Salem in 1955

World Events 

• American Advisers are sent to aid South Vietnam government.
•  West Germany becomes a democratic Federal Republic, separate from German Democratic Republic in the east, which is a Communist dictatorship.
• Protests against racial segregation lead to federal law forbidding it on interstate trains and busses. Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for not giving up her seat in the "colored section" to a white woman. Montgomery Bus Boycott follows.
• American labor unions merge into AFL-CIO. General Motors is the first American corporation to make profits over a billion dollars in one year.
• Actor James Dean is killed in an auto crash near Cholame, California.
• Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California. "Gun Smoke" and "Mickey Mouse Club" debut on TV. Bill Haley introduces "rock 'n' roll" music blending country and blues.
• Ray Kroc opens his first McDonald's in partnership with the McDonald brothers in Des Plains, Illinois.
• Academy Awards: "Marty" (US), Samurai, "The Legend of Musashi" (Japan). Prize-winning book: A Fable, William Faulkner.

In Salem
Salem shoppers are excited about the opening of a local branch of Portland's Meier and Frank department store. The business enterprise is built on the traditional site of Salem schools: the 1906 Salem High School and the earlier Central School. Gerry Frank, owner and manager, became a well-known political and business leader in Salem and was a prominent member of Governor Hatfield's staff. This is a photograph of the familiar entrance on the southwest corner of Center and High Streets N.E. The view includes the southeast corner of the building's parking structure at Center and Church Streets N.E. It shows Salem's use of parking meters downtown at that time and the grid of one-way streets.

When you visit
This department store chain has been sold to Macy's, but the local branch continues to operate at this location. Information about Gerry Frank's Konditorei was published in 1999 by SalemHistory website. This specialty restaurant currently (2014) operates at the southeast corner of Kearny and Commercial Streets.
The iconic Meier and Frank lobby clock, famed as a local meeting spot, was given to the Salvation Army Kroc Center by Frank in 2008. The gilt-encrusted clock had been installed in 1955 and is the work of Welton Beckett Architects in Los Angeles. It was removed from Meier and Frank in summer 2006, when the May Co. remodeled the building.

Other Events

• A Christmas parade for children is inaugurated this year. It continues as the 'Festival of Lights." However, due to the city's inability to aid in the financing, the parade moved to Keizer in 2011.
• The former President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, visits Salem where he lived for three years in his youth. The Newberg home of his uncle, Henry Minthorn, is renovated beyond recognition this year.

• The foreground of this aerial view of the 1955 Salem downtown shows the availability of land on the hill south of Pringle Creek that will later house the new Civic Center (left foreground of the photograph). In the left center, the area of the three bridges that cross the Willamette River (back to front) the railroad bridge, Marion Street Bridge and Center Street Bridge. The dark tall evergreens at the end of the bridges are in Marion Square Park. North-south streets (left to right) are Front Street; Commercial Street with the Columbia River Paper Company at the left edge of picture. The present Civic Center is located in the left foreground.  Up one block is the Marion Motor Hotel and one block further Ladd and Bush Bank; Liberty Street with the tall Capitol Tower building at the State Street intersection; and High Street with Marion County Courthouse (trees and grass in front, far right) and on the other side of the street further along is Salem City Hall with its clock tower.
• Brush Creek School, established in 1895, still has only a single classroom when the students and their teacher pose for a portrait outside the front porch. Since then, the school buildings have expanded and been renovated several times. The unique quality of this school is that the original bell tower still remains, even with the bell itself. The school celebrated its long service to the community in 2010 with an exhibition of student work and a collection of historical photographs. 
• Graduates of the 1890 class of East School held a reunion at the home of Dan Fry in August of this year.  This school was one of Salem's architectural gems, but unfortunately the maintenance of the building was too high and the facilities out-of-date. To local historical preservationists, who have little influence in city planning, the three greatest architectural losses have been this school building, the old City Hall on High Street and the Victorian Marion County Courthouse. None of these could have continued in their original functions so these demolitions were logical financially. Whether any one of these could have been transformed into a local historical museum, devoted to the city's heritage, is debatable. We still (2012) have no institution in Salem dedicated to this purpose.

