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.

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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.

Salem in 1953

World Events 

• The CIA helps restore Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power in Iran, overthrowing the democratically elected  Mohammad Mossadegh. Vice President Nixon visits Iran causing riots (now an annual commemoration).
• On TV the world watches the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Eisenhower inauguration, Lucy giving birth on "I Love Lucy". (Color TV sets go on sale for $1,175.)
• The Korean Armistice Agreement establishes the DMZ between communist North and capitalist south.
• George C. Marshall is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (in part) as the originator of the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after WW II.
• Lung cancer first attributed to cigarette smoking, Jonas Salk announces a  polio vaccine. James Watson and Francis Crick discover the structure of DNA molecule.
• Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norway are first men to reach summit of Mount Everest. Mickey Mantle hits baseball's longest home run (565-feet).
• "Mad", "Playboy" (with Marilyn Monroe as centerfold) and 'TV Guide" are popular new magazines. The Academy Award went to "From Here to Eternity"(1954). National Book Award: Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison. Pulitzer Prize: Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway.

In Salem
Returning servicemen, who had only known the Depression as they were growing up, had their first home-owning experience in these look-alike "track houses". Although standing among others like small green tokens in a Monopoly game played on a vast, empty board, they were highly prized. Purchased with a GI loan, a few hundred dollars in a down payment, and small monthly payments, they represented a future of independence and prosperity. This house at 2116 Park Avenue was in one of the first housing developments in the Lansing neighborhood. Then outside the city limit, around it were open fields of the former farmland. Water was provided by privately owned 70 foot deep well which supplied the immediate area of houses. A young teacher was the first owner of this house, followed by Olga and Hilda Ask, sisters who had retired from farming. In 2010 it was still in possession of the third owners.

When you visit
It is difficult to find one of these homes that has not been substantially altered. In the case of this house, there is additional front room window, one in the kitchen has been modified and there is a wheelchair ramp. On a quiet suburban street, now with sheltering trees, it has an attractive and welcoming appearance and is testimony to the enduring value of these 60 year-old homes. It is in the Lansing neighborhood, north of Market Street.
Although it is now common to see large tracts of homes being built by developers (West Salem, for example), and even modified "row houses" (Grant neighborhood), these were limited concepts in Salem until the post-World War II era. An architect might use a similar design for several houses (Jefferson Pooler on Court Street in 1909-11), but the earliest "mass produced" houses were probably the Sears Catalog Home (1908-1940), which a private builder could order by mail (1724 Chemeketa is a local example). Many of these have retained their original exterior appearance and are designated as Local Landmarks or are qualified for the National Register. Professionals in historic preservation are now applying the same standards to 1940-50s "tract houses" that have retained their integrity of design. They are equally worthy of respect and preservation.

Other Events

• This is the last year for the Salem High School that is about to be razed for the construction of Meier & Frank Department Store, now Macy's. It was located on Marion Street, between High and Church streets.

Portland NAACP delegation, Senator Hitchcock and Representative Mark Hatfield.

• Oregon Assembly Representative, Mark Hatfield, is photographed (above) in a celebration for the Public Accommodations Act, signed this year. He had never forgotten that as a student at Willamette University, his task was to drive Paul Robeson to Portland after a singing engagement at the university. There was no place in Salem for the nationally recognized singer, actor and political activist to sleep that night. The photograph now hangs in the Capitol.
• Detroit Dam is completed by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Santiam River between Linn and Marion County in the Cascade Mountains. It was authorized for flood control. power generation, navigation and irrigation. Other uses include fishery, water quality and recreation. It created a 400-foot deep Detroit Lake more than 9 miles long with 32 miles of shoreline. Nearly 200 residents of the town of Detroit were moved; Highway #22 and the Santiam River were realigned.
• In 1938, Carroll Moores left his lifetime savings of $25,000 as an annuity for a friend and to create a memorial to Oregon pioneers. By this year, the invested sum had reached $34,000. Two art professionals making the selection decided Salem already had enough traditional statuary and suggested Renoir's Venus Victorieuse currently on sale in New York. The citizen uproar that followed was taken up by rival opinions in the newspapers. The Capital Journal newspaper called her "fat and naked". Women’s clubs thought it was undignified. Art teachers tried to get in a few words; so did ex-Governor Sprague. But the uproar grew. Mr. Putnam, publisher of the Capital Journal newspaper, commented that it was "just another art lover sneer at Salem for rejecting an unsuitable memorial to Oregon’s early pioneers." An answering editorial in the rival Salem Oregon Statesman newspaper concludes, "If we want to capitalize on this publicity, perhaps we should set up a base, bearing the label "Venus Unvictorieuse". The Capital Journal newspaper also presents a letter from the Council of National Sculpture Society emphasizing the unsuitability factors." The controversy would not be settled until 1959.

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  Gray House

  The Gray House is constructed at 3251 Bluff Avenue in the Morningside neighborhood. This International style residence was to be a retirement home for builder Paul Gray and his wife. However, Mrs. Gray died two years later and the house was sold to Viola and George Corrigan. Viola, widowed and remarried twice, lived in the house 43 years, walking 2-3 miles a day around the neighborhood. The present owners bought the house from her in 1998.

Salem in 1952

World Events

• King George VI dies. Daughter Elizabeth, on safari in Africa with Prince Phillip, prepares to come home and become Queen Elizabeth II. 
• Republicans Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon win the US presidential election. The U.S. National Security Agency is established. Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the US. On Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific, the U.S. tests the first hydrogen bomb.
• West Germany has 8 million refugees. East German government announces the formation of National People's army.
• The United Nations meets for the first time in the New York headquarters.
• Eva Peron dies in Argentina and the legend of "Evita" begins.
• Successful Medical Firsts: In Denmark, Christine Jorgensen is recipient of a sexual reassignment procedure. In Ohio, Siamese twins recover from surgical separation. A mechanical heart is used in a human patient.
• "I Love Lucy" is the favorite TV entertainment for 10 million viewers. Academy Awards: "The Greatest Show on Earth" (US) "Forbidden Games" (France). Prize-winning books: From Here to Eternity, James Jones and The Caine Mutiny, Herman Wouk.

In Salem
Family life moves out of the dining room as the TV dinner is introduced by Swanson and little folding tables are set up in front of the TV to watch the "The Jackie Gleason Show" and Edward R. Morrow's "See It Now". National news is made local as General Eisenhower and his wife Mamie make a fifteen-minute stop at our railroad station during his campaign as Republican candidate for president. In the series of photographs taken that day, our Governor McKay is shown prominently as an enthusiastic supporter. After Eisenhower wins the election in November, he appoints the Oregon governor as Secretary of the Interior and Douglas McKay resigns to take up his new duties in Washington, D.C.

When you visit
Our Southern Pacific train station has been the scene of many happy celebrations and tearful goodbyes over the years since the first was built in 1871. It was the place of departure for troops leaving for the Spanish American War in 1898 and for battle veterans' return the next year. It was used for military transport in the both World Wars as well as the mustering station for Americans of Japanese descent who were sent to internment camps in 1942. Tourists and business travelers along the west coast of the United States, and those making connections across the country, have relied on our railroad station. This history has been recognized by the designation of the station building and the freight depot on the National Register of Historic Places. It is included in the self-guided walking tour Salem in Oregon History featured on the SHINE website. This station is on the AMTRAK west coast route.

Other Events

• Salem's city water system is improved by a 54-inch water line and state-of-the-art slow sand filters provided North Santiam River water. The system finally produced high quality drinking water demanded by residents and local industries. Of equal importance was the building of the city's first sewage treatment plant on North Front Street. In 2009 the facility was rebuilt and expanded.

• This year residents of Salem saw the demolition of Marion County Courthouse. The 1873 structure was designed by Wilbur F. Boothby who is also credited with the original Kirkbride Building of the Oregon State Hospital and the Asahel Bush house. In French Renaissance style, popular in the Victorian era to symbolize pride in public buildings, the building rose 136 feet with 33-inch walls. It was topped with a 51-foot cupola containing a clock of four faces and, above that, a wooden statue of Thelma, the Greek god of wisdom. In 1904, this statue was covered with 900 pounds of copper. She was known around the Courthouse by her catalog number, "4762". With the demolition of the courthouse, the clock went to Mt. Angel and the statue to Willamette University where is stands in the lobby of the School of Law. Finally, only the 1924 World War I Doughboy statue is left standing before a pile of rubble. The ornate Courthouse was replaced with a severe structure of Vermont marble and in 2000,when that structure became too small, an annex, Courthouse Square, was completed across Court Street to the north.
• Salem's Municipal Judge, Peery Buren, resigns due to ill health and Douglas Hay is appointed. He will continue in the elective office until 1966.
• The new Marion Street Bridge opens. At that time, this bridge was the longest of its type west of the Mississippi River. The Oregon Pulp and Paper Mill dominates the shoreline and continues to pollute the downtown air.
• The new Statesman Journal building is erected at Chemeketa and Church Streets. The traditional downtown residential neighborhoods are disappearing.
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  Area outlined in blue is described below.

