Eugene Civic Stadium: October 28, 1938, to June 29, 2015
EUGENE, Ore. - Eugene Civic Stadium hosted its first sporting event October 28, 1938.
In the annual Eugene-Corvallis High School football skirmish, a week after the structure was formally dedicated, the teams played to a 0-0 tie.
In the stadium's final sporting event, the Eugene Emeralds played the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.
The Ems led 3-0 early.
The Volcanoes erupted at the plate and came back to win, 5-3.
In the years since, a group of citizens has worked to see the wooden structure - one of the last of its kind in the United States - reborn as a venue for sports.
The building was put on the National Register of Historic Place in October 2008, the 70th anniversary of its construction.
After repeated competitive processes that saw interest in the property from a developer working with Fred Meyers and the Eugene Family YMCA, the City of Eugene purchased the property with one condition: that a civic group buy and rehabilitate the property.
A group called the Eugene Civic Alliance - including the Friends of Civic and Kidsports - pulled together the money won the right to buy the property from the City.
The vision: a Kidsports field house - and the old wooden grandstands packed again with fans of soccer and other sports.
The Alliance purchased the property in April 2015 for $4.5 million.
Then the Works Progress Administration project - one of two structures of its kind left in the United States as of 2008 - went up in flames June 29, 2015, amidst record heat and drought.
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Preteen boys playing with fire inside the stadium had set Eugene's field of dreams on fire.
