Salem in 1923

World Events

• During a western states Voyage of Understanding (during which he placed a memorial on a Oregon Trail site), President Harding dies suddenly in San Francisco. Vice President Calvin Coolidge succeeds to the office.
• Pancho Villa, after years of battles for control of the Mexican government and military, re-emerges on the political scene, but is assassinated in Chihuahua.
• Hyperinflation in Germany rises to such a height that their paper money is almost useless. The Weimar Republic collapses.
• Vladimir Lenin rules the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP). Aeroflot, the earliest airline, is incorporated in Russia this year. 
• Americans continued to enjoy "Jazz Age" economic prosperity. Yankee Stadium opens in the Bronx.
• The Hollywood sign is erected above the city. Warner Brothers Pictures is incorporated. Roy and Walt Disney found the Walt Disney Company.
• George Gershwin composes "Rhapsody in Blue". The Pulitzer Prize for a novel goes to The Able McLaughtons by Margaret Wilson. Sinclair Lewis' Babbit, published the year before, is activating social comment about the emergence of a "consumer society" in America.

In Salem
The building boom continues. The downtown block between Liberty and High on Court Street takes on the present-day appearance as one of the more enduring downtown landmarks, The Bligh Building, is completed. T. G. Bligh, already a successful hotel and theater owner in Salem, bought the northwest corner lot at Court and High Streets the year before. At that time there was a one-story, wood-framed dwelling and office building owned by the Salem Elks fraternal organization. In the same year he died in an automobile accident. Franklin D. Bligh took over the family hotel and theater business and completed the one story, Mission Revival Bligh Building on an important corner of downtown. Anna Bligh owned the building until 1927. In 1926, Olson's Florist opened.

When you visit
In the 2007 photograph above, the Bligh Building (with green awning) is on the corner. Two 1909 commercial establishments are adjacent: next door is the D'Arcy Building (see Peter D'Arcy profile and his 1888 home) and to the left of that is the Meyers Building.
Frosty Olson, who created the floral business that still operates in the Bligh Building, lived at 4285 Claxter Court in North Salem. His extensive greenhouses were destroyed by the 1962 windstorm and he retired that year. His beautiful English cottage remains, but is in danger of loss due to the changing commercial needs of its Northgate neighborhood.

Other events

• I. B. Giesy becomes mayor.
• Blue Lake Beans are first planted in our area, soon becoming the best selling among all beans canned.
• Christians of Japanese heritage begin worship services at the home of Suyekichi Watanabe. By 1936 this congregation has established the Brethern Hazelgreen Church.
• Linus Pauling marries Ava Helen Miller in the home of her cousin, Nettie Spaulding on Court Street. He will win two unshared Nobel prizes: in 1954 in chemistry for molecular bonding; in 1962 the Peace Prize for work in international control of nuclear weapons and against nuclear testing in the atmosphere.
• Dr. Harvey Clements builds a Georgian Colonial house on 14th Street, the site of where Salem pioneer, Joseph Holman, had built his first, 1840s log cabin house and constructed the first bridge across Mill Creek. It can be seen in the SHINE Court-Chemeketa Walking Tour.
• The Methodist Old People's Home, built at a cost of $65,000 at Center and 16th Streets, was dedicated June 15.
• Ralph and Beryl Cooley build a home at 888 Summer Street. Ralph Cooley was employed by the Bishop's Clothing Store in Salem for over 50 years; in 1960 when he served as manager of the store, he was honored for half a century of employment. The Cooleys sold the house to the State of Oregon in 1967 as the North Capitol Mall expanded to D Street. The house was moved to a new location on Chemeketa Street and is well preserved as offices by the new owners. It is now a Local Landmark in the NEN neighborhood. (This link shows the house in both locations.)
• As his train passed through Oregon in July, President Harding suffered an attack on ptomaine poisoning and remained in bed with no public appearances. (After a partial recovery, the president has a relapse and died August 2.)
• The discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in Egypt began an architectural fad that is evidenced in the Rufus and Letha Harris home on Stewart Street. The Mediterranean style residence is stucco decorated with cast iron acanthus leaves. Mr. Harris was a printer, coming to Salem in 1900. He worked for the "Statesman" and was at one time in charge of the State Printing Department. He served with the YMCA in France during World War I and returned to Salem in 1920, eventually returning to printing. Owners of the property after 1933 were George and Catherine Shand, Floyd and Evelyn Scott, and Rose Whitlock. This is now a Local Landmark in the CAN-DO neighborhood.
• Dr. Chester Downs build a French Provincial residence on High Street on Fairmount Hill. Dr. Down's medical career was in general practice and orthopedic surgery. After the death of his first wife, Marian in 1944, Dr. Downs married Esther Parounagian Barnes (widow of newspaperman Ralph Barnes), and they lived in the house until 1964. It is now a Local Landmark in the SCAN neighborhood.

From the Capitol Journal:

• A sad Prohibition editorial column this year lamented: "In the good old days it was wine, women and song. The wine is now gone, everyone can't sing and the women are in politics."
• More bad news: Senator Eddy of Roseburg bitterly denounced the course of high school study in Oregon before the Salem Chamber of Commerce. "Our high school graduates cannot read, or write or spell," Senator Eddy complained. "Nor can they speak the English language. I should know as I have sent four of my children through high school."
• However: Oregon's Supreme Court ruled that the ability of a teacher in the public schools of Oregon is not to be judged on a basis of that teacher's ability as a football coach.
• Another blast at the educational system: A banner headline said: "Southern Pacific Wins." Use of railroad passes by heads of educational institutions in Oregon would be taboo hereafter, the story said. Senator Strayer pointed out that legalizing such passes would throw open the door to "thousands of educators cavorting around over the state spreading their propaganda."
• Halloween pranksters raised Councilman W. F. Buckner's fence at 1370 Court Street, greased the streetcar tracks at Commercial and Wilson streets and turned over woodpiles in the neighborhood of Mrs. F. G. DeVoe's home at 1526 Chemeketa Street.

