Salem in 1958

World Events 

• Drought, weather conditions and the political policies of Mao Zedong cause the "Great Famine" in China,  starving 20 million people.
• Van Cliborn wins Tchaikovsky international piano competition in Moscow easing Cold War tensions. Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier in USSR.
• Queen Elizabeth gives her son Charles the title Prince of Wales.
• Eisenhower sends Marines sent to Lebanon, citing United Arab Republic as responsible for violence.
• The word Aerospace comes into use. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is created by Congress. Authority for all aviation in the US is transferred to the new Federal Aviation Administration.
• Hoola Hoops become popular. Plastic Logo bricks are patented. The first House of Pancakes opens in California, the first Carrefour store in France.
• Elvis Presley is inducted into the Army. Roy Campanella of baseball fame is paralyzed by an automobile accident. 
• Academy Awards: "Gigi" (US), "My Uncle" (France). Prize-winning books: The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever and A Death in the Family, James Agee.

In Salem
The plan for constructing the fourth state structure on the North Capital Mall, the Labor and Industries Building, is well underway. The fourth section of Piety Hill, the houses on the block east of Winter Street between Chemeketa and Center Streets will be demolished or moved. This will be the enterprise that captures the most public attention as it requires the Presbyterian Church, then on the northeast corner of Chemeketa and Winter Streets facing Chemeketa Street, to be put on rollers and moved diagonally across Winter Street to face east. The move began in the winter of 1958 and continues for many weeks, the progress intentionally slow so as not to damage the sanctuary.
A number of houses on the west side of Winter and north side of Court Street have been purchased by the church and demolished. This included structures prominent in Salem history for the families who lived in them:
299 N. Winter Street, W. T. and Mattie Rigdon, son Lloyd (1890-1947)
267 N. Winter Street, George Pearce and daughters Helen and Dorothy (1892-1955)
245 N. Winter Street, Joseph and Josephine Albert (dates of house unknown)
785 Court Street, Otto Krause and earlier Robert Fleming (1870s-1954)
745 Court Street, Max Buren and earlier residence of Charles and Fannie Bishop, J. J. Murphy that had been moved to Willamette University to be the president's residence. (1880-1955)
 The Pearce sisters had moved out of their family home in 1955, after purchasing a residence at 490 Oak Street on Fry Hill. One confessed to a friend that she wondered what her late father, George Pearce, would think of them moving to such a large house. The sisters had a sentimental affection for their "auto house", one of Salem's first garages, and brought it with them to be placed in the rear of the house. It is a tradition among parishioners of the church that after the church moved, the sisters sat in the pew that was directly above the location where their house had been.

The last section of Piety Hill is demolished,

When you visit
The church is located on the southwest corner of Chemeketa and Winter Streets, above the former site of the Rigdon and Pearce houses. To the south there are other buildings replacing the Albert/Fleming houses and, around the corner on Court Street, another wing of the church where the Bishop and Buren (1907-1966) houses were located. The house on Oak Street where the Pearce sisters moved, has been the home of the Kohne family for thirty years, but has retained its historic name. Although it has had alterations, the Kohnes honor the history of the house.
The Colonial style manse of the church was also moved. Built in 1926, the first pastor to occupy the manse was the Rev. Ward Willis Long and his wife, Evangeline. Their daughter was born there. The house is now a private residence located at the northeast corner of 18th and Court Streets. It is a contributing property in the Court-Chemeketa Historic District of the NEN Neighborhood and can be seen on the SHINE walking tour of the district.

Other events

• Mark Hatfield is elected governor of Oregon.
• The early parsonage of the Methodist Mission is moved from its original location for the construction of the water tower at the Kay Mill complex. It will be permanently located on the Mission Mill property, now Willamette Heritage Center.

This Lincoln store survives, but in a new building

• The community of Lincoln was once a busy port transit center for wheat being shipped to other landings. In 1958 the town has almost disappeared, but an old house serves as a store at the crossroads where Wallace Road meets Zena Road. A few miles west in Spring Valley, the Presbyterian Church celebrates its 100th anniversary.
• Eola School, also established in the 1850s, celebrates its 100th graduating class. Eight students pose for a photograph with their teacher.

• Our Southern Pacific Freight Station, located in a building predating the 1918 station itself, is still doing business this year. In 2010, fifty years later, the structure is in poor shape although the roof has been repaired through the generosity of the local roofing industry. The freight station was included in the recent nomination of this railroad property for the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, the building will find a new use as the Salem Greyhound Bus Station due to a generous private donation for its renovation.
• Donut Daze, a product of the Salvation Army sold at a shop near the Gilbert House on the riverfront, is popular with residents and especially state employees.
• Walton House, a property bequeathed by William S. Walton to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, becomes the rectory. It has since become a hospitality guesthouse for out-of-town patients, family or loved ones of hospital patients.

Salem in 1885

World Events

• King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as a personal possession. His harsh rule earned him infamy for atrocities against the native population and inspired the novel Heart of Darkness by the renowned British-Polish author Joseph Conrad.
• In Paris, Louis Pasteur  and Emile Roux successfully test their rabies vaccine on a boy bitten by a rabid dog. In America, the first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant.
• Home Insurance Company Building in Chicago is completed with ten floors and weight-bearing metal frame, the first skyscraper.
• LaMarcus Adna Thompson of Ohio made a fortune in designing a device to manufacture seamless hosiery, but is best known as the Father of the Gravity Ride ~ the roller coaster. A train wreck in Ontario, Canada kills the famous P.T. Barnum circus elephant, Jumbo.
• A rags-to-riches story is The Rise of Silas Latham, by William Dean Howells, "The Father of American realism".  The plot illustrates serious, ethical challenges in life and contrasts with traditional sentimental novel. For lighter reading, the "Good Housekeeping" magazine goes on sale for the first time.

