We know that Hendricks Park was established in 1906, when Thomas G. Hendricks and his wife, Martha gave the city of Eugene 47 of the park’s 78 acres in the Fairmount Hills. The city then purchased an additional 31 acres. Some of us have wondered who owned that land before it became Eugene’s first city park and how much money the land was worth at that time.
The answer appears in an article in the Eugene Weekly Guard of November 8, 1906: “The park tract consists of 37 acres of the Sweet donation land claim purchased by Mr. Hendricks from J. G. Bristow for $2500 [and] 10 acres further south owned by H. F. Kilborn and purchased by Mr. Hendricks for $1000. . . The other 31 acres have been purchased [by the City of Eugene for $3100] from Colonel Smith, who owned the greater part of the land where Fairmount now lies when that suburb was laid off into city lots.” If anyone has information about these property owners and, especially, what their land had previously been used for, please contact us.