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Photo illustration from Joseph Berto Computer image combines photos of house and future setting. Medco's White House evades dozer's blade New owner will reassemble it in Sams Valley By DAVID PRESZLER The Medford Corp. White House -- long a symbol of Southern Oregon's timber industry -- has been spared from the bulldozer and is on its way to a new life as a Sams Valley ranch house. The 1927 building is being torn down board by board to be reassembled at the Meadows Road ranch of inventor Joseph Berto. He and his wife, Dianne, will live in it. Berto, who obtained the building May 1 from Medite Corp., says the project is the only practical way he could see to save the popular piece of Rogue Valley history. "We are preserving the essence of the building," says Berto. "Like every person that lives here, I wondered what was going to happen to the house." The building's fate has been unclear since 1997, when Medite -- the final incarnation of Medco -- sold its Medford mill and essentially closed up shop. The last Medite employee, Tom Libby, moved out of the stately but deteriorating structure in November 1997. It's been vacant since then and Libby says there's been a lot of "psychological trauma" over what to do with it. "We wanted to see it preserved," Libby says. "It has been a historic landmark for a number of years." Several people, including Ashland historic preservationist George Kramer and Bill Alley of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, explored the idea of turning it into a timber industry museum. But the project never came together. Others approached Libby about moving it and using it for office space or a bed-and-breakfast inn, but the cost of moving it quickly reached the $500,000 range -- a figure that didn't include renovation. Berto estimates renovation and bringing it up to building code would have cost more than $2 million. Pending road projects at the intersection further undermined the idea of preserving the building where it sits. A state project scheduled to start next year will realign the intersections of Highways 62, 238 and 99, bringing traffic behind the building. Earlier this year, simply demolishing the building seemed the most likely scenario. "We definitely didn't want that," says Libby. Then Berto stepped in. The 41-year-old inventor wanted either to build a house or move one onto his 106-acre spread in Sams Valley. Curious about the White House, Berto called Medite, a vision for his land already forming in his mind. After discussion, Medite agreed, Libby says, to "virtually give" Berto the building -- if he would move it. Work on the rear section of the building at the intersection of Highways 99 and 62 began quietly more than a month ago. That section, added in the 1960s, will not be rebuilt but lumber from it will be used to renovate the original building. The rest will come down over the next few months. When it will be rebuilt remains unclear. Berto says he has the money to take the building down but not to rebuild it, so he will store the materials until financing falls into place -- something that could take several years. The portion Berto will rebuild covers about 6,000 square feet on the bottom floor and 4,000 on the second story. He and his wife plan to live in part the house and may offer the rest for events such as wedding receptions. Berto moved to the Rogue Valley nine years ago and runs Ripco, a business that sells an equine fencing product he invented. The Medco house will be added to land that includes a horse arena he transplanted from Grants Pass in much the same way he intends to rebuild the Medco building. Though the building won't be resurrected identically, Berto has an architect documenting its deconstruction so its unique style and character will live on. Berto says having the building meticulously taken down for reconstruction later is more expensive than buying all new wood and building a replica. "It would have been cheaper to do that, but you don't get the history then, you don't the connection to the past," he says. And some items in the building -- like huge beams and foot-thick doorjambs -- are rare these days. Libby notes that the interior has been through many changes over the years and hadn't been kept up for quite some time. "The only the way that you can afford to preserve a building like that is through a labor of love," he says. Alley, too, says Berto's plan may be the most logical alternative. "That's better than just bulldozing it," he says. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA