Salem in 1997

World Events

• Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron in Palestine after a 30 year absence to celebrate Israel's return of West Bank Palestinian cities.
• The United Kingdom lease on the territory of Hong Kong expires. Its administration is taken over by the People's Republic of China.
• The Nobel Peace Prize is shared by Jody Williams (US) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (Switzerland) for their campaign to ban and clear anti-personnel mines around the world.
• Madeleine Albright becomes the first female US Secretary of State.
• Diana, Princess of Wales, with her companion Dodi Fayed, dies in a Paris auto crash in the Pont de L'Alma tunnel. (The Diana Chronicles, Tina Brown, 2007.
• Pathfinder sends Mars photographs back to earth.
• In London, DNA on a Neanderthal skeleton supports the theory of an African Eve of 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
• The F. W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business.
• Timothy McVeigh is convicted of multiple murders in Oklahoma City bombing in previous year. Andrew Cunanan shoots and kills fashion designer Gianni Versace outside his Miami home.
• Academy Awards: "Titanic"(US), "Character" (Netherlands). Prize-winning Books: Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier and Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer, Steven Milhauser.

World Beat Festival 1997

In Salem

The Salem Multicultural Institute is founded in February of 1997. Two moms with young daughters saw the need to create a positive, tangible response to growing concern about racial tensions in Salem. This grass-roots effort grew out of meetings in living rooms and coffee shops into a meaningful celebration and year-round community volunteerism, taking the form of a festival, celebrating all of the many cultures that make Oregon such a wonderful place. Their first event, World Beat, was held in Riverfront Park in the next summer. The photograph above is from the 1998 Statesman Journal files with the caption, " Middle Eastern dancer Naia of Eugene whirls across Riverfront Park's outdoor stage in the World Beat Festival and the official dedication of the park."
Held annually at this "front yard" of Salem, the summertime festival has grown from the amphitheater park site, shown above, to encompass the whole 23-acre park with more 250 exhibitors and performing arts groups, 400 volunteers and 70 sponsors involved with the festival annually. The average annual attendance has reached approximately 30,000 guests.
The Institute continues to follow its original vision: to create an environment of openness for all people. SMI aims to be family-friendly, economically inclusive, and culturally authentic. Although a voluntary donation is welcome at all entrance gates, the Institute does not have an entrance fee for its World Beat Festival or for its exhibits at the Reed Opera House World Beat Gallery or lecture series. SMI also hosts an annual Multicultural Ball each October in the Reed Opera House Ballroom.


When you visit

World Beat Gallery in Reed Opera House 2014

 In 2006, the Salem Multicultural Institute moved their office downtown and opened the World Beat Gallery at the Reed Opera House with an exhibit entitled Diversity in the Philippines. The gallery has since hosted other cultural exhibits, including Holidays Around the World, Black Voices from Salem’s Past, Scotland and Her People, Windows into China and three series about international marriage customs. The Performance and Lecture series, which began in 2007, encourages local ethnic communities to showcase cherished traditions in the intimate, historic setting of the Reed. A small staff coordinates the work of volunteers, curates the exhibits and organizes the year-round events

