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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.

Have you ever wondered about the stone foundation you see in the lower Britt Gardens as you head up to the festival grounds? It’s a 1976 reconstruction of the footprint of Peter Britt’s home that burned in 1960. As pioneer photographer Peter Britt’s enterprises expanded over the years, his Jacksonville home on Britt hill became a reflection of his growing prosperity. When Britt arrived in Jacksonville in 1852, he staked a donation land claim on the area that now encompasses

Constructed around 1855, the Brunner Building at 170 S. Oregon Street was the second brick building erected in Jacksonville and remains the town’s and Oregon’s oldest brick building still standing. Jacob Brunner was an early arrival to the young gold mining camp and by 1854 had established himself as a merchant carrying one of the heaviest stock of goods. A year earlier, Brunner had purchased the Main and Oregon corner lot at the new settlement’s first commercial street inter

Last week Historic Jacksonville, Inc. shared the fact that Old City Hall stands on the site and is built from bricks from the first brick building constructed in Jacksonville—the 1854 Maury & Davis store. Directly across W. Main is the second brick building erected in town, the 1855 Brunner building. Although it has undergone numerous modifications over the years, it remains the town’s and Oregon’s oldest brick building still standing. Jacob Brunner was an early arrival to th

In the early 1850s, Southern Oregon offered the promise of gold and free land. But first you had to get here. There were 2 alternatives—by land and by sea. By land, you would have traveled up to 6 months in an ox drawn wagon laded with all your remaining worldly possessions, crossing prairies, deserts, and mountains—probably walking much of the way to spare the animals. You would have forded rivers, possibly fought off Indians, run out of supplies, and buried family member

The southeast corner of Oregon and California streets has been the site of a hotel almost since Jacksonville was founded. As early as November 1852, Jesse Robinson claimed “squatters rights” to an existing 2-story wood frame structure. The “Robinson House” became a “private boarding house patronized by the elite.” Austin Badger and Nelson Smith purchased the building in late 1855, renamed it the Union Hotel, and enlarged it. When Badger and Nelson couldn’t pay their debts,

One legend has it that the crossroads of California and Oregon streets were so named to avoid the tax collectors. Oregon tax collectors were supposedly told they were in California; California tax collectors were told they were in Oregon. True or not, many businesses have occupied the prime commercial location at the northeast corner of that Jacksonville intersection. One of the earliest was David Linn’s furniture factory, showroom, and planing mill. When it burned in an 1888

From around the mid-1890s to 1962, the Lyden House stood on the corner of California and Oregon streets at the site of today’s telephone exchange building in Jacksonville. John Lyden and his wife Mary ran the boarding house, charging 35 cents for a night’s lodging in one of its 11 rooms. Rooms were furnished with wash stands, a pitcher, a wash bowl, a chamber pot commode, a “well supplied” towel rack, an iron bedstead with ample bedding, and a good supply of “Buhac” used to d

Did you know that Oregon had the nation’s first female governor? And it was 3 ½ years before Oregon women gained the right to vote? The woman was Carrie (aka Carolyn/Caralyn) B. Shelton. She was acting governor of Oregon for one weekend – 9 a.m. Saturday, February 27, through 10 a.m. Monday, March 1, 1909. It seems that the outgoing governor, George Earle Chamberlain, had been elected to the Senate and had to leave for Washington, D.C., before his term was over if he was to m

Carl Berthold Rostel, born in 1849, was an immigrant from Germany who found his way to the Rogue Valley. According to The Oregon Sentinel advertisements from the 1880s, he had been an “Asst. Surgeon of the German Army.” Here he chose to be a “Professional Hair Cutter” and became known as “The Popular Barber and Hair Dresser” in the Orth Building on S. Oregon Street in Jacksonville. An 1881 issue of the Sentinel noted that “Rostel shaves in the highest style of the art” and is

Although this 1-story brick building was constructed in 1861 for the Haines brothers, for many years this prime Oregon and California street intersection was known as Caro’s Corner. By 1866 Isador Caro was conducting a general merchandise variety store at this site. That same year, he was joined by his 16-year-old brother, Simon, who arrived in Jacksonville directly from Hamburg, Germany. While in Jacksonville, Simon learned Chinese to more readily deal with the 800 Chinese

You may be aware that Cornelius Beekman, Jacksonville’s wealthiest and most prominent pioneer, was a philanthropist, but did you know that his daughter Carrie followed in his footsteps? March is Women’s History Month so Historic Jacksonville, Inc. is sharing the stories of local women, many of them previously untold. You may have heard how Cornelius gave money to build schools and churches. Carrie initially did things on a more personal level, even after she moved to Portla