Salem in 1987

World Events

• Rudolph Hess (aged 92), WWII NAZI, is found dead in his Spandau Prison cell. The last prisoner in the complex, it is soon demolished.
• President Reagan visits Berlin, challenges USSR to "Tear down this wall!"
• King's Cross fire in London subway kills 31 and wounds 100.
•  US Congress charges Reagan with "ultimate responsibility" for the Iran-Contra deception, but he is not prosecuted. (See 1986) His nominee for the Supreme Court, Robert Bork, is rejected by the Senate.
• Jim Bakker resigns from the evangelical "Praise the Lord" television network after his personal misconduct is revealed.
• 18 months old Jessica McClure falls down her aunt's well in Midland, Texas. Rescuers work 58 consecutive hours to free her from the 8-inch well casing. The drama is seen around the world by television.
• AZT is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the use in treatment of AIDS.
• Starbucks Coffee stores open in Seattle. Simpson cartoon appears.
• Academy Awards: "The Last Emperor" (US), "Babette's Feast" (Denmark). Prize-winning Books: Paco's Story, Larry Heinemann and A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor.

Residences along Court Street in the Historic District

In Salem
The Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District (above) was established this year. This small area of two streets is limited on the east and north by Mill Creek, on the south by State Street and on the west by a 1984 barrier across 13th Street that eliminates auto traffic. This area, separated from the early city center by the 12th Street rail tracks, Willamette University and the Capitol, was home to many of Salem's pioneer families and small water-powered businesses. The businesses are gone now, but the residences reflect the domestic designs popular in the broad period between 1860 and 1937. Bonnie and Roger Hull led a resident group in the research and documentation necessary for this successful nomination to the National Register.
It is no coincidence that both Court-Chemeketa and Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Residential Historic Districts are founded at this time. These were basically neighborhood enterprises, sponsored by their residents, many of whom were involved in the Inventory described below.
Today, the Historic Landmarks Commission offers professional direction to owners of designated historical properties for making exterior alterations through Design Review by the Community Development Department staff recommendations and Commission approval.

When you visit

Walking tour slide shows of our three historic districts are found here on SHINE. In addition to the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District, there are the Gaiety Hill/Bush Pasture Park and Salem Historic Downtown districts. The best way to enjoy our character of our city is to walk in the neighborhoods and urban parks to see for yourself the value of historic preservation.
A catalog of properties individually listed as National Register or Local Landmark (not in a historic district) can be found on the DISCOVER website. It has been given that name because it reveals many interesting historic properties, not yet designated, in all 19 neighborhoods. On this website, you may search by neighborhood, street address or family name. Viewers are welcome to Comment on DISCOVER to correct or add information.

Other Events

One of the most important resources for learning about Salem history is the Historic Salem An Inventory of Historic Places, a 1987 spiral-bound collection of 101 photographs with information about local personalities and properties of significance. Produced this year by the staff of the Historic Landmarks Commission under the leadership of Mark Siegel, and with the help of many trained volunteers, it remains a basic source of information about our architectural and cultural past. In the years that have passed, designations have changed, some houses have been demolished, others moved. However, the Inventory remains a valuable snapshot of the historical properties in the core of the city at that time: only 6 of the 19 neighborhoods were surveyed.

• During his term of office, Governor Atiyeh established new public safety programs for Oregon's traditional fishing and lumber trades and took measures to attract new industries to the state, bringing thousands of jobs. He initiated the state's lottery, launched a worldwide tourism initiative, and got the Columbia River Gorge designated as a national scenic preservation area. After Ateyih's term, the governor's residence on Winter Street became headquarters for the Department of Environmental Quality for the State of Oregon. It has now been moved slightly north to accommodate the North Capitol Mall Office building.
• Kathryn Gunnell, a prominent Salem personality and noted photographer dies this year. Leaving no heirs, her professional collection was left to the Marion County Historical Society.

The Frederick and Nelson Store, on the Liberty and Chemeketa Streets site of the former Lipman's, closes this year.

The Devereaux Apartments, managed by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, serves as a shelter for the homeless.

The star logo is prominently displayed on the walls of the Salem Centre Mall as the new second floor of Marion Parkade gives entrance into the retail stores.