Other events

• Raul Ramirez is the first Hispanic to be elected as Marion County Sheriff. A star athlete and student leader, eighteen-year-old Raul Ramirez was ordered to report to his Woodburn High School principal’s office. There he found the local Police Chief waiting to talk to him. "I didn’t do it," thought Ramirez, sure he was about to be blamed for something. As he explains it, "Back then, law enforcement was not a friend of the Hispanic community. "
  Until then, Ramirez's goal was to be a physical education teacher and work with youth. But his meeting with the Police Chief that day changed his life -- and his future career.
  Police Chief Bob Prinslow wanted Ramirez to help police build relations with teen-agers. "I needed him," Prinslow later said. "There was a lot of juvenile crime at the time and I wanted a leader to help me. Raul was a natural." Ramirez became the department’s first police cadet and was later hired as a part-time dispatcher. Prinslow was the Marion County Under Sheriff when Ramirez was hired as a deputy. The two have remained friends and Prinslow watched proudly as Ramirez replaced him as Marion County Sheriff.
• The Oregon Garden in Silverton is begun with a groundbreaking ceremony in June. It will open to the public in April 1999.
• The transit district, following ADA guidelines, converts buses for the use of disabled patrons.
• The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, a minor league baseball team, is organized. They are a Short-Season Class A team in the Northwest League, and are an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. They play their home games at Volcano Stadium that seats 4,252 fans.
• A group of prisoners in the State Penitentiary dig a tunnel 24 feet long before their escape route is discovered.
• In January of 1996, Keiko, the killer whale star of Free Willy and Free Willy II, was moved from Mexico City via cargo plane into his new home at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Over the next 32 months, Keiko is rehabilitated at the aquarium, where more than 2.5 million people pay him a visit. In the fall of 1998, Keiko was moved to a pen in the waters of the North Atlantic off Iceland, rehabilitated for living on his own. He died December 12, 2003, after the sudden onset of pneumonia in the Taknes fjord.
• In 1997 several "Salem Public Library History" exhibits were mounted in the Heritage Room. In March, Tired Old Barns was the exhibit with over 40 Marion Court Historical Society photographs taken by Al Jones. Other collections on display included "Oregon Covered Bridges" and Salem Public Library History.

Salem in 1985

World Events

• Ronald Reagan is privately sworn in as President for his second term. Secretly, military arms are sent to Iran in exchange for U. S. hostages in Lebanon and to fund Nicaraguan Contras. 
• Mikhail Gorbachev, as Secretary General of the the Soviet Communist Party, begins "glasnost" policies in USSR allowing more civil freedom.
• Argentina puts former leaders on trial for crimes against citizens.
• The border between Gibraltar and Spain reopens for the first time since Francisco Franco closed it in 1939.
• Artist Christo wraps in canvas the Pont Neuf Bridge in Paris.
• British Telecom begins phasing out their famous red telephone boxes. Mohammad Al-Fayed buys London's Harrods.
• "We Are the World" is recorded as a charity for Africa. Ricky Nelson, songwriter and actor, dies in the plane crash in Texas.
• Steve Jobs resigns from Apple. Microsoft releases Windows 1.0
• US Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS.
• Academy Awards:"Out of Africa" (US), "The Official Story" (Argentina). Prize-winning Books: White Noise, Don DeLillo and Foreign Affairs, Alison Lurie.

Salem's Pioneer Cemetery in the springtime

In Salem

The former Odd Fellows Rural Cemetery, founded in 1854, had been nearly abandoned by this year when local residents formed the entirely non-profit "Friends of the Pioneer Cemetery." The "Friends" have raised funds through grants and donations to keep the cemetery maintained. A Pioneer Cemetery website offers index listings of those buried at the cemetery including name, date of burial, birth, death and plot location. Located at the corner of Hoyt and Commercial streets, it was originally on land that belonged to missionary David Leslie. The first burial there (1841) was that of his wife, Mary Kinney Leslie, who had joined her husband in the original Oregon Methodist mission settlement in 1837. She was the first of many members of our pioneer families buried there. The cemetery has a wealth of unusual and impressive gravestones, many recently replaced in their original positions. Since the City of Salem became owner of the cemetery in 1985, the volunteer Friends group has been instrumental in the restoration of the cemetery, continuing their work to the present time. Many historical photographs of tombs and persons buried here are found on Oregon Historical Photograph Collections.
In 1999, the Friends established an endowed fund within The Salem Foundation Charitable Trust. Each year, a distribution from the fund is made to the City for cemetery betterment above and beyond the basic maintenance that is supported from limited public funds. Recent proceeds from the endowment have been earmarked to restore the E. N. Cooke family mausoleum and make other repairs in common interest.

