Oregon legislature awards $500K to SOHS for downtown Medford even center

MEDFORD, Ore. – The Southern Oregon Historical Society is one step closer to opening a downtown event center thanks to new funding from the Oregon legislature.

During the 2024 legislative session, the legislature awarded a $500 thousand grant to SOHS to go toward development of a new event center.

The event center would be created in the old JCPenney building near the Craterian Theater.

SOHS executive director Ron Kramer says this is a large step toward reaching their funding goal for the space.

“The event center will hold I could say about 350 people,” Kramer said. “It’s a good sized assembly space for downtown Medford. Nothing else kind of like it and we’re excited.”

Kramer says with this funding, they are just a few hundred thousand dollars short of the nearly $1.2 million needed to create the center.

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Taylar Ansures is a producer and reporter for NBC5 News. Taylar is from Redding, California and went to California State University, Chico. After graduating, she joined KRCR News Channel 7 in Redding as a morning producer. She moved to Southern Oregon in 2022 to be closer to family and became KTVL News 10’s digital producer. Taylar is currently finishing her Master's Degree in Professional Creative Writing through the University of Denver. In her free time, Taylar frequents independent bookstores and explores hiking trails across Southern Oregon and Northern California.
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