Jefferson Westside Neighbors and areas west of the downtown commercial district are the oldest neighborhoods in Eugene. Most homes date from the 19th century up to the 1950s. Examples range from grand structures like the 1891 Queen Anne Victorian at Taylor and W. 10th Ave. to more modest bungalows built in the early 20th century like 1912 G. W. Hunter House pictured to the left. Combined with our larger old tree canopy, Jefferson Westside Neighbors is the historic heart of Eugene.

According to the City of Eugene Planning Department: 

Eugene’s older neighborhoods and houses are a critical part of our city’s history and character. Just as the Willamette River, Skinner and Spencer Buttes, and the Cascades define Eugene’s natural surroundings, our historic neighborhoods of settlement era houses, modest bungalows, and stately craftsman homes trace Eugene’s history and help define the character of the city and of the Northwest. The purpose of Eugene’s Historic Preservation Program is to increase public awareness of this history and character and to facilitate preservation, restoration and rehabilitation of historic structures, landscape features, and other culturally significant physical objects and geographic areas.

Seeking to avoid the fate of other older urban neighborhoods that have succumbed to infill redevelopment, such as the two 100+ year old Craftsman homes destroyed to build the massive four-plex on W. 15th Ave. and Olive St., the JWN created a task force to explore the possibility of creating one or more historic districts in the neighborhood. 

Preserving older homes is not only important to our culture and heritage, but historic preservation is environmentally sound, as an older home’s carbon debt has long since been paid. Upgrading an existing structure for energy efficiency is far less carbon intensive, and more effective, than demolishing a structure and building a new house.

Preservation is not about preventing density – the JWN already is the second densest Eugene neighborhood with a huge inventory of middle housing, much of it historic like the Lincoln School Condos and the Hendricks Rental Housing on Lawrence. Preservation is about protecting the neighborhood’s historic character and context and putting that front and center for any new development.