Bend’s Old Box Factory celebrates 100 years

Back in 1916, the Old Box Factory was brand new and being used to ship everything from fruit to ammunition, all using wooden crates. The box factory was a large player when the town of Bend was still a mill district.

“Both Shevlin Hixon and Brook Scanlon both immediately started putting up box factories alongside the mill factories in order to get those smaller pieces of lumber into production,” said Kelly Cannon-Miller, executive director of the Deschutes Historical Museum.

A century later, the historic building is still writing its history.

“It’s sort of a hidden gem to discover this factory’s history,” said Jeremy McPherson, with property owners Killian Pacific.

McPherson fell in love with this hidden gem and has now helped move 32 new businesses into this iconic building.

“When Jeremy McPherson from Killian Pacific first came into our doors, we were really happy,” Cannon-Miller said. “We found a company that wanted the building because it was historical.”

The building has meant just as much to McPherson and those tenants working out of the Old Box Factory.

“To know that 100 years ago, this building opened to build boxes for the entire county nationwide, but here we are again, right in the heart of Bend, it’s kind of the same people, I think it’s kind of cool — century of Bend? Yeah,” McPherson said.

Cannon-Miller added, “The best of historic preservation is when you take a building and you give it new life in the community. It’s not about freezing it in time it’s about letting it live again.”

Celebrations will be taking place Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Join us on NewsChannel 21 on Fox @ 4 and KTVZ at 5 and 6 for more live from the event.