Since Sam Bond’s Garage in Eugene closed in late 2025, its windows have been covered with butcher paper and the community gathering spot has sat empty. Whiteaker neighborhood residents sorely felt the loss of the bar, which was a beloved live music venue for 30 years.

It was the kind of place where everyone was welcome, as long as they paid the cover and were nice to Buddy the Cat.

Behind the butcher paper, new owners Grace Schubert and Ian Hill are deep into a renovation. The mention of a remodel might raise some folks’ blood pressure, but Schubert and Hill say assuredly that they’re not turning Eugene’s darling dive into a new student housing complex.

They want to maintain the energy of the community’s favorite bar and ensure that it can remain a staple for generations to come.

Schubert and Hill want to keep the overall vibe of Sam Bond’s Garage the same, but they are engaged in upgrades. There will be a new kitchen setup and menu inspired by their family in Kentucky. Think bourbon, bluegrass music and barbecue.

The couple also is changing the physical space. They have reinsulated the walls to make sure the old building is free of pests. Now they’re refinishing the concrete floors. Next, they plan to build out the stage and lay new concrete in front of it.

Schubert and Hill are keeping the raised wood build-out at the front of the bar and adding to that vibe with new tables and a live-edge wood bar built out of the tree that was struck by lightning at the Lane County Fairgrounds. They’re even toying around with the idea of installing a fireplace.

Because Sam Bond’s Garage is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, there are limitations to what Schubert and Hill can do to the building. The ceiling must be left uncovered, and the hoist that was used to move engines around the building must remain. Fortunately, all guidelines jive with the couple’s plans for the refurbishment.

“You can feel the building; it feels happier now,” Hill said. “We’re happy to keep the bones, but bring new life into the space.”

Hill and Schubert knew they wanted to work with the building’s bones to create a community space that will be sustainable for generations to come. They took ownership at the end of December 2025 and began working on the space in January.

But owning a bar is different than seeing it when the lights are out. The couple hoped the bar would be open by now, but the historic building needed a lot of work.

“It’s a 100-plus-year-old building, and it needed some love poured into it,” Schubert said. “And when you start with renovations, you think better to do it all now than to have to come back later.”

Schubert and Hill plan to continue a lot of what the community came to love at Sam Bond’s Garage: artist showcases, live music, and weeknight events.

“The neighborhood has been so welcoming, and people are excited to see what we’re going to do,” Hill said. “And there’s some nervousness that we don’t screw it up, and keep it core to the greatness that it’s been. We’re excited about living up to those expectations.”

An official opening date is still up in the air. Hill regrets putting up “Reopening this Summer” on the board outside. The aim is for September, but it’s a moving target.

Schubert and Hill moved to Eugene from Kentucky to attend the University of Oregon in 1997. After their truck overheated on the way to a Phish concert in California, Hill started researching what he could do differently to fuel it and stumbled onto the idea of biodiesel.

The couple started a business, SeQuential BioFuels, with a few of their friends. Their first station was where Ninkasi Brewing’s headquarters currently stands. The property used to be a parking lot for an oil company’s trucks.

SeQuential started as a small group of people who stopped in for Saturday morning fueling in Whiteaker and then built customer base large enough that they opened their own fueling station near Interstate 5.

Hill and Schubert sold the business in 2025 after 20 years.

“That was kind of painful, because (the store) was part of the community, so once we transitioned out of that, we were looking for somewhere else to put our dollars,” Hill said.

Sam Bond’s Garage was one of the first places Hill and Schubert remember visiting in Eugene. They have fond memories of watching friends perform on stage and seeing up-and-coming bands. Such memories, combined with the good energy of the neighborhood, solidified Schubert and Hill’s decision to take over the bar.

“We know this is such a part of this neighborhood, and of Eugene, and everyone was so sad to see it go,” Schubert said. “It would have been such a loss for the community if it had entirely gone away.”

Hill and Schubert have two sons, one 19 and one 22, and want to provide something for them separate from screens.

“I think many of us feel more and more this urge to reconnect as humans, and be done with the old screen time,” Hill said. “Sam Bond’s was on the market for a while, and we have a connection to it, and coming to see music here, so we decided to do it.”

