Historic Preservation: Gone Missing

This 1920s bungalow at 440 Mission Street SE was demolished this week leaving a tangle of weathered lumber, shattered household debris and discarded foliage. Three of its neighbors along Liberty Street are also scheduled to be razed. Within the Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Historic Residential District, their condition had deteriorated in the last several years because of no maintenance or occupancy. Finally, the Community Development Department of the City of Salem condemned all four for reasons of public safety. Historic houses like these, recognized on the US Department of Interior National Register of Historic Places, are community assets: they establish the character of our neighborhoods. All along the neighboring Liberty Street, there are many examples of residential historic preservation as either living or work space. Unfortunately, these were not valued in the same way.

A Tag of Memory

Yesterday, November 14, Mission Mill Museum sponsored a program by June Schumann of the Portland Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center. Her excellently prepared (and charmingly delivered) presentation reminded us of the experiences of the American West Coast families of Japanese descent who were "relocated" in 1942 during World War II. The chart above shows the areas effected by relocation. Families east of the line were not spared discrimination: they lived under strict restrictions and oppressive surveillance.

The photo below shows a typical family as they departed, leaving their homes and all their possessions, taking only one suitcase apiece. At the presentation, we were each given a tag like the ones shown.
We might ask ourselves two questions: How would we feel wearing such identification as our own families left our homes with the uncertain future they faced? What happened to the families who stood on the platform of the Salem Railroad Station more that sixty-five years ago wearing these tags?

Last walk across the Union Street bridge for 2009

The Union Street bridge closed tonight for the next six months. On a last walk across from the west side, Tom caught these photos with his iPhone. Above, the graceful curve of the trestle. Below, the last few steps before the bridge ends at Water Street. See you there in May of 2010!

The Eagles Have Flown

We have been waiting for the orange colored cones to go away so we could take an "after" photo to go with the one above and now we have it! It wasn't so long ago that the southwest corner of Broadway and Market Streets looked like this with the Eagles building being demolished.
What a difference Broadway Town Square (below) has made and we all enjoy the Broadway Theater! But we don't want to forget what a noble building this was and so encourage anyone with a historic photo of it in its glory years to send us a copy.

A New Access to Pringle Creek and Riverfront Park?

Over a year ago, the developers of the former Boise Cascade property, displayed this overview of what might be a future access to the property. Since then it has been determined that the State Street entrance (across the railroad tracks) to the Carousel will be closed. Thus a new opening will serve both that facility and the developing property at Pringle Creek to the south. There is no assurance that the plan shown here will be the one used, but it is interesting to see what was being considered at that time. The new intersection will be adjacent to our Downtown Historic District, but does not effect historically designated property on Ferry Street.

Featuring our Summer Street Heritage

Today the Statesman Journal featured Grant neighborhood's efforts to establish a National Register Historic District in an area including this historic Summer Street house. Originally built in the 1930s for Juanita and Robert Paulus, it is now owned by Lola and Christopher Hackett who are active in preservation activities and are quoted in the current newspaper article. On October 8, the Marion County Historic Society will welcome Norma Paulus as speaker at their annual dinner, held at Mission Mill Museum. We are fortunate in Salem that both newcomers to our community and representatives of past generations work together to preserve our valuable cultural heritage.

Our Salem Fire Station Museums

This is Salem Fire Station #5 at 1520 Glen Creek Road NW. It houses one of our three fire museums with historic equipment.

At Fire Station #5 you will see this Hand Pumper equipment. In 1857, Salem volunteer fire company fought fire with leather buckets filled with water, ladders, and a few basic tools. In 1883, Salem purchased this Hunneman hand-operated fire engine and 300 feet of leather hose. Without horses, it was necessary to hand- pull the 4000 pound fire engine to the fire. Notice the tubing along the top: one end dropped into one of the four cisterns downtown, the other end connected to the hand pumper hose. Fireman forced water from cistern through hose to the fire using the hand rails along the side of the Hand Pumper. This equipment was retired in 1904.



This fire station is is dedicated to George Ventura who joined the Salem Fire Department in 1962 as a firefighter. In April of 1980, he was promoted to Deputy Fire marshal where he remained until his unexpected death in 1986. At the time of his death, George was attending a seminar in Yakima, Washington. In his honor, flags at all Salem Fire Stations were lowered to half-staff.


