Junction City was incorporated as a town on October 29, 1872, by an act of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. One of the first city contracts was awarded in May 1873 to Thomas Humphrey to build a city jail, which was completed at a cost of $84.37. In 1878, the City Council contracted to build a City Hall for $350.00 on the southwest corner of 6th Avenue and Greenwood Street. As the city grew, the first-floor main room of the city hall served as the engine room for the hook and ladder, hose, reel, and other firefighting apparatus, while a stable in the rear kept a team of horses ready for the engine when a fire alarm sounded. Chris T. Wilde's 1978 book Early Days of Junction City, Oregon refers repeatedly to the tiny red jail and the white two-story city hall. He wrote that the jail stood on the north side of the present U.S. Bank's parking lot, that the city hall was built just south of it on March 14, 1879, by S. Stanus for $350, and that the intact jail was later moved to what is now Ben Kokkeler's residence on High Pass Rd., where it served as a pump house. He also wrote that the bank building was built in 1912 on the northwest corner of 6th and Greenwood, that the city hall was moved to Eighth and Greenwood, that a new jail built of 2 x 4s nailed flat and laminated was constructed behind the city hall on the alley, that it remained in use until 1931 when the new city hall incorporated a jail, that the 1912 jail was burned down, and that the city hall was taken down around 1938. The Nill family of Guaranty Chevrolet later donated this building to the Junction City Historical Society after buying the property on West 1st Avenue and High Pass Road for business purposes.