The South University Historic District has been home to a number of well-known individuals.
U.S. Senator Wayne Morse lived at
2058 Harris as a young law professor at the
University of Oregon in the 1930s.
Anthropologist Luther Cressman, who found the 10,000-year-old sandals in Central Oregon and was the first husband of Margaret Mead, lived at 2064 Potter St. for more than 60 years until his death in 1995.
Oregon Governor (1987-1991) Neil Goldschmidt, a charismatic politician until scandal removed him from the spotlight, grew up at 2091 Kincaid. Margaret Wood Goldschmidt, the State’s “First Lady,” grew up a few blocks away, at 1941 Potter.
Howard Hobson, coach of Oregon’s Tall Firs (1939 NCAA Basketball Champions), lived at 1926 Potter from 1938-41. Many UO coaches and athletes have made their homes in the district, including early football coaches Prince Callison (1910 University) and C.H. Huntington (1086 E. 21st).
A number of familiar area place names have connections to the
South University neighborhood:
Albert Applegate (2185 Potter),
grandson of one of the three brothers responsible for the Applegate Trail;
John & Alice Seavey who had a large farm near Goshen (Seavey Loop) but lived at 2089 Potter from 1932-1965
Mrs. Jessie M. Honeyman (1165 E. 21st)
Alton Baker (1910 University)
Eugene Skinner family (882 E. 21st, a house built by Eugene Skinner’s nephew in 1890 and moved to its current site 90 years later
UO President Prince Lucien Campbell reportedly lived in the house in the 1920s)
William & Genevieve Tugman (2141 Harris, a home built in 1936 in the style of a Lane County farmhouse for longtime Register Guard managing editor and his wife).
The Delta Delta Delta sorority house (built in 1927 and now a Baptist women’s residence hall) at 1987 University was designed by Margaret Goodin Fritsch, a sorority member and the first woman architect licensed in Oregon. Ruth Bascom, a longtime bike trail advocate and Eugene’s first woman mayor (1993-1997), lived at 2114 University St. from 1961 to 2000.