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 1979

World Events

• The Islamic Republic of Ayatollah Khomeini replaces the Shah of Iran. Iranian radicals invade the US embassy in Tehran taking 90 hostages of whom 53 are American. They demand the U. S. send the former Shah beck to Iran for trial.
• Pope John Paul II vists his native Poland. This nine-day visit was one of the inspirations for the Solidarity Movement against Communist control.
• Saddam Hussein on becoming president of Iraq, arranges the execution of 70 members of his revolutionary Ba'ath Party. He nationalizes the oil resources and takes brutal control of all aspects of the government and social behavior.
• Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman elected as British Prime Minister.
• Lord Mountbatten and one of his grandsons are killed by a bomb placed on his fishing boat by members of the IRA.
• NASA's  Skylab Space Shuttle returns to earth after 6 years of orbit.
• Sony Walkman and the compact disk (CD) go on sale as well as McDonald's Happy Meal.
• Academy Awards: "Kramer vs. Kramer"(US), "The Tin Drum" (Germany). Prize-winning Books: Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien and The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever.

Cherriot buses in Salem, 1976

In Salem
This year, by a 3 to 1 ratio, the voters within the Salem Urban Growth Boundary approved a ballot measure on November 6, 1979, creating the Salem Area Mass Transit District encompassing the City of Salem and unincorporated areas of Marion and Polk Counties. At this same election, 5 of the 9-member Board of Directors were also elected. Subsequently, the Salem City Council appointed 2 Directors from its membership and the Marion and Polk Boards of Commissioners each appointed 1 Commissioner to the Board.
Our buses are "Cherriots". This had been the name and logo for local Salem buses as early as 1966. According to Clarence Pugh, writing for Salemhistory, the name "Cherriots" was chosen from an entry by Kenneth Yost in a contest and he was awarded a $50 gift certificate. New buses were purchased and upgraded service was begun with A. R. Hampton as first Transit Superintendent for the City of Salem. However, the use of private cars had multiplied after World War II, suburbs had spread beyond established bus lines and gas prices were uncertain. Growth of bus service was slow in the 1970s with 22 buses and 3500 riders during the weekdays: adult fare was thirty cents. In order to serve the public better, the bus system needed to be a separate entity with its own funding. This came about through the creation of a Transit District this year through an Oregon legislative act.
Oregon Legislature passes Senate Bill 462 providing a procedure through which the voters could create transit districts with an outer boundary no greater than the Urban Growth Boundary of a city.

When you visit
Courlette Hiscocks wrote the second half of the online history of the transit system with events after 1979 and leading up to the acquisition of the property of the former Senator Hotel and the building of Courthouse Square. "In November 1995, the District introduced a proposed project, Courthouse Square, on the Senator Hotel block, downtown, as a joint project with Marion County to provide the County with a centralized County Service Center and to replace the District's current transit transfer facility on High Street and move its administrative offices into downtown. The $30 million project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2000. The transit portion of the project is $9.844 million of which $7.675 million is from federal (FTA) grants."
Courthouse Square was completed in 2000 as planned, but suffered a number of other complaints. Construction for shops along the north side of the block did not occur as expected, the size and style of the structure seemed out-of-place to many citizens, and, most recently, the transit center closed because of unexplained faults in the foundation. Bus riders, who must make connections between various routes, were accommodated in a temporary on-street location. By 2014, Courthouse Square had been completely repaired and county offices were back in place as well as bus facilities.

Other Events

Gov. Atiyeh's Salem Home

• Victor Atiyeh is elected governor of Oregon and moves in to the Stiff House on Winter Street where he and his wife will live until 1987.
• Sue Miller is elected to the Salem Area Transit District Board at its formation this year. She found that not only did she appreciate the results of campaigning and setting public policy as an elected official, but she also enjoyed the campaign process.
• Scott McIntire designs the first commissioned Art Fair poster; the fair begins with a parade and ends with a bagpipe procession, which becomes a tradition.

• The site for the new shopping complex "anchor", the Nordstrom Mall building is being prepared for construction bounded by Center, Liberty and Chemeketa Streets. Later in the year, a photographer catches work on the interior of the second floor.

• North Capitol Mall is extending beyond Center Street and further north on Summer Street with the construction of the Revenue Building designed by BOORA Architects from Portland. It was constructed in two phases. The first phase included the underground parking, the front plaza, and the main building, which would be completed in 1981. The second phase included the “tower,” which is the smaller section of the building in the NE corner of the block, completed in 1984. The building originally housed most of the state’s major computer centers, but those have now been moved to the State Data Center on Airport Road. Before the building was constructed, the property housed a retail complex and houses that were torn down or moved.

• As Vietnamese refugees arrive in Salem in large numbers, the YWCA implements programs in cultural integration, employment, secondary wage-earner projects, case management, and other programs to help them assimilate into their new environment.
• One of the more amusing incidents in State Fair history occurred on opening day this year when a steer named Rufus escaped from his handlers, swam the Willamette River, and found his way to a cornfield, where he stayed for six weeks. Rufus became the fair's mascot, and was displayed, behind reinforced fencing, from 1980 through 1987. Sadly, Rufus died in early 1988 after he injured his leg.

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.

