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 1954

World Events

• In Indochina, a Cease-Fire line between French forces in the south and Vietnamese forces in the north is drawn by a Peace Convention in Geneva with free elections to follow. Failure to keep this agreement led to the wider Vietnam War in which the US  engaged..
• The Iwo Jima Memorial is erected at Arlington Cemetery. The Air Force Academy established in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The first nuclear-powered submarine, U.S.S. Nautilus is launched.
• As a result of his public denouncements of prominent Americans as Communists, the US Senate condemns Senator Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute"
• Salk polio vaccine given to children. US Supreme Court strikes down "separate but equal" racial segregation in public schools with Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka. (Begun by father of 3rd grader Linda Brown in 1950.).
•  While Salem's Douglas McKay is Secretary the Interior, the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act ends recognition of the Grand Ronde tribe as a nation.
• In Los Angles, the 17 Watts Towers (Nuestro Pueblo) of Simon Rodia are completed after 33 years of his naive artistic construction.
• Ellis Island, the New York Harbor main immigration point, is closed.
• Academy Awards: "On the Waterfront" (US) "Gate of Hell (Japan). Prize-winning book: The Adventures of Augie Marsh, Saul Bellow.

• 

In Salem
Salem residents were getting used to the fact that their 1872 Victorian courthouse, once described as a "wedding cake", had now turned into a "cake box". The austere lines of the new Marion County Courthouse building, dedicated in June, reflect the mid-twentieth century architecture of Peitro Belluschi found in Salem and echo his design of the 1935 State Capitol. The only thing familiar to residents at the time this photograph was taken is the 1924 "Doughboy" statue, still standing on the lawn. The courthouse grounds are awaiting the landscaping to be supplied by the local firm of Lord-Schrvyer.

When you visit
In 1991 the "Doughboy" World War I memorial was moved to the new Oregon Department of Veteran Affairs Building on Summer Street. It can be seen there at the south end of the Veterans Memorial Park along Mill Creek. At the Courthouse itself, the entrance has been modified and barriers erected. These were put in place after a driver crashed his car up the front steps and into the building in 2006. The public may attend trials in the Courthouse, but should inquire about scheduling and restrictions. The office of the County Clerk has property records and clerks supply help in looking up specific properties of interest. The Marion County Recorder's Office maintains a website to direct viewers to other services.

Other events

• The Grant School building, at Market and Cottage Streets NE, is being prepared for demolition after serving the community for 64 years. It will be replaced by a more modern structure now in use (2014).
• While Salem High School, on Marion Street between Center and High Streets, is being torn down, a historic Class of 1906 plaque is found. Several houses of the neighborhood are also demolished as the property is prepared for the new Meier and Frank Department Store.
• The South Salem High School on Church Street is completed this year. Students whose parents lived south of State Street could attend the new three-year high school that was then adjacent to Leslie Middle School.
• Dr. Dean Brooks, becomes Superintendent of the Oregon State Hospital. He will temporarily become an actor in 1975 when he plays a small part in the Academy Award movie, "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest", filmed in that Salem institution. In 1954, a new geriatrics building opens on the north side of Center Street. Dr. Brooks was born in Everett, Washington in 1916. He attended the University of Kansas Medical School in Kansas City, Kansas and graduated from there on the 1st of June 1942. He was first licensed in Oregon to practice Psychiatry on the 21st of January 1950. He retired from the practice of Psychiatric Medicine on the 31st of December 1999. He never had a single complaint filed against him in his long and distinguished career as a Psychiatrist.
• St. Paul's Episcopal Church moves its parsonage. Another photograph shows it in its original location. Currently, the former rectory is located on Leffelle Street in the Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Historic District, directly south of the park. It is seen on the SHINE Court-Chemeketa Walking Tour.
• A new YWCA of Pietro Belluschi design is built on State Street.  This former YWCA has had various tenants and is used periodically for CERT training purposes.

The John Carson House on High Street

• The John Carson house, a landmark of many years at the southwest corner of High and Kearney Streets, is about to be razed for the construction of a church. The original structure may have been constructed about 1860.  By 1889 it was the home of John and Helen F. Carson. They raised a family of two daughters (Ester and Catherine), and three sons (Wallace, John and Allen). Mr. Carson died in 1916, but his widow continued to live there until her death in 1939. The senior Mr. Carson was one of most eminent attorneys in the Northwest and a State Senator. His grandson is Wallace P. Carson, Jr. of Salem who served as Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court for 14 years and was named Citizen of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce in 2010. In 1943, a photograph of the large house with "sleeping porches" was taken from Kearney Street. The family of Evelyn Andrus lived there at that time.

The John Scott House on Court Street

• The undated photograph represents the beautiful home of Supreme Court Justice John Scott that occupied the northwest corner of Court and 12th Streets. Judge Scott died in 1952, his widow Maud lived there until her death this year. The couple, married 7 years, is enumerated in the 1910 census with her parents, James and Miranda Martin. This Victorian house may have been their home. What year it disappeared, or if it was moved, it not known.
• The annual Salem Art Association Art Fair that had moved into Bush House the year before, now becomes a "clothes-line" exhibition and sale on the Bush House grounds. The expanded Art Fair is a major tourist attraction in 2012 providing venues for art sales and family entertainment.