When I walk through the door of The St Joseph’s Catholic Rectory, on Sunday afternoon, I am greeted warmly by Don Kack, who shakes my hand vigorously and says, “Thank you so much for the money.” Don is one of three parishioners, members of Friends of the St. Josephs Church, who partnered with the Jacksonville Heritage Society to re-glaze windows and replace the wood-shingled roof of the rectory, which was built in 1861.
Carolyn Kingsnorth was responsible for writing the grant proposal that brought this project to the Cultural Trust attention. This Rectory along with four other historic sites in Jacksonville, are owned by Jackson County. Previously managed by the Southern Oregon Historical Society, management of the properties was taken over by the Jacksonville Heritage Soceity in 2009 when SOHS had to reorganize due to financial difficulties. Jacksonville Heritage Society was formed to keep the sites from being lost to the public.
Taking care of local history is what Jacksonville does. In the late 1960’s Jacksonville was faced with the possibility of a major highway artery being built through the middle of their town. It would have connected Interstate 5 with The Applegate. This highway would have taken out 11 historic homes and cut the town i
n half. With the advocacy of Robertson Collins (affectionately called Robbie by locals), the highway was averted. Collins returned home saying that the State legislature told him, “Now that you got the place, what are you going to do with it?”
A National Historic District was born. And this year, over 40 townspeople from the Rotary, the Friends of St Josephs, the Jacksonville Heritage Society and Historic Architecture Review Committee worked to save the rectory windows and put in an historically accurate wood-shingled roof.
Terri and Bruce Gieg remember visiting Jacksonville 30 years ago. They came for vacation. By the time they left they’d bought a house. It is the house where they still live. “We didn’t even have a job,” Terri remembers “but we knew this was the way we wanted to live the rest of our lives.”
Terri, Bruce and Don, along with 97 other parishioners had a field trip earlier that Sunday to show off the newly re-glazed windows and the new shingled roof. When asked how the Friends of St. Josephs got involved the with Rectory restoration project, Kack says, “We were already taking care of the church building, built in 1858 and located just one lot over. We also wanted to preserve this rectory.” The Rectory was purchased by Father Blanchet, then parish Priest, in the1870s, and continues to be part of the St Josephs parish today.
The rectory, like many homes in Jacksonville has a trap door in the floor. In the late eighteen hundreds, these were built over holes that lead to tunnels that run underground, where men would search for gold. “The trap door in the rectory isn’t part of those tunnels, it just goes to the crawl space.” Carolyn said, when I looked down at the trap door 
under my feet.
As the Jackonsville Heritage Society continues its mission to preserve the history of the region, keeping it accessible for future generations, the community gathers together in regular celebrations of the town’s heritage. Whole Town Yard Sale, Victorian Christmas, 2nd Saturday History Walks and Chinese New Year – lanterns were already hung in preparation for the celebrations which start January 23 and go until the big parade on February 4th – are some of the major events that bookmark daily life in Jacksonville, Oregon.
To learn more about the historic properties maintained by Jacksonville Heritage Society visit www.jvilleheritage.org.
Pictured above (left to right): Carolyn Kingsnorth, Don Kack, Terri and Bruce Gieg. Photo of Father Blanchett in background.