National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet

NPSForm10-900-A
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet
OMB Approval No. 1024-0018 (8-86)
Section Number: _7_ Page: 11 Geneva-Minnesota Historic District, Medford, OR
ID No: 006
Historic Name: William & Elizabeth Bates House
Address: 32 Geneva
Architect:
Style: Bungalow
Year Built: 1912
Legal: 37S-1W-30AB, Tax Lot 13300
Humphrey-Knight Addn, Block 1, Lot(s) 6
Builder(s): Fifer, B.F.
Primary Contributing
A one and one-half story gable roof bungalow, the William and Elizabeth Bates House has a front
facing gable design that is considerably less imposing on the primary elevation than the larger
houses to the south. With its full front porch and battered wood columns, the Bates House is of a
modest bungalow design. The property is raised above street level behind a concrete retaining wall.
A garage to the rear is accessed via the steep concrete driveway shared with 28 Geneva.
Built in 1912 by B.F. Fifer for the Humphreys, the subject property was first sold by Henry
Humphrey to Julia Doubleday, in 1913.22 Four years later the property was sold to William and
Elizabeth Bates.23 William Bates was a partner in the well-known Bates Brother's barber shop,
along with his four brothers, Jim, Henry and Clarence. Jim Bates had first opened a Medford barber
shop in 1891 and by 1911, joined by the rest of the family, the six-chair Bates Brothers barber shop
had become a prominent fixture at the corner of Main and Front streets in downtown Medford. After
first renting the property out, William and Elizabeth Bates moved into in the early 1920s and
remained there for the remainder of their lives. The house remained in the family until the early
1960s. The Bates' had no children of their own and, according to at least one early area resident,
valued their privacy. The wrought iron fence at the perimeter of the property was reportedly built to
keep the many area children off the couple's prized lawn.24
One of the first properties to have been built by the Humphrey's during Geneva's initial development,
the William and Elizabeth Bates House is essentially unaltered from its original exterior appearance.
It remains an important element within the Geneva-Minnesota District.
22 JCD 101:163, 7-July-1913.
23 JCD 116:160, 26-October-1913.
24 Mary M. Larson, personal communication with the author. 3-March-1993. Mrs. Larson, daughter of
Raymond Miksche, grew up at 813 Minnesota.