Salem in 1982

World Events

• Canada's Constitution Act severs political ties to Great Britain and establishes a Bill of Rights.
• British territory, the Falklands islands, is invaded by Argentina. Two months later, the Argentines surrender to British forces.
• The Vietnam Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. The eye-level, marble panels list names of 58,000 Americans who died or are MIA in combat that ended in 1975.
• An Air Florida flight crashes into Washington, DC 14th Street Bridge, killing 78. The same day, a Washington Metro train derails and 3 passengers die.
• Princess Grace dies in Monaco when the car she is driving summersaults over a cliff.
• Three deaths near Chicago are traced to poison inserted in Tylenol capsules, criminal never identified.  Tamper-proof, sealed tops now protect consumers of foods and medicines.
• The Commodore 64 8-bit home computer is released, becoming the best-selling computer model. The first computer virus is found, infecting Apple II via floppy disk.  Sony launches first CD player.
• "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" is released in movie theaters.  The Academy Awards: "Gandhi"(US), "To Begin Again" (Spain). Prize-winning Book: Rabbit is Rich, John Updike.

In Salem
Keizer is incorporated as a city in this year. Many times the City of Salem tried to annex the growing community adjacent to its city limits. Beginning in 1964, a number of Keizer residents tried to convince the others that it would be cheaper and better to form their own city. It was not until November 2, 1982, when, with the support of the nearby Clear Lake, residents voted to make Keizer a city.

The original settlement was at Keizer Bottom, near the banks of the Willamette River. The community was named after Thomas Dove Keizur, one of its first settlers. Somewhere in the translation of donation land claim records, his name was misspelled. The settlement suffered in the flood of 1861, and the inhabitants rebuilt their homes on higher ground. Other early settlers of the area were the John Zieber family, whose home was on Clear Lake, St. Paul Road. Zieber bought rights to the property in 1854 and completed the claim. Part of the house was originally a log cabin built in the late 1840s. He was the maternal grandfather of A.N. Bush, who used to stay there as a boy. Stuart Bush demolished the house in the late 1940s to replace it with a modern dwelling.

When you visit
The annual Iris Festival takes place in May and showcases Keizer's iris-growing industry. The festival was founded by Schreiner's Iris Gardens, one of the country's largest retail iris growers, and has been facilitated by the Keizer Chamber of Commerce since 1987. Events include a carnival, a beer garden, craft and food vendors, a 5k walk/run, a vintage car show, and a parade.
The Keizer Heritage Museum is inside the Keizer Heritage Community Center (above), which was formerly the 1916 Keizer School. The original location was the northwest corner of North River and Chemewa Roads, now Schoolhouse Square, a shopping mall. With city support through urban renewal funds and generous contributions of volunteer time and money, the building was moved between 1996-9. It has been completely restored and is the only public historic building in Keizer. Other tenants of the building include the Keizer Community Library, the Keizer Art Association and gallery, and the Keizer Chamber of Commerce.

Other events

• Susan Miller, our first female mayor, is elected. In an interview for Salemhistory website, she attributed her successful campaign to the incredible commitment of hundreds of campaign volunteers and the campaign’s ability to excite Salem citizens about the community’s future. Her accomplishments as mayor included her efforts to acquire 22 acres of waterfront property on the Willamette River, known today as Riverfront Park. On an international level, sister-city relations were established with Simferopol in the then Soviet Union and with Kawagoe in Japan.
• Governor Atiyeh dedicates the new pagoda/bandstand in Willson Park. This new structure is similar to the original bandstand given by Joseph H. Albert. His home was on Winter Street, just across Court Street from the park.

Former First National Bank

• The imposing First National Bank at Chemeketa and Liberty Streets, designed by Pietro Belluschi, becomes the First Interstate Bank. This institution closed in 1996 and it has remained empty. The owners, wishing to demolish this prominent building in the Salem Historic Downtown Historic District, obtained permission from the Historic Landmarks Commission. The architects presented plans for new mixed-use development that would include the lot to east where the former City Hall stood. By 2014, the project had not begun.

