Corvallis - Oregon State University

Oregon State University is the state's land grant college. Along with its rival 30 miles to the south in Eugene, it is one of the two premier and most established public institutions of higher education in the state. While Corvallis has other major employers, the university is the mainstay of this "college town." This 3.2 mile walk, on flat terrain, will not only go through the university, but also visit some nearby Greek houses and the College Hill West historic district.

This walk starts at the corner of 23rd and Monroe, on the northern edge of the Oregon State University campus. Proceed north on 23rd, away from the campus, into a neighborhood largely populated with students. Along with a few older homes and apartments on 23rd you will see a couple of new student apartments, such as this one on the corner of 23rd and Jackson.

At Harrison Avenue turn left and proceed two blocks to 26th Street, where you will turn left again. 26th has several Oregon State University fraternities and sororities, located in stately houses. The Alpha Gamma Delta sorority is located to the right, with its own Facebook page and even a 28 minute Youtube video of two co-eds giving a tour of the building.

Across the street from Alpha Gamma Delta is the Theta Chi fraternity house. While frat houses generally look more disheveled than sororities, perhaps because they are worse for wear, Alpha Gamma Delta's stately tudor-style home looks well-maintained, at least from the outside.

Also on the left, two fraternities down from Theta Chi, is Alpha Tau Omega's Georgian style brick home.

Continue on 26th to Van Buren Avenue. At the corner is the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house, which is built in an Antebellum style with big front porch pillars.

Turn right on Van Buren, and then follow the road as it veers to the left and intersects with Arnold Way. Cross Arnold and continue ahead on 27th Street. You are now in the College Hill West Historic District, which was built primarily between 1910 and 1940. After a short block on 27th turn right onto Jackson Avenue and then right again on 28th Street. On the left, halfway down the street, is the Charles Schuster House, built in 1913, on the National Register of Historic Places as an individual home. The entire College Hill West area is also listed separately on the National Register.

After one block on 28th you will reach Van Buren Avenue again, where you will turn left. On the first block of 28th is the Acacia Fraternity house, built in a colonial style. While the name does not apparently consist of Greek letters, the chapter's website asserts that the fraternity's original name was AKAKIA, or six different Greek letters. The house is a large Colonial-style edifice.

Continue on Van Buren to 30th Street and then turn right. At the corner of Van Buren and 30th is the John Bexell House, built in 1926, and an individual entry on the National Register of Historic Places. The style of this home is a mixture of Tudor Revival and Norman Farmhouse, both popular in the 1920's.

Continue north on 30th Street to Harrison Boulevard. On the corner of 30th and Harrison is the Pi Beta Phi Sorority House, built in 1928 in the French Provincial style. The original sorority vacated the building in 1964 and it was occupied by a fraternity until 1981. According to Zillow it now is split into four apartments. The building is also an individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Turn left onto Harrison and proceed to 32nd Street. On the right is the Harding Center, consisting of administrative offices and an alternative high school for the Corvallis School District. The building was constructed in 1923 as the College Hill Elementary School

At 32nd Street turn left. The J. Leo Fairbanks house is located on the first block to the right. The home was constructed in 1926 in an English Cottage style, and is also an individual site on the National Register of Historic Places. Fairbanks House

Continue on 32nd to Johnson Avenue, then turn left and walk to 30th Street, where you will turn right. Straight ahead is the 30th Street entrance to the Oregon State University campus. The street widens to include a large landscape median with mature deciduous trees.

Stay on the left side of 30th Street and after passing Withycombe Hall, home to the Veterinary Sciences department, turn left on Campus Way. On your right is the new home of the Linus Pauling Institute, constructed in 2011. Linus Pauling is one of the most famous scientists of the 20th Century, and in addition was a noted Peace Activist. He won both the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Nobel Peace Prize. While his academic career occurred at Caltech and elsewhere, he was a native of Oregon and a graduate of Oregon State University.

Continuing along Campus Way, you will pass underneath a portion of the Agricultural and Life Sciences building,

On your left, before passing underneath the Agricultural and Life Science Building, are historic greenhouses, originally constructed in the 1920's. This is the first of many buildings on this walk that are contributing structures to the Oregon State University National Historic District, established in 2008.

After the Agricultural and Life Sciences Building, Hovland Hall is located on the right. It was constructed in 1924 as the Horticultural Sciences Building and was designed by noted Oregon architect John Virginius Bennes. It was renamed Hovland Hall in honor of longtime Oregon State philosophy and religion professor Warren Hovland. The Department of Horticultural Sciences has moved to the building next door, and Hovland Hall is now occupied by a number of liberal arts programs.

After Hovland Hall turn right onto 26th Street. The first building on your right is the magnificent Italian Renaissance-style Women's Building, now home to the College of Public Health and Human Sciences. It was constructed in 1926. If you have time (and it is open) peak inside at the some the beautiful interior spaces as well.

