Skinner Butte Park Master Plan - Laserfiche WebLink

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' ~ ' After the passage of a $10,000 bond measure for park improvements in 1920, and with the help of various local service - groups contributing labor and materials, park facilities were greatly expanded. The ~ automobile had arrived in American culture, and brought more and more visitors to the ~ park. The road to the top of the butte was ~ improved, and a summit overlook developed. Many drove up the butte for a _ ~ view of Eugene and the .surrounding landscape, and many more joined in the recently popularized pastime of car N ' camping in the meadow north of Skinner Q ~ - Butte, which was officially acquired by the as ' City in 1928. Lamb Cottage was U constructed as an open-air comfort station Hiking trails, such as this one t"` to serve the campers, and a small general ~ photographed around 1915, store opened for business along Cheshire 1 have always been popular on ~ Street. Hot summer days drew crowds of . Skinner Butte ~ .i locals to the banks of the Willamette at what ~ had become the favorite swimming hole, to clear brush and begin planting trees in The swimming area included a bath house, beautification efforts. Reports indicate that docks and water wheels, while life guards hoses were run from the reservoirs to nurse kept watch. Residents also used the new the new trees through the dry months on picnic and playground facilities, or played the thin soils of the butte, and that blasting baseball on the old diamond near the river. ~ j was done to make room for the trees in the The park even offered a small zoo exhibit shallow, basalt bedrock. with a variety of local animals such as ' bears, raccoons, skunks and birds, as well These beautification efforts, however, were as exotic animals like monkeys. not the only activity on the butte during this ` time. Even before the park's dedication, One ambitions outgrowth of this attention the University of Oregon erected a large, occurred in 1928, during the height of wooden "O"just below the current overlook Skinner Butte Park's heyday, through the area. This was one of the first such commissioning of a master plan by a collegiate letters to be erected in the landscape architect from Portland. The ' country, and has since been atargetfor an plan showed a grand staircase and 1 romenade from the end of Willamette ongoing feud with the rival Oregon State p University. Following suit, Eugene High Street, across the railroad tracks and School built a large "E" several hundred feet straight up the south side of Skinner Butte - ~ to the west in 1915. to the summit, where a pergola and rows ~ ~ of trees framed a graceful automobile plaza Skinner Butte Park ~ The largest alteration, however, occurred crowned by a lighthouse tower. The , received much when EWB commissioned the construction promenade continued down the north side attention and of a new, three million gallon reservoir in of the butte through terraced gardens and Construction during 1926. This new reservoir replaced the ended in an ornate pavilion and pool the 1920s, and was a g ry extendin to the banks of the Willamette on final mason reservoir on the eastern g t focal point for the summit of the butte, and eventually Y River, Less than one ear later the stock - Community rendered obsolete the one million gallon market crash of 1929 and the beginning of - reservoir that was left standing on the the depression erased whatever hopes L' western summit. Even today the 1926 may have existed for realizing this elaborate ' ' ' reservoir is still part of the City of Eugene's vision. Earlier park developments that the municipal water system. 1928 plan sought to emphasize, including r Skinner Butte Park • Master Plan 2001 31