Duggin’s vision shaped county
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In fact, according to Duggin, our own Chamber of Commerce rallied against the idea.
‘Back then, Main Street was the only business district in town,’ said Duggin. ‘That’s where all the money was. The merchants downtown didn’t want a shopping center because they had a good business district so they fought it. But it got to the point where somebody was going to do it.’
That somebody was Duggin, who bought the land for what is now Plaza Shopping Center in 1960 from Shorty Watson, a popular barber on Main Street. Back then, there was no mall and no Northgate Shopping Center. Just outside of the downtown area, the landscape quickly changed to farm land and open fields.
‘A lot of people thought I was crazy,’ said Duggin. ‘They didn’t think a little, ole boy from Woodbury could do something like this.’
After making the land purchase, it took him several years to recruit prospective tenants. That’s when he said Chamber of Commerce officials stepped in and tried to stop him.
‘Some people at the Chamber found out who I was recruiting,’ said Duggin. ‘So they wrote them letters telling them not to come to McMinnville. The letters basically said don’t come here. We don’t want you.’
Despite a steady diet of opposition, the first business opened in 1964.
It was the Texaco station located on the corner of Smithville Highway and the bypass.
The next two businesses were the offices of Dr. J.F. Fisher and Dr. James Moore.
They were located at the back of the shopping center.
‘All we had was a gravel road going down to their offices,’ said Duggin.
That’s when construction started in full for what is now the main portion of Plaza Shopping Center. When the first phase of construction was finished in 1966, the shopping center featured such stores at Cooper-Martin, Grabers and Stewart Pharmacy, although in a different location than the pharmacy is today.
The initial reaction was positive and Duggin continued to expand. That brought stores like S.H. Kress and Big K.
‘Kress was a big variety store with a luncheonette and it was sharp,’ said Duggin. ‘Big K opened in 1969 and it was where Tractor Supply and Badcock are today. It was a big store that had a little of everything, kind of like Wal-Mart.’
Duggin, now 77, remembers drawing out the rough plans for Plaza Shopping Center on a piece of cardboard. He said recruiting business was much different in the 1960s and ’70s. Back then, he said he talked with the top man in the company, usually the president or owner. Nowadays, he says companies all have real estate agents and it’s nearly impossible to talk to top executives or owners.
‘Back when Cooper-Martin came in, Bob Cooper told me he was coming because I wouldn’t leave him alone,’ said Duggin.
Before opening the Plaza, Duggin was a downtown businessman himself. He operated the restaurant in the Brown Hotel and said business was booming until about 1960.
‘When they made Main Street one way, we lost a lot of transit traffic and that hurt business,’ said Duggin.