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.
3 comments:
My parents, Bill and Norma Paulus, bought this home in the late Sixties with the intention of renovating it to its former splendor to be used as a law office/commercial building. They were stymied by regulations and other obstacles including local building codes that would have required non-period siding (think aluminum). It was a fabulous house, and deserved better. While considering their options, thieves broke in and stole the entire staircase, marble fireplaces and other fixtures. In 1972, the building was sold to a young couple for one dollar, who would move it to another part of town for rehabilitation. When the crane operator slipped and caused the crane to drop the second story into Marion Street, neither owner had any recourse but to clean it up, since its stated value was a buck. My father went on to place his law practice next door in the Garfield School Building as one of the first tenants after its conversion to offices, while my mother went to the statehouse to sponsor lots of bills supporting historic preservation, and still serves this community as part of the Oregon State Historic Preservation Commission. - Liz Paulus, Portland, Or
Correction: She currently serves on the board of the Oregon State Capitol Foundation; please forgive the error. - Liz
Thank you, Liz, for adding to the history of this wonderful, lost treasure. I expect you know John Griffith whose grandmother, Kate Griffith was born there. He says he was tempted to steal the doorknocker when the house was vacant, but never got up the nerve. He was sorry, afterward, that he had not ~ someone else did!
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