Artifacts Repatriated-The Holly Gets its Niche(s) Back!

Medford’s Holly Theatre HollyTheatre has had an interesting history from the start.  Construction began in Fall 1929, just before the Black Tuesday, not a day of post-Turkey sales, but rather the collapse of the stock market and the beginning of what is still America’s worst financial crisis.  The local owners soldiered on, and the theater opened in August 1930.  With 1200 seats, it was by far the largest theatre in southern Oregon.  For the next five-plus decades, with varying success, the Holly was one of the leading movie venues in Medford.  With its huge single rake of seating, there wasn’t a bad seat to be had.  You went to the Holly for what today would be termed “Blockbusters.”  Among the latter movies shown there, which I actually saw there, was The Return of the Jedi.

I have written here before about the circuitous path the Holly has taken since it was closed as a theatre in 1986 and needn't beat that horse again.  Two Theatres Let me just say that I hope that Spokane or wherever former SOU president Mary Cullinan heads next isn’t in need of a visionary.  (cite). 

JeffersonLive is moving forward with its plans for the Holly’s rehabilitation as a performing arts center.  That took a major step forward this week with the repatriation of a truckload of original decorative material that was, um, “salvaged” from the theatre in the mid-1990s and has been in storage since.  Essentially a previous owner of the building has the crazy idea of gutting the auditorium and turning it into some sort of atrium-based office complex.  (Really, I’m not making this up).  As that process unfolded, a number of decorative items were offered for sale and many, including all or parts of most of the cool wall niches, were removed from the building.  Naturally the office idea fell through, that owner (thankfully) sold out, and the building sat for 20 years with little change.  Remaining niches were still there, with gaping wounds where the others had been removed.

As early as 2011 negotiations to repurchase many of the removed items were underway (that's part of a pipe niche, above, in the storage building.  You can see the remaining original in the upper photo).  Unfortunately that process stalled, despite our best efforts.  The owner had parts or all of the missing pipe niche, from right next to the proscenium, all of one of the window niches (including the 3D spiral columns), the wrought iron screen from a balcony niche, the missing cast shell from a shell niche and even the fourth (and last) small chandelier from the auditorium.  

Earlier this month JeffersonLive got one of those great phones calls out of the blue.  An auctioneer, Wayne Liska, of Grants Pass, had been charged with disposing of items for the owner and thankfully realized they were from the Holly, belonged back at the Holly, and was more than fair in making sure that we were able to acquire them.  They were delivered last week, to great relief.  We’re hoping that there will be other pieces as Mr. Liska continues to work through the storage building where this stuff was kept.  Either way, with few exceptions, the Holly has now been reunited with one example of most of the major decorative elements that were part of its 1930s interior design.  While we’d be thrilled to have all the original elements, having one of a design makes it a whole lot easier to recreate the rest.  I think I heard the building sigh a little in relief when all this material was being delivered last Tuesday.  I know that I certainly did.

Camp Low Echo's Next Chapter

In the waning days of WWII, the Rogue Valley Girl Scouts Council decided that renting time at the Boy Scouts campground in southern Oregon wasn’t going to be a permanent solution.  In 1946 they negotiated a lease with what is now the Fremont-Winema National Forest for acreage at the southeastern tip of Lake of the Woods, in Klamath County, and set about planning to build what would become Camp Low Echo.  John Boyle, the famed hydroelectric engineer of the California Oregon Power Company (and father of two girls) laid out the campground and designed the main lodge.  The following year two groups of fathers set to work, one group set about dissembling a few buildings at Camp White, a US Army Cantonment, and the other using those salvaged materials (even the windows) to build a 40x100’ foot building facing the lake.  They got some other neat stuff from Camp White too, but more about that later.  The main lodge was later dedicated as “Beaver Lodge,” after the camp name of a scout leader.

For the next seven decades 1000s of girls spent their summers at Camp Low Echo, learning crafts, swimming in the lake, canoeing and spending time in the woods among friends.  It was a popular spot.  The Girl Scouts (aided by Kiwanis and Lions) built more buildings, cabins, fire-rings, and sleeping platforms, that allowed multiple groups to use the camp’s 30 acres.  None of these buildings, not even Beaver Lodge, were architectural wonders and most were built of donated materials, but they did what was needed, and for the summers, kept the bugs out and provided shelter.  When the snow fell, the uninsulated buildings were vacant, but their green metal roofs kept them dry until the next summer.

