Built in 1901, this supposed one-room schoolhouse was slated to be demolished as the newly minted Santa Clara Community Park was being prepared for development. The Santa Clara Community Organization (SCCO) in Eugene, Oregon, has decided to try to restore and preserve this local iconic house to serve as a community space open to all sorts of activities both public and private (possibly rentable by the public).
Toward this end, the SCCO board agreed to the formation of a non-profit 501(c)3 entity to allow fundraising and proper legal standing for agreements with government bodies. Thus The Santa Clara Community Foundation was born in 2021.
Follow our progress and please leave your comments as we move forward with this project. Send an email to schoolhouse@santaclaracommunity.org to ask about the project, or about volunteer opportunities.
For more details go to: https://santaclaracommunityfoundation.org/the-schoolhouse-project/
If you like this project, please consider becoming involved. Email: schoolhouse@santaclaracommunity.org
If you would like to drive by the house it is located on the north side of the new Santa Clara Community Park, which is behind Madison Middle School.
Address: 990 River Loop 2, Eugene, OR 97404.
The old schoolhouse is on the former property of my great-grandfather, William Miller, who purchased the former Bennet Poindexter DLC in 1875. My grandfather, Frank W. Miller, inherited part of that farm in 1998, losing it during the Great Depression. I have assembled documentation of the history if the SCCF is interested. From 1968 to 1999 I had property at 1701 River Loop 1, just to north. The Miller family either donated or sold the acre where the old schoolhouse sits. Frank Miller donated two acres of his Lone Pine property up River Road for a school there.