• After 1982, housing developments took over most of the land in south Salem formerly used for prune orchards. Salem's involvement with prunes was chiefly with Italian, or "purple plum," prunes. In the depression of the 1930's, these canned prunes were the cheapest fruit one could buy, but in later years the market swung to pears and peaches, and fewer prunes were canned in Salem depressing the value of the orchards. Many residential homesteads in the Morningside neighborhood contain at least one old tree to recall the orchard that thrived there.
• The YWCA receives the Salem Human Rights Award for its work with Southeast Asian refugees.
• Mission Mill Museum Association and Salem Art Association enter an agreement to turn the mill into a center for research and development of textiles known as Northwest Textile Center.
• As enrollment grew at Chemeketa Community College, so did the number of programs offered. In the eight years between 1974 and 1982, the campus added six new buildings to house the growing enrollment and the new programs. To better serve the district's population, the Dallas, Santiam, McMinnville and Woodburn campuses were established.
• Waldo Middle School, in the Lansing neighborhood, was selected to pilot computer assisted instruction at the middle school level, receiving four Apple II+ computers, the first in the district. Apple distributed many computers to schools across the nation at this time, fostering a loyalty among teachers that continues thirty years later.
• The Statesman Journal records that Ernest Clark, Sr., Salem's oldest native-born son, rode as Grand Marshall in the city's celebration of the 125th anniversary of its founding by Methodist missionaries.

Salem in 1966

World Events

• China's "Cultural Revolution" leads to mass executions and displacement of millions as urban populations are sent to labor in rural communes. It continued until the death of Lin Biao in 1971. It paralyzed China politically and economically.
• American military initiates a "Search and Destroy" strategy in Vietnam combat. Anti-war protests sweep US.
•  Miranda Rights are read to criminal suspects during arrest.
• The Lunar Orbiter 1, first US spacecraft to orbit moon. Carl Brasher, first African-American U.S. Navy diver loses leg in recovery of lost H-bomb. (See movie" Men of Honor").
• Masters and Johnson publish Human Sexual Response. Miniskirts appear. The National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded.
• Walt Disney dies. Ronald Reagan is elected governor of California.
• LSD is made illegal in US. "Love Pageants" take place in Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco. Star Trek debuts on TV.
• Academy Awards: "A Man for All Seasons" (US). "A Man and a Woman (France). Prize-winning Book: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter, Katherine Anne Porter.

In Salem
Four years after the Columbus Day windstorm, the Waite Fountain reconstruction is complete in Willson Park. As a crowd gathers for the dedication ceremonies, Ben Maxwell photographs the scene. In the background are buildings that characterize Salem's downtown: the Methodist Church, a symbol of the missionary beginning of the community; the Livesley Building, representing the local business enterprise; and the Marion County Courthouse, reminding us that Salem is part of a larger political administration. Willson Park is important to Salem, being part of the first city plat and, literally, the political and intellectual center of the city as it grew: adjacent to both the Oregon State Capitol and our premier educational resource, Willamette University. In this year of 1966, the city loses its authority over the park, as it had over other city property: ownership passes to the state of Oregon.

When you visit
Ownership of the park makes little difference to the visitors who are there to enjoy walking in the beautiful landscape of lawn, trees, flowers and fountains. For those who also might like to learn about Salem's history and pay respect to historical events and personalities, the opportunities are becoming more challenging. The early park featured a concert bandstand for residents, many living within walking distance in surrounding residential neighborhoods. The Waite fountain offered colored lights that gave evening strollers a visual treat. Now the bandstand, no longer in use, is relocated to the margin of the lawn and fountain, seen above as rebuilt after the 1962 windstorm, has lost its original Technicolor effect that made it such a magnet of visitor attention. The Circuit Rider was once prominently displayed before the entrance to the State House as a tribute to Salem's religious founders, is hidden is a grove of trees at the east side of the Capitol. The Breyman Brothers Memorial, standing at the park's Cottage Street entrance, was originally a memorial to local men who fought in the Spanish American War and was topped with a statue of an American military serviceman. The statue is gone and what remains of the memorial is the trough at the base that once supplied water to horses ~ a lower trough on the park side was intended for dogs. Eugene and Werner Breyman, who donated the memorial, lived in elaborate residences, now demolished, on Court Street and State Street, both within site of the memorial.
Taking prominence in Willson Park today are state flags, tributes to Native American tribes and a modern statuary group. The park is currently designed as an attraction for tourists as well as residents. In 2010, state began a plan to make improvements in the area encompassing Willson Park and North Capitol Mall as far as Center Street (originally the four Piety Hill residential blocks). This new landscaped, visitor area will be the State Capitol State Park.