When you visit
The cemetery is open to the public and volunteers are always welcome. While the data base is maintained by the genealogical division, The Friends field unit recruits community volunteers to engage in monthly work parties, March through October. The volunteers prune heritage roses and other ornamental shrubs and pull ivy and other invasive plants. Under trained supervision, they remove moss from markers and pavements, level monument bases and safely reset fallen markers in mortar. Volunteers also assist genealogists in conducting research. For more information, contact the Volunteer Coordinator, Parks and Transportation Services Division, Salem Department of Public Works at 503-589-2197.

Another source of local genealogical information is the Lee Mission Cemetery on D Street in North Salem. It was incorporated in 1869 on a portion of the Elizabeth Winn Parrish land grant, but first burial at this site was in 1842 of Lucy Thompson Lee, the second wife of Jason Lee. His first wife, Anna Maria Pittman Lee, was reburied there at about the same time and, in 1906, Jason Lee. Other pioneers including Alanson Beers, Gustavus Hines, Josiah Parrish and Alvin Waller are buried there. The website references help find records of burials and the history of the Methodist Mission.

Other Events

Representatives from Kawagoe visit Salem, 2010

Mayor Susan Miller welcomes Kawagoe, Japan as a potential sister-city to Salem. The delegates from each city visit the other, determining if there is compatibility in promoting mutual cultural, educational and economic civic goals. A few months later the contracts were signed. This has proved to be our most lasting sister-city relationship as twenty-five years later, in July of 2010, a delegation from Kawagoe returned to renew the contract. A warm mayoral handshake followed the official signing with Janet Taylor, our second female mayor. Many friendships have been formed and visits made between Kawagoe and Salem. Both our educational institutions and our industrial enterprises have made firm bonds for the benefit of both cities. Barry Duell, now a professor at Tokyo International University in Kawagoe, was profiled for a newspaper article in which he recalled his many years living in Kawagoe.
(Willamette University also enters into sister-university relationships this year: with Xiamen University in Fujian Province of the People’s Republic of China, and with Kookmin University in Seoul, Korea.)

Gillbert House in as it looked in the 1980s

• The City of Salem purchases the 1887 Gilbert House as part of its future Riverfront Development Project. The house built at the intersection of Marion and Water Streets on the east bank of the Willamette River is significant as an outstanding large-scale example of Queen Anne architecture in Salem. At that time was the only substantial historic house remaining in the downtown core. A. T. Gilbert, for whom the house was built, was senior partner with his brother Frank in the Salem banking house of Gilbert Brothers, 1879-1901. Starting as bankers and brokers doing general agency business, they became a general banking establishment in 1885. A. T. Gilbert was a trustee of Pacific University in Forest Grove in the 1890’s. A. T. Gilbert had a distinguished nephew, the son of his brother and partner Frank Alfred Carlton Gilbert, founder of the A. C. Gilbert Co., world-renowned toy manufacturer and inventor of the Erector set, a metal construction toy. A. C. Gilbert’s Discovery Village acquired the Gilbert House through a no-cost lease from the city and restored it with grants from the Meyer Memorial Trust and the community. The Museum opened on December 15, 1989.
• The city purchased an additional 55 cfs of 1856 priority water rights from Boise Cascade after the water right transfer after the City of Stayton and the Santiam Water Control District challenged the water right transfer.
• Jackie Winters, writing in 2000: "I started my business in 1985 which was a big undertaking and risk; leaving the comfort of a pay check to rely on your own ingenuity can be perilous at best. (My business,) Jackie’s Ribs, exists because of my mother. She loved Kansas City barbecue, and watching her eat it was a delight, especially for my father. She did not cook it herself, but my father would go to the barbecue 'joint' to get it; it was his gift to her."
• The operation of the Paulus Brothers Packing Company ended this year. In 1954 they were the largest independently owned canning firm in the Northwest, and the sale of the company in 1955 to Dole Hawaiian Pineapple Company marked the end of an era. Berries, cherries, green beans, plums and pears were the principal products from the Dole plant in the 1950's-60's. Although the canning operation begun by the Paulus family ended and canning operations ceased, the building continued to be used for distribution.
• Salem has excessive snowfall: 6.2" on December 1-2.

