Villard Hall

A National Historic Landmark. Built in 1886 (Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada). Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

From the record

“Villard Hall is a historic building located in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Completed in 1886, it is the second-oldest building on the University of Oregon campus after University Hall.”
Wikipedia article Villard Hall, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 123 National Register listings published here for Lane County · listed in 1972 · category: Building · built in 1886, Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Still standing. The Park Service records this property as extant.
Address. University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403
When was it listed? April 1972
Category. building
Census division. Eugene-Springfield
When was it built? 1886
Architectural style. Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada
National Register reference number. 72001083 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

145 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 145 fires within 5 miles of Villard Hall between 1998 and 2020, burning about 100 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	100
Equipment and vehicle use	14
Debris and open burning	7
Recreation and ceremony	5
Fireworks	4
Natural	4
Smoking	3
Arson/incendiarism	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	3
Other causes	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Northwest Oregon District	150215987
8 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Northwest Oregon District	150215670
7 September 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Northwest Oregon District	FFD140203958
7 September 2006	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Western Lane District	BLANTON
5 September 2019	Natural	under an acre	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	EAST 40TH
5 September 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Northwest Oregon District	FFD140202531
4 September 2012	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	DELTA ROAD FIRE #2
3 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Northwest Oregon District	150211575

Every fire recorded in Lane County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 37 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 37 workings within 5 miles of Villard Hall: 21 past producers, 14 producers, 1 occurrence, 1 prospect. 14 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Silica. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Eugene Molding Sand Deposit	Silica, Clay	Past Producer
Eugene Molding Sand Deposit	Silica, Clay	Past Producer
Hawkins Butte	Silica	Occurrence
Hawkins Butte	Silica, Sand and Gravel, Construction	Prospect
Basalt Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Basalt Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Basalt Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Eugene Sand and Gravel Incorporate	Stone	Past Producer
Larson Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Fisher Butte Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Lane County

Storms near this property

7 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Eugene, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
December 1996	Tornado (F0)	Eugene	$50,000	no account filed
April 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Eugene	$25,000	A Lane Community College Official witnessed a rain wrapped tornado that significantly damaged three vehicles. One vehicle was moved around 125 feet and ended upside down on a berm in a parking lot. Estimated wind speeds of 65 to 85 mph is needed to move a car which rates the tornado as an EF0.
January 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Eugene	$15,000	Strong winds from a band of thunderstorms brought around 8 large trees down. Some of these trees damaged power poles or took down power lines as they fell, and resulted in power outages. A stop sign was blown down, part of a roof blew off, as well as two chicken coup roofs. Part of a chain link fence form a construction site blew onto 5th Street and blocked the southbound lanes.
May 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Eugene	$5,000	no account filed
March 2025	Flood	Eugene	-	Heavy persistent rainfall resulted in localized flooding at several of Eugene parks and creeks impacting Alton Baker Park, Delta Ponds, and along the Fern Ridge Path. A trained spotter reports lots of ponding of water near Fairmount Blvd and E 19th Ave, downhill from Hendricks Park. Additionally, another trained spotter reports parts of Amazon Park Trail underwater in the area of E 23rd Ave and Willamette St. due to small stream/river flooding.
June 2005	Lightning	Eugene	-	Thunderstorms produced frequent lightning in the Eugene and Springfield area early in the morning. Lightning struck several power transformers in Eugene and Cottage Grove, resulting in power outages to 300 Eugene residences and 50 in Cottage Grove.
May 2006	Hail	Eugene	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lane County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Deady and Villard Halls, University of Oregon	under 500 feet	1972
Dads' Gates	under 500 feet	2004
Johnson Hall	0.1 miles	1985
University of Oregon Museum of Art	0.2 miles	1986
Women's Memorial Quadrangle Ensemble	0.2 miles	1992
University of Oregon Library and Memorial Quadrangle	0.3 miles	1990

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 72001083 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Lane County	All 123 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.