Salem in 1928

World Events

• Herbert Hoover sweeps into the White House with 444 electoral votes, defeating Al Smith ~ the first Catholic nominated to be president.
• Chiang Kai-shek is named Chairman of the National Military Council of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China.
• Famine claims 25 million lives in Soviet Union.
• Haile Selassie is crowned king of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• In England the women's voting age is lower from 3o to 21.
• The Kellogg–Briand Pact is signed in Paris, the first treaty to outlaw aggressive war.
• Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
• Mickey Mouse is introduced in Disney cartoon movies. Mae West is "Diamond Lil" on Broadway. The Academy Award goes to "Broadway Melody". 
• The Pulitzer Prize awarded to Scarlet Sister Mary, Julia Peterkin. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the three volume Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Unset. It remains a classic for its "powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages".

In Salem
An orphan before he was 10 years old, young Herbert Hoover was sent to Newburg in 1888 to live with his aunt and uncle. In the next year, his uncle, Dr. Henry Minthorn, opened a land-settlement office in Salem, and the family moved into a house at Hazel and Highland Avenue. (see below)

According to remembrances of Hoover Published in the Capital Journal, he was a quiet, serious teenager with few close friends and an intense appreciation for the outdoors. He was introduced to literature by local educator Jennie Gray who had the greatest influence on his life. With Gray’s help, Hoover left Salem in 1891 to attend Stanford University. In his successful career as a mining engineer, he made a considerable fortune before entering public service.
During his three years in Salem, Hoover became acquainted with another orphan his age, Charles McNary. Hoover's presidency is remembered for the beginning of the Depression era. His 1932 presidential campaign was unsuccessful, but it involved and influenced a ten-year-old Marion County boy named Mark Hatfield. Hoover's final visit to Salem was in August 1955 when, at age 80, he spent a night in Salem’s Senator Hotel. He died in 1964.

When you visit

Dr. Henry Minthorn was a leader in the Society of Friends (Quaker) community here in Salem. He was primarily responsible for the development of the Highland section of the city. The home where they lived still standing on Hazel Street, but too much changed to be recognized. (See above)
The Highland Friends Church that Hoover's family attended is at 580 Highland Avenue, however the handsome building has been sold to another religious institution.

Other Events

• The Hollywood Press, a weekly agricultural newspaper, is established. In 1932 it became the Capital Press.
• The Senator Hotel is built with 111 rooms, 3 tubs and 24 showers. It was in the 1915 Derby Building at northeast Court and High Streets, the location of bus parking at the former Transit Center at Courthouse Square. A photograph shows the hotel as it appeared in about 1957. The hotel was demolished in 1997.
• The Chemeketan Club is organized to promote use and preservation of our out-of-doors. A recent issue of their Chemeketan Bulletin contains pictures and accounts of 1930s hikes in the Salem area.William and Nora Anderson build their home on Court Street.
•  The Andersons owned a sporting goods business downtown and she was a prominent supporter of Salem's cultural life: the Anderson Rooms of the Salem Public Library are named in her honor. The house is now a contributing property in the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District in the NEN neighborhood. In order to build their new home, the Andersons had to remove the Spayd cottage, already on the property, where they had lived since 1909.
• Grace McLauglin (or perhaps her parents, the Robertsons) whose home was across the street, offered to put the cottage in her back yard. It remains there, a significant historical property in that historic district. Mrs. Spayd and her husband had purchased the cottage in 1906 from August Wilhelm who bought the property in 1903 and presumably built the cottage.
• The Cole House is built on Capitol Street. Removed for the construction of the State Archives Building in the 1990s, it is now on Hood Street in the Grant neighborhood. It is a designated Local Landmark.

• A Tudor style house is designed by Clarence Smith for Hubert and Rose Stiff at 795 Winter Street. Mr. Stiff was general manager of the H. L. Stiff Furniture Company. The house was sold to Daniel and Edith Jarman in 1942 and Mrs. Jarman continued to live there after her husband's death until 1966. At that time the State of Oregon bought the property and it became the residence of Governor & Mrs. Tom McCall, then of Governor and Mrs. Victor Atiyeh. Bob Koval photographed at that location in 1978. It has recently been photographed in its new location on Winter Street. It was moved in the early 2000s for the construction of the State's North Capitol Mall Office Building. The former residence is now a state office is in this CAN-DO neighborhood. It is also a Local Landmark.

Franklin Home on Portland Road

• North of the city on Portland Road, Olie Franklin and his wife Maude, move into a new Colonial Revival home on 8 acres near their cleaning establishment. The new house is similar to their former home on High Street except a second story has been added.

Franklin Log Cabin

•  A few years later, a neighbor offers a log cabin on his property: it was moved to the Franklin back yard where it is today. A historical architect who examined it recently does not believe this is an authentic cabin of pioneer days, but a replica built in the 1920s to reflect nostalgia for early, pioneer years.