Other events

• Five fires cause property loss throughout the city: In January, the Senator Hotel on High Street; in March, at Keith Brown Lumber Plant on Front Street; in May, the Berkheimer Building on Church and Trade Streets; in November, Waters Field at 25th and Mission Streets; and (date unknown), the Peerless Bakery on North Commercial Street.
• Douglas Hay resigns his office as Municipal Judge, being elected to the Marion County Circuit Court. In this year the term of the Salem Municipal Judge is extended to four years. Dale Pierson is appointed by the Council and later elected to the office.

Patton Building on State Street, 1886

US Bank extended (left section under tree branches)

• The former Ladd and Bush Bank Building (now US National Bank) has been completely reconstructed and enlarged. In order to expand the bank building along State Street, the 1869 Patton Building was demolished in the previous year. The photographs above show the Patton enterprise when it was a center of local business and the 1966 US Bank extension.
• State Street gets a new look as the historic Patton Building is demolished for the extension along State Street of the US National Bank. Formerly the Ladd and Bush Bank, the new owners completely gutted the building as it had been from 1869 to 1940, renovating the structure. However, to honor its past, the bank lobby displays many historic photographs representing Salem's downtown and the Bush family's association with the bank. The public is welcome to visit these exhibits. (To the left in both photographs is the alley beyond which the Gill Building was already a popular meeting place in the 1870s.)
• West of 12th Street, in the University residential area of town, the Ferry-Oak Street residential neighborhood continues to change with urban growth and the expanding hospital. Only one residence remains in place and another survives by being moved.
• Plans are made to preserve another historic building, the Methodist Parsonage, in a Mission Mill Museum location.
• Aldrich Park in the SESNA neighborhood is getting new playground equipment this year. The park was named for Lewis Aldrich, a banker with the former Ladd and Bush Bank and first Chief Executive Officer with Pioneer Trust Company. He and his wife Donna had no children, but the trust she established in his name still benefits Salem though bequests to three parks (Grant, Northgate and Aldrich) and two grants to the Deepwood property. The first grant was for the house, gardens and land to the street on the south. Deepwood II was for the area to the west of the Deepwood I grant to Pringle Creek. This effort would not have been possible without Mary Eyre’s leadership. Through the efforts of Stuart Compton, the Walton Foundation joined the Aldrich Fund to fund the project. Financially, Deepwood was the Aldrich Funds largest commitment. It preserved a unique area, physically joined Deepwood and Bush property and today funds Deepwood's Youth Interpretive Program.
• When the first new 35-passenger Cherriots bus arrives in Salem, it rolls off the railroad car and city administrators climb aboard for a photograph.
• Salem has a marina on the Willamette River. Several private "yachts" accompany the Marion County Sheriff's Marine Patrol. In the next October, a windstorm demolishes the boathouse and damages the boats ~ for the third time in five years.

• The Prime Rib Restaurant is constructed at Pine Street on the Willamette River. Fine dining and beautiful views of the river made it popular with Salem families. However, by the mid-1980s the original owners had sold the property and the restaurant had gone into foreclosure. In 1998 the building became the Stars Cabaret, a strip club. The windows that had offered a river view were masked with black paint. This enterprise closed within a few years. By 2011, the empty structure had been renovated and reopened as the Club Illusion Sport Bar and Restaurant. A fire destroyed the building the next January.

Salem in 1963

World Events

• In January, Alabama Governor George Wallace proclaims "...segregation now...tomorrow...forever!" During April and May, in Birmingham, Martin Luther King, Jr., other black leaders and demonstrators, many children, are arrested. In June, President Kennedy promises a Civil Rights Bill. In August, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington, D.C.
• In June, Kennedy gives his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in Germany.
• Travel and all other transactions with Cuba are made illegal.
• In November,  John Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He is buried in Arlington  Cemetery.
• Lyndon Johnson becomes president.  His "Gulf of Tonkin" resolution in Congress escalates US  involvement in the Vietnam civil war.
• Zip codes are introduced in U.S. AT&T makes push-button phones available. Viewers see improved instant-replay in TV sports broadcasts.
• Country music star Patsy Cline dies in a plane crash. Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique sparks women's rights movement. Beatles' songs are released in the U.S. creating international  "Beatlemania"
• Academy Awards:"Tom Jones" (US), "8 1/2" (Italy). Prize-winning books: Morte d'Urban, J. F. Powers and "The Reivers", William Faulkner.

