Salem in 1888

The former D'Arcy home on Church Street

World Events

• Benjamin Harrison is elected President of the United States.
  
• Eastman perfects the Kodak.
• Jack the Ripper is notorious in London.

In Salem
Peter D'Arcy, a prominent local attorney and historian, known as the "silver-tongued orator of Oregon", builds a new home (above) on his Church Street property. In 1909, Mr. D'Arcy constructed the commercial building at 467 Court Street that has long been occupied by Whitlock's Vacuum Cleaner Clinic. He was one of the original charter members of the Salem Chamber of Commerce and served as its president in 1914. D’Arcy presided over the Oregon Pioneer Association in 1910, and, for twenty years, the Champoeg Memorial Association, which was responsible for erecting a log building in 1918 to memorialize the creation of the Oregon provisional government. D’Arcy was a life member of the Oregon Historical Society and sat on the board of directors for many years. He died in 1933 and his wife, Teresa A. D’Arcy, passed away less than three years later.

When you visit
Although this house and the Endicott house next door are still there, many of the older homes on this block of Church Street are gone. A few blocks north, where Mill Creek crosses, there are still residences built in the 1920s. Offices now occupy the handsome D'Arcy house.

Other events

The Oregon Statesman in the Nesmith building

• In 1888, the Oregon Statesman was housed in the Nesmith building at the southwest corner of Commercial and Ferry Streets. This photograph, taken a few years later, is in the Oregon Historic Photograph Collection of the Salem Public Library. It was supplied by Cecil Edwards, whose father worked as pressman for the newspaper for 54 years. Signs proclaim that the Oregon Statesman was "antimonopolist... published weekly at $1.00 per year." The state's second oldest newspaper, it began in March 28, 1851, in Oregon City in opposition to the Whig newspaper. It moved to Salem in June, 1853, when the Territorial capital was relocated to city. Founder Asahel Bush II was active and influential in Democratic causes. Bush sold the Statesman in March of 1863, and went on to a career in banking and other businesses. The Statesman had a succession of owners and editors until Charles A. Sprague came to Salem in 1929. Sprague became owner, editor, and publisher, establishing a reputation as one of the Nation's great editors. The building was demolished in the 1960s after serving many purposes in the early city. It had housed offices of the first Territorial and State of Oregon governor as well as the first Oregon Supreme Court. The original state house had burned in 1857 and several downtown buildings served for state offices until 1876 when a second State House was built (that one burned in 1935). The Statesman moved out in 1953, but the Nesmith Building served various other businesses until it was turn down for new construction about ten years later. Across Commercial Street, on the stair landing of the Conference Center, an interpretive panel describes the historic buildings that once stood at the this intersection of early Salem.
• J. J. Murphy is elected mayor. His home at 765 Court Street will remain a landmark for more than sixty years as it passes to the Rose and then to the Bishop families. It was donated to Willamette University in 1848 to serve as the residence of the president. It was purchased by the First Presbyterian Church in 1955 and demolished for an educational building in the 1960s.
  
• Wheat is shipped from Ferry Street pier as stern-wheelers serve as the primary method of transporting Salem area agricultural products to larger markets.
• A young orphan, Herbert Hoover, moves with the family of his uncle, Henry Minthorn, from Newberg to Salem when Dr. Minthorn becomes president of the Oregon Land Company. They live on Hazel Street in the new Highland neighborhood, founded by a Quaker community led by his uncle.
• The Polk County Observer of July 7 records the death of Hannah Gorman, "Pioneer negress of 1844". The reporter told that in 1878 Mrs. Gorman had found a 6-week-old white baby abandoned near the river and had cared for the little one until he was strong enough to be sent to Glen Oaks Orphanage. The article continues, "...when the story of the foundling is told him he will bless Mrs. German and the good ladies of Salem who cared for him when he was a helpless little waif throw[n] upon their charities."