Salem in 1975

World Events

• Communists take power in Vietnam and Cambodia. Americans and a few Vietnamese citizens who worked for the U.S. in Saigon were evacuated by helicopter.
• Juan Carlos I is declared king of Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco who had ruled since 1939.
• Britain selects its first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Ella Grasso of Connecticut  is the first woman elected governor of a state who does not succeed her husband.
• John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of Watergate cover-up and serve prison terms.
• Gates and Allen start "Micro-soft': computers. VCRs enter our homes. On TV, "Saturday Night Live" debuts.
• "Jaws" is a popular movie. But the Academy Award for a U.S. movie goes to one made in Salem: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Best foreign film is "Dersu Uzala" (Japan). Prize-winning Books: Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone and The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara.

In Salem
Hollywood came to town with the filming of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". The 1912 Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital (above) was the location for several scenes in the movie. Jack Nicholson played the leading role as R.P. McMurphy, a reckless young man serving a short prison term who is sent to a mental institution for observation. His baiting of the tyrannical Nurse Ratchet (Louise Fletcher) to make life easier for other patients leads to a tragic conclusion. A small part is played by Dr. Dean Brooks, the superintendent of the hospital. Dr. Brooks was initially reluctant for the film, based on Ken Kesey's book, to be made at OSH. However, after meeting the filmmakers he was relieved of his concerns and he even played a cameo role. Interior scenes were filmed in the Dome building and a few exteriors at the rear of the "J" building are seen in the finished film. The movie won five Academy Awards.

When you visit
The Dome Building, on the campus north of Center Street, is now used by Oregon State Department of Corrections. Some driveways are accessible, but the building itself is not open to the public. In 2008 the whole OSH campus was listed as a National Register property in order to preserve the heritage structures. After lengthy testimony before the Historic Landmarks Commission, permission was given for extensive demolition of buildings south of Center Street. One of the buildings included in the renovation was the historic Kirkbride Building across Center Street. Originally a U-shape, Center Street additions to that facility gave it a different configuration: it became known as the "J" Building. The renovation project has now been completed with a museum included in this historic structure. The Dome Building is not threatened at this time.

Other events

At the top of this photograph, Pringle Parkway curves around Lindsay Tower

Lindsay Tower soon after completion.

• The Lindsey Tower, providing housing for low-income senior or disabled residents, is completed, one year after the Salem Housing Advisory Committee was founded (1974). The committee advises the City Council and the Salem Housing Authority on housing goals and policies, including low and moderate income housing needs, housing assistance programs and Housing Authority budgets.
• The Salem Social Services Advisory Board, founded in 1967, has many of the same goals: the Board advises the Council on social service needs and programs and monitors ongoing social service programs.
• The exterior of the six-floor Equitable Building under construction at Center and High streets. This modern, 6-story structure will be completed in the following year.
• Salem has the latest model of fire trucks to equip the new #1 Fire Station just completed, facing Trade Street at the Liberty Street intersection. Just across Pringle Creek from the new Civic Center, this is the headquarters of our fire department. The structure had a renovation in 2011, providing a new entrance and interior improvements of service. Salem's historic fire bell is mounted in front of the building on Trade Street.
• Toyota automobiles are being sold in a new building of Capitol Motors on Mission Street. This may be one of the first dealers selling Japanese cars in Salem.
• The historic 1912 Bligh Hotel on State Street is demolished. Located between the McGilchrist and Masonic buildings, had featured both a popular hotel and a theater in previous years. By this year, the aging building was not considered worth saving and a parking lot took its place.
• Two more local heritage properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places this year: the Boon House and Boon Store. The residence is one of the oldest in Salem and the store served as our first state treasury.
• This year two more neighborhoods organize into associations. The downtown and most historic, core area of the city, Central Area Neighborhood Development Association (CAN-DO), which contains the National Register Historic Salem Downtown (a walking tour can be seen on SHINE). Many other individual properties have been designated as National Register or as Local Landmarks. West Salem also organized as city-sponsored neighborhood. This is a very active group and is unique in our city because the meetings (first and third Mondays, 7 p.m., Roth's IGA meeting room on Wallace Road) are held "town meeting" style in which everyone can vote on issues deliberated as neighborhood concerns. Other meetings are conducted by Board (usually about 15 volunteers) where only these vote. The West Salem neighborhood and the adjoining Spring Valley community have over a dozen historic properties designated by the city as Local Landmarks. The Harriott House at 2280 Wallace Road and the former City Hall at 1320 Edgewater NW are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Salem in 1912

World Events

• The Manchu Qing dynasty ends after 268 years, the Republic of China is proclaimed and officially led by Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang political party. (His wife is one of four Chang sisters educated in U.S.)
• Emperor Meiji of Japan dies, succeeded by his son , Emperor Taisho. Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gives 3,000 cherry trees to be planted in Washington, D.C. as a symbol of friendship.
• Woodrow Wilson is elected President. Elihu Root is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his strong interest in international arbitration and for his plan for a world court".
• The Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic with a loss of at least 1500 passengers and crew.
• New Mexico (47) and Arizona (48) become the last contiguous states. Alaska is accepted as a territory.
• The Girl Scouts is founded by Juliette Gordon Law in Savannah, Georgia.
• W. C. Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, publishes "The Memphis Blues", giving attention to "southern rag", the "blues" of today.
• Edgar Rice Burrough's "Tarzan" and Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu" both appear in magazines.
• New American Books: A Dome of Many-Colored Glass, Amy Lowell and Riders of the Purple Sage, Zane Grey.

