Salem in 1958

World Events 

• Drought, weather conditions and the political policies of Mao Zedong cause the "Great Famine" in China,  starving 20 million people.
• Van Cliborn wins Tchaikovsky international piano competition in Moscow easing Cold War tensions. Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier in USSR.
• Queen Elizabeth gives her son Charles the title Prince of Wales.
• Eisenhower sends Marines sent to Lebanon, citing United Arab Republic as responsible for violence.
• The word Aerospace comes into use. NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is created by Congress. Authority for all aviation in the US is transferred to the new Federal Aviation Administration.
• Hoola Hoops become popular. Plastic Logo bricks are patented. The first House of Pancakes opens in California, the first Carrefour store in France.
• Elvis Presley is inducted into the Army. Roy Campanella of baseball fame is paralyzed by an automobile accident. 
• Academy Awards: "Gigi" (US), "My Uncle" (France). Prize-winning books: The Wapshot Chronicle, John Cheever and A Death in the Family, James Agee.

In Salem
The plan for constructing the fourth state structure on the North Capital Mall, the Labor and Industries Building, is well underway. The fourth section of Piety Hill, the houses on the block east of Winter Street between Chemeketa and Center Streets will be demolished or moved. This will be the enterprise that captures the most public attention as it requires the Presbyterian Church, then on the northeast corner of Chemeketa and Winter Streets facing Chemeketa Street, to be put on rollers and moved diagonally across Winter Street to face east. The move began in the winter of 1958 and continues for many weeks, the progress intentionally slow so as not to damage the sanctuary.
A number of houses on the west side of Winter and north side of Court Street have been purchased by the church and demolished. This included structures prominent in Salem history for the families who lived in them:
299 N. Winter Street, W. T. and Mattie Rigdon, son Lloyd (1890-1947)
267 N. Winter Street, George Pearce and daughters Helen and Dorothy (1892-1955)
245 N. Winter Street, Joseph and Josephine Albert (dates of house unknown)
785 Court Street, Otto Krause and earlier Robert Fleming (1870s-1954)
745 Court Street, Max Buren and earlier residence of Charles and Fannie Bishop, J. J. Murphy that had been moved to Willamette University to be the president's residence. (1880-1955)
 The Pearce sisters had moved out of their family home in 1955, after purchasing a residence at 490 Oak Street on Fry Hill. One confessed to a friend that she wondered what her late father, George Pearce, would think of them moving to such a large house. The sisters had a sentimental affection for their "auto house", one of Salem's first garages, and brought it with them to be placed in the rear of the house. It is a tradition among parishioners of the church that after the church moved, the sisters sat in the pew that was directly above the location where their house had been.

The last section of Piety Hill is demolished,

When you visit
The church is located on the southwest corner of Chemeketa and Winter Streets, above the former site of the Rigdon and Pearce houses. To the south there are other buildings replacing the Albert/Fleming houses and, around the corner on Court Street, another wing of the church where the Bishop and Buren (1907-1966) houses were located. The house on Oak Street where the Pearce sisters moved, has been the home of the Kohne family for thirty years, but has retained its historic name. Although it has had alterations, the Kohnes honor the history of the house.
The Colonial style manse of the church was also moved. Built in 1926, the first pastor to occupy the manse was the Rev. Ward Willis Long and his wife, Evangeline. Their daughter was born there. The house is now a private residence located at the northeast corner of 18th and Court Streets. It is a contributing property in the Court-Chemeketa Historic District of the NEN Neighborhood and can be seen on the SHINE walking tour of the district.

Other events

• Mark Hatfield is elected governor of Oregon.
• The early parsonage of the Methodist Mission is moved from its original location for the construction of the water tower at the Kay Mill complex. It will be permanently located on the Mission Mill property, now Willamette Heritage Center.

This Lincoln store survives, but in a new building

• The community of Lincoln was once a busy port transit center for wheat being shipped to other landings. In 1958 the town has almost disappeared, but an old house serves as a store at the crossroads where Wallace Road meets Zena Road. A few miles west in Spring Valley, the Presbyterian Church celebrates its 100th anniversary.
• Eola School, also established in the 1850s, celebrates its 100th graduating class. Eight students pose for a photograph with their teacher.

• Our Southern Pacific Freight Station, located in a building predating the 1918 station itself, is still doing business this year. In 2010, fifty years later, the structure is in poor shape although the roof has been repaired through the generosity of the local roofing industry. The freight station was included in the recent nomination of this railroad property for the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, the building will find a new use as the Salem Greyhound Bus Station due to a generous private donation for its renovation.
• Donut Daze, a product of the Salvation Army sold at a shop near the Gilbert House on the riverfront, is popular with residents and especially state employees.
• Walton House, a property bequeathed by William S. Walton to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, becomes the rectory. It has since become a hospitality guesthouse for out-of-town patients, family or loved ones of hospital patients.

