Jacksonville School - Jacksonville, OR - Former Schools on Waymarking.com

Patrons of Jacksonville's Schoolhaus Brewhaus will most likely know that the building they are patronizing was once a school (especially when noticing the name of the restaurant). But most visitors here don't know that this school was the third structure built to replace two prior school buildings that were burned down from fires.

The Jacksonville School was built in 1908 and at the time was the most modern and well-built school of its day with all the conveniences afforded to it such as electricity, wood and steam driven boilers for ample heating, and fire-proof brick walls that would withstand just about any fire outbreak.

The 'new' Jacksonville School was built on what was called 'Bigham's Knoll', a small hill that overlooks all of Jacksonville and officially opened for students on January 27th, 1908. It was Jacksonville's only school for grades 1-12 for decades until a new elementary school for grades 1-4 was built in 1954. Lack of money, a low tax base and bond obligations from building the elementary school forced the high school to merge with the nearby Medford School District in 1958, ending Jacksonville's status as being its own school district, a span from 1854 to 1958 as School District No. 1.

In 1960, the bell tower was removed and the top floor of the school was boarded up and closed off for any use. Jacksonville School remained a grade school until April 1983, when the remaining grades moved into their new $2 million complex. Bigham's Knoll was a school without students for the first time in 116 years.

From 1983 to 1993, the school changed hands into private ownership when Light Valley Waldorf ran it as a private school until defaulting on loan payments and the Medford School District retained ownership of it. In 1993, Cascade Christian School purchased the property and began a 12-year long upgrade to the school, adding classrooms and other additions until 2007, when they moved into their newly-completed school in Medford.

Finally, Brooke and Mel Ashland agreed to purchase the school in 2007 and move their headquarters of Cutler Investment Group, LLC and Ashland Partners, LLC to Jacksonville and occupy the school, ending a long run of educating students in this historic building. The Ashlands soon opened 'Frau Kemmling Schoolhaus Brewhaus' Bavarian Restaurant, serving German food and beer.

Since 2007, the school building has undergone many changes and renovations but has still retained much of its historic look and feel and remains a prominent icon on Bigham's Knoll for all of Jacksonville to admire.

There is a wonderful website here that gives a quick synopsis of Jacksonville's Old School and an even more in-depth historical account of this school by clicking on a PDF link here.

Address: 525 Bigham Knoll Jacksonville, OR USA 97530 Web Site: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   12/29/2013 ddtfamily visited it