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As a collector of old photos & film, I always love when you can find multiple images of the same location and see how it evolved through the eras. Whilst doing some Oregon-related research I came across this series of photos looking down Willamette Street in our very own Eugene, thought they might be worth sharing.
They picture different intersections so it’s not exactly a time-lapse effect, but it’s the same basic view and gives an idea how things went down in the 20th century.
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1913. Willamette was dominated by two pairs of streetcar tracks, which turned off from the main thoroughfare and served most of the major residential neighborhoods. You can see a few cars in the background. They were just starting to become cheap & widely available, the world’s first moving assembly line began pumping out Model Ts earlier that year.
Ax Billy was a department store, why it was named thus I do not know. The building still stands today, occupied by the Downtown Athletic Club. Apparently there’s a sports bar on the roof still bearing the Ax Billy name.
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1928. Tracks are still there but the streetcars are gone, cars have taken over for good. On the right is the McMorran & Washburne department store, which also still stands as the Tiffany Building (last I checked, sushi & apartments).
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December 1940, BACK WHEN THEY STILL SAID MERRY CHRISTMAS. One year before Pearl Harbor. Chain stores & gas stations have started taking over the landscape.
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1960. Look, it’s raining! Some more holiday décor in the background but Kennedy got rid of Merry Christmas. Lots of signage, and check out all those classic cars.
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1970, Urban Renewal strikes. With shopping centers & large malls like Valley River opening up outside the downtown retail core and drawing out both shoppers & merchants, the city found itself at a crossroads. How to revitalize the town center?
Flush with some federal $$$ for those purposes, Eugene decided to close off much of Willamette Street & Broadway to car traffic, make it pedestrian-only, and knock down a whole bunch of historic architecture that was replaced by the soulless low-slung buildings that make up a lot of the city today. Everyone was doing it - what could go wrong?
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1972. Didn’t work out so well.
During my time in Eugene (1996-2000ish) the pedestrian mall was a forlorn & forgotten place inhabited only by a few stalwarts selling crap (Lazar’s, etc) amidst empty storefronts, plus packs of semi-feral teenagers who would aggressively panhandle out front of Cafe Paradiso for latte money. I would literally become sad walking around it, there was a palpable & possibly contagious aura of failure.
As we know, the mall got re-opened to car traffic in 2002, and a renewed focus on the downtown has revitalized it to an extent - lesson learned!
2018...? I looked through my photos hoping to find a recent shot to complete the series, no luck though. Anyone have one to offer?
Also - since the collective ATQ Eugene experience goes back to at least the 1960s, feel free to share your perspectives and/or memories of the town from back in your day...