Salem in 1972

World Events

• President Nixon makes historic visit to China, meets Mao Zedong. He signs SALT I and Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Leonid Brezhnev.
• Five White House operatives burglarize Watergate offices of Democratic National Committee. FBI investigations discovered connection between the Watergate burglars and the Committee for the Re-Election of the President, the official Nixon campaign.
• Eleven Israeli athletes are murdered in Munich after a Arab terrorist group invades the Olympic Village. Five terrorists and one policeman die in a failed hostage attempt.
• Okinawa is returned to Japan after 27 years of U.S. occupation. On Guam, Japanese soldier, Shoichi Yokoi, is discovered after 28 years in the jungle, the last 8 years alone after his companions left or died.
• George Wallace, Governor of Alabama who fought desegregation, is shot and paralyzed at a political rally. He survived, remaining politically active until his death in 1988.
• Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky in a Reykjavik chess match becoming the first American world chess champion.
• Worship of Norse gods is officially approved in Iceland.
• Academy Awards: "The Godfather" (US), "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" (France). Prize-winning Books: The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Conner, Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner.

In Salem
The new complex of municipal offices and public library is complete. A four-year campaign had been launched by Mayor Vern Miller with Wes Sullivan as chairman of a 26-person committee. Citywide “grass roots” efforts were undertaken, especially to decide whether the site would be north of the city along Mill Creek or south of downtown. The bond issue passed and the southern site was selected. Above, a crowd has gathered on August 18 for the dedication of the complex. A band plays in front of the fountain while onlookers watch from the area between the city hall and the library and from the (then) porch of the library. A feature of the modern styled City Hall structure is a landscaped interior courtyard. The Civic Center also contains publicly owned art works. This collection was begun this year with a Mayor's Invitational Mayor's Invitational exhibition when the Civic Center first opened. The Peace Plaza is a beautiful open space between the City Hall and the Salem Public Library.

When you visit

There is now a third major building of our Civic Center, a parking garage with entrances from Liberty Street and Leslie Street. A short walkway leads to the main entrance of the library. As patrons enter, they enjoy "In a Quiet Meadow"; statuary by Delbert Hodges donated this year when the library opened. Salem's art collection is now displayed throughout the Civic Center, on the lawns and plazas, in the corridors, offices, meeting rooms, in both the Library and City Council Chambers. This is an important local artistic and historic resource. The Salem's Civic Center Art Collection, as it was in 2000, is listed on the Salem History website.

City Hall of the Vern Miller Civic Center houses several of the nine municipal departments including Administration, Finance, Legal (Municipal Court), Human Resources, Police and Community Development. The headquarters of the Fire Department is in Fire Station #1 across Pringle Creek on Trade Street. Other departments such as Public Works, Urban Development, Information Technology are housed elsewhere.
Citizens have the best opportunity to learn how the city government operates by attending City Council meetings. At the meetings, citizens may testify about issues they wish to support or of concern. Another way to effect city programs or services is by volunteering to serve on one of the more than twenty Boards and Commissions. Information about vacancies on Boards and Commissions is found on the city's website.

Other events

Photograph from the collection of Marylou Green

• In the night before demolition, the clock in tower of the empty 1893 City Hall has stopped at 1:17. The tower of the 1893 City Hall is the last part of the building to be demolished.

 Unoccupied Dalrymple House awaiting move. Separated floors aloft. The crash!

