1870, 1880). A shoemaker, hardware store, boarding house and wagon and carriage store were added in the early 1880s (Pacific Coast Business Directory 1871:338; Murphy 1873:254-255; Gill 1881:651; McKenny 1883:1090-1091).
A disastrous flood occurred in 1881-1882
Springfield was incorporated as a city February 25, 1885.
1890s
In 1891, Springfield had a general merchandise store, two grocery stores, two cigar stores, a drug store, two dress shops, two blacksmiths, a variety store, a meat market, a saloon, a barber shop, a shoe store, three hotels, two schools, and three churches. Also, in 1891, Springfield received its first railroad line. The city received its charter March 17, 1893.
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The town and precinct of Springfield lies directly east of Eugene, and is the most important and wealthy in the county, comprising the country lying along the McKenzie river for 18 miles above its mouth, and bounded on the west and south by the Willamette River and Middle Fork. It contains a large area of the finest grain and fruit producing land in the county, and is the best improved of any portion. Lands are valued at from $15 to $40 per acre, and some could not be purchased at even somewhat higher figures. But one thing is certain, they will never be less valuable than now. The town of Springfield, three miles east of Eugene, is a flourishing village containing schools, churches, stores, shops, and dwellings, and is the site of the famous Springfield flouring and saw mills, where every year are produced large quantities of the best family flour, and many thousand feet of choice lumber, thoroughly prepared for the builder's use. There are no finer water power in the county than is utilized for this work.
The Resources of the State of Oregon. By Oregon State Board of Agriculture (Salem, Oregon: W.H. Leeds, State Printer, 1898), p. 142.
Sue - My sister devoeepld scoliosis when she was 17 years old. They did surgery on her where they put two steel rods on either side of her spine, and fused in some bone fragments taken from her hip. She had to wear a body cast for six months, and then a brace for a few more months. This was done 40 years ago, and she has had a healthy, straight spine ever since. ( The steel rods were removed about 5 years after the operation ). Did your doctor ever consider doing this for you?
I was deliberately tinyrg to hold that little sliver as the brightest spot in this sketch because that is what I observed when I drew the building. It is the only spot on the sketch left unpainted. Thanks so much for your comment on the colors. I have twelve half inch square pans in my Zig field box which I fill with tube colors. I use a limited palette that was suggested to me in a workhop by Ratindra Das who I call my watercolor guru. Opera rose, Quinacrindone Gold and Winsor Blue are the primaries and they are very intense colors. To those I add nine convenience colors just so I can vary the tyrannical greens of the midwest, the blues of the sky pieces and tweak the reds/yellows when needed: olive or sap green, viridian, cobalt green, ultramarine, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, winsor orange, quinacrindone red, and burnt sienna. I don't adjust hue or saturation post-scan although I will dodge the shadows a bit along the unpainted edges of the page created by the watercolor buckle. I really appreciate your encouraging comments.
1930s
By 1936, a state-owned Fibre Flax Plant was located at Springfield, as well as candy and pencil factories (Polk 1936:469).
1940s
In 1940, the city’s area was only 1.5 square miles and the population only 3,805. Springfield maintained its small town ways until after World War II. The retail center was still Main Street, industries were northwest of the railroad tracks and residences were to the north.
In 1940, Springfield was still a small town with one variety store, one dry goods store, two hardware stores, a second-hand store, one jeweler, two butcher shops, three barbers, two beauty shops, half a dozen small grocery stores, one hotel, a handful of restaurants and beer parlors, two druggists, three physicians, two blacksmiths, a Ford auto dealer, and a small number of service stations (Polk 1940).
Commercial expansion was somewhat slow during the war, but included the addition of three hardware stores, an auto supply store, a new auto sales and service business, and a home supply store to the downtown area.
Booth-Kelly was still the principal lumber company in Springfield. The company enlarged and modernized its mill in 1948; ten years later the operation was sold to Georgia Pacific (Kraus 1970:30). Rosboro Lumber Company was established at the end of 1940 and was publicized as “one of the largest and most modern sawmills in the state” (Special Collections n.d.:Box 66/20, Folder 6A). A third sawmill was listed for the Springfield area in 1940. Called the Elliott Mill Company, it was located outside the city limits at that time (Polk 1940:698-735).
Buildings really went wild in the mid-1940s. Totals for building plans ran up to $253,000 dollars in April, 1946. Clear Fir Products used $150,000 for a new plant. Permits were issued for twenty-two new apartments, a duplex, and a seven unit court.
1980s
After a lengthy debate in 1983, the City Council adopted green, white, and blue as the city's colors and a new city flower to replace the red geranium. The new city flower was the daisy. Soon afterward the Rainbow Water District painted its water tank atop Kelly Butte and dotted the "i's" in Springfield with giant daisies.
1990s
By 1998, apartments covered the spring. The city expanded to more than 13 square miles and the population grew to 51,700.