• The plaque that commemorated the location of Salem's first commercial venture, the Thomas Cox store on the northeast corner of Ferry and Commercial Streets in 1847, was removed this year from the building that stood there. The photograph that was taken is our only record of the plaque which has disappeared. Ed Ritter, wrecker, is pictured on the left.
• One of Salem's most outstanding local businesses, the Paulus Brothers Packing Company, is sold to Dole Pineapple Company, Ltd. This is a further signal that traditional canning operations have become limited because of the popularity of frozen foods. All the canning facilities south of Trade Street were replaced by parks and other urban uses. This gentrification of the downtown has given it a more attractive appearance and made room for enterprises such as SAIF and a downtown, Pringle Creek condominium, Salmon Run. This loss of industry has been a detriment to the economy of the city 
• Myra Albert Wiggins, a granddaughter of the pioneer Holman family who left Salem to pursue a successful career as a photographer, dies at her home in Toppenish, Washington at the age of 86. Myra's life as a wife and mother never limited her career. Her love of family, natural beauty, the theme of Native American women and her world travel were all reflected in the art she produced. Her life is profiled on Salem Lifelines.

Salem in 1927

World Events

• As the controlling Chinese Nationalists murder members of the opposition Communist party in Nanchang, the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army is formed.
• Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with control of the Soviet Union.
• Iraq gains independence from Britain
• Charles Lindbergh makes a solo flight across the Atlantic in his single-engined Spirit of St. Louis. There is a huge ticker-tape parade in New York city to welcome his homecoming. The Holland Tunnel opens linking NYC with New Jersey.
• The Iron Lung is invented for the relief of polio sufferers.
• The popular Harlem Globetrotters take to the road for performances. Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs.
• Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System (CBS) goes on air with 47 stations.
• The Academy Awards are established with "Wings" winning best picture. The Pulitzer Prize goes to Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder.

In Salem
This year Lee Eyerly establishes his flight school in Salem at what would become McNary Airfield. In 1921 he had been Salem’s pioneer commercial pilot. Using the latest training methods, he opened a ground school and taught mechanical work, rigging, meteorology, and navigation. Salem high school administrators caught the spirit and were offering flight-training classes to students. By 1928, Eyerly's planes were doing cross-country business as well as passenger hops over the State House, thought by many to be a prospective landing place. By this time, Salem had progressed so that any major plane overhaul or rebuild job was possible. The successful Salem airport campaign was presented in the form of a charter amendment calling for issuance of $50,000 in bonds for the purchase of land and the establishment of the landing field.

When you visit
Commuter air service in Salem was briefly served by SeaPort Airlines in 2011. Seaport took off from a terminal with a newly completed 4.000-square-foot expansion, a $1.5 million project paid for by grants from the Federal Aviation Administration and the State of Oregon. A great way to see the airfield is to visit the Flight Deck restaurant. The dining area has large windows overlooking the airfield.

For residents who are interested in commercial air service in Salem, the Salem Airport Advisory Commission meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at Fire Station #6. The public is welcome.

Other Events

• Thomas A. Livesley becomes mayor.
• The new YMCA Building, just completed, is much larger than the neighboring Court Street residences of the Boise and McNary families. To the east, toward the State House, the street was lined with handsome homes of other prominent "Old Guard" familes. None have survived.
• The last of the Ford Model-T automobiles are produced this year.