• On Marion Street, the unoccupied 1863 Dalrymple House awaits its fate. In preparation for moving the Italianate-style house, the two floors were separated. As a first step in the removal process, the second floor is lifted over the street by a crane, but it crashes to the pavement. A Statesman Journal photographer catches the moment of this spectacular accident. James Dalrymple and his wife had three daughters who married into prominent Salem families, leaving many local fourth-generation descendants.
• Sprague High School, named for former owner-editor of the Oregon Statesman and Oregon governor Charles Arthur Sprague (1886-1969), is dedicated at 2373 Kuebler Road South. Among the guests present on the stage for the dedication on December 3 were Mrs. Martha Sprague Hurley, Mrs. Blanche Sprague, Wallace Sprague and Wesley Sullivan. Bill Kendrick, Salem Superintendent of Schools, and Don Dubois, the principal, conducted the ceremonies.
• Eola Village is typical of housing for migrant labor that harvests crops outside the city. The Community Conservation Committee inspects the area for low income Turnkey Housing in Northgate Village.
• On the Capitol steps, Governor McCall meets with employees after a shutdown of paper production at the Boise Cascade plant.
• The Grier Building is erected at the former location of the 1842 Jason Lee House. A plaque inside commemorates the importance of this historic site.
• South of Trade Street, urban renewal is creating new buildings and parks where there had been canneries along the south side of Pringle Creek. Groundbreaking ceremonies are held for the parking structure and the SAIF building construction begins. These downtown development projects would continue for three years.
• At the Liberty Street bridge over Pringle Creek, Sambo's is a popular restaurant. Built before 1969, it was originally "Little Black Sambo's", the name taken from a children's book about a South Indian boy's encounter with four hungry tigers. The Tudor Rose replaced this restaurant in a few years. Waterplace has now (2010) been built in this site.
• On the northeast side of the same bridge, construction begins on Pringle Park Plaza.
• Neighborhood Associations are established. City Neighborhood Services Specialists and staff liaisons from the city assigned to assist neighborhoods with communications, obtaining information, and better organizing. Faye Wright , an area annexed to the city only 10 years before, is organized this year. The 1920s house (photographed in 2007) is associated with the Frank Hrubetz family for whom the road was named. Two other houses on the same street, at 235 and 230, are associated with this family and research continues. Another significant historical property is the Chesley house at 225 Boone Road. Asked about the neighborhood , Wendy Pyper, Chair in 2010, gave this description: " Thanks to the efforts of Phil Webb and Dean Orton, our association was created so residents would have more influence in land use issues affecting our area. It is alive and well today! Our neighborhood is a mix of apartments, affordable to up-scale single family homes, good schools and churches, parks and businesses. Populated by a diverse group of wonderful people, we have a low crime rate and few issues of concern. We believe this is one of the best places in Salem to live, work and play!"

Salem in 1970

World Events

• The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is ratified by 56 nations.
• Norway announces rich oil deposits found off its North Sea coast.
• Four students are killed and nine wounded at Ohio's Kent State University during a protest against the U.S. extending the Vietnam combat into Cambodia.
• Earth Day is inaugurated; Environmental Protection Agency created; Clean Air Act passed in Congress. Norman E. Borlaug is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the "Green Revolution".
• Wichita State University football team's "Gold" plane crashes on the way to Utah State game. 29 died including starting players, coach, athletic director and wives.
• Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who helped raise global awareness of the Gulag forced labor camps of Russia, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, but declines to go to Stockholm for fear he would not be allowed to return to his family.
• The wreck of the Confederate submarine Hunley is found off South Carolina. It was the first submarine in history to sink a ship.
• Academy Awards: "Patton" (US), "Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion" (Italy). Prize-winning books: them, Joyce Carol Oates and The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, Jean Stafford.

In Salem
The Salem Public Library is part of the new Civic Center being built on a hill south of Pringle Creek. Hugh Morrow was completing a thirty-three year career with this visionary project that will be completed before he retires in 1972. Mr. Morrow came to Salem in 1939 as director of the Salem Public Library. He had a great interest in history, was a member of the Oregon Historical Society and a founder of the Marion County Historical Society. He was the first president of the Oregon Library Association and secretary of the Downtown Rotary Club for 15 years. Mr. Morrow died July 20, 1990. He was an outstanding cultural leader and an honored member of the Salem community.

