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A pearl of a house The historic Hafer House, also known as the Perl House, in downtown Medford is being sold by St. Mark's Episcopal Church. [Mail Tribune / Andy Atkinson] Monday Aug 21, 2017 at 12:01 AM Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune If walls could talk, the historic Edgar F. Hafer House could tell a century’s worth of tales, from its many years as home to an early lumber baron to serving as a busy funeral home and eventually a dwelling for a local church. With three stories, a full basement, and 22 or more rooms at last count, the building — home to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Medford — is on the market for just over $600,000. Members of St. Mark’s, who say the building is far bigger than their needs require, are hoping someone will find a renewed purpose for the old building — and will go the extra mile to preserve it. Towering over the corner of Sixth Street and North Oakdale Avenue, the well maintained building is one of the oldest examples of Colonial Revival Architecture in the valley. Lumber baron Edgar Hafer built the house in 1907 on property owned by James Howard, Medford’s founder and first mayor, at a cost of $4,000, making it one of Medford’s most expensive dwellings at the time. John Perl bought the building in 1920 and hired famed architect Frank Clark to remodel it into his residence and place of business. Investing some $700,000 in remodeling the old house, Perl’s family ran a funeral business at the location from 1920 until 1973. A large number of Medford’s early families visited the old building for the final services of loved ones, likely marveling at its oversized stairwells, marble details and ornate woodwork throughout. Under St. Mark’s care it has been utilized for everything from church socials and office space to the site of some colorful youth lock-ins — bringing a handful of ghost stories from excited teens — and lots of storage. “It’s been part of the community for a very, very long time," said senior warden Susan Ladue. "We still have people wander in looking for the dearly departed. It’s just a wonderful old building, and we want to find someone who will really put it to good use.” While it was renovated by St. Mark’s at least once in the nearly two decades it’s been in church hands, some of the layout still echoes the building’s tenure as a funeral parlor. Flipping on a light in a storage unit on the first floor, adjacent to a remodeled kitchen, Ladue notes, “This is the room where everybody had their last visit.” The kitchen, she points out, was where “preparations” took place prior to said visit. While the church is fond of the building and its historic character, membership, as with many churches in the region, has dwindled, and use of the building has been drastically reduced. Church officials once envisioned a campus, but in recent years they have leased or sold other parcels in the vicinity. For example, a building used by Northwest Seasonal Workers used to be the church rectory. The Family Nurturing Center was gifted use of its building, which used to be a church hall, from St. Mark’s. “When I first came to St. Mark’s, we had a much larger staff, a full-time priest, an associate youth person, a full-time parish nurse. We needed more space than we do now,” Ladue said. Thomas Sramek, Jr., rector at St. Mark’s, said the building was an important part of the history of Medford. With downtown undergoing numerous renovations, including The Commons, a renovated Hawthorne Park, a new Lithia headquarters, and upcoming restoration of the nearby Holly Theatre, the structure might augment downtown renewal as a dinner house, B&B or home for a growing business. “I could see people having dinner then walking down to the Holly for a show,” Sramek said. With any historic building, changes in ownership can be tricky. Rather than find a new “owner,” Sramek said, the old house needs a new trustee, of sorts. “This place has a lot of historical and cultural significance, so we want somebody to use it that can use the whole thing and can take care of it and do something really great with it, that doesn’t involve just rattling in a small part of it,” he said. “There are a lot of old memories in this building. It’s more of an adoption process than an investment. You’re going to put much more into this place than you’ll get out of it.” To learn more about the real estate listing, see: www.loopnet.com/Listing/20090666/426-W-6th-St-Medford-OR/ To see information about the building from the National Register of Historic Places, see http://bit.ly/2wd9oIM — Reach freelance writer Buffy Pollock at [email protected].