Located at the corner of G and 6th Streets is a white, four-story building that is home to the Evangel Christian Book Store. On the north side of the building near the entrance is a stone plaque that reads:
ERECTED BY
CHARLES A. WING IN 1949, UPON
THE SITE OF THE FIRST BRICK
BUILDING IN GRANTS PASS,
WHICH WAS CONSTRUCTED BY
JOHN W. HOWARD IN 1886.
Upon doing some research, I discovered a web article from the Jefferson Public Radio (link below) that highlights John W. Howard and the history of this building. It reads:
John Howard Constructs Early Grants Pass Buildings
Monday, November 8, 2010
By Dennis M. Powers
Welcome to As It Was: Tales from the State of Jefferson
More than 125 years ago John W. Howard built the first commercial building in Grants Pass. As soon as the surveyor had measured out the lots, Howard bought one at the southeast corner of Sixth Street and Front, which is now G Street. He moved his merchandise tent from its former location to his new lot.
While continuing to sell from a tent, Howard started construction on a wooden building to replace it. He hired Edwin Smith, the first carpenter to come to Grants Pass. For years, the Howard family kept an old, beaten hammer inscribed with these words, “This hammer drove the first nail in the first building in Grants Pass, Oregon, October 19, 1883.”
In a move reminiscent of the Three Little Pigs, Howard demolished the wooden structure and constructed the city’s first brick building three years later at the same location.
More than 60 years later, Charles A. Wing razed the brick building in 1949 and replaced it with a four-story structure that was fire and earthquake-resistant. Named the Wing Building, it still stands today where Howard once sold merchandise from a tent.
Today’s episode of As It Was was written by Dennis M. Powers, the program producer is Raymond Scully. I’m Shirley Patton. As It Was is a co-production of JPR and the Southern Oregon Historical Society. To share stories or to learn more about the series, visit asitwas – dot.org.
Sources: Hill, Edna May. Grants Pass Centennial Notes. Grants Pass, Ore.: Josephine County Historical Society, 2009, p. 1 (original article published in the Grants Pass Daily Courier, Jan. 6, 1984.)