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Oregon Historic Sites Database

address:14348 McKenzie River Hwy historic name:Leaburg Hydroelectric Project Historic District
Leaburg vcty, Lane County current/other names:Leaburg Powerhouse Complex, Leaburg Power Project
assoc addresses:OR 126
block/lot/tax lot:
location descr: twnshp/rng/sect/qtr sect:
resource type:District height (stories): total elig resources:17 total inelig resources:9
elig evaluation: eligible/significant NR Status: Individually Listed
prim constr date:c.1930 second date: date indiv listed:06/29/2015
primary orig use: Energy Facility orig use comments:Hydro Dam
second orig use: Waterworks
primary style: Late 19th/20th Period Revivals: Other prim style comments:Other: Industiral (Dam & Headworks)
secondary style: Utilitarian sec style comments:Modern Movement: Art Deco (Powerhouse)
primary siding: siding comments:
secondary siding:
plan type: architect:Ellis Lawrence
builder:A Guthrie Company
comments/notes:
Survey/Grouping Included In: Type of Grouping Date Listed Date Compiled
   Leaburg Powerhouse Complex Survey & Inventory Project 2003
NR date listed: 06/29/2015
ILS survey date:
RLS survey date:
106 Project(s)
SHPO Case Date Agency Effect Eval
04/18/2003 adverse effect
Special Assess Project(s): None
Federal Tax Project(s): None
(Includes expanded description of the building/property, setting, significant landscape features, outbuildings and alterations)
Includes buildings, structures, a dam, power canal, shelter, Ward Hill Bridge, forebay, powerhouse, blacksmith shop, & 4 houses. The Leaburg Hydroelectric Project Historic District was put into service in January 1930 and continues to generate electric power as part of the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) system (the Board), a municipally owned utility located in Lane County, Oregon. Located along approximately five miles of the McKenzie River in the vicinity of Leaburg, the multiple built resources of the project, including power generation (dam, powerhouse), water conveyance (reservoir, canal, tailrace), and residential uses (housing), retain very high integrity to their original design, use of materials, workmanship and other aspects and so effectively convey the historical associations that make the district significant.
(Chronological, descriptive history of the property from its construction through at least the historic period - preferably to the present)
The Leaburg Hydroelectric Project, built between 1928 and 1930 and completed as originally envisioned in June 1950, is locally significant under Criterion A for its association with the development of Eugene and the impact of the municipally owned utility in that city. Select elements of the project, including the Leaburg Dam, with its three 100'-long roller gates and a very large, and comparatively early, example of a Broome Self-Closing Sluice Gate, are additionally regionally significant under Criterion C. The Leaburg Powerhouse, with an exterior design by architect Ellis Fuller Lawrence and cast-stone panels designed by Harry Camden Poole, is also regionally significant under Criterion C as an important example of Art Deco architecture as used in an industrial setting in Oregon.
Title Records Census Records Property Tax Records Local Histories
Sanborn Maps Biographical Sources SHPO Files Interviews
Obituaries Newspapers State Archives Historic Photographs
City Directories Building Permits State Library
Local Library: University Library:
Historical Society: Other Respository:EWEB Library
Bibliography:
Acacia Fraternity, Cornell University. “Alumni Personals,” The Nun Traveler, February 1916 (at https://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/5294/1/1912-1-february.pdf, visited July 15, 14). Billington, David P., Donald C. Jackson, and Martin V. Melosi. The History of Large Federal Dams: Planning, Design and Construction in the Era of Big Dams. Denver, CO: U.S. Department of the Interior/Bureau of Reclamation, 2005. Bosker, Gideon, and Lena Lencek. Frozen Music: A History of Portland Architecture. Portland, OR: Western Imprints, The Press of the Oregon Historical Society, 1985. [Dole, Philip]. Style and Vernacular: A Guide to the Architecture of Lane County, Oregon. Portland, OR: Western Imprints, The Press of the Oregon Historical Society, 1983. Doran, Maggie. The Building of the Oregon Country 1880–1980. Portland, OR: Oregon–Columbia Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, 1980. Electrical World. Miscellaneous issues as cited by date in text. “Eugene Election History 1896 to present,” City of Eugene, Oregon, visited March 31, 2014 http://www.eugene-or.