Oregon

The glorious south city street, not the northwestern state.

That's where the latest batch of reclaimed lumber came from.

The lumber itself isn't anything too remarkable - just a bunch of 2x4s riddled with square cut nails - nor is it a huge load, and the structure it came from is a relatively modest single-family home. Similarly, I don't yet have any grand plans for the lumber; I'm simply trying to stockpile whatever I can following the annual post-Christmas shop reorganization.

But...I always sorta nerd out a little bit when I get to do the homework on the building where the reclaimed lumber came from.

This particular house was built in 1886. Given the character of the neighboring houses, I'd guess most of them were built around the same time. But just 10 years earlier, the area was still largely unpopulated as can be seen in the map shown below: 

Compton & Dry Map, 1876

The Compton & Dry maps are absolutely bonkers. I've looked at them a bajillion times, and I still can't wrap my head around the time and effort that had to have gone into drawing each structure - with a pretty high level of detail and accuracy - and surrounding landscape. Sometimes it's tough to pinpoint modern locations on these old maps given how undeveloped the area was at the time, but the intersection closest to the house this batch of lumber came from is California and Pontiac (which is now known as Russell). Oregon didn't even exist back then, but it now lays between California and what was about to become Nebraska.

​Fast forward a few decades and in 1909 the area looked more like this:

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1909

I won't give away the house's exact location, but it's shown on this map. By 1909 the area was relatively developed, although unlike a lot of other areas of the city, this neighborhood (Fox Park, named for the Fox Brothers Manufacturing Company located a few blocks away from the Oregon house and shown in the map below) was largely residential. There was very little commercial land use in this area, which means getting groceries and everyday household items must have been a pretty laborious task.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1909

Regardless...the house I got lumber from today is being rehabbed and will hopefully get returned to something reminiscent of its late 19th century glory days. While I can't say for certain that it will, I do know that I'll be able to do something pretty cool with the lumber I got.

Rehab On Oregon