 

Scouting, for both boys and girls, is somewhat on the wane, as these traditional activities compete with sports, video games, and other things.  A few years ago the southern Oregon Girl Scouts Council, along with several other councils, were merged into a single statewide council based in Portland.  One of the first things that new body decided was that they had too much property.  Sadly, one of the facilities to be jettisoned was Camp Low Echo, ending any formal association between the scouts and the camp  In September of this year, after a deliberate process, the Forest Service lease for Camp Low Echo was transferred to a non-profit organization, which also purchased the Girl Scouts’ buildings with an eye toward a mixture of restoration, removal and new construction that will continue Camp Low Echo’s essential focus, while making improvements to allow the facility to operate year-round.

One thing that I expect to remain will be the luggage carts… a series of wooden boxes (now painted red) with 48” diameter steel rimmed wheels.  The scouts used them to lug sleeping bags and duffle bags from the parking area to the far reaches of the grounds (where cars can’t go).  What may not have been remembered is that these carts are also surplus from Camp White, where they began life as the garbage wagons.  I am thinking that Beaver and the other early leaders did some heavy cleaning before they were re-purposed!

The exact nature of the upcoming changes hasn’t been decided yet and for the moment exploration is on-going to evaluate the existing buildings and see how, and if, they can be upgraded to serve a year-round purpose.  Many were built of salvaged materials, often by well-meaning if not entirely skilled volunteer labor.  There are settlement and rot issues, and the accumulated impact of six decades of exposure with minimal maintenance.  And, of course, the expectations of Girl Scouts in July isn't the same as what you or I might expect in January.  What is clear is that Camp Low Echo has a distinctive style and a character that is formed by its buildings, but that character is also just as dependent on the layout and setting.  The use of materials and even the colors of the structures just scream “Camp.”  Whatever happens, I am pretty confident Camp Low Echo in 2014 is going to be easily recognizable as an evolution in what the Girls Scouts started six decades ago.  At least that’s the plan.

Phoenix Update-Devenney-Steadman RIP

Well, you can’t say we didn’t try.  When last we left the Devenney-Steadman House, the Phoenix City Council had approved its demolition but the owners were willing to wait awhile before actually razing this fine 19^th century house, in case somebody wanted to move it.  The Phoenix Urban Renewal Agency put together a plan PHURA that would have relocated the Steadman House to a prominent corner lot on Main Street, adjacent to a historic building on the north (the Phoenix Grange) and the Phoenix City Hall, on the west.  The Devenney-Steadman House would have been restored for use as PHURA’s offices, including a compatible addition to the rear for meeting room use, and the entire thing, including purchase of the land, could be paid for by the saved rental on PHURA’s offices over the remaining 15 years of life.  Phoenix got a great addition to its Main Street, saved money, created an asset for the community’s future use or sale AND undertook what would have amounted to a demonstration project that rehabilitation is not only cost effective but cool.  And Phoenix is a city that has little track record when it comes to historic preservation and re-use so who better to lead the way than local government?

On Monday of this week the issue came before the Phoenix City Council, who needed to approve PHURA’s expenditure to purchase the land.  To be clear, they didn’t need to provide any funding, they needed to approve PHURA using its own funds to purchase land and restore the Devenney-Steadman House instead of wasting it on rent.  Guess what they did?

By a vote of 3-3, with the Mayor voting to break the tie in the negative, the City of Phoenix formally thumbed its official nose at this win-win-win project.  If I were a betting man, I would not be betting on the future of restoration in Phoenix, especially the Devenney-Steadman House.  Sigh.

You can read the local newspaper report here:  Mail Tribune

Signs-Nothing Simple Please

In most things simple is good.  Signs, not so much.  At least if you are trying to recreate something of the vibrant “signscape” that once characterized most downtowns in America.  I once wrote of the traditional signscape as being an amazing visual cacophony…and I meant it as a compliment.

 

Signs, especially neon signs, fell out of favor in the 1960s and were often specifically targeted by well-meaning communities who saw large advertising pieces as crass and more than a little ugly.  Signs, especially early neon signs, were removed, reduced in size, and often replaced with really boring, simply-shaped, internally illuminated cans.  You know, the metal boxes with two translucent panels and a bunch of florescent tubes.  What they lacked in design, they made up for in low cost. 

