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Houghton boosted Jacksonville Longtime resident `a visionary' By MELISSA MARTIN JACKSONVILLE -- Janice Gould Houghton, who helped save the Beekman House from the auction block, has died. She was 92. A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 5th and Oakdale, Medford. Father Christopher of St. Mark's will officiate. Houghton was a member of Siskiyou Pioneer Sites Foundation, serving on a committee that rescued the old home of Jacksonville banker Samuel Beekman. The home is now owned by the Southern Oregon Historical Society and is the summer scene of a living history program that features Mr. and Mrs. Beekman running a household in an 1800s setting. "The Beekmans up and left the place in 1916 and the house stood empty for 40 years," said Jacque Sundstrand, library and research coordinator for the Southern Oregon Historical Society. "The home was obviously getting pretty run-down and the property was going to be sold at auction," she said. The Siskiyou Pioneer Sites Foundation was among the groups that helped postpone the auction and preserve the home. "I think Janice was a real visionary as to how important history is and how history can be good for economic development," says Marjorie Edens, oral historian for the Southern Oregon Historical Society and a Jacksonville resident. "She had the idea that whatever needed to be done for the community of Jacksonville needed to be done for the local people first, not just for the tourist market," Edens says. "If you did it for the local people, the tourist clientele will follow." Houghton was also among the first residents to take an inventory of historic buildings in Jacksonville in the 1950s. She had discovered the mining town 10 years earlier when she first moved to the Rogue Valley and considered it a neglected treasure that Southern Oregon should be cared for. Houghton's inventory was one of several used to help get Jacksonville nominated for the National Register of Historic Places, a status granted in 1963. Houghton was also involved in helping to bring the outdoor summer concert series known as the Britt Music Festivals to the Peter Britt gardens. Houghton was born Feb. 13, 1906, in Hood River. After the death of her father, she moved with her mother to Portland, where she graduated from Washington High School. She worked as a librarian at the Portland Public Library before her marriage to Dwight Houghton on Sept. 25, 1927. He was beginning a career with U.S. National Bank. When Dwight Houghton was transferred to a Medford branch, the couple and their children traveled by train, arriving in 1935. They have four children, Harriet Guldahl, Seattle, Janny Lou McDade, Ukiah, Marcia Padgham, Atlanta, and David Houghton, Portland. Houghton was preceded in death by her husband, Dwight, in 1967. She is also survived by 15 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. Friends and family members are encouraged to send contributions instead of flowers. Send them to Southern Oregon Historical Society Research Library, 106 N. Central Ave., Medford, OR 97501, Attention Brad Linder, or to Rogue Valley Memorial Center Foundation Hospice, 2825 Barnett Road, Medford, OR 97504. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA