Location: 1020 University St., Eugene, Oregon

Date: 1900

Architect: Rolph H. Miller. Builder/contractor: Walter D. Pugh

DESCRIPTION

Bid notices to contractors for a laboratory building at the University of Oregon were announced in the Oregonian in July 1899. The building, named McClure Hall, opened in 1900. It was named for Edgar McClure, a UO graduate who returned to the university to teach chemistry, and died climbing Mt. Rainier in 1897. For many years, this building housed Chemistry. In the 1920s, the Journalism Building designed by Ellis F. Lawrence was attached to McClure's west façade. McClure Hall was demolished in 1953 to make way for Allen Hall, which was similarly attached to Lawrence's Journalism Building. The architect, Rolph H. Miller, was born in Minnesota in 1857, and came to Portland in 1892 after study at MIT. He superintended the construction of the Portland City Hall designed by the firm, Whidden & Lewis. After that assignment, Miller specialized in designing school buildings in Portland until his death from appendicitis in 1901.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1900-1919

"Noted Architect Dead; R. H. Miller, Who Designed Late School Buildings. Death Came After an Operation for Appendicitis -- Sketch of a Useful, Earnest Life." Morning Oregonian, March 12, 1901, p. 8. portrait.

1920s

"McClure Hall, New Chemistry Lab in McClure Basement." Daily Emerald, 23 Jan. 1924: 4.

1930s

"Old Rock near McClure Hall Has Historical Background, Brought to UO from the Spot Where Edgar McClure Fell to His Death." Daily Emerald 21 Oct. 1930: 1.

"Tragedy Plays Role in Naming of McClure." Daily Emerald 1 Oct. 1938: 1.

1950s

"Explosion in Lab." Daily Emerald 14 Nov. 1950: 1.

"Scene of Birth. McClure Hall Renovated for Expanding J-School," Daily Emerald 8 Nov. 1952: 8.

"McClure Hall Remains only Memory Now." Daily Emerald 15 Sep. 1953: 8.

"McClure Hall, Illustration." Daily Emerald 17 Sep. 1953: 1. il.

Blom, Janet. "Goodbye McClure." Old Oregon 35 no. 2 (Oct.-Nov. 1953): 4-6, ill.