In 1917, Dr. Kenneth McKenzie the staff surgeon at Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company  persuaded the company to donate 20 acres to the the  donated 20-acre atop Marquam Hill campus to the University of Oregon Medical School.

The present 116-acre Marquam Hill campus gets its start with a 20-acre tract donated by the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company and an 88-acre tract donated by the family of C.S. Jackson, former publisher of the Oregon Journal.