John Gottberg Anderson / For The BulletinDowntown Eugene’s 5th Street Market Place is anchored (on the right of this photo) by Marché, an acclaimed restaurant opened by chef Stephanie Pearl Kimmel in 1998. Kimmel has since added the Provisions Market Hall, and a fine hotel, the Inn at the 5th, opened in 2010.

EUGENE —

Writing about the town that one grew up in, even though decades have passed since one lived there, can be more difficult that writing about a first-time destination — until one considers that it’s really not the same town at all.

That community, for me, is Eugene. When I lived there through my youth — from sixth grade through my graduation from the University of Oregon in 1971 — Eugene was a city smaller than Bend is today. I saw the town grow from 50,000 people to about 80,000; today, the population is more than twice that.

Skinner’s Butte, where community founder Eugene Skinner erected his first cabin in 1846, still looms just north of downtown. The winding, half-mile drive seemed much longer when friends and I would surreptitiously visit to repaint (in school purple) a giant letter “E” to represent South Eugene High School before homecoming games.

The crest of fir-shrouded Spencer Butte remains a landmark on Eugene’s south side, though it’s no longer isolated. Where the Willamette Street pavement ended past 40th Avenue, I once engaged in a 5-mile hike on a gravel road to satisfy a Boy Scout requirement. The street is now paved for its entire length, serving modern homes built since my last foray to the butte.

Eugene itself nestles along the banks of the Willamette River, which rises in the Cascade Range and meanders north for 185 miles to its confluence with the Columbia River near Portland. Incorporated in 1862, Eugene grew around the University of Oregon, founded in 1876. The timber business was the main economic driver for the next 100 years; since the mid-1980s, the high-tech industry has taken a prominent role.

During my formative years, Oregon football was not yet nationally prominent. Hayward Field, built of wood in 1919, was better known for its world-class track meets than for gridiron. By the late 1960s, coach Bill Bowerman and distance runner Steve Prefontaine had helped to redefine Eugene as “Track Town USA.” The legacy was sealed with the assistance of a former Oregon athlete, Phil Knight, who co-founded the Nike athletic wear company with Bowerman in 1964 and who became the university’s greatest benefactor.

The Oregon campus

Certainly, the University of Oregon campus would not be what it is today without Knight’s generous contributions: more than $300 million over the past 20 years. Construction of buildings such as the Matthew Knight Arena — and development of a sports complex around 54,000-seat Autzen Stadium (which replaced Hayward Field for football in 1967) — inspired donations by other Oregon alumni. More than 150 of them joined to build the $33 million Ford Alumni Center, which opened next to the Knight Arena in 2011.

Hayward Field persists as one of the world’s best-known facilities dedicated only to track and field. In June of next year, it will host the U.S. Olympic track team trials for the sixth time; the stadium has previously hosted seven national championships and nine national collegiate championships, several of which Oregon has won.

Today, staunch gates deter intruders from entering except during scheduled events. But visitors to the entrance at Agate Street and 15th Avenue may peer through the steel bars after reading about Bowerman, Prefontaine and the history of Hayward Field on interpretive signs.

There are off-campus neighborhoods on all sides of the university. The one with the most history and flavor is along East 13th Avenue west of Kincaid Street, a few blocks east of downtown Eugene. Especially in the first two blocks between Kincaid and Hilyard streets, small budget cafés share street frontage with taverns and bookstores, banks and boutiques.

Wedged into this neighborhood is the Excelsior Inn, a delightful, 14-room, European-style inn originally built as a sorority house in 1912. In 1972, it was transformed into a French restaurant by chef Stephanie Pearl Kimmel, who helped to pioneer farm-to-table cuisine and who was the first restaurateur to feature Oregon wines. Kimmel sold the Excelsior in 1993 to Italian chef Maurizio Paparo, who reshaped the menu to Mediterranean and turned two upstairs floors into charming bed-and-breakfast lodging.

