Salem in 1962

World Events

• In October, a two-week Cuban Missile Crisis ends as Kennedy announces that Khrushchev will remove Soviet missiles in Cuba. Linus Pauling is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign against nuclear weapons testing.
• John Glenn orbits the earth in Friendship 7. Walter Schirra and Scott  Carpenter complete pioneer space flights. The U. S. Navy SEALS, elite special forces are commissioned for both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets.
• Two world-famous American women die: August 5, Marilyn Monroe; November 7, Eleanor Roosevelt. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes TV viewers on a tour of the White House.
• Rachel Carson warns of eco-danger. Her book, Silent Spring, gives rise to the modern environmental  movement.
• The term "personal computer" is coined.  AT&T's commercial communications satellite is launched into orbit. "Big Box" stores are created: Kmart, Target and Wal-Mart. Taco Bell opens its doors.
• Wilt Chamberlain scores a record-breaking 100 points in a NBA game.
• Andy Warhol premieres his "Campbell's Soup Cans" art exhibition. The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair, with Space Needle, opens in Seattle.
• Academy Award:"Lawrence of Arabia" (US), "Sundays and Cybele" (France). Prize-winning Books: The Moviegoer, Walker Percy and The Edge of Sadness, Edwin O'Conner.

In Salem
If the 1935 fire that destroyed the State Capitol building is the most remembered event in the city's history, the windstorm of 1962 probably ranks as the second.
The majority of structures in Salem experienced damage during that calamitous storm on Columbus Day. At its peak, between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. that Friday, it brought gusts of 90 M.P.H. and sustained winds of over 70 M.P.H. The $4 million total damages to Salem were higher than for any disaster the City had yet seen. The storm came with little warning and hit hard. It crossed the Oregon-California border on Friday, October 12, at noon, moving north at 48 M.P.H., reaching Salem at mid-afternoon. The ferocity of the winds as they roared through Salem shocked residents. Downtown, pedestrians were hit by glass from shattering windows, and dodged flying debris. Shoppers trying to get home were knocked to the ground. Cars were blown onto sidewalks and yards. The large sign on the roof of the Elsinore Theater was battered and crumpled by the wind and part of a wall at the Capitol Press Building fell onto two cars; rain then poured into the building. The steeple was torn from the Christ Lutheran Church at 18th and State Streets and dropped onto the sidewalk. Trees were blown over and uprooted. On the Capitol grounds, a falling tree knocked over the 3 1/2 ton statue of The Circuit Rider. (The photo seen here is from the Hugh Stryker Collection.)

When you visit
A few months later, the statue was repaired and replaced on its plinth.
The Circuit Rider statue was sculpted by A. Phimister Proctor to honor Oregon's circuit-riding ministers. Robert A. Booth, whose father was a Methodist Episcopal circuit rider, presented the statue to the state as a gift in 1924. It was originally placed in an imposing location in front of the 1876 State House. When the Capitol was rebuilt in 1937, facing north instead of west, the Circuit Rider was repositioned among other statuary in a wooded area. The imposing memorial can be seen to the east of the Capitol on the path leading to Waverly Street.

Other Events

Purification ponds on Minto Brown Island, 1965

• Boise Cascade purchases Oregon Pulp and Paper Company, a lumber company that began production at the same site in 1920. (The gabled roof of the Oregon Pulp and Paper Company building was still visible as part of the Boise Cascade plant when it was demolished in 2009.) After 1962 purchase, a yeast plant was added to convert byproducts of paper making into a food additive. In 1964 a container facility supplied cartons for food processing plants. Several improvements were made under Boise both to expand production and to meet air and water quality standards; purification lagoons were built on Minto Brown Island across the slough. Today these lagoons are both a protection from further water contamination and a hindrance to development of that section Minto Brown Island for public use. The industrial abuse of both the Willamette Slough and the island beyond makes urban development adjoining Riverfront Park's south border especially difficult. The plan for a pedestrian bridge from the park (beginning near the Eco Ball) must avoid disturbing the soil beneath the slough and the users of the bridge will have limited access to the island on the other side. A path will lead users to the now public section of the Minto Brown Park.
• The Chemeketa Street property of the Church of Christ Scientist is sold in September, providing space for the future development of the Nordstrom Mall. Meanwhile, church members have purchased property at High and Kearney Streets from Willamette University for the purpose of constructing a new church. This was the site of the 1860 John Carson house. (See 1954)
• Migrant Hispanic workers are employed in Marion County fields, but in Salem itself, the Latino population is small. Isabella Varela Ott moved to Salem in the 1950s to live with her daughter, Mary Varela Martinez, and her husband Pablo Martinez, a native of Peru. Mrs. Ott had a strong work ethic and wanted her children and grandchildren to have the same. She would take them out into the fields in the summers to pick beans, hops, and string beans. She also worked in local canneries. She was proud to be an American citizen and considered it a privilege to be able to vote and would do so at every opportunity. She also respected the people and culture of Mexico and stayed in contact with her son Luis who lived with his wife and family in Guadalajara. As the wife of a railway worker, she had access to a Southern Pacific pass that authorized her to travel free to Mexico. These trips continued every other year until her last one in 1971 at the age of seventy-six, twice taking her grandson David. She made it very clear that the American family should never forget their Mexican relatives. That grandson, Dr. David Martinez of Portland, recalls that theirs was one of only four Latino families in Salem in the 1960s and his social life as a high school teenager was difficult. 

Thomas Kay Mill in last years of operation

• Thomas Kay Woolen Mill closes due to loss of business in a changing market. The mill had been under continuous ownership and management of three generations of the Kay family until it was sold to the Mission Mill Museum Association for $160,000 in 1965, after having been closed for three years. The Mission Mill Association restored it to show authentic manufacturing processes from the time, and to depict the industrialization of America. Its buildings, exhibits and tours are now the centerpiece of the Willamette Heritage Center. The Kay family home on Court Street, only a few blocks away from the mill itself, had been demolished in 1937 when the State of Oregon had appropriated the property for the first building of the North Capitol Mall. The Oregon State Library stands on the former residence site.

Salem in 1924

World Events

• Fascist Benito Mussolini, using secret police to crush unions and enforce extreme nationalism, is elected Prime Minister and then Il Duce (the leader) in Italy.
• At the death of Lenin, Joseph Stalin purges his rivals to become ruler in the USSR.
• Congress passes the Immigration Act, excluding Asians. The Indian Citizenship Act grants U.S. citizenship to Native Americans born within territorial limits. With the close of the Apache Wars, all conflict with Native Americans ends after 302 years.
• The British Empire Exhibition opens in London with representations from its 58 nations. The International Olympic Committee is formed with the first modern games in Paris. (see movie "Chariots of Fire")
• J. Edger Hoover is named head of the U.S. FBI. Nellie Ross of Wyoming is named first woman governor.
• A tabulating company is renamed International Business Machines (IBM). A media company, MGM is founded in Los Angeles. Mercedes-Benz is organized in Stuttgart, Germany. Caesar Salad is invented in Tijuana, Mexico.
• Comedian Will Rogers is at the height of his career. The Pulitzer Prize goes to Edna Ferber for So Big.

In Salem
In Salem’s Crystal Garden Ballroom residents danced on Wednesday and Saturday nights to some of the best-known bands in the nation. Modern dancing was on the main floor and old time polkas, schottisches and two-steps upstairs. The building was constructed for Otto Klett who died in 1947. The next owner extensively remodeled the building for meetings, banquets and conventions in addition to the dancing. Ballroom dancing declined in popularity and the last “old time dance” was held in 1964. A 1961 photograph of the Crystal Garden Ballroom shows how little the exterior of the building has changed from its original appearance.

When you visit
According to an article written by Wilma Bonsanti for the Oregon Statesman in December of 1971, the crystal chandelier was stored in the home of Mr. Gwynn, a former owner. Of Czechoslovakian prisms, it was the twin to one hanging in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. The building retains its original appearance and has housed several businesses and a successful restaurant. Until recently, the lobby contained a framed newspaper clipping recalling this building's important place in a past Salem social life that included the whole family.

Other events

• The Willamette freezes, wrecking sternwheeler vessels. The freighter Relief, operating between Portland and Salem, was crushed by an ice jam at the Salem waterfront moorage, then listed further to its side and sank.

The Doughboy Memorial at Oregon Veterans Building

• To commemorate the service and sacrifice of Marion County members of the American Expeditionary Force in France during the recently past World War, a statue of the "Doughboy" is erected on the Courthouse lawn. The Courthouse was demolished in 1954, but the statue remained in place until 1991. When the Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs building was constructed, it was moved to that military memorial park where it stands in a beautiful landscape near Mill Creek.
• The Circuit Rider, a memorial statue created by A. Phimister, was placed on the Capitol grounds. Robert Booth of Eugene, whose father was a Methodist Episcopal circuit rider, donated it to the State of Oregon.
• Busick and Sons Grocery is established in the Bush-Brey Building on Commercial Street and will be a feature of Salem household shopping until 1970.
• Parrish Middle School is built facing Capital at D Street on land that was originally a part of the Josiah Parrish Donation Land Claim. The Chamber of Commerce had fully supported the school bond of $225,000 to build this first Salem junior high school and Dr. H. H. Olinger, head of the school board, urged the construction. The school opened September 29 with HF Durham as Principal. In 1948 the first remodeling took place when an auditorium, gymnasium, and three new classrooms were added. In 1974 Parrish had its Golden Anniversary; 200 former students and teachers attended. In 1994 students and staff moved out for one year while Parrish was updated. In 1999, during the 75th celebration, a time capsule was buried.

Nelson Home

• On E Street, an English Cottage is designed by Jamison Parker for Carl Nelson, a securities broker who went into wool and hops businesses after the crash of 1929. After the death of Mrs. Nelson in 1944, the house was sold. In the 1990s it became the Cottonwood Cottage Bread and Breakfast business establishment. It is a National Register property (1997) in the Grant Neighborhood.
• In the Fairmount Hills south of Salem, three prominent families have lived in a Spanish Colonial Revival home built for Curtis Cross at the top of fashionable Fairmount Hill. The second owner was Asel C. Eoff, the owner of Eoff Electric Company. The third owner was Dr. Ralph Purvine. Dr. Purvine was significant in both the medical and education fields in Salem, having been a physician at Willamette University and a founder of the Salem Clinic. Dr. Purvine’s daughter lived there for many years. It became a National Register property in 1982.

Mahonia Hall

• A neighbor of the Cross House is the former Thomas Livesley family home on Lincoln Street, a Tudor-style mansion designed by Ellis Lawrence and occupied by the Livesley family for 34 years. It was sold in 1958 and had four more owners before being purchased by the State of Oregon as the official governor's mansion. It is now known as "Mahonia Hall" after the state flower, the "Oregon grape".

From the Capitol Journal:

• Some substance, which many car owners believed to be little flakes of sulfur cast off from the paper mill, was wreaking havoc with the finish of automobiles parked along Salem streets. The small flakes ate their way through and right down to bare metal surface.
• Rev. H. D. Chambers, rector of St. Paul's Church, in a sermon condemned the movement among local churches to bring Billy Sunday to Salem. Said Rev. Chambers, " When the pulpit has to degenerate into a place of sensationalism and emotionalism in order to compete with worldly agencies, it is time to admit failure."