The first installment of the History Here project can be seen at Harry Holt Park. More are coming. CHERYL RICHARD/THE CRESWELL CHRONICLE
The History Here project will be installing a 10-part poster series in Creswell – a project that is intended to get historical images back to the places where they were taken.
The project is a collaborative project with the Shelton McMurphey Johnson House and the Lane County Historical Museum. The project won an Oregon Heritage Excellence Award (OHEA) in 2015 for outstanding efforts on behalf of Oregon heritage and for raising the quality of heritage-oriented activities.
In 2014, Shelton McMurphey Johnson House and the Lane County Historical Museum collaborated on a project where 13 historical photos were made into posters and installed onto traffic utility boxes around the city of Eugene.
Each poster features an event or resident of the location it is situated in, along with a short description of the history depicted. There is also information to help readers find out more about that particular subject if they want to learn more.
In 2017, this project has been expanded to include five posters in Cottage Grove and two in the McKenzie Bridge area.
Of the original 13 that were installed in the Eugene area, twelve are still installed in their locations. One was removed due the cabinet being moved.
There has been some vandalism to each of them, depending on their location, but are maintained by the City’s graffiti team, which maintains the City’s facility anyway.
The original plan was for them to last two years, but most of them have held up well for the last four years.
Shelton McMurphey Johnson House received funds from the Schwemm Family Foundation to continue to expand History Here project into other Lane County communities, and will be targeting the Creswell, Springfield, Veneta and Florence communities.
The poster of the Creswell’s second grade school building installed on the utility cabinet in Harry Holt Park is the first of this 10 poster series.
The second poster for Creswell to be installed on the west side of the Traxler Building will feature the Scott Hotel (also known as the Central Hotel) that was originally located on that corner.
