Item 6: PH - Ordinance Renaming 3rd/4th Connector

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") The area's only Victorian House Museum. . December 5, 2005 Office of the Mayor City of Eugene 777 Pearl Street Dear Mayor Piercy and City Councilors: In the past three weeks, we have made some significant findings regarding the area around the Shelton- McMurphey-Johnson (SMJ) House at 303 Wtllamette Street (The area's only Victorian House Museum); a City owned treasure built in 1888. Those findings are as follows: The east -west street in front of the house, that we have been calling the yd / 4th Connector has never been officially named by the City. That roadway is very old; it shows in photographs going back to 1890 :.when it was called "The Carriage Road" by Dr. and Mrs. Shelton. The road right-of-way was part of the Southern Pacific RR Reserve (given to them by Eugene Skinner) until it was transferred to Eugene on February 6, 1975. After that the City paved a very narrow strip between Pearl and Lincoln, but never named it. Now it has been brought up to City Standards, a wide boulevard, with landscaped islands and set back sidewalks, and antique gooseneck street lamps to match those at our historic renovated train station. It needs to be given an historic name. Ken Guzowski has researched old Sanborn Insurance Maps going back to 1890. The most interesting finding from those maps is that the road that goes up to the top of Skinner Butte from yd and Pearl (running behind the SMJ House) Was named Shelton Boulevard on the 1925 and 1962 maps. Then we found an old ca.191O map of Eugene's Historic District that also shows that road named Shelton Boulevard. In 1890, Dr. Shelton owned almost all of the land north of the right of way in question, all the way to the Wtllamette River. In 1886, as an owner of the Eugene Water Company, he built the first reservoir in Eugene on the Butte. In 1888 he sold a small piece ofland on the east summit of the Butte to the University of Oregon, so they could build an observatory. At that time, Dr. Shelton committed to building an improved gravel road to the summit. That road was completed in 1892 and we surmise that he named it Shelton Boulevard. In 2003, when we wrote the first letter to you, we were under the impression that we could not use Dr. Shelton's name for the street name, since there was already a one~block street in SW Eugene called Shelton Avenue. Since then, we have found a great number of street multiples, all with different appendages. In fact, we found one where the word ''Bailey'' is used five times. Without using "Court or Place" multiples, we have found about 115 combinations, with each name in a different area of town. Dr. Shelton was a true Oregon pioneer, having arrived in this valley the same year that Eugene Skinner did, 1846. He practiced medicine near Monmouth and Salem b~fore he, his wife and young child moved to Eugene in1873, was one of Eugene's first physicians and also owned a pharmacy. For 15 years they lived at "Mrs. Underwood's", then in 1888 he built the "Castle on the Hill". He purchased nearly half of Eugene Skinner'sTIonation Land Claim (D.L.c.), owning most of the land between the road right-of-way, in question, and the river. He subdivided the land between Third and Cheshire, and between Lincoln and Washington in 1886&1889. With Charles Lauer, he established the Eugene Water Co. (Eugene's first water utility) in 1886. That year they built the first reservoir on Skinner Butte. (continued, back) 13 303 Willamette Stteet Eugene, OR 97401 I Phone (541) 484-0808 Fax (541) 984-1413 I director@smjhouse,org