• 

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 1916

World Events

• More than a million soldiers die in the battle of the Somme, July~November; there are 60,000 British casualties the first day.
• British military campaigns fail against Ottoman Empire in the Mid-East: troops are evacuated from Gallipoli after trying to capture Istanbul and are defeated in Mesopotamia ~ now Iraq.
• Pancho Villa leads raiders into Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 US soldiers before the Mexicans are driven away by the 13th Cavalry.
• President Wilson narrowly defeats Republican Charles E. Hughes in election.
• Wilson signs legislation creating the National Park Service.
• In Seattle, William Boeing incorporates Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing).
• Jazz is a rage with American dancers.
• New American Books: Chicago Poems, Carl Sandburg; The Genius, Theodore Dreiser (suppressed by New York authorities until 1923), and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce. This book and Dubliners (1914) secured the author's foremost place in modern literature.

In Salem
This 1916 house was built for Minnie Downing, secretary to Attorney General George Brown and to Oregon political leader, I. H. Van Winkle. It was also home to her stepfather and mother, Colonel John H. and Florence Cradlebaugh. Miss Downing and her mother lived in the house into the mid 1930s. Lowell and Jean Kern purchased the house in 1937 and asked Salem architect Clarence Smith to add a new small entry porch. Later residents of the house were Willamette University president Bruce Baxter and Willard and Margaret Marshall; Mr. Marshall was mayor of Salem 1963-5.

When you visit
This is a private residence in the Fairmount Hill area of the SCAN neighborhood. It is pleasant to walk in this residential area west of Commercial Street, between Leffelle and Rural Streets. The area was recently considered for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, but the project has been set aside for the present by the wish of the residents. The Downing house has been designated as a Local Landmark. Mr. Marshall resigned his position as mayor due to ill health. In recognition of the many contributions to Salem by Mr. Marshall, there is an annual award given in his name to an outstanding citizen volunteer.

Other events

• Oregon military troops leave the 12th Street SP railway station again: this time for duty in Mexico. The 16 month campaign against Pancho Villa was unsuccessful: General Pershing returned the US to lead the AEF to France and Villa retired to his hacienda where he died in 1920.

1930s: McGilchrist Building (left) and Bligh Building (demolished by fire in the 1940s).

• At the northeast corner of Liberty and State Streets, the McGilchrist name is inscribed in bas-relief on the upper level on their building constructed this year. The son James established a furniture, restaurant and real estate business. He became the first Capitol guide, a position he held until 1953. There is also a 1950s photograph of the McGilchrist Building.
• Near the same corner, where Cooke's Stationary is now located, the George family owned the White House Restaurant from 1902 to 1931 (with McGilchrist ownership 1907-11). An interior photograph features the center counter for dining: tables were at the right side. In an exterior photo, the men in suits are Levi (Lee) George next to twin brother William P. (Will) George. Sr. In the center is Martin Nelson, head waiter, and on the far right Jesse George, brother of Lee and Will.

• Established just two years before, the YWCA moves to quarters on the second floor above Woolworth’s. The first younger girl’s work starts there in April of that year and such projects as housing, clubs, employment and classes are started.
• Only remnants of the original Hughes/Durbin building at 160 Liberty Street remain. In the 1920s it became the home of Salem’s J.C. Penny store and remained so for the next several decades. It is more recently remembered as the Metropolitan, a variety retail store. After a recent renovation (2008), it now houses condos on the top floors.
• The Wallace and Mabel Moore building at 409 Court Street is identified today by a permanent green awning of the florist that occupies the building. Mr. Moore owned a furniture store and other properties. The family suffered a tragedy when one of their two daughters, Dorothy Moore Long, died with her husband in a 1937 auto accident. Mr. Moore died four months later. In 1947, Mrs. Moore sold this property to her daughter, Mabel Lucille Knapp who retained ownership into the 1980s. These are all featured on the SHINE Historic Downtown Walking Tour slide show.
• The Deaconess Hospital, Salem’s second hospital, is founded by members of the Mennonite church. The hospital began with 12 beds housed in the old Salem Hotel on Winter Street. The wooden building had a tower and wing attached to the rear. This structure was absorbed by the growth of Salem Hospital that now occupies Winter Street between Mission and Bellevue Streets.
• Beyond city limits, in the present NESCA neighborhood, the handsome Colonial Revival Vinyard House was built this year on farmland that extended from the present Center Street north to "D" Street. The original owner of the property may not have been Dr. Vinyard. He is the first recorded at this address and his widow lived there until 1956 when Nina Bilyeu's husband purchased the house. She remembered when the acres across Center Street were open fields with grouse and pheasant.
• Also in North Salem, an 1890 farmhouse on Summer Street is remodeled in 1916 for Francis N. Woodry and his wife Medora who lived there until 1947. Edward A Randle, president of the Randle Oil Company, owned the home for the next 34 years. After many years of neglect, this handsome house has recently (2008) been restored by new owners.
• The Business Men's League of the Salem Commercial Club went on record in favor of the city vacating streets along the Willamette riverfront, necessary to bring a $500,000 paper mill to Salem. This industry, owned by Charles K. Spaulding, brought employment to the city for many years after this date. It also brought significant pollution, something no one considered in the era, and contributed to the disappearance of an ancient Indian cemetery on the site.