• The third section of Piety Hill has been demolished. Houses were either demolished or moved for the new the State Transportation Building. One of these is the Cora Moores house on Chemeketa Street (She was the daughter of Salem pioneers Obed and Charlotte Dickinson.) Purchased by Ridgely and Wanda Miller, it was transported by Augie Koenig across Bush's Pasture Park to Leffelle Street where it is today. The Frederick Thompson house, a few doors away on Summer Street, was purchased by the Stephens family and was also moved to Leffelle Street by Mr. Koenig and placed next door. (The Thompson house was also the home of Judge James Brand, who served in Nuremburg Trials.) Kathy Miller Reed and her husband, Wallace E. Reed, now live in Thompson/Brand house. The only other house saved in this third section of North Capitol Mall construction was the David Eyre house on Summer Street. You can now see this beautiful home on the northeast corner of High and Mission streets. These three residences are in the Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Historic District in the SCAN neighborhood.
• Blue Lake Beans received considerable publicity from association with Lou Costello when he and Abbott made a movie entitled "Jack in the Beanstalk" this year. Both the movie and Blue Lake's beans were promoted at grocery stores and restaurants and Costello had over forty cases of the beans sent to his journalist and radio commentator friends.

Salem in 1902

World Events

• British Royal Navy Capt. Robert Scott (with a marine and scientific team) will spend the year on the Discovery Expedition exploring the Antarctic.
•  General Leonard Wood, the U. S. military governor, calls for a Cuban constitutional convention by which it gains its independence this year.
• Mt. Pelee on the north end of Martinique erupted in worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century, killing about 30,000 people.
• The British build a Nile Dam (now the Lower Dam) to control flooding.
• The Gramophone Company in Milan sells a million Eric Caruso records.
• The first Rose Bowl football game (Michigan vs Stanford) is played in Pasadena, California.
• The first Trustee meeting of the proposed Carnegie Institute is held in office of the U.S. Secretary of State in Washington, D.C. This is one of over 20 institutions Andrew Carnegie founded around the world to promote art, science research, education, and international peace.
• Notable new books: The Pit by Frank Noris and Hound of the Baskervilles by Conan Doyle. For children: Just-so Stories by Rudyard Kipling and Tales of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter.

In Salem
Here are our mail carriers posing on the delivery side of the new Federal Post Office, located between Church and Cottages Streets, just behind the Marion County Courthouse. The lawn in this photograph is along Cottage Street. The City Hall may be seen to the right, on the south west corner of High and Chemeketa Streets.
Thirty years later, the Post Office was entirely covered in ivy. In 1938, when a new post office was planned, this structure was sold to Willamette University. The stone building, minus the ivy, was put on rollers and moved east on State Street to the campus where it was deposited on a corner near 12th Street. The move took six months.

In its new location, this beautiful Post Office building became Gatke Hall, named for a distinguished professor, Robert Moulton Gatke, author of "Chronicles of Willamette, the Pioneer University of the West." You see the front of the building here or as you pass it on the SHINE "Salem in Oregon History" Walking Tour.

Other Events

• Salem's hop industry is booming: American Hop and Barley Co of London has an office in the Bayne Building. George Bayne had commissioned architect, William Christmas Knighton to design this building that has housed numerous retail stores and food-related business such a bakery and the Little King Restaurant. One of the most enduring is the OK Barber Shop in the western half of the ground floor: it preserves the history of the building with an appropriate atmosphere. This building is designated a Local landmark and is featured in the SHINE Downtown Walking Tour.
• Thomas Cronise, one of Salem's most gifted photographers, opens a studio in the Bush-Breyman Building on Commercial Street. In 1882 he had arrived in Salem and opened his own print shop, however, an allergy to printer's ink eventually forced Cronise to quit the printing business. In 1892, Anna Louise, Cronise's sister, moved to Salem and introduced him to photography. By 1893, Anna had bought a photo studio at the corner of State and High Streets. Anna and Thomas Cronise hired a young photographer named Howard Trover, who married Anna. The Cronise upstairs studio had a back room where the usual array of photographic equipment, backdrops and props were located. But the room had a skylight that allowed diffused north light to provide the soft, natural illumination so essential to fine portraiture. Cronise died in 1927, and his wife Nellie operated the business until her passing in 1930. His son, Harry, operated the business until 1972.
• The Fawk House is built on at 310 Lincoln Street on a prominent corner overlooking Lincoln and Fir Streets. It has a Dutch Colonial gambrel roof and a unique stone chimney that serves three rooms inside. Henry Fawk was a well-known contractor and livestock broker. Eventually, this was the boyhood home of Ross McIntyre, Surgeon General of the United States and physician to President Franklin Roosevelt. This SCAN neighborhood residence is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ira and Hattie Erb House