In Salem
The Capital Manor Retirement Center has been completed and the first residents moved in. Built along the highway to Dallas in West Salem, its 10 floors contain 255 apartments with views of the Willamette River. From its first construction, it was the largest and best known of the retirement facilities in this area.
The recent photograph shows landscaping and physical improvements that have softened the appearance of the structure. There are other additions to the retirement center including eighty-three villas added in 1987 and town houses added in 1994. Also incorporated over the years are a health care center, assisted living units, an indoor pool, fitness center, bank branch, computer lab, beauty salon, and auditorium.

When you visit
At Capital Manor or at other local retirement facilities, you may be visiting members of your own family or friends of many years. They have selected to live in a new environment with fewer household responsibilities or are in conditions of health that require assistance. Another factor in the benefit of a retirement facility is the fact that families today are often divided by distant career opportunities for the younger generations: senior citizens rarely live with adult children as was the custom in the past. The retirement home is a new social community and one visits friends or family there just as conveniently as at any former residence.

Other events

• After the disastrous Columbus Day storm in the previous year, restorations of properties in Salem continue for many months. Willson Park is a major project and a sign indicating a possible time line for completion of various elements of repair is posted for public information. The work was done by the City of Salem's Regional Park Agency. Soon thereafter, the park was transferred to the State of Oregon that is still responsible for its maintenance.

McMahan House on Front Street after storm

Buren House on Court Street after storm

• Because of damage, the McMahan/McCully house on Front Street, then owned by David Duniway, is removed to John Street for a restoration. The house had been erected by David McCully in 1864 and purchased by Judge L. H. McMahon in about 1900. Mr. Duniway was Oregon State Archivist and a leading Salem proponent of historical preservation.
• Another residential victim of the windstorm was at 745 Court Street. An uprooted fir tree caused considerable damage to a three-story Tudor style house. The porch roof and the railing of the balcony above it sustained the most damage. A photograph taken at that time, shows the shallow roof system of the uprooted tree. The residence was razed two years later for the expansion of the Presbyterian Church buildings along Court Street. The home had been built in 1907 for a prominent Salem family, the Max Burens.
• The Jason Lee house, in its original location at 960 Broadway, is stripped of additions and prepared for a move to a temporary site while awaiting a permanent home. It was later moved to Mission Mill property, now Willamette Heritage Center.
• Another historical structure that is moved this year is the John Boon house. It was located originally next door to the Boon Store, now Boon's Treasury, a McMenamins restaurant enterprise. The historic residence was also relocated to Willamette Heritage Center.
• Horse racing was still a traditional entertainment at the Oregon State Fair in Salem in 1963. The grandstand looked over the Lone Oak raceway with horse barns across the track.
• Woodry's Furniture Store at 474 Commercial Street in downtown Salem suffers a major fire during the night of June 16. The store carried furniture, appliances, floor coverings and all types of household furnishings. It had been in business at that location since 1947.
• A fire also destroys the historic barn on the city-owned Bush Park property. It was the only building that pre-dated the 1860 purchase of the farm property from the Pringle family. It was rebuilt to resemble the original structure and is a part of the National Register Bush Park. Salem Art Association uses the building for offices, galleries and a shop.
• J. C. Penney moves north to a new location at 305 Liberty Street. The Nelson Building, on the northwest intersection with Chemeketa Street was torn down for this new construction. The Grand Opening of the new facility would not be until 1965. Meanwhile, the former Penney's becomes the Metropolitan, a variety store.
• Old City Hall was showing its age, and a bond measure referred to Salem voters on February 23, 1963, to build a new facility. Condemned by the Public Works Department as a fire hazard, the City Hall also had critical space limitations, forcing various City departments and agencies to seek office space elsewhere in town. Because the elevator often stalled between floors, employees joked it had been "installed by Mr. Otis himself." The bond issue failed, but its publicity alerted Salem residents to the realization that the old building was nearing its demise.
• In accordance with a state regulation, Salem creates a Citizen Budget Committee. The members are the City Council and nine appointed citizens representing the wards of the city and one member-at-large. Their duty is to examine, analyze and recommend an annual budget for the city. The committee conducts public meetings in Council Chambers for about 6 weeks in April and May. The public is welcome to attend and testify on matters of concern or may watch on CCTV. In 2008, the City Manager, Linda Norris, held a series of four community meetings, in advance of the Budget Committee sessions, in order to inform Salem residents of the current budget priorities and to hear comments from attendees. One of these was conducted in Spanish to accommodate residents who are more comfortable discussing civic matters in that language.