At this Fire Station #10, 3611 State Street, you will see an original hose cart. Considerably lighter than the engine, it required fewer man to transport. The rod has handles for two men, although there may have been a cross bar to enable more men to move it through the streets. This station museum, like the others, has numerous historic photographs and firefighting exhibits.


At Fire Station #7, 5021 Liberty Road S, you will see Salem's second and last steam engine, the 1889 La France, a horse drawn pumper. By 1893, using horses had saved human labor to such an extent that the 220 man volunteer force was reduced to 14 paid firemen. A select number of apprentice firefighters known as "Call Men" would continue to volunteer until 1923 when the department was able to maintain a fully paid force.


The last use of steam power was in 1935 when the State Capitol burned and every piece of usable equipment was needed. Salem Fire Department's only line-of-duty-death occurred when Floyd McMullen, a 19 year-old volunteer fireman"sleeper" for the East Salem Engine Company, was struck and killed by falling debris at the capitol. This station is dedicated to him.

Another member of the Salem Bush Family

On Birdshill Drive in South Salem, this 1901 house gives us another contact with the history of the Bush family in Salem. In 1911, the daughter of the owners, 21 year old Margaret Boot, married Asahel Bush IV, the only grandson of the Asahel Bush II who built Bush House.
The young couple had a home on Bellevue Street, traveled widely and were part of the "Roaring Twenties" social life. Margaret gained local acclaim for riding an elephant in a Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena. Both Margaret and Asahel died in their forties.
The house has had a progression of improvements as the prune orchard lost acres. The original entrance from the north (now City View Cemetery) led to a carriage house, since made into a residence. The barn was removed for another residence. The landscape still provides a panoramic view to the west over the Willamette River and to the coastal mountains.
Between 1952 and 2008, there were only two owners: Dilbert Milne and Hans Linde.

Before the Parking Garage...

Photograph used by courtesy of Oregon State Library Photograph Collection

The next time you swing your car into the Chemeketa Parking Garage entrance on Commercial Street, give a thought to what was at that location before the garage was built in the 1970s. In the 1898 photograph above, the business on the corner was the Barnes Cash Store. Mr. Barnes's son Ralph was a Foreign Correspondent for the New York Harold Tribune in Europe during the World War II years and died in an wartime airplane crash in 1940. You may be able to Mr. Fry's name above the Drug Store entrance. That was the Daniel Fry who owned Fry's Hill (Now the High Street property known as Gaiety Hill) and lived in the historic Smith-Fry House. His warehouse was just demolished (the concrete triangle) as part of the Boise-Cascade property renovation. Further south on this block, out of the picture, in the only remaining section of this Eldridge building that stretched from Chemeketa to Court Street: Greenbaum's Quilted Forest, a family business in the third generation that began in the year this photograph was made, still operates there.

Their House Fell on Them

photo from the collection of Eileen and Doug Ebanks

Eileen and Doug Ebanks had already done a lot of research on their 1909 house when we met them in 2007. It was probably built by Adam Korb or his son David, both concrete contractors whose name can be seen pressed into many older sidewalks in Grant and SESNA neighborhoods. By 1962 when this photograph above was taken, the house was owned by Kenneth and Lucille Bass.

Walking in our Grant neighborhood one afternoon, we saw this house and were attracted by the handsome, blue-painted residence with matching fence, flowers and landscaping softening the strict lines. We introduced ourselves to the Eileen and Doug Ebanks who owned the property.

Photograph by Timothy Gonzalez of the Statesman Journal

Not many months after we met the Ebanks, we were alarmed to hear the house, on supports to excavate for a basement, had fallen in the middle of the night, July 24, 2008. Eileen, Doug and one of their young sons were sleeping inside. Eileen was seriously injured, the others only superficially. The photograph above was published in the Statesman Journal with an article stating that the Ebanks planned to rebuild their home as close to the original as possible.

Now, almost a year later, here is the rebuilt house as it appeared on June 21, 2009. They have stayed true to the spirit of the house, considering the present code requirements and the need to accommodate their careers and their family. Eileen is recovering from her back injury and so this is a happy ending to a story that could have been tragic. Yes, it has a basement ~ and will be painted blue.

The Fall of the House of Dalrymple

The Dalrymple House was built by James J. and Mary Evans Dalrymple on Marion Street in about 1862. The family had three daughters: Jess Albert, Lizzie Krause and Kate Griffith. After the family sold the house, it was owned for many years by Ola Clark, a well-remembered math teacher at the high school. It was later rented and had been abandoned when the photograph above was taken. Kate's grandson, Dr. John Griffith, remembers the interior window shutters, curving stairway, woodwork and hardware were still original in the 1960s.