• Ira Erb came to Salem in 1890 from Ohio. He was a Civil War veteran and made his living as a carpenter. He met his wife, Hattie, after he arrived in Salem and they are recorded as living in their Queen Anne cottage on 19th Street home this year. He worked many years for various contractors, including Front Street businesses. He became a partner with Clarence Van Patton in a contracting business not far from home at 21st and Mill Streets. After she became a widow, Hattie Erb continued to live here alone until her own death in 1941. After forty years, this house was sold. It is now a Local Landmark in NEN neighborhood.

From the Capitol Journal:

• A state law provided that unclaimed bodies from the asylum, penitentiary and poor farm be apportioned among the medical schools. Salem's medical school at Willamette University received about 25 cadavers a year. Dissecting rooms were located near the millrace. Bodies injected with arsenicals lasted from three to six weeks.
• An editorial stated: "No matter which faction controls the state convention or the legislature, the state has got to be cleaned up from the top to bottom."
• Councilman Russell Catlin, lately returned from Kansas, reported that seven cars of immigrants headed for Oregon were attached to the train that carried him homeward.
• Use of Salem's fire bell for alarms was dispensed with.Alarms would be sounded by the newly installed fire whistle. Toots from the whistle indicating the ward in which the fire was located.
• A new city charter proposal would limit the number of saloons, forbid the use of barbed wire for fencing. penalize the dumping of rubbish in Salem's streets and stop chickens from running at large in streets and alleys.
• In December, Charles Allen, Salem mail carrier, lost his horse and narrowly escaped drowning when he attempted at dusk to ford swollen and treacherous Mill Creek near Winter Street.
• (See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006)

Salem in 1898

World Events

• The British government makes a 99 year rental agreement with China for occupation and control of Hong Kong.
• "Remember the Maine!" is the rallying call in the Hearst newspapers, a major element in America declaring war with Spain over Cuba. The Battle of San Jun Hill brings fame to the Buffalo Soldiers (black enlistees) and Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders.
• Annie Oakley promotes the service of "50 lady sharp-shooters" who would furnish their own arms. The earliest political action toward women's rights in the military.
• The U. S. captures Guam, making it the first overseas territory. The Hawaiian Islands are annexed. By the Treaty of Paris, which ends the war, the U. S. also acquires the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico.
• Henry James publishes Turn of the Screw.
• Caleb Bradham names his carbonated drink: Pepsi-Cola.
• New American Book: The Turn of the Screw, Henry James, World of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. and The Ballad of Reading Goal by Oscar Wilde.

In Salem
Our entrance into a war with Spain over their possessions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands still effects national policy and world opinion. Here is a parade of local troops, perhaps the Oregon Second Company of Volunteers, proceeding west on State Street.
Paving the streets of Salem will not begin until 1907, so we hope these marchers had the advantage of a day without rain. Spectators have not ducked under the generous store awning, but mist diffuses the signs and store fronts. In the background (behind the flag) we see a streetcar, but beyond that the other landmarks are lost. We can just make out the old Marion County Courthouse rising a block away.
On a sunnier day, the troops lined up in front of the State House. They are dressed in full and hats, bedrolls over their shoulders and rifles held at their sides. Three company officers are standing in front of their troop.
One imagines this is their last formal photograph before they leave Salem. This is from the Cronise studio and reflects the outstanding artistic quality of Thomas Cronise photography.