When you visit
Mr. Morrow is remembered at the library today by a collection of historical materials. These shelves contain not only books and pamphlets about Salem, many by local authors, but our City Directories including editions from the 1890s to the most current. For anyone doing genealogical or historic property research, these resources are invaluable.

Other Events

City Council Meeting photograph from Salem City Library collection

• 1970 City Council meetings are conducted with a slightly different physical layout than in the Civic Center of two years later. Mayor Miller, City Administrator Moore, and the city attorney are seated on a raised platform at the front of the chamber with four councilors on each side (as would be continued). Directly in front of the mayor, also facing the public, sit the city recorder, Betty Marsh, and secretary to the administrator, Mary Brady. Historically, the City Recorder had an important position in Salem city government, keeping records of meetings, being ex-officio clerk of the common council and assessor. The recorder previously had jurisdiction over all violations of city ordinances and presided in the absence of the mayor. It was an elected office from 1857 to 1964 when it became a position appointed by the City Administrator. Voters approved an amended charter in May 1996 and in June 1996 an ordinance was passed that created the office of City Recorder with in the legal Department.
• A new fire station on Lansing Avenue is completed in May. The Lansing area had been annexed into the city in 1920, but it had remained rural farmland until after the accelerated residential boom of the 1950s and 1960s that transformed farmlands surrounding the city into suburban neighborhoods. Because of the increased population between Market Street and Silverton Road, Lansing would, in 1973, become one of the first neighborhoods to become a recognized association.
• In July, a photographer snaps a dramatic picture of the traffic congestion on the Center Street Bridge ramp as cars make their way into Salem. The problem of traffic crossing the Willamette River remains a concern. Emergency access has been partially relieved by the project to remodel the Union Street Railroad Bridge and Trestle for pedestrians and bicycles. It was approved by the City Council when the plans included a provision for emergency vehicle use. A "Third Bridge" has been in the planning stages for a number of years and will need considerable federal financing to be a future reality. In 1966, a Citizen's Advisory Traffic Commission was established that meets to address all concerns about traffic on our roadways and make recommendations to the City Council in the area of traffic movement and safety. The nine appointed members meet as needed, usually on a Thursday at 7 pm. Residents are encouraged to apply for volunteer service on this important Salem commission.

• In November, a groundbreaking ceremony is held to begin the construction of the new Statesman Journal building at the corner of Chemeketa and Church Streets. (The building is for sale in 2014.)  A photograph features Jenny Mainwaring, Blanch Sprague and Wendell Webb. The construction of this building completed the transformation of the former residential area east of Church Street into commercial properties. During the previous thirty years, during the expansion of the state buildings north of the Capital and the relocation of the First Presbyterian Church, the substantial homes of many prominent citizens were either demolished or moved to other sites. Fortunately, the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District, between 13th and 18th streets, has preserved a flavor of an early Salem urban neighborhood and recorded the history of many pioneer families.
• Miller's Department Store closes in the historic Reed Opera House. When the Odd Fellows Hall and Grand Opera House was built in 1900, the auditorium space in the Reed Opera House was converted to Joseph Myers and Sons store. New stores adjacent to the former opera house included E.P. McCormack's smaller building to the south and the new J. C. Penney store. Liberty Street soon surpassed Commercial Street as the hub of local shopping. In 1920 Miller's department store took over the Myers store and later the entire building, creating an enterprise supplying fashions and household products in a family shopping environment typical of the next 30 years. Salem seniors still remember their youthful fascination with the system of vacuum tubes that controlled cash payments in the years before credit cards and electronics. After the close of Miller's, a major rehabilitation of the retail space would not occur until 1976.

• Christmas lights on a temporary tree decorated the old City Hall for the last time in 1970. In 1913, Salem had the first outdoor tree in the United States to be decorated with Christmas lights. The Marion County Courthouse tree was a Norway spruce tree planted by Judge J. J. Shaw in 1882. Over the years, this tree had been featured in many photographs of the old courthouse.