Eugene - Skinner Butte

There is a lot more to Eugene than the University of Oregon. The city is at the upper reaches of navigability for the Willamette River, which perhaps explains some of its prosperity during the river steamboat era of the late 19th century, although the steamboats only reached this far upstream when the Willamette was running high. Both the city and its downtown geographic landmark, Skinner Butte, are named for the city's founder, Eugene Skinner. When the University of Oregon arrived in the late 1870's the city's future prosperity was set. This walk starts at the north end of downtown Eugene, which is on the south flanks of Skinner Butte, goes up and over the hill, and then returns to the starting point along the Willamette River, using part of the city's excellent pedestrian and bicycle pathway system. The walk is 2.5 miles long, and includes a steep uphill and downhill section on Skinner Butte.

Our walk starts at the Oregon Electric Station, on Fifth Avenue at the north end of downtown Eugene.  Now a restaurant, the station was built in 1914 as the southern terminus of the Oregon Electric Railway, controlled by the Great Northern Railway of James J. Hill. Passenger service ceased in 1933, the line was dieselized in the 1940's, and the remains of the Oregon Electric, now controlled by a short-line railway, end operations a few miles to the north. The tracks behind the station actually belong to the Union Pacific Railway west coast main line (formerly the Southern Pacific Railway). Amtrak passenger service uses a smaller station behind this building.

From the Electric Station start east down Fifth Avenue. On your left is an attractive brick building, and at the corner of Fifth and Pearl Street is the flagship restaurant/tasting room of the Steelhead Brewing Company. Eugene is home to a number of microbreweries, but this was the first, established in 1991.

Turn left at Pearl Street. Soon you will cross over this railroad track, which constitutes the old Southern Pacific Main Line (now owned by Union Pacific) along the length of the Pacific Coast. This track sees numerous freight trains as well as the Amtrak Coast Starlight from Seattle to Southern California.

After crossing the railroad tracks, turn left onto Shelton-McMurphey Avenue. The first building on the right, which you have undoubtedly already noticed from afar is Ya-po-ah Terrace, an 18-story 222 foot-tall senior housing complex, with over 200 dwelling units. Constructed in 1968, it is the tallest building in Eugene, in part because the city leaders enacted building height restrictions in reaction to controversy surrounding its construction. The project provides rental subsidies to make its units affordable to seniors with modest incomes. After passing the tower you will see community gardens for the Ya-po-ah Terrace residents.

Continue beyond the community gardens and on the right is the Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson  House. This imposing Queen Anne-style structure was completed in 1888, and since 1987 has operated as an historic museum. The home was apparently even more prominent in its early days without the large trees that have grown around it in recent decades (I would guess that Skinner Butte, along with much of the rest of Oregon, was clear-cut at one point in its history).

UPDATE: I recently found this drawing from a card sent to me a few years ago - purporting to show the Shelton-McMurphey house in 1890. Sure enough, Skinner Butte in the background is devoid of trees!

Continuing on Shelton-McMurphey Drive, beyond the historic house, you will see this stairway leading up the hill. This is the entrance to Skinner Butte Park. Continue up the stairway.

The trail up the hill makes a couple of switchbacks and intersects with a roadway leading to the top of the hill. Follow the trail markers leading to the Skinner Butte summit, not the roadway.

You will be near the top of Skinner Butte, which rises approximately 200 feet above the surrounding terrain, when you see this large American flag through the trees. The flag and its pole are a fairly recent addition to Skinner Butte. They replaced a 51-foot tall cross which adorned the top of the hill from 1964 to 1997, but was controversially removed and placed on the campus of a local bible college. The butte is also home to a large "O" on the side of the hill celebrating the University of Oregon. When you intersect the road leading to the summit parking lot, take a right.

The summit of Skinner Butte has viewpoints to enjoy the panorama of the surrounding community. To the south is downtown Eugene and the South Eugene hills beyond. The view to the east includes, on a clear day, the Cascades. Closer in one can see the University of Oregon campus, Autzen Stadium (home of the Ducks football team), and the Willamette River snaking upstream.

Once you've enjoyed the views at the top  of Skinner Butte, head back down the hill, this time on its north side, toward the Willamette River. The trail marker for the trail heading down the north side is across a hairpin turn on the roadway from the point where the trail heading up the south side intersected with the summit roadway.