When you visit
The State Street store on the corner (where Dr. Pearce's Favorite is advertised) was replaced by the Masonic Temple a few years later. Today, more than architecture has changed on State Street. Beginning in 1907, our downtown streets became paved. The streetcars disappeared in 1927, replaced buses. The automobile was firmly established by that time. Today, a horse would have a difficult time maneuvering in our downtown traffic. American troops, leaving for an overseas war no longer parade on State Street.

Other events

• Charles A. Bishop, one of Salem's outstanding citizens and prominent businessmen, becomes mayor and will serve 4 years. His wife Fannie, is the daughter of Thomas Kay, local woolen mill owner of that time. Mr. Bishop was the owner of a successful men's clothing store. He was a founder and served as Vice President of the Pendleton Woolen Mill, still operating successfully. Their imposing home was at 765 Court Street, the former residence of the Murphy and Rose families.

• The photograph above, taken this year, shows the facade of the Capitol Brewery at 174 Commercial Street. The brewery is located in a handsome, two-story stone building. Two wagons in the street are for ice delivery and transport of barrels. On the sidewalk are a group of men, perhaps employees, posing for the photographer. Perhaps a few are just passers-by, enjoying the moment. The Salem Convention Center occupies this site today.
• The original Territorial Library, housed in the State House, is damaged when a storm blows off part of the roof. A stereoscopic view is found in the Oregon Historical Photographs Collections. These books and documents are now housed primarily in the State Law Library.
• Among the many stern-wheelers using Salem's Willamette River piers, is the Altona. These steamboats transported flour from the Willamette Flouring Mill on Front Street. The boat dock just north was always busy as inland farm crops were loaded for export. By this year, steamboats at the foot of Trade Street were graced by affectionate names such as Ramona, Gypsy, and Ruth.
  Steamboats were also enjoying the attention of Salem citizens as they took excursions to Albany and Corvallis. In 1885, a gingerbread-decorated City of Salem entertained riders with music from the local Masonic Band. However, the Altona was part of a vanishing fleet. By 1898 Salem was moving east, away from the river as the railroad supplied the transportation need of the farm co-ops and fruit processors.

From the Capitol Journal:
About a hundred and fifty persons marched in the T. T. Geer ratification jubilee from the Willamette Hotel to Reed's Opera House. Several American flags floated in the breeze, but the effect was made somewhat ridiculous by the number of banners extolling Ko-Da, "It drives out rheumatism" and Mexican Worm Lozenges, "They are the best."
The newspaper complained that the habit of spitting on downtown sidewalks had become universal among residents of Salem. This was a filthy habit which no gentleman would be found guilty of. There were sections of Salem's business district, the paper said, completely covered with tobacco spit making it impossible for ladies to pass over those walks without having their skirts saturated.
In May, a memorial service for brave sailors who went down with the Maine in Havana harbor the previous February was held at the First Methodist Church. A large picture of the Maine, draped in crepe, was displayed above the altar.
(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.

Salem in 1876

World Events

• Korea is forced to sign a treaty opening ports to Japanese trade, beginning the Japanese domination of Korea.
• Carlist Wars in Spain end after four years: revolutionary military forces of Carlos VIII defeated and he goes into exile. King Alfonso XII enters Pamplona, historical capital of Navarre.
• 20 disputed electoral votes prevented either Tilden or Hayes winning the presidential election until the Compromise of 1877 settled the question: Republican Hayes becomes President after an agreement to end that political party's Reconstruction policies in the former Confederate states.
• Plains Indians have their last great gatherings. At the Battle of the Rosebud Creek, Sioux and Cheyenne under Crazy Horse beat back General Crook's forces. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Lt. Col. George Custer's 7th Cavalry is wiped out by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Also in the west: Colorado is admitted as 38th state.
• A Centennial Exhibition opens in Philadelphia displaying America's industrial wonders in the Machinery Hall, including the new Bell telephone.
• US National Baseball League founded.
• Librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

In SalemSalem has become quite a grand city by this year and begins to solve its drinking water problem. In the photograph of an artist's drawing seen above, to the right of the steamboat in the Willamette River, can be seen the 80 foot water tower, built this year. With a 45 feet deep cistern, and water from the Willamette, it marks the beginning of the Salem Water Company. This system of water supply accommodates the Reed Opera House (1869) and the Chemeketa House (1871) by allowing water to be supplied to these multi-storied buildings. However, the water tower soon began leaking and the river became too polluted to be an acceptable source of water. Other solutions were found a decade later.