Salem in 1891

World Events

• After the Hawaiian regent David Kalakaua dies, his sister Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii. Her attempts draft a new Constitution and extend voting rights led to her overthrow by the U.S. within two years.
• Java Man, considered the "missing link" between apes and humans is discovered by Eugene Dubois. The fossils are at least 700,000 years old.
• In France, troops fire on a workers' May Day demonstration in support of the 8-hour workday, killing 9 and wounding 30.
• New Scotland Yard becomes the HQ of the London Metropolitan Police.
• Croatian-born Nicola Telsa invents the Tesla Coil, a high voltage transformer. With Westinghouse, Telsa produced the electricity that lit the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.
• Edison exhibits his kinetoscope, creating an illusion of movement on film.
• In Coney Island, Jesse W. Reno patents the first escalator.
• Appearing this year in British magazines:" A Study in Scarlet", by Conan Doyle and "The Light That Failed" by Rudyard Kipling. Also published in  (in a censored and serialized version), "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented" by Thomas Hardy.

In Salem
Willamette students at a YMCA Conference in Massachusetts came home to Salem excited about the new game of basketball, invented by James Naismith. Frank E. Brown, a first year student at Willamette University Academy, was the leader in promoting the game after hearing about it from students who attended the conference. They reported that Naismith had taken two peach baskets and had hung them in the gym as targets for the ball. The first Salem games were played in the YMCA gym housed a handsome, three story building at the northwest corner of Chemeketa and Commercial Streets (The photograph above was taken in 1898.). Players from the YMCA and the University followed the "crudely simple" rules: including players lying in circle and scrambling for the ball at a beginning whistle. A Girls Basketball team was described in the 1905 Wallulah yearbook as "five of the pluckiest girls that ever bloomed forth in bloomers."

When you visit
The YMCA moved out of the building in the following year and the building itself (the State Insurance Building) was demolished before 1948. In 1895 Brown convinced University trustees to build a gymnasium and it was used for basketball until it burned in 1921. After his death in 1958, the University dedicated a recreation area to Frank Brown.

Other events

• P. H. D'Arcy is elected mayor and will serve for two years.

• Fire destroys the interior of Waller Building at Willamette University. The photograph of that date shows men and women, all dressed formally (everyone in hats), watching smoke bellow from the roof.
• Two business establishments are constructed. The Burke Building just north of Ferry on Commercial Street, is significant as the location where the Salem Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1922. The Gray Building at the corner of State and Liberty (above), stands in one of our most important downtown locations. In the early 1900s, the Russell Catlin and James Lynn, merchants doing business together, bought the building. The present owners are descendants of Russell Catlin. (See these in the SHINE Downtown Walking Tour.)
• Two substantial farmhouses that had recently been built beyond the city limits are now Local Landmarks in the NEN neighborhood. The Pettygrew house at 587 Statesman Street was owned by that farming family from 1910 to 1939. It has retained its integrity for over a hundred years. The Matthews house at 2010 Nebraska Street was not so fortunate. Owned by that family for about 40 years, it had a number of subsequent owners and suffered many unfortunate alterations during the years it was modified into apartments. The current owners have restored it to its former dignity.
• The Strang House, on the southwest corner of Capitol and Leffelle Streets in the SCAN neighborhood, is somewhat of a mystery. Believed to be of this construction date, it was moved here from its original location on Front Street, in 1891 a typical Salem middle class residential neighborhood. It is likely to be the oldest house in the Gaiety Hill/Bush Pasture Park Historic Residential District. (It can be seen in the SHINE Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Walking Tour.)
• A "development" of three Simpson Cottages are built on Court Street on the block between 17th Street and Mill Creek. These are now part of the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District.
• Four miles southeast of Salem, a $50,000 institution, serving as a reformatory for boys was established as the Oregon State Training School. Inmates would be instructed in behavior and given military drill and discipline. By the 1920's Salem's city limits were closer to the Reform School and townspeople were alarmed by the city's proximity and the relative ease of escape by its youthful inmates. A 1927 fire gutted the main building and the decision was made to relocate the facility to Woodburn, now the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility.
• The North School is constructed this year. The name of this imposing building at Market (Garden Road) and North Winter Street was changed in 1908 to Grant School. It was razed in 1954 for the modern school building in that location today.

• The original First Baptist Church at Marion and Liberty Street is built in an elaborate style that includes a tower and turret, windows of various shapes decorated with stained glass, and a center section rising to a peak in two elevations. It was demolished in 1943.
• On August 5, a surprise undertow at North Beach (near the former Tioga, WA) took the lives of two members of a bathing party: Willie Steel and Nellie Boise. The tragic incident is reported at length in a newspaper article entitled, "A Cruel Ocean." Miss Boise was the daughter of Salem Judge Reuben Boise.
• In December, F. S. Dearborn, a book seller on Commercial Street, offered Oregon wild flowers nicely presented and arranged in booklet form as a Christmas gift to be mailed.