The trail down the north side of Skinner Butte makes several switchbacks. Follow the markers that lead down to the Willamette River. Eventually you will see Cheshire Avenue. Cross the street.

Once you cross the street, look for the Lamb Cottage, with the river beyond, and walk down the stairs leading to the cottage. The cottage was built in the 1920's as comfort station and general store for campers along the river. Today it is owned by the City of Eugene, and is available for event rentals.

To the right of Lamb Cottage is an area that appears to be a standard grassy lawn. However, the City of Eugene has placed interpretive displays on two sides of the lawn indicating that is area is being actively restored as a natural prairie area. Either the project hasn't gotten very far, or a natural prairie looks an awful lot like a grass lawn.

Continue to the Willamette River, and this wide, paved path that runs along it. It is part of an extensive network of biking and walking paths along the Willamette River, for which Eugene has become well-known. Follow the path along the river to the right (upstream). In a couple of places the pathway branches - always keep to the path on the left, closer to the river.

After a long walk along the river you will eventually pass the Campbell Adult Recreation Center on the right. This building houses recreational programs and activities for Eugene's Senior population.

Meanwhile, on the left, the Willamette River exhibits some rapid currents at certain times of year. It's hard to imagine steamboats reaching to this point along the river back in the 19th century. A few miles downstream the river is joined by its major tributary, the McKenzie, while a few miles upstream the river splits into its main stem and a "coast fork."

After going under the busy Ferry Street bridge across the Willamette you will come to this much quieter crossing, the Peter DeFazio pedestrian bridge. This bridge, finished in 2000, was named for Eugene's long time congressman, a feisty "progressive" Democrat. Keep along the river and go under the bridge.

Continuing along the banks of the Willamette, soon you will come to the headquarters of the Eugene Water and Electric Board, known as EWEB. EWEB is a publicly owned utility, formed in 1911 in response to a typhoid epidemic traced to the water supplied by a private, for-profit water company. Within a few years EWEB bought out the local electric company too, and became a full public utility. EWEB has big plans for this stretch of riverfront, which until recently also housed the utility's maintenance facilities. Once you get to the building's central plaza/gathering area, turn right and go under the sky bridge connecting the two halves of the building.

Next follow the walkway underneath Ferry Street again, and you will find yourself along the west side of Fourth Avenue, heading back into downtown Eugene. Turn left at High Street and proceed one block. At the corner of Fifth and High, on the left, is the Fifth Street Public Market. Begun as a poultry market in 1929, the market reopened in 1976 and has been progressively upscaled into the almost-fashionable place it is today.

Cross Fifth Avenue and enter into the market itself. The interior is very attractive, with shops and eateries. The Inn at Fifth Avenue was recently built on the same block, completing its transformation into a top destination.


After leaving the Fifth Street market, continue west on Fifth Street, passing the Steelhead Brewery again (and maybe stopping for a mug of great beer) and then continuing back to the walk starting point at the Oregon Electric Railway Station.

Eugene - University of Oregon

EUGENE - THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON

While Portland is much larger, Eugene is the second largest metropolitan area in the state. And it is the home of the University of Oregon, the state's flagship university (although half the state, partisans of Oregon State University in Corvallis, might beg to differ). This walk will explore the university and some surrounding neighborhoods on a 3-mile journey, along a relatively flat route.

This walk starts at the intersection of Kincaid Street and East 11th Avenue, immediately south of Franklin Blvd. (Old U.S. 99). There is a parking area on the north side of East 11th. If you do this walk on a weekend there is generally available parking in the lot and the metered street spaces nearby don't charge on weekends - otherwise you will have to feed a meter for a street parking space in the vicinity.

Immediately to the south of the parking lot, on East 11th Avenue, is a bus rapid transit station for Eugene's EmX system. This station serves the Franklin Avenue line running from downtown Eugene east to the City of Springfield. A second line runs north-south in Springfield. An extension of the line from downtown to West Eugene has sparked much controversy. In general, bus rapid transit relies on the use of exclusive bus lanes to provide much speedier service, akin to speeds available in a grade-separated light rail system, but at much less cost (although still too expensive according to some).


