Salem in 1929

World Events

•  The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war, goes into effect, signed by most leading countries. It did not prevent WW II, but many of its provisions were included in the United Nations organization in 1945. Frank B. Kellogg is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for this pact.
• The Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See sign the Lateran Treaty establishing Vatican City as an independent state within Rome.
• Herbert Hoover is sworn as 31st President as the stock market collapse wipes out more than $30 billion from the New York Stock Exchange (10 times greater than the annual budget of the federal government).
• The Grand Teton National Park is established by the U.S. Congress. It joins Yellowstone, Sequoia and Yosemite. The longest bridge in the world opens: San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge.
• In "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre" seven are murdered. "Speakeasies" flourish as not-so-secret, illegal bars.
• In New York, the Museum of Modern Art opens. Noel Coward and George Gershwin produce plays for Broadway. The Academy Award recognizes World War sacrifices with "All Quiet on the Western Front". The Pulitzer Prize: Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge.

In Salem 
The Roaring Twenties are about to end, but before the stock market crash this October two grand residences are built. 

The Jarman House : Gaiety Hill Neighborhood

One of these replaced an older residence, the 1907 Hughes house at corner of High and Oak Streets.
A new residence is built on the site of their home this year by Daniel Jarman, a retired J. C. Penney manager. He hired Los Angeles architect, G. C. MacAlister, to design a Spanish Colonial residence. The landscape plan of the gardens was designed and carried out by Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, Oregon's first women landscape architects. (For many years, they lived two blocks to the south at 545 Mission Street in a house Elizabeth built in 1932. The property had belonged to her father, a former governor.)
Louis and Margaret Lachmund purchased the house in 1938. A year before, their own house on Court Street had been acquired by the state for North Capitol Mall construction. (This house was first purchased by Willamette University and moved to the campus to serve as the president's residence, eventually it was moved to the 2400 block of State Street.) Louis Lachmund died in the 1940s, but Margaret lived remained on High Street until her death in 1972. A photograph taken probably in the 1960s shows how little it has changed in the more than 80 years since it was built.

The Lamport House : Nob Hill Neighborhood

• Another elaborate home built in this last year of the booming 1920s, was the Lamport House on Lower Ben Lomond Drive in the SCAN neighborhood. This expanded English Cottage style residence was designed by O. J. Fitch of Portland with Tudor revival details typical of the inventive residential architecture of the 1920s. The property included a garden, tennis court and swimming pool. Frederick and Eleanor Rogers Lamport were leaders in Salem’s political, social and cultural life between the World Wars. The house retains many of the original features although the property has diminished in size. It is in the SCAN neighborhood and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.

When you visit
These are private residences in the SCAN neighborhood, easily seen from the streets where they are located. Both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Other Events

Self Portrait of Kathrrine Gunnell

• Kathryn Gunnell photographed "Miss Salem" this year. A personal style was reflected in her photography, collected at the Marion County Historical Society (now Willamette Heritage Center). Her studio this year was Gunnell and Robb, located at 520 State Street. Subjects were exceptionally varied: they included graduating classes including those at Chemawa, Rose Parades in Portland, Elsinore Theater artists, black performers, Franchon and Marco traveling vaudeville troups (for which she was official photographer), baby pictures, sets of twins, "Miss Salem" of 1929, local buildings of note and occasional exhibits. As a student of that time remembered her, “Her style was striking. She had flaming red hair which she had done in high style. We kids thought she was wonderful.  She had this really smooth way of flattering everyone to get a smile.”

• Charles Sprague comes to Salem to be editor of the Oregon Statesman newspaper. Mr. Sprague became owner and publisher, establishing a reputation as one of the Nation's great editors. He served as Governor of Oregon from 1939 to 1943. He had become one of Salem's most respected citizens when he died in 1969. An English Tudor house was built for Charles and Blanche Sprague in 1920 to replace a house that was removed. The Sprague family lived here for 25 years. In 1956 it was sold to Chi Omega sorority of WU. It is now owned by the state and  use for a social services agency.

Salem in 1911

World Events

• The Mexican Revolution, led by Madero and Pancho Villa, ends as Porfirio Diaz resigns and flees to France. Political conflict continued until the adoption of a Constitution in 1917 .
• Physician, writer and philosopher Sun-Tat-Sun (known afterward as the Father of the Nation) is elected Provisional President of a democratic government in China as Manchu dynasty falls.
• Marie Curie wins Nobel Prize for chemistry.
• U. S. Supreme Court finds Standard Oil Trust violated Sherman Anti-trust Act. The monopoly broken up and 34 companies established.
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 immigrant (mostly women) workers unable to escape as the doors were locked by owners to prevent unauthorized work breaks.
• Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu in Peru.
• Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition reaches the South Pole.
• Bobby Jones wins is first golf title at the age of 9.
• New American Books: Jennie Gerhardt, Theodore Dreiser; Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton; Canzoni, Ezra Pound.

