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When Dr. John McCully abandoned his wife Jane in 1862, he left her with 3 children and all of his debts. He also left her with the McCully House, the elegant home at 240 E. California Street in Jacksonville, completed the previous year. To survive, Jane turned to baking bread and pies—the source of the family’s income when they first arrived in Jacksonville. She leased the house to Amos Rogers for a boarding house, and in June of 1862 opened “Mrs. McCully’s Seminary” in the f

The house located at 525 South 3rd Street in Jacksonville was built as a rental property around 1880 by Patrick McMahon. McMahon, a native of Ireland, was known for his speculative real estate investments. Aside from his involvement in real estate, he was also a “mail contractor” and owned the Jacksonville and Crescent Stage Line. McMahon was also part owner of the Union Livery Stable. In the summer of 1886, McMahon died of a heart attack at age 46. His obituary described him

Until 1888 a dwelling stood at the southwest corner of California and Oregon, now home to Las Palmas, Country Quilts, and the Jacksonville Review. By 1890, Melissa Taylor had converted it into a boarding house, expanding the property over the next 20 years. Although she apparently sold it to the Abbott family after her husband’s death in 1908, a 1930’s Sanborn map still shows it as the Taylor House apartments. By 1953 it was operating as Lulu’s Café and Tavern which, accordin

Did you know that Jacksonville reportedly provided the first ambulance service west of the Rockies? This newspaper photo pretty much speaks for itself. It also tells us to be very grateful for Mercy Flights, our local ground and air ambulance service! We should mention that Mercy Flights also boasts its own first—the nation’s first non-profit air ambulance service. Mercy Flights was founded in 1949 by Medford air traffic controller George Milligan after a friend died of po

The historic marker on the building at 155 W. California Street in Jacksonville reads “Miller Gunsmith Shop circa 1858.” It’s half correct. The current structure did house John F. Miller’s Hunters’ Emporium, which specialized in guns, and later hardware and cutlery, for at least 20 years. However, this commercial Italianate-style structure was not built until 1874. As early as 1852, the property was originally part of Jacksonville’s most notorious “temple of vice,” the El Dor

Although we finished our series on current Jacksonville Queen Anne style homes in our Walk through History blog and History Trivia posts, there’s one more Jacksonville home that used to be a Queen Anne—although you would never know that based on its current 1950s “ranch-style” look. The original 1893 house built at 110 East Main Street was an elaborate 2 ½ story Queen Anne style home constructed from designs featured in one of famed architect George F. Barber’s “pattern” boo

Minerva Plymale Armstrong and her husband Robert traveled with her parents and siblings from Illinois to Oregon in 1852 along the Oregon Trail. They settled on a farm 4 miles north of Jacksonville at the base of the western hills overlooking the beautiful valley to the east of Old Stage Road. One of their 11 children, Cornelius Jasper Armstrong, born February 24, 1853, is a contender for the title of “first child born in Jacksonville.” In 1890 the Armstrongs moved to town, pu

On several of Jacksonville’s Woodlands Trails, hikers see deep mining shafts called “Glory Holes,” remnants of 1930s Depression Era mining. They were named “Glory Holes” because they were get-rich-quick attempts at gold prospecting. For most, these typically 10- to 20-foot-deep holes held little glory. One of these shafts at the junction of the Rich Gulch and Petard trails is particularly well known—at the bottom is a 1950s GMC pickup truck. A former owner of the Rich Gulc

Morris Mensor was “well known as one of the enterprising businessmen” in early Jacksonville. A native of Prussia, he left home at age 19 and became a laborer in an oil factory in Hamburg, Germany. Within 6 months he was clerk and a year later foreman, supervising 1200 men. Accumulating a few thousand dollars, he returned home and gave the money to his parents to care for his younger siblings. When he sailed for America a year or so later, he could barely pay his passage, but

The Mueller House, located at 465 E. California Street, is considered the best example of High Victorian residential architecture in Jacksonville. Max Mueller was a prominent Jacksonville merchant, the town’s first Postmaster, a City Trustee, City Treasurer, County Treasurer, and Jackson County Clerk. When the house was constructed in 1887, it was built in front of an older 1-story house, and the original structure became the dining room, kitchen, and back porch.