Pilsner in the Paper, Date of Thielson Building - History Notes

It's open! Instead of beer for breakfast, it was pilsner in the paper. It was so nice to see the show announcement for "History on Tap: Farms, Fermentation and the Free Lunch."

We'll drink to that!

Thielson / Gray-Belle Building

No doubt earlier this week you also saw the story about the restoration work at the former Rainbow Chinese Restaurant at 440 State Street.

According to the paper, its known history seems to start with the Gray-Belle Restaurant in about 1915. Later it was Nohlgren's and in at least 1932 it was known as the Thielson building.

We believe there is reason to date it to 1907 - and that it was always known as the Thielson building! The New Thielson Building, to be exact - though, we suppose there is ambiguity whether it was the new [Thielson Building], just incidentally new, or the [New Thielson] Building replacing and distinct from the Old Thielson building.

Anyhow, in 1907 the current building appears to have been built and a shoe company installed there. Some of the Prices are buried in Lee Cemetery, and the family also seems to have had a store and roots in Eugene.

An ad for the new store suggests the building was known as the "New Thielson Building."  So it wasn't just in 1932 that it was known by this name!

There may be more to say in another note...there are lots of Thielsons/Thielsens running around (the spelling doesn't seem to be stable) and we weren't sure which ones were the builders.