From the EmX station turn right and walk along East 11th Street. In the next block the university campus begins - but it is not the University of Oregon, but rather Northwest Christian University. The school was founded in 1895 as a divinity school, with students taking religion classes on campus and walking across the street to the University of Oregon for other coursework. When this arrangement was discontinued by the larger university in 1995, Northwest Christian transitioned into a full-service liberal arts school. It currently has about 650 undergraduate students. The "Beacons" play their sports in the Cascade Collegiate Conference against a variety of small religious and public colleges such as Evergreen State, Eastern Oregon, Concordia and Warner Pacific. While the school plays men's basketball, it is doubtful that the squad will ever face off against its much larger neighbor - and there is no football team. The three-story Martha Goodrich Administration Building, shown in this photo, was constructed in 1908 of volcanic stone.

At Alder Street, turn right. Go one block, then turn right onto Franklin Blvd. After one block, turn right again onto Hilyard Street. On your right is the Gamma Phi Beta sorority house. This Tudor-style structure was built in 1926. Gamma Phi Beta was the first sorority at the University of Oregon.



Across the street on the left is the Chi Psi fraternity house, built in 1935, and also a Tudor style structure. The building was designed by noted Lake Oswego architect Richard Sundeleaf. The water feature along the side of the fraternity is a side channel of the Willamette River. The main channel of the river is less than 1/2 mile to the north.



Also on the left side of the street, as you near 12th Avenue, is the Alpha Phi sorority house. This house was built in 1925, and is described as a "Norman farmhouse" style in its nomination papers to the National Register of Historic Places.



Continue south on Hilyard Street. After crossing 12th Avenue you will be passing between two buildings of Sacred Heart Hospital. The hospital engendered some local controversy a few years back by threatening to relocate to a site in Springfield to the east, but finally ended up keeping this site as well as the new hospital facility in Springfield. Walk underneath the pedestrian skyway connecting the two hospital blocks.



Turn right on 13th Avenue, into the University commercial district. Along with many restaurants and the current location of the university bookstore, this building on the right side of the street represents a lot of new student housing developments that have sprouted up around the university campus to house the growing number of students in attendance.




Continue on 13th Avenue to the next block, which consists mainly of businesses catering to students, including the University Bookstore. Note the reservation of significant street pavement for bike lanes in this area. While Portland has become more bike friendly and known around the nation for its bicycle culture, Eugene has been accommodating bicyclists on its streets for much longer.

At the intersection of 13th Avenue and Kincaid Street you will see the formal entrance to the university campus. Continue straight ahead.

On the right is Condon Hall, home to the Department of Geography. And on the left is the Lillis Business Complex. The 2003 structure in the middle of the plaza is flanked by two older buildings constructed in 1917 and 1922. The building has one of the largest solar installations in the western U.S., and was built to demonstrate principles of sustainability.

Turn right at the open area immediately opposite the Lillis Business Complex plaza. Chapman Hall, home of the university's honors college, is on your left. After passing by Chapman Hall, turn left and you will pass by the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on your right. This museum was constructed in 1937, and its collection is best known for its East Asian art. Continue past the Museum of Art. When the pathway ends at a stub roadway, follow it straight ahead. The roadway ends at University Street, and directly across from you will be the Erb Student Center.

Turn right on University Street. Past 15th Street, on the left, is McArthur Court, home of the Oregon Ducks basketball team from 1926 until the Matthew Knight Arena opened in 2011. Although the facilities were antique, it's a shame that this 9,000 seat arena, popularly known as "the Pit," is no longer in use. There's too much basketball history to easily summarize in this small space, so wiki McArthur Court or look here for more information. A book entitled "Mac Court Memories" was published in 2010, but is apparently out of print.

On the right side of University Street is the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1872, and on the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery is 16 acres in size and contains several thousand burial plots.

Continue south on University Street to 18th Avenue, which is the southern boundary of the University of Oregon campus. Across 18th Avenue to the left are the Prefontaine Apartments, opened in 2013. They represent a new type of student housing, essentially an off-campus privately-run student dorm. The 20 units are 3 or 4 bedrooms, housing one or two students per room, with each unit sharing a living area and kitchen. Several of these types of buildings have been built in Eugene and Corvallis over the past few years, and undoubtedly in other campus towns around the U.S.