In Salem
Salem is chosen for a relocated vocational "Indian School" 5 miles north of town. A library was provided, religious training was offered and students participated in sports programs. By 1926 there were 70 buildings on the 40-acre campus and almost 1,000 students. The next year is became a fully accredited high school. The school was threatened with closure in the 1930s, but remained open with 300 students, although Indian children were encouraged to attend local schools. With a 1950s move to a new campus on adjacent land, most of the old brick structures were destroyed; only one building remained on the old campus. The Chemawa Indian School is the oldest continuously operating boarding school in the United States.

When you visit
The undated photo above shows the Hospital Building that was placed on the National Register in 1992. It has since burned. 3700 Chemawa Road (intersecting with North River Road in Keizer or I-5) is the address of new campus established in the 1970s. The old cemetery may be only site marking the original school location.

Other Events

• W.W. Skinner is elected mayor and will serve two years.
• Joseph Drake is convicted of murder. The majority of public opinion felt the young black man had only been guilty of being "in the wrong place at the wrong time", but his attorney failed to convince the Oregon Supreme Court of the need for a new trial after prosecutors used "malicious innuendos". Petitions were circulated in his favor signed by many of the leading citizens including W. D. Claggett, Thomas Patton and six members of the jury. Governor Moody did not respond favorably. Joseph Drake persisted in asserting his innocence and told a reporter, "If I die, I will die with the truth in my mouth." He was hanged on gallows just north of the east entrance to the courthouse. A temporary fence for privacy enclosed the scaffold but the upper rooms of the courthouse offered ringside seats for the "grewsome spectacle". Two days after his death, a procession of both white and African American residents went to his graveside funeral.
• There were two fires this year: Salem's first railroad station was completely destroyed as was the Rector Building on South Commercial Street, originally built as a town hall. This large wooden building had deteriorated over the years, finally serving as a Chinese wash laundry.
• R.S. Wallace purchases the Salem Water Company and builds a pumping station at Trade and; Commercial Streets with a suction line in the Willamette Slough. Drinking water is improved. This is only one of the many services he provided the city and to Salem residents during his residence here. Wallace Road and Wallace Marine Park in West Salem commemorate his family.

Stratton House

Burton House

• Two residences built in 1885 survive. The Stratton House at 1588 State Street was built for Charles C. Stratton, Methodist minister and Chancellor of Willamette University (1892-1900). Rev. Stratton was married to the daughter of Alvan Waller and this house was constructed on the site of the Waller house that had been moved. By 1894 it had been sold to William Lord who served as governor (1895-1900) while he lived here. His daughter was Elizabeth Lord, the landscape garden and designer. It was also the home of Congressmen (1907-1933) W.C. Hawley, a former Willamette president. The structure is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 
•  The Burton House, eight blocks east at 2319, was built by the firm of Burton Brothers, a brick making business in Salem. Additions have obscured the original integrity of the building. Other buildings constructed of Burton brick included "The State University at Eugene", the Chemawa Indian school, the Salem City Hall, the Odd Fellows building and the Bayne building. The house continued as a residence up to the early 1950s. In 1962 a restaurant called "The Garden of Eat'n" occupied the building; it now houses apartments and office space. It is designated by the city as a Local Landmark.
• A residence built this year, but since demolished, was the Krause home on the northwest corner of Court and Winter Streets. Otto A. Krause and his wife, the former Lizzie Dalrymple, lived there until 1891 when it became the home of Robert Fleming. It was razed during the expansion of the Presbyterian Church and Oregon State buildings along Court Street in the 1950s. This city lot was originally part of the Holman family property: John Albert, Joseph Holman's son-in-law had his home there (next door) in the 1870s. Later, that residence was "moved over the trees of Willson Park" to a new location across from the Deaconess Hospital. (In the photo linked here, the Albert house is on the corner at the right.)
• Samuel Adolph sells his 1866 brewery to two employees, Maurice Klinger and Seraphin Beck, who establish Capital Brewery.

The Fall of the House of Dalrymple

The Dalrymple House was built by James J. and Mary Evans Dalrymple on Marion Street in about 1862. The family had three daughters: Jess Albert, Lizzie Krause and Kate Griffith. After the family sold the house, it was owned for many years by Ola Clark, a well-remembered math teacher at the high school. It was later rented and had been abandoned when the photograph above was taken. Kate's grandson, Dr. John Griffith, remembers the interior window shutters, curving stairway, woodwork and hardware were still original in the 1960s.

On May 10, 1972, a crane lifted a detached portion of the second floor in order to place it on the moving platform for the move to a new location. The first floor of the house is still in place and the Garfield School is seen in the background. A local newspaper reporter was there to photograph the action.


Moments later, with with a photographer looking on, the crane slipped as it was lifting the second story onto the moving platform. This was probably the most spectacular house move in Salem history. A parking lot on the northwest corner of Marion and Winter Streets is the site where this elegant Italianate residence once housed the Dalrymple family.

These three photographs are from the Oregon Historical Photograph Collections, Salem Public Library, Salem, Oregon

Below is a series of 12 historic Salem buildings that were more successfully moved to new locations.