These two buildings, which are almost identical, were built between 1925 and 1927.
2288 Alder Street ‘Thurston Hall’
The beautiful Georgian style home at 2288 Alder, was built around 1925. For its first decade it was known as Thurston Hall, a rooming house and social club, owned by Bess B. Bodine.
The 2244 Alder Street building was known as Humbert Hall. According to the LAne Historical Society it was also “a rooming and social club for students attending the Eugene Bible University”. However, the DUMA Community house, as it is known now, has written that the house was a “home for wayward girls” built for that purpose by the Bilbe College. (See their blog post below)
Both buildings did serve as boarding houses during the 1930’s, for the Eugene Bible University (now known as Northwest Christian College). The building at 2288 also served for a time as the Northwest Christian Old Peoples Home and is currently a private home with a rental unit on the property.
2244 Alder is currently a community shared home and garden called: The Duma Community. It has been updated to be environmentally friendly. It now features thermal and photovoltaic solar panels, rainwater catchment, and artful reuse of materials. The ample gardens, guided by permaculture principles, contain likely the most complete collection of edible fruiting plants in Eugene, as well as extensive examples of native and other useful plants. The “new” garage located at the back of the building was built in 1943.
Here is an excerpt from the DUMA Community Blog Page:
“Du•má is a close-knit group of people who live together in a beautiful old home on a quiet residential neighborhood in Eugene just south of the University of Oregon.
Our home was built by the Eugene Bible University in 1925 as a home for wayward girls but divided into apartments a few years later. In 1990 eight people bought the property together and restored it as a home for “wayward adults”. Our home has ten bedrooms, a large kitchen and pantry, a guest room, small office, workshop, laundry room, and a dungeon for really bad people.
We have a large lot with an impressive garden that includes fruit trees, berry vines, nut trees, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and evil bindweed (let’s just call it an exotic species). Our little eden contains many uncommon fruiting crops such as persimmon, passionfruit, mullberry, pawpaw, and jujube. We also have solar panels, a sauna, hot tub, beehive, and chicken coop.”
Highlights:
- Rainwater catchment
- Chickens
- Bees
- Unusual and native edibles
- Creative reuse of materials
2244 Alder Street Duma Community Shared Home and Garden