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DID=468. Eugene (OR) Guard. Miscellaneous issues as cited by date in text (includes the Weekly Guard). Eugene (OR) Morning Register. Miscellaneous issues as cited by date in text. Eugene (OR) Register–Guard. Miscellaneous issues as cited by date in text. Eugene Water Board. Specifications, Proposal and Contract for the Manufacture and Delivery of Machinery & Equipment, Leaburg Power Development Hydro-Electric Power Plant No. 2, Contract Sections A-B-C-D & E. Prepared by Stevens & Koon, Portland, February 13, 1928. Eugene Water Board Minutes. Cited by date in text. EWEB Archives. Miscellaneous documentation as cited in text as Leaburg Monthly Reports, Water Board Minutes, etc., by date. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC]. Final Environmental Impact Statement, Leaburg–Walterville Hydroelectric Project (FERC No. 2496). Washington, DC: FERC/Office of Hydropower Licensing, 1996:xvii, (FERC/EIS-0094). Gebhard, David. The National Trust Guide to Art Deco in America. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons (The Preservation Press), 1996. Inman, Leroy. Beautiful McKenzie: A History of Central Lane County. Roseburg, OR: The South Fork Press, 1996 (3rd Printing, 1997). Leaburg Library. Historic Leaburg and Vicinity, 2nd Ed. Leaburg, OR: Leaburg Library, 1987. Macy, Christine. Dams. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. McArthur, J. W. “Reminiscences,” in Eugene Municipal Water & Electric Utilities—1946 Annual Report, 1946. McArthur, Lewis A., and Lewis L. McArthur. Oregon Geographic Names (7th Ed.), Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 2003. MWH Global. Leaburg Dam—Left Bank Fish Ladder Hydraulic Evaluation. Prepared for EWEB, August 12, 2005. Moore, Lucia W., Nina W. McCornack and Gladys W. McCready. The Story of Eugene. Eugene, OR: Lane County Historical Museum, 1949 (Reprint Ed., 1995). O’Brien, William Patrick, Mary Yeater Rathbun, and Patrick O’Bannon. Gateways to Commerce. Denver, CO: National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Region, 1992. Oregonian. Miscellaneous issues as cited by date:page in text (includes The Morning Oregonian and The Sunday Oregonian). Oregon Highway Commission. Ninth Biennial Report of the Oregon State Highway Commission, 1928–1930. Salem, OR: State Printing Department, 1930. Oregon Public Utility Commission [OPUC]. 2012 Oregon Utility Statistics. Salem, OR: Oregon Public Utility Commission. Philips & Davies, Inc. Hydro-Power Plant Equipment, Catalog No. 28, 1931 Rathburn, Mary Yeater. HAER IL-27, Upper Mississippi River Nine-Foot Channel Project Lock and Dam Complex No. 15. Denver, CO, USDI/NPS, Rocky Mountain Regional Office, August 1988 Ritz, Richard Ellison. Architects of Oregon: A Biographical Dictionary of Architects Deceased, 19th and 20th Centuries. Portland, OR: Lair Hill Publishing, 2002. Rodney Hunt Company. Seminar Report: Anatomy of a Sluice Gate—An In-Depth Review of Sluice Gates and Related Systems. Orange, MA: Rodney Hunt Company, ca. 2014, (http://www.rodneyhunt.com/pdf/Anatomy_sluicegate.pdf, downloaded May 6, 2014). Shellenbarger, Michael. Harmony in Diversity: The Architecture and Teaching of Ellis F. Lawrence. Eugene, OR: Museum of Art & the Historic Preservation Program/School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon, 1989. Springfield (OR) News. Miscellaneous issues as cited by date:page in text. State of Oregon. Oregon Bluebook and Official Directory 1913–1914. Salem, OR: State Printing Department, 1914. Stevens, John C. Leaburg Inspection Reports, as cited by date (EWEB Archival Collection). Stone, Norman F. Bountiful McKenzie: The Story of the Eugene Water & Electric Board. Eugene, OR: Parkstone Company, 1986. Toepel, Kathryn Anne and Stephen Dow Beckham. Cultural Resource Investigations for the Eugene Water and Electric Board Relicensing Project, Lane County, OR. Heritage Research Associates Report No. 102. Eugene, OR: Heritage Research Associates, 1991. Walton, Professor Scott. Historical Summary of EWEB, February 1961. (Privately printed, EWEB Archive). Wegmann, Edward. The Design and Construction of Dams. (5th Edition, revised and enlarged). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1907. Wilson, William H. Shaper of Seattle: Reginald Heber Thomson’s Pacific Northwest. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press, 2009. Brodie, Edward Everett (compiler). Who’s Who in Oregon; Biographical Dictionary of men and Women who are Building a State. Vol. 1, 1929–1930. Oregon City, OR: Oregon City Enterprise, 1929. Yates, J. E. “Roller Gates Make Up the Major Portion of Powerdale Dam,” Engineering News–Record, March 19, 1925, p. 482–483.