From left: Commercial Street from State Street looking north

• Marion County conducted a Health Demonstration Project between the 1926 and 1930. The parade of 1927 (above), led by the governor, proceeded down Commercial Street while automobiles and spectators lined the route.
• Salem Lutherans of German descent begin worshiping in old 1894 Presbyterian Church on Church Street. They buy the church and rename it as the Lutheran-American Church to indicate the services will be English. According to church records: "Mr. (Max) Gehlar, the Sunday School superintendent was a leader and through his efforts the Sunday School became one of the most active and well attended in the city."
• Notice is received from Redlands, California that Libbie Patton has died at the age of 85. She was the second wife of two noted Salem pioneers: she married Joseph Holman (1815-80) in 1875 and Thomas McFadden Patton (1829-92) in 1889. In both cases, she was the second wife.
• Ercel Kay establishes the Salem Golf Club with the first nine holes completed on the former John Hughes Land Grant. The fee for playing was 25 cents.
• Outdoor activity may have been handicapped by the weather in July, as reported by the Capitol Journal, Ben Maxwell recalled. During that month, the government thermometer on the 23rd registered 108 degrees, an all-time high. The climax came that evening when an electrical storm rattled windows and frightened children.
• In this year of booming economy, Salem families are building new houses. In a developing residential section of Salem, Sam and Lottie Adolph build a Mediterranean styled home on South Commercial Street. Photographed in 1978 by Bob Koval, and again recently, the house retains its original appearance. It is a Local Landmark in the SCAN neighborhood.
• Two blocks south of the Adolph House, is the Colonial Revival home built by Leland and Mildred Geer. The house was sold to Rollin and Alice Page in the next year. Mrs. Page continued to live here after her husband's death in the late 1940s and the house stayed in family ownership into the 1950s. This is also a Local Landmark and is in the SCAN neighborhood.
• A third Local Landmark in this neighborhood is the Mediterranean Meier House on Rural Street, then at the city limits. Fred Meier purchased it in this year and lived there off and on for the next twenty years, renting it out periodically. In 1946 the house was sold to Harold and Eva Jory who lived there until 1953.
• The Rosecrans House is built on Chemeketa Street by D. A. and Etta Hodge for their daughter Margaret Rosecrans, a widow, and clerk for the State Highway Commission. Mrs. Rosecrans resided here until 1942 at which time it was sold to John and Lela Jerman. Later owners were Linn C. Smith and Lulu Marie (Jerman) Smith. There is also a 1978 photograph. This house is a Local Landmark in the NEN neighborhood.
• A famous pooch, resident of Silverton, died this year. Bobbie, the Scotch collie that was lost from his owner and made his way from Indiana back to his former home in Silverton, is honored in that city where he is buried in a child's casket.

Salem in 1905

World Events

• The Trans-Siberian Railway opens with travel between Moscow and the furtherest far-eastern outposts of Russia.
• The "Bloody Sunday" massacre of peaceful protestors in front of Winter Palace in St. Petersburg inspired the unsuccessful revolt later that year  and is the forerunner of the 1917 Russian revolution.
• The French law of separation of church and state is passed assuring neutrality of the government, freedom of religious practices and public powers of the church.
• In Dublin, Sinn Fein is organized as a political party promoting independence for all Ireland from British control.
• During research at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic in Zurich, Einstein publishes his "Special Theory of Relativity".
• International Rotary is founded.
• In Nevada, 110 acres of the Mohave Desert, adjacent to the Union Pacific Railway tracks, are auctioned off. This will be downtown Las Vegas (in Spanish "The Meadows"), incorporated in 1911.
• Rayon yard, less-expensive than silk, is manufactured.
• New Books: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and White Fang by Jack London.

In Salem
The school board authorizes Salem's first high school, built on the block bounded by Marion & Center Streets and High & Church Streets. Central School, originally at that location, was moved for the new construction. The modern, rectangular stone building had a system that circulated air in the classrooms every 6 minutes. It had 16 large classrooms, a library, and laboratories. In the basement were restrooms, a furnace room and a bicycle room. This year the third floor held an unfinished gym, assembly hall and stage. These rooms were eventually finished, with the gym and assembly hall completed in Italian style décor. Salem High School was dedicated in ceremonies held on the evening of January 1, 1906.

When you visit
The school was razed in 1954 to make way for Meier and Frank Department Store (now Macy's) in our urban center.