On May 10, 1972, a crane lifted a detached portion of the second floor in order to place it on the moving platform for the move to a new location. The first floor of the house is still in place and the Garfield School is seen in the background. A local newspaper reporter was there to photograph the action.


Moments later, with with a photographer looking on, the crane slipped as it was lifting the second story onto the moving platform. This was probably the most spectacular house move in Salem history. A parking lot on the northwest corner of Marion and Winter Streets is the site where this elegant Italianate residence once housed the Dalrymple family.

These three photographs are from the Oregon Historical Photograph Collections, Salem Public Library, Salem, Oregon

Below is a series of 12 historic Salem buildings that were more successfully moved to new locations.

Moving Salem History #12 of 12

The three historical photographs in this feature are reproduced from the Oregon Historical Photograph Collections, Salem Public Library, Salem, Oregon.

The 1903 photograph above is from the Ben Maxwell Collection shows the 1872 Marion County Courthouse in the foreground (demolished in 1952 for the current building) and the 1876 State House (which burned in 1935) in the distance. Between these is the Federal Post Office which had just been built shortly before this picture was taken.

The photograph above was taken in the 1930s when ivy had covered the Post Office.

Our third photograph was taken in 1938 when the 200-ton Post Office was in transit, on rollers, to its new location on the campus of Willamette University, four blocks to the east on State Street. Only the remnants of the ivy can be seen and a few of the awnings. The move took about six months.

Here the Post Office stands in its second career as Gatke Hall of Willamette University. The elegant building retains its original architecture of more than a hundred years ago.
These twelve examples of local historical preservation illustrate the beautiful craftsmanship of past architectural styles. We are fortunate to live among these echoes of Salem history.

Moving Salem History #11 of 12

Trovar photograph, courtesy Oregon State Library

This Craftsman house was owned in 1907 by Willis S. Duniway and wife Alice. He was the son of Benjamin and Abigail Scott Duniway, a pioneer Oregon advocate of women's suffrage. When the residences of “Piety Hill” were demolished for the construction of the North Capitol Mall (1937-57), this one was spared. Then the residence of former Mayor Louis Lachmund, it was moved in 1937 to Willamette University to serve as residence of the president.

When the Johnson House at 325 Lincoln Street was selected for the Willamette University president, this house was moved to its present location in the 2430 State Street and is now part of a city-owned apartment complex. This is a prime example of how a house associated with Salem history can be useful today.

Salem's Moving History #10 of 12

photograph courtesy of Keith Chilcote

In this original 1890 location at 1118 Oak Street, this house was the residence of the John G. West family: the Wests were parents of Oswald West, later governor of Oregon. At the time the occupation of Mr. West was listed as "drover." In the mid 1890s the house was sold to C. M. Beak and in 1898 to Mrs. A. Klein. The Kleins continued in ownership and residency through the early 1920s. After being used by Willamette University and other owners, it was divided into six living units in 1993. In this late 1990s photograph, the house must be demolished or moved for the expansion of the Salem Hospital.

Fortunately, the house was moved by Sarah and Keith Chilcote and restored to this welcoming appearance. It stands between the two houses they moved from Winter Street (see #8 and #9 of this series) at 2983 D Street.

Salem's Moving History #8 and #9 of 12

photograph courtesy of Keith Chilcote

The photograph above of residences at 772 and 774 Winter Street NE, was taken in the 1990s when these two Local Landmarks were about to be demolished or removed ~ fortunately, they were relocated and restored by the present owners, Sarah and Keith Chilcote. The house on the left was known historically as the German Methodist Parsonage. The one on the right is the Moon House.The North Capitol Mall Office Building stands there today. Below are earlier pictures in this location and ones taken recently on D Street.

This ghostly picture of the Parsonage was reproduced by Keith from damaged glass plates recovered when the house was moved. It must have been taken in the 1890s when Winter Street was still rural and unpaved. The property was owned by R. P. Boise from the time it was platted until it was sold to the German Methodist Episcopal South Church for use as a parsonage in 1894. The church paid $500 for the property at 772 Winter Street, indicating that there was a dwelling on the property at that time. The photograph was supplied by Keith Chilcote.

Bob Koval took the 1978 photograph above in the same location. Except for the change of front porch detail, the house appears to be as built. Winter Street was much changed in 80 years between the pictures ~ by the late 1970s a residential area almost in the core of the city and, of course, the street was paved.