Today many communities are re-discovering their signs.  Often it starts with painted wall graphics, advertising long-gone businesses or products, but many are now starting to see the value to their economy, and their character, of either preserving those signs that have somehow survived, or encouraging new neon or at least better sign designs.  Many downtowns flat out prohibit internally illuminated cans.  I think that is a good thing. The old signs, often just a few geometric shapes stacked together to create a complex form, are interesting, often historic, and worth keeping and emulating.  Heck, if a business can survive long enough for its SIGN to become old, that's a good thing that should be supported, not discouraged.

Some years ago Medford had us develop some guidelines for sign design (you can find them here).  That document points out that complex shapes, of multiple forms and materials, add visual interest, enhance historic character and so are are strongly encouraged.  Through the MURA Façade Improvement Grants we’ve seen a resurgence in new neon in downtown Medford, adding night-time interest and design.  But even far less expensive signage, what is called “indirectly illuminated” signs, where a few goose-neck bulbs shine on a hanging sign panel, can add significantly to downtown character.  Here are three recent studies for a new coffee shop in downtown… I don’t know what they will eventually pick, but I’m sure it won’t be anything simple.

Camp White – Mission Appropriate

I have written before about the Camp White Station Hospital, in White City, Oregon.  It’s a sprawling 145-acre site that has 50+ buildings constructed in 1942 as part of the US Army’s training mission in the early days of World War II.  Since 1948 the Station Hospital, built of “permanent” construction, has been owned and operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, providing service to former members of the military.

 

Way back in 1948 the VA was opposed to taking over the Station Hospital for a variety of reasons but politics (in the form of Wayne Morse) won the day, and they have operated the facility ever since.  In recent years, as the “permanent” buildings of Camp White became older and ever-less consistent with the VA’s mission of quality service, the rub between history and function has grown.  To its credit, the VA has maintained, and modified, and upgraded the buildings as it is able, transforming some of these WWII behemoths (the buildings are HUGE) into state-of-the-art medical service facilities.  But in the past few years, as demand for veteran’s services grows, the deficiencies of Camp White’s buildings, no matter how historic, have become a greater obstacle to the VA’s primary care mission.  In 2009 we helped to create a Manual for Built Resources Blog that identified appropriate strategies for upgrades, but some aspects of the 1942 buildings just can’t be reasonably fixed.  Chief among those is the simple fact that most are made of Structural, or Hollow Clay Tile.  This once popular building method (it was both cheap and fireproof) was something akin to terra cotta Lego, but without the little interlocking buttons.  As you can imagine mortared and stacked blocks, held together by plaster on the inside and brick veneer on the outside (at least at Camp White) doesn’t perform particularly well in a seismic event.  Fixing that problem is usually accomplished by building a structural cage inside and then encasing everything in concrete, chewing up most of the interior space.  And interior space is already at a premium at Camp White as the VA attempts to fit vets into rooms designed more than fifty years ago for short term occupancy.

The bottom line is that the VA, after considerable thought, is in the process of removing about 30 historic buildings at Camp White to make way for new construction that is safe, efficient, and meets the needs of the population that they serve.  And let’s face it, for most of that population historic preservation is pretty far down the list of priorities.   So, on the one hand, the loss of a lot of buildings is a pretty sad, if entirely understandable, turn of events.  

But there is good news too.  First, of course, is that the VA will continue to provide quality services to America’s veterans in southern Oregon.  And the VA isn’t removing all of Camp White.  Many of the 1942-era structures, including several of the key properties like the Administration Building (the top photo), will remain in use, upgraded and modernized as needed under the Manual, for a long time to come.  And the VA has taken the character of its historic site to heart in the design of the new, replacement, buildings that it will construct after demolition.  Many will follow the military designs established in 1942, right down the pitch of the green asphalt roof and the brick veneer.  Check out the two buildings below…one is historic (and scheduled for removal and replacement) and the other was built last year.  Care to guess which is which?  And, if you have ever been to the “Dom,” (okay, Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics) you know about the two-story hallways that connect almost the entire campus.  The hallways, whether original or rebuilt, will remain a part of the campus too.  

 I think if a solider that trained at Camp White, and had occasion to visit the Station Hospital during WWII, were to return for a visit in a few years when this is all completed, he’d feel right at home.  And the VA, for its part, will likely make sure through its continued support of the Camp White Historical Society, and maybe some interpretative signage, that others can also appreciate what’s so significant about the “The City in the Agate Desert” too.