Other events

• Mrs. John Albert (Mary) dies after injuries in one of Salem's first automobile accidents according to Pioneer Cemetery records of her death and funeral.  She was the daughter of pioneers, Joseph and Almira Phelps Holman, and mother of noted photographer, Myra Albert Wiggins. "The machine which was responsible for the accident was that of J. H. Albert, and, as Mr. Albert explains, the disaster was due to toe water, and, consequently, steam, having become exhausted while the car was climbing the steep incline leading to the old Rynearson rock quarry. When the car stopped and began to run back, Mr. Albert saw what was about to happen, and he applied the emergency brake, which refused to work, and he then steered the machine upon the uphill side of the road which it mounted and rolled over upon its side, precipitating the occupants... into the rocky road." Although the injuries did not seem life-threatening, she died four days later.
• The Calaba farm home is built on Mountain View Drive in the present South Salem neighborhood. Twenty years later, in 1926, this property was still outside the city and was listed as the home of Anna and Frank Calaba. Jerry Calaba, their son, grew up on this farm and later showed neighbors the location of the former old barn and well. He lived here until 1974. His brother Rudy was a prominent Salem realtor with Ohmart and Calaba. In 1977, City View Cemetery purchased the property and has since rented it. It is in the South Salem neighborhood.
• Grace Breckenridge, the original owner of a 1905 Elm Street bungalow in West Salem, worked for nearly 40 years as a bookkeeper for the State Board of Control, retiring in 1956. When she died in January 1965, her will revealed that all but $2,000 of her $23,000 estate was bequeathed to the State of Oregon. The balance was to be used to buy an organ for the House of Representatives. The new organ was ordered and received in August 1965. This organ is still in place today and is played at the governor's inaugural ceremonies. The property is a designated Local Landmark.
• John Reynolds and his wife Mary build a home on the southeast corner of North Liberty and Hickory Streets. Reynolds was Dean of the Willamette University Law School 1902-7. Later owners were Harriet Chenoweth and her husband, farmers; John Stapleton, co-owner of Stapleton and Cummings Grocery; L. R. Peebles, a carpenter, who owned it between 1911-19. He may have built the building in the rear that appears to have been used to develop photographic film. This Local Landmark is in the Highland neighborhood.

Collins-Byrd House

• A Queen Anne/Eastlake style house, built by George Collins in 1887, is moved this year. Its second owner, Dr. William H. Byrd, has it transported on rollers from its original location at corner of Court and Church Streets to its present location on the corner of Chemeketa and 14th Streets. Dr. Byrd gave the house to his son Clarence in 1921 as a wedding present. Clarence Byrd's daughter, Winifred Byrd, who lived there as a child, left Salem to become an internationally acclaimed musician. She received high praise as a concert pianist from Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Symphony, who called her "the feature of the concert and one that will not easily be forgotten. She seemed a fairy figure, clothed in a unique shade of blue, with an air and profile delightfully childlike, but an intensity and remarkable fire and passion in her playing." Winifred's niece, Martha Byrd Blau lived in the house for many years. The property contributes to the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District in NEN neighborhood and is featured on that slide show walking tour on this website.

From the Capitol Journal:

• Salem police again raided bawdyhouse row on peppermint Flat. (So-called because this section of downtown Ferry Street was along Pringle Creek where peppermint flourished.) E. E. N. was again arrested for frequenting a house of ill fame. Professor H. H. D. who beat out the melody on the piano in one of the houses, was taken into custody after argument and festive Fanny D. was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.
• Small boys and those old enough to know better are hanging around the S. P. depot to spend their time catching rides on freight trains.  Every day at noon and after school large numbers of boys between 10 and 18 years of age can be seen loitering around the tracks.

• Dr. W. L. Mercer bought the Knerr property on Summer Street a few months ago and is now putting up a modern residence. The doctor is living on the property in a tent but is wide-awake and has a telephone number on the canvas.

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