The Mary E. Pitney House Museum
4th & Holly St., Junction City, Oregon
MUSEUM HOURS for DECEMBER:
Thursday, Dec. 11: 1pm-4pm
Thursday, Dec. 18: 1pm-4pm
The Mary E. Pitney House Museum was built in 1874 by J. A Bushnell for his daughter when she married. However she and her new husband chose to live in a house provided by her new husband's family. It was occupied by various Pitney family members until Marcellus and Anna Pitney bought it in 1885, three years after their marriage. Mary Pitney, who was born in the house, gifted the house and a small amount of money to restore it, to Junction City Historical Society to be used as an overflow museum. Mary died in the house in 1995 at age 104. Many hours of restoration made the house ready to be opened to the public in 1998. The front parlor is furnished with Mary’s original furniture in the Eastlake style. One room has been set up as “A Danish Room in an American House”. A cutaway section in the kitchen lets visitors see how buildings were constructed in that time period. Most of the plantings, including the grape vines on a new arbor have been on the homesite for years.
In 1998 Junction City's first jail was identified in another part of town and was moved to the Pitney property near the house. It, too, has had hours of restoration and is open to the public when the museum is open.
About Mary E. Pitney
Mary E Pitney, was born September 24, 1891, the youngest of four children of Marcellus and Anna Pitney. She had an older brother, John, and two older sisters, Beulah and Modena. Mary was four days shy of her fourth birthday when her father died in a freak gunshot accident. And for the rest of her life, if you were a visitor in her house she could point to a spot on the floor and tell you, “ he died right there!’
When Mary finished high school in the first graduating class in the new (at the time) Washburne High School, there was not enough money for her to attend university. Not to be deterred, she went to Eugene and passed the teachers’ examination, allowing her, at the age of 17, to teach anywhere in the state. Starting with the Goldson country school, she taught at several small schools around the area.
Saving all the money she could, she eventually went to Oregon State College where she graduated with a degree in science. She continued post-graduate studies at five different universities and colleges, including the University of Oregon, the University of Washington, and Eastern Washington College of Education. On top of all that, she took four years of art classes. Besides teaching, she moved to a number of other jobs, eventually retiring in 1955.
In addition to an interesting professional life, Mary Pitney traveled extensively throughout the world including Europe, Canada, Alaska, Iceland, all of the Scandinavian countries, and South America. On one trip to South America, she had an encounter with a llama that caused her to spend a few days in the hospital.
More locally, Mary Pitney was well known for her annual presence in the community booth at the Scandinavian Festival to sell her craft items. The proceeds were mostly sent to support orphans overseas. She was a member of the Junction City Garden club and a founding member of the Junction City Historical Society. She left her family home to Junction City Historical Society to be used as an overflow museum. At a separate time, she also donated the city lot next door to the south of the home. At one point it was planned as a storage building for items not on display in the museums.
Mary Eleanor Pitney died in Junction City at the age of 104, in 1995. She had led a very interesting life but never married, telling one reporter that she was "just having too much fun".
Mary's 100th birthday in her home.