Beginning in 1990-1991, I have had a connection with Camp
White, the WWII-era US Army cantonment that was built in the Agate Desert,
north of Medford, Oregon. Camp White was
constructed in 1942 to train US infantry troops. Covering more than 70 square miles, its 1400
buildings were mostly built of wood. More
than 100,000 troops were trained at the camp and the base was the second
largest city in Oregon at the time. 100s
of babies were born here, the valley’s first large contingent of African-Americans
arrived, and there was even a German POW camp near the end of the
fighting. By 1946-47, most of the camp
buildings were being dismantled for parts, or moved to serve as schools, churches,
and other uses. Not much remained.
The Camp White Station Hospital, however, was built of
brick, what the local leaders of the time called “permanent construction.” The Rogue Valley, for all its independent
bluster discovered that having a major federal presence in the valley was good
for business and, with the end of WWII they were loath to let it
evaporate. Medford and Jackson County
used political muscle (in the form of Wayne Morse) to, um, convince a
foot-dragging Veterans Administration that Camp White would make the perfect
location for a veterans facility. The
VA, from the start, said the Camp White Station Hospital was too big, too
remote, and would be too expensive to operate.
Fast forward to 1991, the 50th Anniversary of
WWII, and Camp White was celebrating almost a half century of service as the
White City Veterans Administration Domiciliary, the “Dom” in local
parlance. Renamed Southern Oregon
Rehabilitation Center & Clinics, the Camp White Station Hospital and its lovely
grounds continue to provide services to returned soldiers and the VA presence remains an important part of
the valley. The huge two-story brick
buildings of the station hospital, most connected by an amazing series of internal hallways, are
arrayed in military-like formation, neatly in rows and rows.
In the mid-1990s the Camp White Station Hospital was evaluated for historic
significance in connection with an ODOT-funded widening of Highway 62. Later the hospital was the subject of both a
detailed survey of its 50+ structures and the development of a Manual for Built
Resources. Now, as the result of the
Department of Veterans Affairs long-range plan to provide improved facilities
at the site, we’re again in the process of the evaluating the resources at Camp
White, determining which, if any, are individually eligible for listing on the National
Register of Historic Places. Many will likely be replaced by newer, and more efficient, structures, still arrayed in the neat little rows that personify the camp.
In 1991, in Camp White: City in the Agate Desert, I wrote of
the legacy of Camp White and the station hospital, really the only “built”
elements of the camp that remain. “Nothing
so large, so monumental in scope, can be measured solely by its remnants, no
matter how impressive. The true heritage
of Camp White is the change that it brought.” That is still true, seventy years after the first construction at Camp White began. We are just starting this new evaluation project at SORCC, but I think it's pretty likely that at least some
of the hospital buildings are going to prove eligible for listing on the National Register. Call it an educated guess.