In Salem

• In this photograph, President William Howard Taft stands in an automobile, surrounded by not-so-Secret Service. In the background is the Eugene Breyman house on the northeast corner of Church and Court Streets, now the site of Statesman Journal. The president appears to be facing the Breyman Brothers Spanish American War Memorial at the entrance to Willson Park. Hallie Parrish Hinges (featured in the 1903 entry) leads a chorus of school children as the president gazes down on the group.

After leaving office, Taft spent his time in seeking world peace through his self-founded "League to Enforce Peace." In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft Chief Justice of the United States, fulfilling Taft's lifelong dream. Taft served in this capacity until his death in 1930.

When you visit
The Eugene Breyman residence, like that of his brother Werner (a block south), has been demolished. This house, greatly renovated, was moved to Summer Street during the conversation of the original residential block to commercial use. In the 1990s it was demolished for the construction of the State Lands Building.
The 1904 Spanish American memorial remains the Cottage Street gateway into Willson Park. The park was created in 1854 when William Willson, pioneer of the Methodist mission, donated a portion of his land to build the new Oregon territorial capitol building. The capitol would be located in the center of a long, open space designated on Willson's original plat as "Willson Avenue," just south of his house on the corner of Court and Capitol streets. (See 1881) It was Willson's wish to preserve open spaces within the growing town, similar to the village commons in the New England towns. The block between the capitol building and the Marion County Courthouse was declared a public square. It eventually became known as Willson Park.

Other events

Duniway-Lachmund Home on Court Street, 1911-1930s

Present State Street Location, 2014

• Louis Lachmund becomes mayor. Due to the construction of the North Capitol Mall in 1937, his home on Court Street was condemned, purchased by Willamette University and moved to the campus. A subsequent move brought it to its present location on State Street. When the Lachmunds left their home, they moved to the Jarman House, a 1929 Spanish Colonial residence designed by Beverly Hills architect Glen McAlister with gardens created by the local landscape firm of Lord and Schryver. This National Register property can be seen on SHINE Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Walking Tour.
• An outstanding social event is the wedding of Margaret Boot to Asahel Bush IV, grandson of the newspaper publisher and founder of Ladd and Bush Bank. Her parents' home is on Birdshill Drive in South Salem neighborhood. The young couple became parents of Asahel V and Stuart Bush. Margaret died at age of 34 in 1934 after an illness of 3 years.
• D. A. White Warehouse is erected on Front Street. This company had numerous large feed warehouses, including one in Europe, but this the only one that remains a token of that enterprise of the horse-and-buggy era.  It is still standing in the same location and can be seen on the SHINE Historic Downtown Walking Tour.
• Eugene Ely, the Bird Man, an aviation pioneer, visits Salem and makes a successful flight. He mounts his fragile machine on Lone Oak track at the fairgrounds, turned on the juice and after skimming along the track, arose from the ground in front of the grandstand. He ascended about 400 feet and raced around the track, first with an automobile and then with a motorcycle. As a final performance, he circled the Capitol Dome. That October he died during a Macon, Georgia exhibition in a crash when his plane was late pulling out of a dive.

In the Capitol Journal:

• Salem's mayor was arrested for violating a traffic ordinance, His honor was charged with cutting a corner at the intersection of State and Commercial streets. The mayor pleaded that his horse was just a colt and that he could not control it. Judge Elgin remitted the fine and the mayor was richer by a $5 gold piece.
• Buren and Hamilton, Salem household furnishers, advertised heating stoves from $1.50 up. Their carbon heaters for both coal and wood were supplied with heavy grates and extra-heavy cast iron fire pots. All had large mica doors in front, giving the effect of an open fire. They were neat and free from superfluous trimmings.
• Barnes Cash Store offered old Civil War Springfield rifles of 45-70 calibers with a bayonet for $1.50. "A very appropriate decoration for Memorial Day".
• Secretary of State Olcott desired to oust State Printer Duniway from the Capitol. he requested an opinion from Attorney General Crawford on the subject. Crawford ruled that the state printer was occupying his quarters without authority, but so were the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the governor and the Supreme Court.

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.)

Salem in 1908

World Events

• Japanese emigration to U.S. is forbidden under terms of the "Gentlemen's Agreement" by administration officials of Japan and United States, easing the fear that a legal treaty against Japanese might cause hostilities
• Sentiment against Chinese labor in America grows as part of the fear that cheap Asian labor was taking America jobs.
• Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress issues ultimatum to Sultan Hamid II to restore the Ottoman Constitution of 1876: it is done the next day.
• Tunguska Event (or Russian Explosion) in Siberia is believed to be caused by air burst of meteorite or comet 3 miles above the earth surface.
• Grand Canyon National Monument was established due to Roosevelt's enthusiasm for preserving America's natural assets.
• Henry Ford introduces the Model T, the first affordable automobile.
• Related inventions: Fountain pens become popular after Walter Schaffer patents a vacuum ink filler. The Hoover Company acquires manufacturing rights to an upright portable vacuum cleaner.
• New Books: The Circular Staircase, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame and Room with a View, E.M. Forster.