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Register-Guard and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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Glass House Coffee Bar can feel more like a greenhouse at times. Huge windows make up about 60 percent of the plant-filled coffee shop, where pothos vines cascade down from the ceilings and succulents bloom in seemingly every corner. Indie hits play softly over hidden speakers, and the smell of espresso beans is sharp in the air, adding to the cozy atmosphere.

It’s hard to imagine the space used to be the Whiteaker Police Station. A Register-Guard article from 2002 paints a picture of a Whiteaker neighborhood filled with “[h]ookers, drug dealers, and assorted small-time thugs” ruling the streets. This situation caused some residents to plead for more police presence in the area.

The police station, with a staff of two full-time patrol officers, two community service officers and two agents from the Lane County parole and probation office, was said to have decreased drug crimes in the area.

The address 530 Blair Blvd. was first listed in The Register-Guard in 1948 as a three-bedroom home in “a dandy location” available to rent. It later appeared as General Sign Co. in the 1960s, a Peterbilt manufacturing and selling location in the 1980s, and as the aforementioned police station in the 1990s. Now it holds a Tacovore restaurant; Glass House Coffee Bar operates next door, at 520 Blair Blvd.

“There’s a picture in Tacovore from the 1950s that looks like these two buildings used to be a tire shop,” Glass House owner and operator Alex Newton said. “Other people who have been in the neighborhood for over 30 years say they remember when this was a cop shop.”

Newton joined the business in 2019 and took over in 2020. He had worked in coffee before he came to Glass House but hated how corporate the business could be. He grew up in the suburbs of Houston, where locally owned businesses were rare. His first visit to Glass House as a customer kindled his love for small, local coffee shops. He decided to apply for a job as a barista.

“I was working on the producer side of food service at the time, on small local farms like Camas Swale and Dake Family Farms,” Newton said. “But when I decided that I wanted to dedicate myself to Glass House, I knew I wanted to do the business right.”

When Newton took over Glass House, he started using the Tacovore kitchen to make breakfast and pastries for the coffee shop. He loved the community that Glass House had already built and wanted to offer more to his customers. He also began sourcing his coffee from farmers directly.

Glass House is small for a coffee shop, around 500 square feet, which creates unique problems for Newton and his team. There is little space to work, especially when three baristas are crammed behind the bar during a rush. If Glass House didn’t have access to the Tacovore prep kitchen, staffers wouldn’t be able to bake anything in-house.

“A lot of times when people come in and see our pastries, they don’t believe that we bake them here,” Newton said. “But we do — it just doesn’t happen in this building … we barely have enough room to prep coffee!”

On a busy weekend, sometimes Newton has a hard time keeping up with a stream of customers. There are only 12 seats in the shop, so people can struggle to find a place to sit on rainy days when they don’t want to be outside.

“We don’t really even have a space in here where you can get in line,” Newton said. “You’re either blocking the cream station or squishing someone sitting on a stool.”

Another problem arises primarily in summertime. When windows let in sunlight on hot days, Newton said it’s a challenge to keep temperatures in the shop below 90 degrees Fahrenheit. He’s installed two fans, but when temperatures start to climb, he closes the doors and blasts the air conditioning.

But without the windows, Glass House wouldn’t have its signature and healthy collection of plants. Customers love the atmosphere, Newton said, even in the middle of winter.

“Jeffery, our huge pothos, definitely pulls his weight in the space,” he said. “He’s one of the most treasured staff members.”

Yet a tiny shop does have advantages. The smaller space is more manageable and takes less time to clean. Regular customers seem to like the laid-back nature of the bar seating, which can lead to more conversations with strangers and a general community feel.

“On a Saturday, when it’s busy in here, it feels like New York City or something,” Newton said. “It’s loud, people are crammed together, talking, and there’s a certain energy that’s very cool that I think people come here for.”

That energy is something Newton tries to foster. He and his employees prioritize serving people well at Glass House and making them feel welcome in the space, even though it’s small.

“Our mission statement is to foster community through intentional actions and care-oriented service,” Newton said. “I want this to be a place where people can come, meet, talk, share ideas, make friends, and bring friends and family when they’re in town.”

Glass House is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in The Register-Guard and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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