Each room is named for a famous classical composer. On my visit last week, I stayed in the Ludwig von Beethoven room. Beautifully decorated, my room had a king-size bed, a private bath, a work table and in-room Keurig coffee. And I could easily walk to campus or to downtown.

Kimmel has not disappeared from the local dining scene. Upon selling the Excelsior, she traveled extensively before re-emerging in 1998 as the owner of Marché in downtown’s 5th Avenue Public Market. Marché set a new standard for market-driven regional cuisine in the Willamette Valley, one that continues today at the three-meals-every-day French-style bistro restaurant. She’s carried her dedication to local producers into the Provisions Market Hall, a newly expanded food hall that adjoins Marché. The same produce, meats, seafood, wines (and even flowers) used by Marché chefs are available for purchase by all visitors.

Museum of Art

Back on campus, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art dates from 1933, when its original building opened. Constructed to house the Murray Warner Collection of Oriental Art, it was later honored by the National Register for Historic Places for its distinctive brickwork, decorative moldings and iron grillwork. Those features were preserved when it closed for renovation between 2002 and 2005; to reopen as the Schnitzer Museum.

Now greatly expanded, the museum still has a fine exhibit of Chinese, Japanese and Korean art. But it has added a gallery of European masters, another of American and regional art (think Mark Rothko and Alexander Calder), and several areas for temporary exhibitions, most of them on the upper floor. Lectures, receptions, art education and gift sales are offered on the main floor, and there’s a small café operated by Marché.

On my recent visit, I found temporary exhibits of contemporary Japanese printmaking (through Jan. 3), drawings by Native American artist Rick Bartow of Newport (through Jan. 24) and modern Orthodox-influenced icons by Russian-born Olga Volchkova, now of Eugene (through June 13). Scheduled in early 2016 are shows of Shakespeare’s First Folio (Jan. 6 to Feb. 7, with free admission throughout) and Brian Lanker photographs (starting Jan. 22).

The highlight remains the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art, which includes an 18th-century Qing Dynasty throne and a 9-foot-tall jade pagoda that has been dated to 1711. Of much more recent vintage is a Buddha head that was carefully sculpted from stacked Sotheby’s auction catalogs in 2007 by artist Chen Long-Bin.

Historical museums

Across campus — nearly opposite the front gate of Hayward Field — the Museum of Natural and Cultural History has a modest but exceptionally well curated collection of human prehistory and paleontology, contained within a building inspired by a Northwest Coast tribal longhouse.

Although the longstanding “Oregon — Where Past Is Present” exhibit will close on Jan 25 for a reconstruction that will carry into the spring, there are plenty of other displays to hold visitors’ interest. When “Past Is Present” reopens, it will have a new exhibit on the Paisley Caves north of Lakeview: University archaeologists have radiocarbon-dated human DNA evidence here to more than 14,000 years, the oldest in North America.

Oregon’s geology and natural history is a bit older than that — approximately 300 million years. There are life-size replica skeletons depicting such animals as Harlan’s ground sloth, which once wandered the state, and the fossil head of the unique saber-tooth salmon. Even more surprising, perhaps, is the buzz-saw shark, a mystery for more than a century until the discovery of a skull that, in fact, proved the prehistoric creature had a semicircular jaw. The whimsical work of Alaskan artist Ray Troll illustrates its story.

Another Eugene museum, a couple of miles west of campus at the county fairgrounds, is the Lane County Historical Museum. I stopped in one day to explore the collection, which is dominated by antique parade vehicles. But I was most impressed by a temporary exhibit that will run through March. “No Harm Intended” highlights the methods and medicines of 19th-century doctors who practiced their trades without formal training — and sometimes were successful.

Drink it up

A visit to contemporary Eugene would be incomplete without stops at some of its iconic beverage producers. The King Estate Winery, established in 1991 on more than 1,000 acres southwest of the city, is the largest and best-known in the area. Certainly, its annual production of 400,000 cases dwarfs other fine neighboring wineries such as Iris Vineyards (12,000 cases) and Sweet Cheeks Winery (15,000 cases).