 In Salem
In 1912, postcards were all the rage for Salem travelers wishing to share the novelty of new places seen in their adventures. The Patton brothers, Edwin Cooke and Hal had lived in Japan as children when their father was US Consul in Kobe. They knew the value of this business and opened Patton Postcard Hall in 1908. A narrow room filled with cards, it was located between the Patton and Gill Buildings on State Street. In this 1912 photograph, E. Cooke Patton, is working with an unknown lady assistant. Patton postcards were among the finest produced at the time with a German photographer and the colors applied with artistry.
Local collectors have preserved many of these postcards.

When you visit
No architectural traces of this pioneer family remain in Salem. The Postcard Hall disappeared during the expansion of US National Bank east along State Street in the 1960s. The Patton Building, adjacent to the bank, was demolished in the same construction. Their home is also gone. The brothers' grandfather, Edwin Cooke, had built the Cooke-Patton mansion on Court Street, opposite the State House. They lived in the house all their lives, first with their parents and then settling in with their wives after they married. Luella, Cooke Patton's daughter, was born there and lived with her family until she married and moved to 23rd Street. The house became among the first to be demolished for the construction of the state office buildings beginning in 1937.
(Luella lived to be 109, dying in 2007.)

Other Events

• Equal suffrage won voter approval in Oregon; women are allowed to vote for the first time in the December 2 city election. Smoking is therefore not permitted at polling places as the City Council determines a smoke-filled environment is not suitable for women. However, women were declared ineligible to serve on juries.
• Salem's first Oregon National Guard unit occupies the new Armory on the corner of Ferry and Liberty Streets.

Carnegie Library now Willamette University Civic Law Center

• The establishment of a Carnegie Library in Salem, sponsored by a committee of local women, opens on State Street. After the library moved into the Civic Center in 1972, the YWCA used the building. It is now the Civic Law Center of Willamette University.
• The handsome Masonic Hall is completed on the northwest corner of State and High Streets. It was designed by Ellis Lawrence, founder of the University of Oregon School of Architecture, who was also the architect for the Hubbard Building and the Elsinore Theater.
• The Jason Lee Memorial Church and the nearby Highland Elementary School are built this year in North Salem. Both are still serving their original purposes one hundred years later and are designated as Local Landmarks.

The Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital

• The Dome Building of the Oregon State Hospital is erected on the north side of Center Street. It was designed by Edgar Lazarus who also known for his Vista House on the heights above the Columbia Gorge. The beautiful building, originally used as a receiving ward, has a curved canopy descending over the entrance, fluted cast-iron columns, a flat roof with saucer dome and two-story wings to the north and south. Located on the north side of Center Street, it is not part of the current hospital renovation. It gained recognition in 1975 when used for scenes in the Academy Award winning film, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Oregon Sate Hospital Historic District.
• Walter Gerth, an early booster and mayor of West Salem, opens a store. The family home is now a Local Landmark on Gerth Street.
• Through 37 years, 1920-1957, Louis Olson and his wife Ida lived in a spacious 1912 bungalow at 1490 McCoy Avenue. This beautiful home is in the Grant neighborhood. Mr. Olson had a variety of occupations: packing superintendent at King Foods on Front Street (now Truitt Brothers), patrolman with the Salem Police Department, weightmaster with the State Highway Department, elevator operator and engineer at the Masonic Temple and, finally, caretaker of that institution.
• The Waller-Chamberlain House is moved to its present site on Court Street. It is considered the oldest residence in the Court-Chemeketa Residential Historic District.
• Wilbur Boothby dies at his residence, 171 Court Street. His life and many outstanding local achievements are recognized in contemporary newspaper accounts and a lengthy obituary. Born in Maine in 1840, he had come to Oregon in 1864, after various enterprises in California. His first business a sash and door factory. As a contractor and designer, he built the ornate Marion County Courthouse, the State Hospital, South Eldridge Block (now Greenbaum's Quilted Forest), Bush House and many other local buildings. His wife, the former Miss R. A. Dalglsish, died in 1910, leaving a son and daughter. The Rev. P. S. Knight conducted his funeral service at the home and Boothby was buried in the I. O. O. F. Cemetery ~ now Pioneer Cemetery.