The community of Monroe straddles HWY 99W, roughly equidistant from Corvallis to the north and Eugene to the south. Monroe traces its origins to a small sawmill established by settler Joseph White in 1852. With the sawmill came workers and their families, and the services necessary to support them; by 1853, a settlement, known as White's Mill, had been established. Just north of White’s Mill, Rowland B. Hinton – who settled on a nearby donation land claim in 1846 – established the community of Starrs Point, named for local store owner, George Starr.

The communities of White’s Mill and Starrs Point would eventually merge, and the town of Monroe – named for U.S. President James Monroe – was platted on October 6, 1857 (Oregon Geographic Names, 1944). In 1859, the first high school in Monroe was built; the school charged a “reasonable” tuition, and students could pay extra for room and board. A post office was established in Monroe in the 1860s.

Monroe quickly became a “nexus for commercial river traffic…[transporting] lumber, grain, and produce north to towns along the Willamette River” (via the Long Tom River). At one point, Monroe was one of the most populous cities in the state, with “five gas stations, four grocers, three automobile dealers, a pool hall, a hotel, and several restaurants.” The city was incorporated in 1914.

Oregon State University Memorabilia Collection, circa 1860-present
The Memorabilia Collection is an artificial collection containing items of interest about Oregon State University and to a lesser extent, the city of Corvallis, and the state of Oregon. Several news clippings documenting the history of Monroe can be found in Box-Folder 107.21. Items from this collection have been digitized and are available in Oregon Digital.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Oregon, 1879-1956
The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Oregon are an extensive collection of detailed maps of 178 towns and cities in Oregon prepared for the primary use of insurance companies. The bulk of the maps were prepared in the 1880s through 1920s. The maps depict both business and residential areas, including homes, apartments, and boarding houses; churches; schools, courthouses, community halls, parks, playgrounds, and other public facilities; warehouses, factories, mills, dryers, canneries, and creameries; retail stores, banks, and other businesses; and garages, barns, and sheds. They also provide detailed information about the construction materials used (e.g. brick, wood, stone), size of the structure and number of floors, and the heating source. The collection includes fire insurance maps for Monroe for 1928 (Box-Folder 14.2).

Wetlands Inventory and Survey Maps, circa 1976-1990
The Wetlands Inventory and Survey Maps document the National Wetlands Inventory as conducted in the western United States and the central Willamette Valley and Pacific Coast in Oregon by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Biological Services. The collection includes an atlas of state and local wetlands surveys that had been conducted in 1965-1975 as well as drafts of wetlands inventory maps documenting the type and extent of coastal and inland wetlands in Oregon. A draft wetland inventory map for Monroe is included in the collection (Folder-Item 2.10).

Oregon State Highway Division Maps of Oregon Cities and Towns, 1969-1989
The Oregon State Highway Division Maps of Oregon Cities and Towns consist of maps of 230 Oregon cities and towns created between 1969 and 1989. Most of the maps are at a scale of 1 inch = 800 feet; the maps of larger towns and cities are at a smaller scale of 1 inch = 2000 feet. The maps include details such as city limits, road systems, post offices, schools, public buildings, court houses, and some notable land features. The population of the town or city is given on each map.  Two maps of Monroe, dating between 1973 and 1984, are included in the collection (Box-Folder 2.2, Item 10).

Street Surface Maps of Oregon Cities and Towns, 1939-1942
The Street Surface Maps of Oregon Cities and Towns depict street surface types, railroad locations, and building locations in 207 Oregon cities and towns. The maps are predominately at a 1 inch to 200 foot scale with a few surface maps ranging from 1 inch to 100 feet to 1 inch to 400 feet. There also are smaller-scaled key maps for cities with more than 4 surface maps. The maps differentiate between concrete roads, bituminous surfacing on rock, concrete, or treated bases, macadam surfacing, graded surfaces, or unimproved road surfaces. The maps also show the location of structures and the function of the building -- house barn, garage or shed; school, church, or post office; and business establishments of 1-3 stories. A map of Monroe (1939) is included in the collection (Box-Folder 8.1, Item 14).

Historic Oregon Topographic Maps, 1898-1993
The Historic Oregon Topographic Maps consist of superceded or obsolete topographic maps published by the U.S. Geological Survey. The maps cover all of Oregon as well as small portions of the bordering states of California, Idaho, and Washington. The bulk of the collection consists of 1:24,000 (7.5 min) quadrangle maps that were issued predominantly in the 1950s through 1970s and 1:62,500 (15 min) quadrangle maps which date from 1906 to the early 1970s. The maps depict topography; vegetation cover; rivers and lakes; roads, railroads, and other transportation; political boundaries; and the boundaries of national forests and parks. A 15-minute quadrangle map of Monroe, at a scale of 1:62,500, is included in the collection (Box-Folder 3.1).

Latinos en Oregón Oral History Collection / Colección de Entrevistas Orales, 2015-2017
The Latino communities across Oregon have a rich and diverse history and have contributed greatly to the state's identity. The Latinos en Oregón project is dedicated to collecting and preserving the life stories of different Latino communities throughout Oregon. Resúmen: Las comunidades latinas en Oregón tiene una historia profunda y diversa y han contribuido mucho a la identidad de nuestro estado. El proyecto Latinos en Oregón se dedica a la recolección y preservación de las voces y las historias de las comunidades latinas difernetes en Oregón.

In her interview, Evangelina Gaspar discusses working as a gardener in Monroe (Item 8). La entrevista (video) / the interview (video) está disponible en el internet / is available online.

Days of the Jitney : Biographies of Monroe's Finest. Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified, 1986. F882.B4 D31 1986*

McClain & McArthur. Plat of Anderson Colony Orchards at Monroe, Benton County, Oregon. Portland, Oregon: Arcady, 1911. G4293 B4G46 1911 M3

Looking for online content? Oregon Digital, ScholarsArchive, and Media Space contain a wealth of digitized materials that document the rich history of Oregon's residential communities. Often, digitized materials are gathered together as sets, either by publication or collection. Please note that links listed below are "canned searches" for specific content relating to the city, town, or community in question.

• "Monroe" in Oregon Digital
• "Monroe" in ScholarsArchive