Turn left on 18th Avenue and walk two blocks to Onyx Street, and then turn right. A couple houses down on the right is Onyx House, another kind of student housing. Onyx House is operated by the Eugene Faith Center, a large nondenominational church elsewhere in the city. It provides housing for Christian students where they "can accomplish their academic and career goals while being involved in campus ministry."



Continue on Onyx to 19th Avenue, and then turn left. On the next block to the right is Studies at 19th, another new student housing block. The units are 2 to 4 bedrooms, and it is unclear whether they are rented by the room or by the apartment to a group of students that organize themselves.

Continue another block to Agate Street. At the corner on the right is McMenamins East 19th Street Café. Outside the front door is a peace pole, reading "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in four different languages including what has been described as "animal language." The three McMenamins taverns in Eugene are the southernmost outposts of the beer empire.



Turn left on Agate Street and proceed north. After crossing 18th Avenue you will be back on campus. To the left is Hayward Field, home to the University of Oregon's vaunted track and field program. Built in 1919, until 1967 this was also the university football stadium.

On this lamppost along Agate Street is a banner celebrating the university's most famous track and field athlete, Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975). The Pre Classic is held at Hayward Field each spring in his honor. Prefontaine was born in Coos Bay, finished 4th in the 5000 meter run at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and at the time of his death held several world records as he prepared for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. He died after hitting a tree with his sports car on a windy street in the hills above Eugene. Two biographical films of his life were made within a year of each other, Prefontaine (1997) starring Jared Leto, and Without Limits (1998) starring Billy Crudup. Both are pretty good movies.


Across the street from Hayward Field on the right is the School of Law, one of three law schools in Oregon. The main building shown here is the Knight Center, named for its principal donor, Nike Chairman and university alumnus Phil Knight.

At the corner of Agate St and 15th Avenue, the northern end of Hayward Field, cross 15th and head into the park area on the right side of the street. Go toward the northeast corner of the park area. The buildings at the north end of the park are the Bean Complex, originally built in 1964 and generally considered the most decrepit of the current university residential dorms.



At the northeast corner of the park continue and note the contrast with the Bean Complex. Directly ahead is the back entrance of Matthew Knight Arena, home to the Oregon Ducks men's and women's basketball teams since 2011. The complex is named for Phil Knight's son, who died at age 34 in a scuba accident. Very nice for a back entrance, don't you think?

Continue to the left toward 13th Avenue and, beyond, Franklin Avenue (old Highway 99). Turn right and behold the front entrance of the Matthew Knight Arena. The most unique aspect of the building must be seen from the inside - the basketball court's floor.



After you have seen the front of the arena, turn around and proceed west on 13th Avenue back into the campus. On your right is the John Jaqua Center, a futuristic building that houses academic services for Oregon's NCAA athletes. Built in 2010, the building was funded by a grant from Phil Knight and honors a long time university supporter as its namesake. The contrast with the decrepit Bean Hall residential complex across 13th Avenue on the left is striking.



Continue on 13th Avenue back into the heart of the campus. Among the academic buildings on both sides of the street is the Lewis Integrative Science Building, on the right, opened in 2012.



Continue on 13th Avenue. To your left is the Erb Student Union again. At Friendly Hall, follow the pathway through the open treed area to the right.

Continue across the open area and veer diagonally to the left across it. On the other side, to the left, is Deady Hall, the first and oldest building on campus. It is named for Matthew Deady, Oregon's first federal judge, who ironically opposed authorizing a state university at Oregon's constitutional convention of 1857 (the state was admitted to the Union in 1859). When it opened the university's enrollment was 177, but that number included 98 high school students since Eugene did not yet have a high school.  There were five faculty. The building now houses the mathematics department. Deady's architectural style is Italianate.



Continue beyond Deady, and the next building on the left is Villard Hall, the second building on campus, completed in 1886. It's style is described as Second Empire, named for the French Empire of Napoleon III (nephew of the original Napoleon who created the First Empire), ruler of France from 1851 to 1870. The building is named for Henry Villard, railroad magnate and owner of the Northern Pacific Railroad, who donated the money for the building. The building now houses the Theater Arts Department.


At the corner of the building, turn left back to your starting point, past the EmX bus rapid transit station.