A Little Museum History ...

Did you know that Jacksonville had a museum as early as the 1870s? Ot that it was housed in a saloon—the Table Rock Billiard Saloon? Originally a bakery, it morphed into a saloon after the demise of its neighbor, the notorious El Dorado Saloon, in the fire of 1874. The Table Rock brick building survived.

Cabinet of Curiosities

It’s not known when Table Rock co-owner and saloonkeeper Herman von Helms began collecting fossils and oddities but soon after the Table Rock reopened as a saloon, the local newspaper invited “persons possessing curiosities and specimens” to “bring them in” where they would be placed in the “Cabinet of Curiosities for inspection.” In 1875, the saloon and “Cabinet” boasted a potato which weighed three pounds.

Helms’ early newspaper advertisements would invite people to visit his museum, then “stay for his fine lager.” By 1879 the Roseburg Independent reported that Helms “Cabinet of Curiosities” included stalactites from the Oregon Caves; freaks of nature such as four-legged chickens and two-headed turkeys; a mastodon tusk found in the Applegate; the “head and horns of a greater ox than the world is now acquainted with measuring 18 inches across the smaller part of the skull”; hundreds of geological specimens and “petrifications”; a gold nugget valued at $700; a large collection of Indian relics including a bow and arrow used by Modoc Captain Jack; curious coins; and more. The newspaper declared the collection to be “the best in the state” with “many specimens which require study on the part of the naturalist—many to puzzle the historian—and a great deal for the geologist to ponder over.”

When the saloon closed in 1914, the Helms’ “Cabinet of Curiosities” collection of artifacts was valued at $50,000. It encompassed “every possible manner of relic…mutely telling pages in the early history of Jackson County.”

Even before the Table Rock Saloon closed, the Southern Oregon Pioneer Society considered establishing a museum. At its September 1910 meeting, the Society considered a proposition for a museum of pioneer relics. Backed by the Native Daughters of Oregon, the proposal was “to build a log cabin similar to the first one erected in Jacksonville in March 1852, and to furnish it with a fireplace and the primitive furniture and relics of pioneer days.” It was noted that there was “ample material in the pioneer homes of Rogue River Valley to make the museum a most interesting feature.” 


For years residents lamented the closing of the Table Rock, primarily for the loss of its “Cabinet of Curiosities” since Jacksonville never seemed to have a shortage of saloons. When Paramount Pictures released “The Covered Wagon” in 1923—the film 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” became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed films of the first half of the 1920s, and a Jacksonville museum became more than wishful thinking.

Inspired by the film and the upcoming Jacksonville reunion of the Pioneer Society of Southern Oregon, Mrs. Alice Applegate Sargent purchased the 1855 Brunner Building at the corner of Main and South Oregon streets with the goal of creating “a repository for pioneer relics.” The museum opened briefly for the society’s annual meeting in October 1924, then had its formal opening February 27, 1925. Open on Tuesdays and Fridays, local newspapers reported that it attracted so many visitors that Mrs. Sargent and her assistant were kept very busy!

Soon after it opened, the one-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.” Although the suggestion was sound enough, no one had any spare money lying around waiting to be spent on such non-essentials as a museum.

In the 1930s, “a treasure house of junk and a handful of historical artifacts” was set up in what is now Jacksonville’s Bella Union Restaurant and Saloon. The “Cabinet of Curiosities” from the old Table Rock Saloon was added to the collection along with other items from “historical minded folks.” Then local antique dealer Frank Zell stepped in. He had both a valuable collection of his own and an eye for history.

In the 1940s, when crowded exhibits in the Bella Union threatened to crash through the floor to the cellar below, Zell asked the City Council to move the museum to the U.S. Hotel—a goal embraced by local folk for over 10 years. The Council approved the move; the collection was transferred to the U.S. Hotel; and the hotel became, for a time, the Jacksonville Museum. Visitors sometimes contributed a quarter to the kitty, and Jacksonville, no longer the commercial and governmental hub of the region, acquired its first tourist attraction.

However, by 1949, the U.S. Hotel collection overflowed the space with many items having to be stored in the back room.

For years the Pioneer Society had advocated for a museum. In 1946, members of the Pioneer Society and other local residents formed the Southern Oregon Historical Society for the primary purpose of saving the historic Jackson County Courthouse and turning it into a regional museum. When constructed in 1884, the courthouse was declared the “crowning glory of Jacksonville.” But that same year, the Oregon and California Railroad bypassed Jacksonville in favor of the flat valley floor and Medford was born. As Medford grew, Jacksonville waned and by the 1920s the town had become a backwater, literally “the wrong side of the tracks.” When the county seat was moved to Medford in 1927, the stately courthouse was left without a purpose and had fallen into disrepair.

However, the Historical Society’s museum plans moved slowly, and money was needed to complete the job. In 1948, voters approved a tax levy that would complete the job, but the museum remained in a discussion stage until 1949. When the U.S. Hotel collection overflowed the space with many items having to be stored in a back room, that provided the needed impetus. The collection was packed up and moved to the historic courthouse. With the help of local professionals and volunteers the Jacksonville Courthouse Museum opened on August 5, 1950.

The Jacksonville Courthouse Museum was a showcase for southern Oregon history for 60 years. Then in 2010 the museum closed for lack of funding and the old courthouse building was turned over to the city of Jacksonville in 2012.

Today the courthouse has become Jacksonville’s City Hall, and the 1881 Old City Hall is the town’s History Center, introducing guests to the many ways they can explore Jacksonville’s National Historic Landmark District, its “Citywide Museum.”