One of the more intriguing Eugene-area wineries (there are 23 in the South Willamette region) is the Oregon Wine LAB (all caps for “local artisan brands”). Owner Mark Nicholl, a native of Adelaide, Australia, also makes William Rose Wines. He pours these at his urban winery along with selections from other small winemakers, complemented with cheese and nut plates and frequent live music.

The Wine LAB is conveniently located midway between downtown Eugene and the Whiteaker Neighborhood, home to many leading craft breweries. The Ninkasi Brewing Company is here, spreading into multiple buildings around Third Avenue and Van Buren Street, along with Oakshire Brewing (Second and Madison) and Hop Valley Brewing (First and Adams). All welcome visitors; all are prominent on the eight-location Eugene Ale Trail, promoted by the local visitors association.

Much nearer to campus is the Elk Horn Brewery, a gastropub where I enjoyed Southern-style shrimp and grits from the kitchen of co-owner Stephen Skinner Sheehan. Evolved from a food cart with guest taps, Elk Horn now produces quality brews of its own while continuing to champion those of other Oregon breweries. And Sheehan, prompted by a rapid growth of interest in hard ciders among the campus crowd, is devoting six of his 24 taps to ciders. One of his favorite in-house seasonals, he said, was a mango-lychee infusion.

Eugene’s first devoted cidery, WildCraft Cider Works, is just one block from the Oregon Wine LAB. Ten artisanal dry ciders are on tap at any one time: seasonal, small-batch selections made with no added sweeteners. The cidery owners believe in recycling, so much of their juice is made from whole fruit still growing in orchards planted 150 years ago and now abandoned.

WildCraft is also a restaurant. Its short menu offers salads, savory crepes and brochettes, such as the delicious grilled lamb that I had with flatbread for $15. Fall veggies, wild mushrooms and salmon also come from regional providers.

A sumptuous evening

My final evening in Eugene began with dinner at Rye, which calls itself a “European village tavern.” Located beside the Ferry Street Bridge near Skinner’s Butte, Rye prides itself on pre-Prohibition cocktails and after-dinner pairings of whiskey with chocolate truffles.

Chef Joseph Mihm’s dinners certainly don’t take a back seat to the drinks. I dined with a friend who lives in Eugene, and we shared two appetizers to start — Brussels sprouts sautéed with pancetta and garlic, and steamed mussels topped with smoked duck confit. As an entrée, I had pan-seared duck breast on delicato squash risotto with cranberry gastrique, while my friend enjoyed young goat braised in orange peel and red wine served over hand-cut pappardelle pasta. It was quite a feast.

And then we headed to the Hult Center for the Performing Arts, where my friend had been invited to the final rehearsal of the Eugene Symphony before its “American Spectacular” concert.

Symphony director Scott Freck sat with us for a few minutes as the orchestra was setting up. He spoke with pride of the company’s 50th anniversary season, which runs through May. “We’re celebrating the past and creating the future,” he said. “It’s a really pivotal year. We must look at where we came from so we can look forward.”

The Eugene Symphony began in 1965, when members of a local chamber orchestra met in the family home of one of my high school classmates. They launched a three-concert season performing in local high school auditoriums, and within three years had established enough credibility to find corporate sponsors and support from the University of Oregon music faculty.

By the time the Hult Center opened in 1982 — it is located on Willamette Street where the kitschy “Heilig” theater sign was once suspended — the symphony had achieved national fame for the quality of the conductors and musicians it attracted. The performing arts center itself just added to that reputation. The main 2,448-seat Silva Concert Hall with its unique basket-weave ceiling is, as Freck said, “a world-class facility with great acoustics.” The adjacent 496-seat Soreng Theater has an asymmetrical design ideal for theater.

The rehearsal that we attended featured a new work by composer Roberto Sierra. The Cornell University music professor sat in the heart of the nearly vacant theater, once addressing the performers to request a different musical emphasis. The rest of the contemporary program included works by Bernstein, Ellington, Copeland, Porter and Gershwin.

Like Eugene itself, the performance was a little bit old, a little bit bold and a whole lot new.

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com