In Salem
The Oregon Electric Railway runs between Portland and Salem with a terminus at the Hubbard Building on the corner of High and State Streets (as seen above) in the hub of our city. A block to the north is the City Hall. The Grand Hotel, the Grand Theater and the Marion County Courthouse are just steps away. One block to the east is the First Methodist Church and the Post Office. Beyond that are Willson Park, the State House and Willamette University. Truly, this is the center of the city. There are 35 daily trips, each taking an hour and a half and costing twenty-five cents.

When you visit
The building remains, painted a light color. The Grand Hotel Annex and Theater are still there. Gone are the City Hall, the classic Courthouse, the Post Office and the State House of those years. The trains and even the rails are also gone: victims of the Depression years and the growing convenience of the automobile. The trains stopped running in 1935 and the rails were gradually removed. In 1972, the final Trade Street rails were dug out for the new Civic Center and improvements to Willamette University campus.

Other events

• Local boy, A. C. Gilbert, wins an Olympic Gold medal. He qualified for the 1908 Olympics in London, but his victory there was disappointing. After a controversy with the judges about his use of a pole of his own invention, he used the same pole as his rival, E. T. Cooke - and still won. However, the judges ruled that Cooke had reached the same height in the preliminaries, and that the two should share the medal. Cooke graciously let Gilbert have the medal which was presented to him by Queen Alexandria of England.

The Chinese float in the annual Cherry City Parade

• The local Chinese community, active in Salem life, enter a float in the annual Cherry Festival Parade.
• Eaton Hall is built on the Willamette University Campus. This classroom building was built with a $50,000 grant from Mr. A.E. Eaton, the owner of Union Woolen Mills.

The Gottlob and Wilhelmina Pade House

• On 15th Street, the Pade House is built by Gottlob and Wilhelmena Pade, recent immigrants. This was also home for their son, Bernhardt, a partner in Simon and Pade grocery store. He operated Pade’s Market until retirement 1965. After his death in 1975, his widow, Leona, lived here until 1985. She was well known for her garden of rare plants. This Local Landmark is also in the NEN neighborhood.

Walter and Grace Gerth House in West Salem

• Another 1908 house to become a Local Landmark is the Gerth House. Walter and Grace Gerth operated their Edgewater Street store for 35 years, from 1911 to 1946. During this time he served several terms as mayor of West Salem, built the first two-story commercial building in West Salem, started the first grocery delivery and loaned the city money to pay its bills.
• An ornamental concrete block house is built at 1724 Chemeketa Street using Sears Modern Home Plan #52. This year the Sears catalog had 8 pages advertising machines that could stamp out blocks that were "cheap, quick and practical" building materials. This house was probably built by C. B. Stone, who had purchased the lot in 1907 and was listed in the City Directory of 1909-10 as a "cement worker" with a next-door address as his residence. See it in the Court-Chemeketa Walking Tour.
• The Oregon State Institution for the Feeble Minded opens in December. Renamed as Fairview Training Center, it continued as a Salem institution until its closing in 2000. A 1920s photograph shows the LeBreton Cottage (the 1908 administration building), the 1919 Hoff Cottage and the 1910 Chamberlain Cottage. All were, despite their names, sizable buildings resembling hospitals.

From the Capitol Journal:

• Spectators pronounced the fistfight witnessed on State Street in front of the Spa as "one of the finest". Even the street car stopped to allow combatants, who were slugging it out in the mud along the tracks, to continue their battle.
• W. B. Gibson, who had operated a barber shop at 147 Commercial Street for the past three years, moved to a larger and more elegant quarters at 364 State Street. His new shop would be one of the largest outside Portland with 11 chairs, two suites of bathrooms and club and card rooms in the basement.
• This newspaper advertized for a carrier boy on a route that required he own and ride a pony.

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006)

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Moving Salem History #11 of 12

Trovar photograph, courtesy Oregon State Library

This Craftsman house was owned in 1907 by Willis S. Duniway and wife Alice. He was the son of Benjamin and Abigail Scott Duniway, a pioneer Oregon advocate of women's suffrage. When the residences of “Piety Hill” were demolished for the construction of the North Capitol Mall (1937-57), this one was spared. Then the residence of former Mayor Louis Lachmund, it was moved in 1937 to Willamette University to serve as residence of the president.

When the Johnson House at 325 Lincoln Street was selected for the Willamette University president, this house was moved to its present location in the 2430 State Street and is now part of a city-owned apartment complex. This is a prime example of how a house associated with Salem history can be useful today.