Here it is today in its restoration at 2981 D Street.

The Moon house, next door to the Parsonage in the 1990s photograph, was built c.1896 for Amos Long, a teacher in the North Salem School. Oscar Moon bought the property in 1911 and resided there until 1941. After the 1940s the house was a rental. It was also photographed (above) by Bob Koval in 1978. We use his photographs through the courtesy of the Oregon Historical Photograph Collections of the Salem Public Library, Salem, Oregon

Here is the Moon House in its new location at 2983 D Street with its restoration highlighting the Queen Anne architecture and ornamentation.

Moving Salem's History #8 of 12

This house, shown in the 1990s when it was located on the corner of Oak and University Streets, was the residence of the John G. West, father of Oswald West, later governor of Oregon. In the mid 1890s the house was sold to C. M. Beak and in 1898 to Mrs. A. Klein. The Kleins continued in ownership and residency through the early 1920s. It was moved, shortly after this photograph was taken, for the expansion of the Salem Hospital.

Here it is today in its new location on D Street, lovingly restored and with bright new paint. The owner has restored several houses on this property and we are grateful to him for preserving this residential local history,

Salem's Moving History #7 of 12

Trover photograph, courtesy Oregon State Library Photograph Collection

This 1910 Bungalow-Colonial Revival home stood at the former 295 Summer Street (lawn in the center of the Mall today) until moved in 1940s for construction of the North Capitol Mall. It was originally the home of the Hinges family. The daughter, Hallie Parrish Hinges (1868-1950) was a well-known vocalist in Salem, being declared by Pres. Teddy Roosevelt during his visit here in 1903 as the "Oregon Nightingale". After 1926 it was owned by Samuel and Sara Kimball.
photo courtesy Oregon Historic Photograph Collections, Salem Public Library
The 1940s move of the Hinges/Kimball home by the state took it to 735 Capitol Street to be used as an office building. (Today the lawn area south of the Archives Building.) It was photographed in 1978 by Bob Koval. It remained here almost 50 years until the late 1990s when it was moved again for the Archives construction. It was placed three blocks further north on Capitol Street.

photo by Tom Green, Jr in 2008

Here is the same house, now in private ownership, as it appears in its third location at 1075 Capitol Street NE. Still a handsome building, this Local Landmark has survived two moves and almost 100 years!

Moving Salem's History # 6 of 12

In the 1940s photograph above, the Rev. George H. Swift and his wife Alice posed in front of the St. Paul's Episcopal Church Rectory at 554 Chemeketa Street. The church occupied an adjacent parcel on the corner of Chemeketa and Church Streets, having replaced the original St. Paul's Episcopal Church of 1854. In 1953 the third church was built at its present location at the corner of Liberty and Myers Streets, across from Bush's Pasture Park.


The former rectory was probably moved to this 1510 Davidson Street location in 1953. At the time it became a part of the Gaiety Hill/Bush Pasture Park National Historic Residential District in 1986, the writers of the nomination did not know the story of this house. We are grateful to Marylou Green, a long time church member who identified it for us.

Moving Salem History #5 of 12

Before 1911, the Heffley family built a handsome house (above) on Garden Road, now Market Street in the NESCA neighborhood. Their farm extended south to D Street. As the city grew, the property was divided and sold. The house itself was moved a few blocks south to Ellis Street. With no basement and its porches removed, it hardly looks like the same house in the recent photograph seen below.

Moving Salem History #3 and #4 of 12

photo above from the collection of Carole Smith

This historic 1934 photograph was taken from the lawn of the old Courthouse on High Street, looking north toward the former City Hall and Senator Hotel, now replaced by a parking lot and the bus center. The Grand Theater is across the street to the left. Now relocated are the World War I statue of the Doughboy (a traditional term for American infantrymen in earlier times) and the small house to the right.

The Doughboy soldier was erected in 1924, stored somewhere after the Courthouse was demolished in 1939. In 1991 the statue was placed in the Memorial Park of the Oregon Department of Veteran Affairs at 700 Summer Street.

The William Beckett house used for the Marion County Home Demonstration in 1934 was originally located on the corner of Liberty and Union Streets. Moved to the Courthouse lawn and completely renovated and refurnished, it was an example of Depression “how-to” remodeling for the average homeowner. It was sold to Larry Grote for $1,295 and moved to this Wilson Street lot behind his own home . It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.