Document text
New Medford street will offer tie to past Work on the first part of the route paralleling rail lines will begin this fall By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Evergreen Street - a new, tree-lined boulevard beside the railroad tracks - is coming to downtown Medford. Medford Urban Renewal Agency plans to build the first block in a historical right of way that followed the Southern Pacific tracks through a busy district of fruit warehouses, packing plants and flour mills a century ago. "This is basically where the Rogue Valley was born," said urban-renewal director Don Burt. Suit puts Winetrout building on hold The proposed six-story building known as Winetrout is on hold while a lawsuit works its way through the courts. Greg Bessert of KCS Development Inc. in Battle Ground, Wash., remains committed to the $22 million project that includes offices, condominiums, retail shops and a parking garage, said Don Burt, director of the Medford Urban Renewal Agency. Winetrout is planned for the one-acre corner of Main and Fir streets. "We keep in touch with the developer every week," Burt said. Downtown landlord Bill Ferguson filed suit in Jackson County Circuit Court in February claiming Winetrout doesn't fit within the scope of Medford Urban Renewal's revitalization plans. Urban Renewal board members, however, said the agency goals allow for involvement in private-sector projects. Both sides have filed legal briefs but the case does not yet have a court date. Meanwhile, bulldozers and crews will be on the Winetrout site this month relocating a sewer line. Medford Urban Renewal awarded the bid to Harold's Backhoe Service, the same company that relocated and upgraded sewer and water lines for the new Medford library project at 10th and Riverside. Evergreen's re-creation will begin this fall between Fourth to Main streets, the first portion costing about $1 million and paid for by tax increment financing, Burt said. The boulevard eventually will stretch from Eighth to Jackson streets. The new road may offer a welcome scenery change for diners sitting on the back patio of Porters, the railroad-themed restaurant located in the historic train depot. Folks eating on the veranda at the remodeled San Antonio Star Steak House and Saloon also will have a better view. The project involves building a fence similar to the one at Porters to keep pedestrians away from the railroad tracks. Between the fence and the street will be a 4-foot-wide landscaped strip. The new street's center line will be 15 feet from the tracks, with sidewalks - possibly similar to the new walkways on Central Avenue - lantern-like lights with hanging flower baskets, and either parallel or diagonal parking, depending on the width of the right of way in each block. Evergreen Street drivers will catch a glimpse into the past when they drive by the back of Alber's Feed building, a 1910-era wooden two-story structure at the corner of Fourth and Fir streets. Evergreen used to be bustling with traffic from fruit warehouses and flour mills, including one built by miller Ansel Davis in 1889 at the corner of Ninth and Front streets. He was inspired by Medford's Board of Trade offering $2,000 to anyone who could construct a mill big enough to process local grain crops. "At harvest time, lines of up to 40 wagons loaded with grain would form at the mill, the patient farmers waiting for cash at 55 cents a bushel," Bill Miller writes in a May 2000 issue of Southern Oregon Heritage magazine. But the modern-day Evergreen Street will offer a drive into the future. Medford Urban Renewal plans to build the Main-to-10th Street portion in 2003-04. It will run in front of the proposed Winetrout building, the city's first building to combine offices, condominiums, retail shops and a parking garage. Evergreen Street will open up possibilities for existing stores along the railroad tracks. Larson's Superstores, Scan Design Furniture and Medford Antique Mall could put in back entryways to encourage window shoppers to step inside, Burt said. He also hopes someone will restore the Alber's Feed building into offices or retail shops opening up to Evergreen Street. Anyone who stands near the railroad tracks in downtown Medford and looks down the rails can easily see the old Evergreen right of way. The historical roadway was in the downtown's "alphabet lineup" of streets named after plants, starting with Apple and including Bartlett, d'Anjou (now called Front), Evergreen, Fir, Grape, Holly and ending with Ivy. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.