To the left is the stately Memorial Union, the traditional student union building on campus, constructed in 1929. It sits on the memorial union quad, whish has lots of use on sunny school days.

Continue straight on 26th past the Memorial Union. Next, on your right is Weatherford Hall. Constructed in 1928 as the men's dormitory, it was thoroughly renovated and reopened in 2004.

Continue south on 26th past Weatherford Hall and then, on your right, a large sports field. At Washington Way turn left. Looking further down 26th Street the two major sports venues for Oregon state are visible. The closer building on the left is Gill Coliseum, the main basketball arena. Opened in 1949, it seats 9,600 and has an old-fashioned hoops feel. Beyond is Reser Stadium, home of the football team. Originally opened in 1953, it was significantly expanded in 2005 and now seats over 45,000 fans.

Continue east on Washington Way. The roadway is paralleled on the right by railroad tracks that belong to the insignificant line between Corvallis and Yaquina Bay on the Oregon Coast to the west. However this little branch line has a colorful history.

Continuing on Washington Way, you will soon see, on the left, the Oregon State Beavers baseball stadium. As you can see by the billboard, the school is quite proud of its back-to-back men's baseball championships in 2006 and 2007.

After passing the baseball stadium turn left onto Benton Place. On the right is the McAlexander Fieldhouse. Originally named the Armory, it was constructed in 1910 and renamed for a General McAlexander, a hero of the Spanish-American War and World War I and an Oregon resident and Oregon State benefactor after his retirement from the military. The most notable tenant in the building is the Oregon State University Rifle Club, which has an indoor target range in the building. The school's large ROTC program also has its home in this building

At Jefferson Way turn right. To your left is Furman Hall, housing the College of Education, built in 1902.

Continue along Jefferson. To your right are more modern campus buildings and then an off-campus apartment. To your left is the East Campus quad. At 11th Street turn left and continue along the edge of the quad to the Jensen Gate, which is the official east entrance to what is known as the Lower Campus. Turn left to go through the gate and down the middle of the East Campus quad.

Head back to 11th Street and cross it. Straight ahead is Benton Hall, home to the university's Music Department. Benton Hall is the oldest building on campus, dating back to 1887. It was originally known as the College Building, since the entire school was contained within its walls, and later was known as the Administration Building.

Go straight ahead and pass by Benton Hall on your right. Beyond is the Library Quad, which you will pass through on its north side. The massive Valley Library anchors the south end of the quad, with historic Strand Agricultural Hall (shown in the picture) to the west. Finished in 1913, the building reopened in 2015 after an extensive seismic retrofit.

Continue straight ahead across the Library Quad and once on the other side continue straight between Strand Hall and Gilkey Hall to the right. Once you get to the edge of the Memorial Union Quad, turn right (away from the quad). On your left is the Kelley Engineering Center in a modern building. Oregon State University is Oregon's premier school for engineering studies. Continue north back to Monroe Avenue, and your starting point.

Albany - Downtown, Riverfront, and Hackleman District

Albany is a Willamette Valley city that doesn't get the attention received by Corvallis and Eugene, both university towns to the south, and Salem, the state capital to the north. But this Willamette River city has a long proud history, and it is home to over 51,000 residents. This 2.7 mile walk on flat terrain goes along the city's riverfront, through its old commercial downtown, and passes by several other historic structures and sights. At this site you can download a more comprehensive guide to the historic sites of Albany.

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The walk begins at the corner of 4th Avenue and Lyon Street, which is the site of the monumental Albany Armory building. Constructed in 1910, the building served as a National Guard armory until 1974. It now houses mainly government offices.

From the armory turn east, cross busy Lyon Street, and go forward two blocks on 4th Avenue to Montgomery Street. On the corner of Montgomery and 4th, to the left, is the Goltra house. This 1893 Italianate-style home was constructed for William Goltra, who originally walked the Oregon trail to the Willamette Valley in 1852.

Turn left on Montgomery Street and go one block to Third Avenue, where you will turn right. On the left corner of Montgomery and Third is St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church South, built in 1875. The "South" in the name speaks to the fact that it was built for a congregation with Confederate sympathies during the recently concluded Civil War. Albany was apparently a town closely divided by partisan sympathies in the 19th century, with the Democrat-Southern settlers moving to this area and the Republican-Northern settlers moving to another area to the west of here.

After one block on Third turn right onto Railroad Avenue. To your left is the original Albany High school, built in 1909. It is now home to a large non-denominational church and Christian school.

After one block on Railroad turn left onto Fourth Avenue. On the right, across from the old high school, is this 1895 home built in the Eastlake architectural style, a subset of the more encompassing Queen Anne style popular at the time.

