AKA: First Congregational Church #1, Eugene, OR; Willcox Building, Eugene, OR

Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - office buildings; built works - religious structures - churches

Designers: Willcox, W.R.B., FAIA, Architect (firm); Walter Ross Baumes Willcox (architect)

Dates: constructed 1925

2 stories

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492 East 13th Avenue
Downtown, Eugene, OR 97401

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W.R.B. Willcox (1869-1947), a notable Professor of Architecture at the University of Oregon, designed this first church for the local Congregationalist congregation in the mid-1920s. Willcox had transplanted himself from Seattle to Eugene in 1922. He provided the church a design with a Spanish Colonial Revival flavor, a style very popular in CA, and less so along the rest of the Pacific Coast, during the 1920s. The local Congregationalist group occupied the building from 1925 until 1956, when they erected a new facility designed by the Eugene firm of Wilmsen and Endicott. From 1957 until 1979, the first church functioned as a funeral home, and, after that, the Associated Management Company, Incorporated, altered it into a small office building leased to psychologists, chiropractors, social workers and other health professionals. During its second transition from memorial chapel to office building (in 1979-1980), it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and renamed the "Willcox Building," for its architect. This was his only built church design in the State of OR.

National Register of Historic Places (February 12, 1980): 80003333 NRHP Images (pdf) NHRP Registration Form (pdf)

PCAD id: 19478