Salem in 1880

World Events

• Cologne Cathedral is completed, 632 years after the the construction was begun in 1248.
• James Garfield, having served nine terms in the House of Representatives, is elected 21st President.
• Wabash, Indiana is the first electrically lit city in the world. The SS Columbia is lit up at the foot of Wall Street in New York City before sailing for Portland, Oregon via Cape Horn.
• Barnum and Bailey Circus is created. Bingo is invented.
• The first cash register is patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.
• The blizzard of 1880 is considered the most severe winter in our history, beginning in October and lasting into March, 1881: snow up to second floor windows and no transportation. A good reference is Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, The Long Winter that tells of her own family's efforts to survive.
• New American Books: A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain and Ben Hur, Lew Wallace.

In Salem
Samuel Adolph constructs the brick, Italianate Adolph Block to replace wooden buildings destroyed by fire on that State Street site. It offered space for three businesses: Smith and Millican, butchers, and Adolph’s saloon were the first two. The third store included jewelers and The White House Restaurant. The Cooke/Henery family has operated a stationery store in the western two stores since 1935. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is in the Downtown Historic District. A slide show of the District, including this building can be found on this SHINE web/blog.

When you visit
A renovation of this block in the 1990s has added a luncheon restaurant in the eastern half and loft apartments on the second floor. The 1868 Gill Building, also listed on the National Register, completes the photograph. The Gill Building has often been the site of a tavern, but it also has a more dignified history: the first Presbyterian congregation met here in 1869.

Other Events

• The city population reaches 2538. The city's growth was accelerated by the expansion of agriculture and logging, and the continued development of markets for these products.

• T. B. Waite, the former Fire Chief, is elected mayor. By 1886 he had become a merchant with a hardware and farm machinery business at the northeast corner of Commercial and State Streets. A photograph of the Salem Stallion Show of that year (above) clearly shows the sign advertising his establishment above the Durbin Building and horses exhibited along State Street. On the south side of the street, from the foreground, are businesses named for the Patton and Adolph families (see the same Adolph building as featured photograph for 1880 ). In the distance the new First Methodist Church.
• The city council vacates Summer Street between Court and State Streets, allowing Willson Park to enlarge and become adjacent to the State House. Located in the original Willson land, and the exact center of city, it became the focus of many early photographs.
• Christian and Christina Frickey build a house and establish a nursery at what is now 1210 Garnet Street, just east of 12th Street and the railroad tracks. Penitentiary inmates helping clear the heavily forested land. The house, also photographed in 1978, is now designated as a Local Landmark in the NEN neighborhood.
• The Italianate Virgil Pringle House is built at 883 High Street, named for one of the early pioneers of the city. Virgil K. Pringle farmed, on his acres south of town (where Pringle School was built) but mostly operated a boot and shoe shop. In those days the lighter manufacturing trades were usually carried on in the home, and he had his shop in his home and had very prosperous business. We do not know where this shop was located, but it must have been on his Salem land near the creek named for him. In middle age, he spent a good deal of his time on his farm. The High Street residence was built late in his life when he was 76 year old ~ perhaps it was his "town house". His daughter Emma, Mrs. John Hughes, built a home on the northwest corner of High and Oak streets, only a few block away. His funeral was in his "south Salem" home, presumably this one. A photograph of his widow, Pherne Brown Pringle, daughter of Tabitha Moffat Brown, is found with an article about her life, on Salem Lifelines. This residence achieved significance as the Salem residence of Mark O. Hatfield and his family home while governor 1959-67. It is a National Register property in the Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Historic District.
• A. E. Gilbert, brother of A.C. Gilbert, builds a Queen Anne house at what is now 1950 Water Street, then several miles north of town, now in the Highland neighborhood. In 1926, Walter G. and Margaret A. Baker purchased the property. In the 1930s Baker changed his name to Zero Polaire because he felt he had been "left out in the cold" in the matter of his family's will. Mr. Polaire lived in the house into the late 1950s. It is now a Local Landmark in the Highland neighborhood.
• Situated near the southeast corner of Union and Cottage Streets in Salem, the LaFollette tree grew to be one of largest trees of its kind in Marion County. The Harry Widmers moved into the adjacent residence in 1905 and said the tree was big then. An old man about town named LaFollette told the Widmers he started the big tree about 1880 or earlier as a nut brought by wagon from Nebraska. In tree was fronted by the Heritage Tree Restaurant on Cottage Street. When this restaurant closed, the building sold and moved (c. 2006-7) to 2580 State Street. Despite many resident objections to the loss of the tree, the new owners cut it down.