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Did you know that Jacksonville used to have a baseball team? The city block on North 5th Street occupied by the local Ray’s supermarket was Jacksonville’s baseball field in the early 1900s, home to the Jacksonville Gold Bricks baseball team. Team owner, George “Bum” Neuber, constructed it in 1902 to take the place of an older field at “Bybee’s Grove,” a mile out of town. Fans could now enjoy a grandstand along with the hotly contested games, but you had to have a ticket!

Like many things, it began with a dream…. After John Trudeau, principal trombonist with the Portland Symphony (now the Oregon Symphony) played trombone in the early 1950s at Massachusetts’ Tanglewood Music Festival, summer home of the Boston Symphony, he dreamed of establishing a summer music festival on the west coast. When John’s close friend Sam McKinney discovered Jacksonville on a summer trip to Southern Oregon in August 1962, he thought of John’s music festival dream.

On March 6, 2020, the Peter Britt Gardens became the newest Jacksonville’s landmark to be recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. Home to Swiss-American entrepreneur Peter Britt and his family from 1852 to 1954, his homestead fronting on 1st Street now houses the Britt Festival grounds, the Britt Gardens, and a popular Jacksonville Woodlands trailhead. Although he arrived in Jacksonville with only $5 in his pocket and a cart of photography equipment, Peter Bri

We’ll wish you some very happy holidays with this photo from the late 1800s of sledding on Jacksonville’s Britt Hill. The vantage point is the corner of Pine and South Oregon streets. Herman von Helms house is on the left corner with stables and a shed behind it, and Peter Britt’s house can be seen at the top of the hill on 1st Street.

Did you know that before Jacksonville had a Britt Festivals, it had a Chautauqua? Chautauqua was a highly popular adult education movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that brought speakers, teachers, musicians, showmen, and preachers to cities and rural communities. President Theodore Roosevelt described Chautauqua as “the most American thing in America.” In 1924 and 1925, an inspired Jacksonville City Council persuaded enough backers to secure a week of entert

Jacksonville was home to the first Chinatown in Oregon, located along West Main in the area where Gogi’s, Elan Guest Suites, and Veterans Park are now to be found. This area was the town’s original commercial center, but as businesses relocated to California Street in the 1850s, this block became home to hundreds of Chinese workers brought here by labor bosses to work the gold mines. As the gold played out, the Chinese Quarter was gradually abandoned. In 1888, most of what we

After nearly 20 years of planning and contributions from 100s of people, Jacksonville’s new community center at the corner of Main and South 4th streets will celebrate its public Grand Opening this Saturday, January 12, from 4 to 7pm. Now officially the Jacksonville Community Center, the 1946 Sampson/Miller building that has housed the “Senior Center” and community activities since 1998 retains a piece of Jacksonville history in the remodeled and expanded structure. The prope

We hope that you are enjoying the many programs and activities being offered by the Jacksonville Community Center. However, the remodeled and expanded Sampson/Miller building is not the town’s first gathering place. Local fraternal buildings and breweries served that function for years after the town’s founding. Then in 1947 when Camp White buildings were being sold after World War II, the City, and/or the Lions Club, purchased some of their “surplus” and constructed an act

Early Jacksonville had a succession of newspapers over the years, many of them competing and espousing opposing political viewpoints. When the Democratic News plant was destroyed in the fire of 1872, it rose again as the Democratic Times. Initially housed in the Orth Building on South Oregon Street, the Times soon outgrew that space and established its own offices at the corner of C and North 3rd streets. The Times lasted into the early 1900s when it merged with the Southern

In January 1853, Col. John England Ross and Elizabeth Hopwood were married—the second wedding in Jackson County and the first in Jacksonville. Naturally, all the town folk were invited. Elizabeth had a special wedding dress made for the ceremony, but Ross had nothing but his buckskins. The ladies of Jacksonville fretted over this lack of proper wedding attire. Jane McCully offered Ross a white shirt that belonged to her husband, but Dr. McCully’s smaller stature meant the