After one block on Fourth, turn right onto Jackson Avenue. At the southwest corner of 5th and Jackson is the house built by Abram Hackleman, son of Abner Hackleman, the Iowa farmer who made a donation land claim for what became Albany in 1845 . This section of Albany is known as the Hackleman District. Turn left onto Fifth Avenue and proceed two blocks. On the right, pictured here, is the Parker House, a Gothic revival style home built in 1875. Moses Parker came from Ohio to Albany in 1852.

Right beyond the Parker House you will cross the Thurston Canal. Now a pathetic little ditch after it was filled in the 1970's, this used to be a full-fledged waterway, powering turbines in mills and factories along its path between the larger Santiam-Albany canal to the south and the Willamette River to the north. It was constructed by Chinese laborers and finished in 1873. More recent attempts to revive the canal as a recreational resource have apparently come to nought.

The Thurston Canal lies in the right of way of Thurston Street, which is a "paper" street. Turn left and walk along the canal for one block to Fourth Avenue, then turn right. After one block on Fourth you will cross the Willamette & Pacific rail line, formerly a Southern Pacific branch line connecting the main line in Albany with Corvallis to the southwest. This line is a remnant of a grand scheme to build a transcontinental railroad with its western terminal on Yaquina Bay near Newport. Its promoter was one T. Edenton Hogg, a former Confederate navy man who sounds like a classic 19th century railroad promoter - half visionary and half swindler.

Continue another block on Fourth Avenue to Madison Street. On the left is Madison School, originally constructed in the 1890's. It now serves as the headquarters of the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Educational School District, which provides special education needs and other support services to public schools in Albany, Corvallis, and smaller nearby communities.

Continue on Fourth Avenue another two blocks to Main Street. Straight ahead is the Cumberland Presbyterian Church building. This Queen-Anne Style church was built in 1892. This neglected-looking building has been vacant for many years, and is currently owned by the City of Albany. It's ultimate fate remains uncertain.

Turn left on Main Street and proceed north all the way to the Willamette River. On the way you will go around a new roundabout at Third and Main. Next will be another set of railroad tracks, these ones belonging to the Burlington Santa Fe railway but originally built as the Oregon Electric Railway between Portland and Eugene. Eventually you will reach this entrance to the Dave Clark Riverfront Trail. Turn left and begin your walk along the Willamette River.

The trail provides, on your right, the scenery of the river. The time of commercial river traffic, which fueled Albany's initial growth, has long receded into history. On your left is a mixture of park land and new development activity. After a while you will pass under this railroad bridge, built in 1921. It replaced the 1887 bridge constructed as part of the ill-fated Oregon Pacific railway scheme discussed earlier along this walk.

Continuing along the waterfront, this attractive building on your left is an example of the new development that is occurring along Albany's waterfront. It is the Wheelhouse Center, with an event venue and several floors of office space above.

Continuing along the waterfront, next you will cross under the two highway bridges, which connect the main section of Albany with a smaller part of the city west of the river, and then on to Corvallis. The newer one was constructed in 1973, and the older one was built in 1925. Its architect was noted Oregon bridge designer Conde McCullough, whose more famous designs are found on Highway 101 along the Oregon coast.

Continue along the waterfront trail. Soon you will come to this public boat launch. While the commercial traffic that plied the Willamette in the 19th century is no more, pleasure craft still use the waterway.

Follow the riverfront trail as it turns to the left. There is a nice area for sitting and picnicking by the riverbank. You are now walking at the mouth of the Calapooia River, a major tributary of the Willamette. It runs 72 miles from the Cascades and drains 365 square miles. Fish habitat along the Calapooia has recently been improved with the removal of several small dams upstream constructed in the 19th century in association with lumber milling activities.

The riverfront trail ends at First Avenue and Calapooia Street. Turn left onto First Avenue and head into Albany's historic downtown. First Avenue is lined with historic structures built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The downtown has been restored by city and property owner revitalization efforts.

After three blocks on First Avenue the historic Globe Theater is located on the left, at the corner of First and Broadalbin. The 1914 building is now occupied by the Fusion Faith Center, which uses the theater and the rest of the building for its religious activities.

Along this part of First Avenue to the right is the Flinn Block. This building has been here since 1887, and is a great example of the Second Empire architectural style of the period. The "Second Empire" itself refers to the regime of Napoleon III, who ruled France as its Emperor in the style of more notable ancestor from 1851 to 1870, until ignobly defeated by the Germans and forced to abdicate.

Continue on First Avenue another block to Lyon Street, where you will turn right. On the corner of Second and Lyon is the Albany Regional Museum. This ornate Italianate-style building was originally constructed in 1887 and located a block away on First Avenue. It was moved to this site in 1912. Continue two more blocks on Lyon Street to Fourth Avenue, where you will reach the Armory Building and the starting point of the walk.