Salem in 1912

World Events

• The Manchu Qing dynasty ends after 268 years, the Republic of China is proclaimed and officially led by Sun Yat-Sen's Kuomintang political party. (His wife is one of four Chang sisters educated in U.S.)
• Emperor Meiji of Japan dies, succeeded by his son , Emperor Taisho. Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gives 3,000 cherry trees to be planted in Washington, D.C. as a symbol of friendship.
• Woodrow Wilson is elected President. Elihu Root is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his strong interest in international arbitration and for his plan for a world court".
• The Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic with a loss of at least 1500 passengers and crew.
• New Mexico (47) and Arizona (48) become the last contiguous states. Alaska is accepted as a territory.
• The Girl Scouts is founded by Juliette Gordon Law in Savannah, Georgia.
• W. C. Handy, known as the Father of the Blues, publishes "The Memphis Blues", giving attention to "southern rag", the "blues" of today.
• Edgar Rice Burrough's "Tarzan" and Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu" both appear in magazines.
• New American Books: A Dome of Many-Colored Glass, Amy Lowell and Riders of the Purple Sage, Zane Grey.

 In Salem
In 1912, postcards were all the rage for Salem travelers wishing to share the novelty of new places seen in their adventures. The Patton brothers, Edwin Cooke and Hal had lived in Japan as children when their father was US Consul in Kobe. They knew the value of this business and opened Patton Postcard Hall in 1908. A narrow room filled with cards, it was located between the Patton and Gill Buildings on State Street. In this 1912 photograph, E. Cooke Patton, is working with an unknown lady assistant. Patton postcards were among the finest produced at the time with a German photographer and the colors applied with artistry.
Local collectors have preserved many of these postcards.

When you visit
No architectural traces of this pioneer family remain in Salem. The Postcard Hall disappeared during the expansion of US National Bank east along State Street in the 1960s. The Patton Building, adjacent to the bank, was demolished in the same construction. Their home is also gone. The brothers' grandfather, Edwin Cooke, had built the Cooke-Patton mansion on Court Street, opposite the State House. They lived in the house all their lives, first with their parents and then settling in with their wives after they married. Luella, Cooke Patton's daughter, was born there and lived with her family until she married and moved to 23rd Street. The house became among the first to be demolished for the construction of the state office buildings beginning in 1937.
(Luella lived to be 109, dying in 2007.)

Other Events

• Equal suffrage won voter approval in Oregon; women are allowed to vote for the first time in the December 2 city election. Smoking is therefore not permitted at polling places as the City Council determines a smoke-filled environment is not suitable for women. However, women were declared ineligible to serve on juries.
• Salem's first Oregon National Guard unit occupies the new Armory on the corner of Ferry and Liberty Streets.

Carnegie Library now Willamette University Civic Law Center

• The establishment of a Carnegie Library in Salem, sponsored by a committee of local women, opens on State Street. After the library moved into the Civic Center in 1972, the YWCA used the building. It is now the Civic Law Center of Willamette University.
• The handsome Masonic Hall is completed on the northwest corner of State and High Streets. It was designed by Ellis Lawrence, founder of the University of Oregon School of Architecture, who was also the architect for the Hubbard Building and the Elsinore Theater.
• The Jason Lee Memorial Church and the nearby Highland Elementary School are built this year in North Salem. Both are still serving their original purposes one hundred years later and are designated as Local Landmarks.

The Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital

• The Dome Building of the Oregon State Hospital is erected on the north side of Center Street. It was designed by Edgar Lazarus who also known for his Vista House on the heights above the Columbia Gorge. The beautiful building, originally used as a receiving ward, has a curved canopy descending over the entrance, fluted cast-iron columns, a flat roof with saucer dome and two-story wings to the north and south. Located on the north side of Center Street, it is not part of the current hospital renovation. It gained recognition in 1975 when used for scenes in the Academy Award winning film, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Oregon Sate Hospital Historic District.
• Walter Gerth, an early booster and mayor of West Salem, opens a store. The family home is now a Local Landmark on Gerth Street.
• Through 37 years, 1920-1957, Louis Olson and his wife Ida lived in a spacious 1912 bungalow at 1490 McCoy Avenue. This beautiful home is in the Grant neighborhood. Mr. Olson had a variety of occupations: packing superintendent at King Foods on Front Street (now Truitt Brothers), patrolman with the Salem Police Department, weightmaster with the State Highway Department, elevator operator and engineer at the Masonic Temple and, finally, caretaker of that institution.
• The Waller-Chamberlain House is moved to its present site on Court Street. It is considered the oldest residence in the Court-Chemeketa Residential Historic District.
• Wilbur Boothby dies at his residence, 171 Court Street. His life and many outstanding local achievements are recognized in contemporary newspaper accounts and a lengthy obituary. Born in Maine in 1840, he had come to Oregon in 1864, after various enterprises in California. His first business a sash and door factory. As a contractor and designer, he built the ornate Marion County Courthouse, the State Hospital, South Eldridge Block (now Greenbaum's Quilted Forest), Bush House and many other local buildings. His wife, the former Miss R. A. Dalglsish, died in 1910, leaving a son and daughter. The Rev. P. S. Knight conducted his funeral service at the home and Boothby was buried in the I. O. O. F. Cemetery ~ now Pioneer Cemetery.