Salem in 1951

World Events

• People's Republic of China takes control in Lhasa, Tibet. The Dalai Lama is welcomed in India where he lives to the present.
• Relieved of duty by President Truman, General McArthur makes an emotional farewell address, "And like the old soldier in that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away..."
• China enters into Korean military action. After inconclusive combat up and down the peninsula, a stalemate results in the first armistice talks.
• 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution limits presidents to two terms. 
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and given the death penalty.
• Severe weather: avalanches in the Alps, forests are destroyed by fires in Oregon and other western states, floods in Kansas and Northern Italy,
• This year's musical, "American in Paris", wins the Academy Award (1952). Classic US films of this year: "African Queen" and "Streetcar Named Desire". "Rashomon" (Japan) is judged best foreign film. National Book Award: Collected Stories of William Faulkner, William Faulkner. Pulitzer Prize: The Town, Conrad Richter.

Then: this site along our river was an industrial area

In Salem
Salem families are still getting their news from the radio in the living room: Salem would not have TV for another few years. The evening news broadcasts informed them about a country many had never heard of, Korea. A neighbor had been called back into service and been sent there to fight with United States Marine Corps. But not Dad, so Mom does not worry as she sends her family off to school or work into a city that is being transformed by construction projects. The largest is the new bridge across the Willamette River at Marion Street. This street, adjoining Marion Square Park, once a fine residential neighborhood surrounding Marion Square Park,  is now being sliced up for ramps that will be entrances to the bridge. One overpass was almost directly over the old Gilbert residence that had been transformed into modest apartments. The photograph above shows one of the familiar arched supports near Gilbert House at the Water Street walkway along east side of the river.

And now ~ Riverfront Park invites visitors

When you visit
Archways under the bridge, such as the one in this photograph, enhance the river scenery we enjoy while walking along Water Street north of Riverfront Park. The former A. C. Gilbert residence, almost under the bridge itself, is now the core of the Gilbert House Children's Museum for the education of children through play activities. Four other historic structures have been relocated in this complex along Water Street. These include historic structures from Capitol Street where state purchases for office buildings is transforming the neighborhood north of the capitol building.
The Marion Street Bridge is now one-way with approaches from the east side of the river: going south, cars turn right from Commercial Street; going west cars enter the bridge on Marion Street itself. The Center Street Bridge allows vehicles to travel from West Salem into the downtown area. Although the vehicle bridges do offer some pedestrian or bike lanes, it is advised to take the renovated Union Street Bridge if walking or riding a bike. Traffic across the river has always been a factor in city planning and continues to be a concern.

Other Events

• Alfred W. Loucks becomes mayor. The auditorium of the Salem Public Library is later named for him.
• The city is covered in three inches of snow after a surprise March snowstorm.
• Under the sponsorship of the Baptist Church, United Gospel Mission is established to aid the homeless of the downtown area.
• Local Rotary clubs become involved with the Willamette Scholarship Fund and the Rotary International Scholarship Fund. Since 1950, Rotary Club members adopt American Field Service students and pay travel costs.
• The Scottish Rite Temple of the Masonic Order holds services in a new facility in the 500 block of South Commercial Street. Purchased the year before, much volunteer as well as professional labor had gone into preparing this site.
• The third structure of the First Christian Church is erected on the 1902 church site at the southeast corner of Church and High Streets. The original sanctuary, built in 1867, was known as the "little brick church".

North Capitol Mall in 1951

• Three of the new state buildings are complete on North Capitol Mall. Since construction began in 1937, it was known that the fourth building would have to wait until the First Presbyterian Church was moved diagonally across Winter Street. The church structure on the northeast corner of Chemeketa and Winter Streets (at right center in the photograph above), facing Chemeketa, had been erected and dedicated in 1928 on what was thought to be a permanent site. In anticipation of a move (1958-9), the church began purchasing property on the west side of Winter Street in 1946. By 1951, the Rigdon house at the southwest corner of Chemeketa and Winter Streets, had been demolished. Four more on Winter and around the corner would follow by 1963 when the church property extended around the corner onto Court Street. This signaled the end of the historic residential neighborhood of "Piety Hill" associated with the most prominent pioneer families of Salem. Its proximity to Willson Park, the capitol and Willamette University had made it a fashionable place to live, but the posh residential neighborhood was already that of Fairmount Hill.
• A barnlike structure serves as a facility for car parking at Liberty and Ferry Streets. This is an earlier version of the current Liberty Parkade and the other covered parking facilities downtown that were created in the next twenty years to relieve the problem of parking for potential shoppers.