When you visit
One of the most remarkable of Salem's early artifacts is this drawing, much reproduced, that gives an aerial view of the city. The tower was almost in line with State Street where the Riverfront Park (and the Carousel) is located now, so the urban landscape is much different today.
Notice the landmarks that are familiar: the present Capitol is in the same place as the State House of 1876, but the current building faces north instead of west; the former Victorian-style Marion Country Courthouse is in the same place as the current structure; the historic First Methodist Church (not completed until 1878) is barely visible just a block away and to the south; Waller Hall of Willamette University is in the background, to the right of the State House. At the intersection of Ferry and Commercial, the large building with dark roof is the Marion House hotel (later Chemeketa House). Diagonally across the intersection is the Holman Building that had housed the original legislature of Oregon and would now continue to serve the city with the Salem Theater. Along the river, at the slough, the Willamette Mill stands over Pringle Creek where the Boise-Cascade facility is now (2012) being demolished. A block south is the Commercial Street bridge. Counting three more blocks south, one may see an indication of the Smith House (now Smith-Fry House) at the top of the hill at Oak Street. Continuing in the same direction, the hill falls at City Line (now Mission Street) and another hill then rises to the Leslie House that would stand there for another year. Asahel Bush would remove it and begin building his own home there in the next year. On the Willamette River there is some industry and steamboats are busily chugging toward town. Notice the small area of business and the surrounding farmland. West Salem appears to be uninhabited as evergreen trees stand in the foreground.

Other Events

• General Sherman of Civil War fame visits Salem. (Sherman County was named for him in 1889.)

• The new State House is completed at the head of Willson Avenue. This second statehouse was classically inspired but it reflected a revived interest in the monumental architecture of the Italian Renaissance. This building, resembling the nation's capitol, was far larger than the previous structure. To contain all the departments of government as well as the legislature and officers of state, the building was three stories tall and shaped in the form of a cross. The long axis extended north to south the length of 264 feet. Minor arms, or projecting sections were centered on the east and, especially, the west front that was considered the ceremonial entrance. Walls were constructed of brick above the ashlar (building stone) ground story of native Oregon sandstone from the Umpqua region. Upper stories were trimmed with limestone and ultimately were given a stone gray finish. The monumental exterior stairways and porticoes would not be added until 1887-8 and the copper-clad dome completed in 1893. The cost of the building was $550,000.
• The Falk House, now a Local Landmark on Candalaria Boulevard, is built by a member of the Fabritus Smith Family. (Mr. Smith, a farmer in this area, was elected to be a state legislator this year.) In 1891 Samuel A. Clarke is noted in the Salem City Directory as residing in this location. Clarke is believed to have named his fruit farm "Candalaria", a name later given to that area of Salem. A later resident was Adam Ohmart, son-in-law of Fabritus Smith, who lived there in 1902. Long-time owners Conrad and Nellie Falk moved here before 1909; the Falks had a prune orchard on the property and continued to reside on the property through the late 1940s. The house, although much altered, still rises proudly above Commercial Street in the South Salem neighborhood.
• Seth Lewelling is best remembered for his work in developing new fruit varieties. In 1875, a planting produced a promising seedling that he named "Bing" after his faithful Chinese helper. When Bing cherries were exhibited this year at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, people at first thought, because of their size, they were crabapples. According to reports, the large Bings averaged 35 cherries to the pound and sold in the East for three cents a cherry.

Moving Salem History #12 of 12

The three historical photographs in this feature are reproduced from the Oregon Historical Photograph Collections, Salem Public Library, Salem, Oregon.

The 1903 photograph above is from the Ben Maxwell Collection shows the 1872 Marion County Courthouse in the foreground (demolished in 1952 for the current building) and the 1876 State House (which burned in 1935) in the distance. Between these is the Federal Post Office which had just been built shortly before this picture was taken.

The photograph above was taken in the 1930s when ivy had covered the Post Office.

Our third photograph was taken in 1938 when the 200-ton Post Office was in transit, on rollers, to its new location on the campus of Willamette University, four blocks to the east on State Street. Only the remnants of the ivy can be seen and a few of the awnings. The move took about six months.

Here the Post Office stands in its second career as Gatke Hall of Willamette University. The elegant building retains its original architecture of more than a hundred years ago.
These twelve examples of local historical preservation illustrate the beautiful craftsmanship of past architectural styles. We are fortunate to live among these echoes of Salem history.