We’re in the middle of the World Series, so it’s “batter up” for History Trivia Tuesday! Our friend Bill Miller’s “History Snoopin’” article in the October 28th Mail Tribune reminded us that before Medford had U.S. Cellular Field, baseball games were played at Miles Field—now the site of Medford’s south Walmart. Well, did you know that Jacksonville used to have a baseball field too? The city block on North 5th Street occupied by the local Ray’s supermarket was Jacksonville’s

Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery, located at the end of West “D” Street, is one of the oldest cemeteries in the Pacific Northwest and one of the few that has remained in continuous use. Its 32 acres contain over 4,000 grave sites. The cemetery was platted in 1859 and dedicated in 1860, but there are headstones with earlier dates. Before this cemetery opened, it was common for settlers to have family graveyards on their own property. Later some chose to move loved ones to the

Have you had a chance to admire the new gate to Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery on West E Street? Installed in the fall of 2018, the new gate’s white lettering and black wrought iron replicates the original gate erected about the time the cemetery officially opened in 1860. When James Napper Tandy Miller set aside the original acreage for a town cemetery in 1859, he required the cemetery to be fenced to protect against the intrusion of wild animals. But when the cemetery ope

When James Napper Tandy Miller set aside the original cemetery acreage in 1859, he required the cemetery to be fenced. A white picket fence was erected at the top of Cemetery Hill, but the original gates were probably wood. At some point the wooden gates were replaced with the familiar metal arch and gates. Photos show they were there no later than 1912 but did not date to the cemetery’s official opening in 1860. Later the original metal arch and gates were moved to their c

During Jacksonville’s early years, books were precious and access limited. Middle and upper-class women and men established “reading circles,” a way to share books as well as being opportunities for intellectual stimulation and socializing. Early attempts to provide library services included a subscription circulating library; a Catholic library established by the local priest; and a Young Men’s Library & Reading Room Club. At one time even the back room of the Beekman Ban

A museum has long been a feature of Jacksonville. The Table Rock Billiard Saloon, constructed in 1860 at 165 S. Oregon Street, was also Jacksonville’s first museum. Saloonkeeper Herman Von Helms collected fossils and oddities to attract a clientele that then stayed for his lager. When the saloon closed in 1914, the Helms’ “Cabinet of Curiosities” boasted a collection of artifacts valued at $50,000. It encompassed “every possible manner of relic…mutely telling pages in the ear

Shortly after the Table Rock Saloon closed in 1914, the residents of Jacksonville began lamenting the loss of its “Cabinet of Curiosities”—a collections of pioneer artifacts and relics that owner Herman von Helms had amassed. After Paramount Pictures released “The Covered Wagon” in 1923—the industry’s first historical “Epic Big Screen Western”—it intensified local interest in “old pioneer days” since the silent movie depicted the settlement of Oregon. “The Covered Wagon” beca

Soon after its 1925 formal opening, the 1-room Jacksonville museum in the Brunner Building operated by the Native Daughters of Jacksonville was deemed inadequate. More space was needed and as early as 1928 the Chamber of Commerce and City Council petitioned Jackson County for money to establish a museum in the U.S. Hotel on California Street. The County “took it under advisement.” In the 1930s, “a treasure house of junk and a handful of historical artifacts” was set up in wha

The mock cannon outside the Public Works shop behind Jacksonville’s City Hall serves as a tribute to the 6 pound brass field piece the Governor ordered for Jacksonville at the beginning of the Civil War. The original cannon, now housed in the Oregon Military Museum in Clackamas, was fired in honor of Union victories and on special post-war occasions. During a 1904 Grand Army of the Republic reunion, some local veterans staged their own celebration. Around midnight on Saturday

Music was part of Germanic culture and Jacksonville’s German speaking immigrants turned 19th Century Jacksonville into a musical culture center. Almost everyone in town owned a musical instrument, and many participated in Jacksonville’s Silver Cornet Band. The band was a popular attraction at town events and enlivened many social occasions. They even had their own band wagon which allowed them to “tour” the Valley. Members had to own their instruments, attend all rehearsal