Junction City
Historical Society
Saving Yesterdays for Tomorrow's Children
Welcome to the official website of the Junction City Historical Society with complete information on our two museums, our community, and other sites of historical interest.
Our small town of Junction City Oregon is fortunate to have 2 museums that highlight our 150 year old history. Each museum has its own unique character. The Pitney House was donated by one of our long-time citizens, Mary Pitney. Upon her death she bequeathed it to the Society. The Lee House was the home of Dr. Norman L. Lee, a physician practicing in the early part of the century. It houses a wonderful variety of artifacts and objects from that period.
We own and manage both museums, and are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization formed in 1972 to coincide with the centennial of the City’s founding in 1872.
We are totally funded by dues and donations to support the Dr. Norman Lee House Museum (Junction City’s only building listed on the National Register of Historic Places), the Mary E. Pitney House Museum, Junction City’s First Jail, and the Milliorn Historical Cemetery.
Our mission is to preserve and document the community’s history and to share that history with new generations of citizens and newcomers to the area.
The Dr. Norman L. Lee Museum
The Junction City Historical Society acquired this historic home of our first doctor, Norman L. Lee in 1972. Each room in this beautiful old home contains many displays, artifacts, and furniture from Junction City's past, and reminders of the city's beginning as a railroad town that shipped logs hauled from as far away as Horton, west of Junction City about 30 miles away. Exploring the museum you'll enjoy both the home itself as well as a wide collection of items gifted to the society over many decades. It truly is a journey back in time.
Milliorn Cemetery
This small cemetery is one of the properties that the Junction City Historical Society owns and takes care of. It’s under half an acre and was given as a community burial place by John Milliorn and later owner Casper Rickard. As might be expected, there are several family names familiar to families who have lived here for many decades. Before Historical Society ownership, the cemetery had been alternately abandoned and cleaned up over the years. At the time of one such clean up, one of the workers stated that “the old wooden markers were too far gone to be saved, indicating they were probably destroyed with the cleared brush.
The society is grateful to longtime resident and historian Linda VanOrden for her work researching the names of those we know to be buried there.
Junction City Rose Garden across the street from the Pitney House
The Mary E. Pitney Museum
Mary Pitney was one of Junction City's long-time citizens. She was a teacher, artist, and published poet who spent much of her time traveling the world. She was born in the house in 1891 and lived there until her death 104 years later in 1995. She never married, but in her will, she bequeathed the house to the Historical Society in order to have a place for the excess from the original Lee House Museum. The feel of the museum is much different than the Lee Museum because, in a way, it picks up where the time periods of the Lee House ends.
Our First Jail
On May 31, 1873 one of the first contracts let by the newly incorporated city was awarded to Thomas Humphry to build a city prison. Mr. Humphry's bid was for $84.33. The prison was built on the Northeast corner of 8th and Greenwood Streets, where it remained until the thirties. In 1996 it was re-discovered on a piece of property recently acquired by Guaranty; and the Historical Society began plans to have it moved to the lot where the Pitney house stands.
On Saturday, October 10 1998, with the help of Guaranty Chevrolet, owned by the Nill family, and Chris Shoap House Movers all their plans came together as the "prison" was moved to it's new location at 4th and Holly Streets next to the Mary Pitney House.
The 10' x14' one room prison is constructed of rough cut 2x4s that are laid flat, one on top of the other, forming solid walls that are six feet high. There are 4 windows with bars measuring just 10 inches square.
Legend has it that the first prisoner was sent to the slammer for disobeying the “no swine at large law"! (There is no firm evidence that this is true - but it makes a great story!)
Soon after the move, a foundation was built and the building placed on it surrounded by an accessibility ramp with porch around it. Iron work was added and it was furnished like it might have been in the 1870s. It was then opened to the public as an extension of the museum.
Finnish Locomotive 418
Founders Park is not owned or managed by the Historical Society, but is an important part of our history - especially since we began as a town of the railroad.
Junction City was originally made up of pioneers and people who were attracted to the area because of the promise of the development of a railroad town. At the time they believed Junction City would become another Chicago, but this failed to materialize. When Interstate 5 was built and folks started using it instead of Highway 99 many businesses felt the loss. In 1980, a historic Finnish locomotive became available, as the city where it was displayed no longer wanted it. The honorary Consul of Finland in Portland, John O. Virtanen, said he wanted to find a good home for the locomotive before his retirement when he would return to Finland. It seemed like a natural addition to the Scandinavian Festival grounds, so several townspeople, led by Vard Nelson and Don Stanley, went to work to make it happen. On Monday May 5th 1980 after months of negotiation, the locomotive was transported from Portland to Junction City, and at a ceremony featuring Scandinavian dancing and singing it was installed on an available piece of land and named “Founders Park".
The ceremony to install Finnish Locomotive 418 was attended by a huge crowd of citizens that included music from the Junction City Choir.