Heritage Landscape Plan

Inception Era (1876 - 1913)

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HISTORY

On October 16, 1876, the University of Oregon opened with an enrollment of 155 students and a partially completed Deady Hall. The lonely structure sat atop a low rise in a broad and empty field. During these early years of the campus all the associations of college life were centered within and around Deady Hall. The following description provides a glimpse of the landscape at the beginning of the Era.

Then there was no Eleventh street entrance to the campus, for in 1876 all the travel to and from the University was up Twelfth street, over the old stile and up the broad new walk leading straight to the college steps. Those who climbed the gentle slope to the University had the full benefit of sun, wind and storm, for there was no avenue of sheltering firs to break the wind or shut out the sunshine. In fact, there were no trees upon the campus, except the well known group of oaks upon the north. Instead of a carefully kept green lawn, the whole campus was one of nature’s flower gardens, where, in their season, the wild strawberries bloomed and ripened among the native grasses.1

Deady Hall was located near the center of the original 18-acre campus, and by the time Villard Hall was constructed in 1885, little had changed in the landscape. In those days the campus was located about a half mile east of town next to the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. North of the tracks the Millrace had been developed to generate electricity for Hilyard Shaw’s sawmill. Collier House was completed in 1886 on the corner of 13th Avenue and University Street. A professor at the university, George Collier, lived there with his wife, a trained botanist. Mrs. Collier planted many of the trees around the farmhouse, including the Lawson’s False Cypress and Sitka Spruce that still stand to this day. Much of the campus was originally part of the 640-acre donation land claim staked out by Fielding McMurry and his wife. These pioneers came to Oregon from Kentucky in 1851, building a two-story white farmhouse on the future site of the Erb Memorial Union. operated a brick-making business and furnished the bricks for both Deady and Villard Halls. Farther to the southeast of campus, a sluggish stream ran through the marsh that would later become the home of Hayward Field. Purportedly, students hunted ducks there. The Cheshire Farm adjoined the campus directly south of Deady Hall. The area was partially inundated with seasonal rains and in 1905 would become Kincaid Field. The land further south abutted the International Order of Odd Fellows cemetery, established in 1873. The southwest end of campus, where McKenzie Hall is located today, was also a low lying marsh, and the area was temporarily converted into a body of water known as Carson’s Lake.

Postcard of Deady Hall with Carson's Lake in foreground (date unknown)	An image of Deady Hall (1876) and Villard Hall (1886), taken not too soon after Villard's completion.

ERA CHARACTERISTICS

True to its name, the Inception Era marks the establishment and early development of the campus, with important buildings designed by noteworthy architects. Five buildings from this era remain today and were surveyed for this study. Associated landscape areas experienced today still strongly characterize this era.

Of the twenty-one openspaces surveyed for this study, the following four have their most significant association with this era: Deady Hall Walk Axis; Old Campus Quadrangle; Villard Hall Green; and 13th Avenue Axis. Key landscape features of this era include a fairly informal quadrangle layout with naturalistic forestation of the Old Campus Quadrangle, contrasted with the formal axial design of Douglas firs that define the Deady Hall Walk. A listing of more specific defining characteristics for the Inception follows.

Land Use, General
University

Spatial Organization
Central space defined by buildings, circulation, and trees, and complemented with informal symmetry of building locations, informal pathways, and plantings. Quadrangle “completed” in 1915 with Johnson Hall. Deady Hall Walk Axis offers a westward connection to the town.

Natural Systems and Features
Former prairie with groupings of native trees; wet areas include Carson’s Lake.

Circulation Patterns
Orthogonal sidewalks up to buildings, connecting to building entries. Informal pathways through open spaces, many of which were boardwalks, others gravel or concrete. Orthogonal road system established, with a loop road at edge of quad. Railroad and electric streetcar at edge of the university.

Topography
University is located on a bluff at the edge of river terraces, with buildings occupying the high point. The quad area runs north-south and is generally level.

Vegetation
Naturalistic reforestation, pedestrian allees, and street tree patterns, double and single rows. Species: native white oak, Douglas firs, maples, cedars, ponderosa pine, sitka spruce, bay laurel, white fir, chinkapin; also exotics walnut, beech, linden, birch, poplar, elm, redwood, pine, honey locust, catalpa, red maple, sugar maple, cherry, mulberry, dogwood, chestnut. Some shrubs and lawn are present.

Views and Vistas
Primary emphasized views to Deady Hall; view kept open to Mill Race and Willamette River.

Buildings and Structures
Extant buildings from this period are primarily in the Second Empire and Italianate styles, and three to four stories high.

Small-scale Elements
Carson’s Lake, commemorative features, Pioneer sculpture, fountain, gate, bench, white-board fencing.

Edge Conditions
Buildings enfront and form the quadrangle with large open spaces between.

1 Eaton, Allen H. ed The ‘02 Webfoot (Eugene: University of Oregon, 1901).

 Deady Hall, first day of university  classes, 1876.

Interactive Map of Historic Buildings and Landscapes

1.0 Landscape Preservation Guidelines and Description of Historic Resources
- Section I
- Section II
- Section III
         - Inception Era
         - Lawrence/Cuthbert Era
         - Mid-century Era

- Appendices (pdf)
- Complete Document (pdf)

2.0 Site Specific Preservation Plans and Guidelines

3.0 Historic Landscapes        

4.0 Historic Buildings

An abundance of trees,  attractively grouped, pathways  and lanes between various  buildings, shrubbery of different  kinds, and always flowers in  their appropriate  seasons,  enable the Oregon campus to have  a distinction peculiar to itself.
    
 -"The Campus Beautiful" in the
1920 Oregana yearbook