After establishing his practice in Phoenix, Ore., in 1909, Dr.Theodore Malmgren became over the next 20 years the epitome of a country doctor endearing himself to a wide circle of friends and patients. But the doctor is remembered more today for the buildings constructed.
Malmgren’s house still stands on Second Street in Phoenix. It’s a two-story wood frame with a balcony and leaded glass. Next door is another building he used as a drug store with his medical offices in the back. It is a rare rectangular stone structure built in 1915 from material quarried from nearby Colver Hill.
Malmgren traveled by car to visit patients in the Phoenix and Talent areas. In 1925 he made a concrete building for an automobile service shop in Talent to encourage a skilled mechanic to locate there and service the doctor’s vehicles. The building became an auto repair shop with 8-by-12-foot folding doors. Later it became a pottery supply shop and today is an antique store.
Sources: Boom, Tony. "Talent studio brings touch of the past to its future." Mail Tribune, 2 May 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2015. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20110502/News/105020327; Vande Berg, Wilma J. "Malmgren, Theodore Dr. 1871-1929." 21 Mar. 2011. Web. 16 Oct. 2015. http://iagenweb.org/boards/sioux/obituaries/index.cgi?read=327424; "Historic Resources." Phoenix Planning Department. Phoenix Oregon: 1984. 1-5. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
