Salem in 1976

World Events

• Mao Zedong of Communist China dies after a mortality record of causing up to 70 million deaths due to executions and forced labor.
• IRA bombs explode in London. Ten thousand Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland. (Irish rock band U2 is formed by drummer Larry Mullen.)
• The US celebrated its 200th anniversary. Jimmy Carter is elected as President after a Democratic convention keynote address is delivered by a first African-American, Barbara Jordan.
• "Legionnaires' Disease" strikes in Philadelphia causing 29 deaths. The Ebola virus occurs in Yambuku, Zaire.
• The (supposed) last U.S. convertibles roll out of Detroit, new Apple Company, founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
• At Uganda's Entebbe Airport, Israeli commanders free 103 hostages held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane.
• Viking 2 spacecraft lands on Mars: NASA releases Mars photo. 
• Nadia Comaneci earns the first of 7 perfect scores 10  in gymnastics at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.
• Academy Awards: "Rocky" (US) and "Black and White in Color" (France). Prize-winning Books: J R, William Gaddis and Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow.

In Salem
A 40-year Salem controversy between a local cooperative, Salem Electric and PGE over electric power service was resolved this year, bringing underground wiring to downtown. Salem Electric was founded in 1938 by a group of West Salem residents led by Harry Read. Mr. Read stubbornly refused to limit SE's growth into downtown Salem commercial area, linking its West and North Salem service areas. During 1968, after several years of discussions, Salem Electric and PGE reached agreement on service boundaries for the Salem/Keizer area. In 1972, Salem Electric received its third point of delivery, Brush College Substation, from Bonneville Power Administration, providing a 70% increase in the co-op's available capacity. In 1975, Salem Electric's Board approved a $1 million loan to continue its acquisition of the remainder of PGE facilities and for conversion of overhead to underground facilities in the downtown area. When the project was complete, Liberty Street gained this improved appearance (seen in 2007) as part of a revitalized business environment.

When you visit
Salem Electric has moved from its former headquarters adjacent to downtown Salem. In 1968, Salem Electric had constructed a new office building and warehouse located adjacent to the old headquarters on the northwest corner of Front and Union Streets. But in 1976, the City of Salem condemned the co-op's eight-year-old headquarters as a part of its Front Street widening project. The current headquarters are on Seventh Street in West Salem.

The historic downtown, one of our most attractive civic features, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the designated Local Landmark buildings have informative plaques at their entrances. For an online walking tour, please click on that image on the homepage of SHINE. For a copy of the 2011 booklet that is a guide through the history of downtown Salem, call the Community Development Department at 503 588 6173.

Other Events

• Craig Metten provides a dramatic sight for pedestrians on the ground as he scales the First Methodist Church tower during repairs. The steeple is replaced at this time. An even more startling photograph is taken looking down at Craig and the street below at the intersection of State and Church Streets.

View from Methodist Church steeple

Dining atop the Equitable Building

• The new Equitable Building at Center and High Streets, now completed, rises above the one-story businesses to the south at Chemeketa Street. This new six-floor tower has a bank on the ground floor with offices above. But the real treat is the opportunity for a downtown view from one of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Loft Restaurant on top floor. Unfortunately, the restaurant was open only a few years.
• The Oregon State Capitol undergoes an expansion this year with wings at the north and south along State Street.
• Karr's Tavern occupies the historic Boon Store; the renovation to contemporary use of this 1860 building is yet to come. The interior had the appearance of a living room in a residence. The 1846 Boon House had been removed to Mission Mill Museum property and placed on the National Register of Historic Places the year before.
• Our McNary Airfield Air Control Tower receives an award for meritorious service by the Oregon National Guard. United Airlines is serving Salem this year with regularly scheduled commercial and passenger flights.
• In August, Salem residents enjoy rides over the city in a Goodyear blimp. Refer to Oregon Historic Photographs Collection for many aerial views of Salem in 1948 and 1976.
• The Downtown Development Advisory Board is created this year. Composed of a total of 11 members, 6 presently represent the interests of business, property owners and others with interest in the Riverfront Downtown Urban Renewal Area and 5 represent the community at large. Two members represent West Salem specifically.

The Reed Opera House undergoing renovation

• A major rehabilitation of the Reed Opera House provides space for almost two dozen small retail stores in the basement and first floor. An attractive mezzanine opens the area for attractive vistas of the interior. Due to the attention being given to Salem historic preservation, the building is successfully nominated for the National Register in 1978. The Reed Opera House is featured on the Historic Downtown walking tour slide show on SHINE website.

Five neighborhood associations are organized this year:

• Morningside, which is generally bordered by Madrona and Kuebler Drive as you travel south, east of Commercial and west of Fairview Industrial Drive. Businesses line both sides of Commercial Street, but the neighborhood remains residential. It was originally an area of orchards and a few properties still reflect that history. The SHINE Morningside photograph album shows 2 Local Landmark structures moved to the neighborhood, 3 that were in orchards, a significant International style home and another associated with one of Salem's most prominent early families.
• Southeast Salem Neighborhood Association (SESNA) is located south of State Street where early middle class families as well as laborers of the Kay Mill and the railroad built their small craftsman houses 100 yeas ago.
• Sunnyslope, is a relatively new South Salem section of the city and has had little historical research. The Wingate house on Kuebler Drive is the only representative so far.
• Highland was organized by Henry Minthorn as a Quaker community. It later featured the suburban Hollywood Business area along Portland Road.
• Grant, just north of downtown, is one of our oldest neighborhoods (and the smallest), containing many historic properties. The neighborhood is working on establishing a historic district. The city maintains support of these organizations and provides information on the Neighborhoods page of the city website.

Salem in 1919

World Events

• The Civil War spreads in Russia: The Red Army, a Communist force led by Lenin is opposed by the White Army, Conservatives who want a return to a monarchist government. ("Doctor Zhivago" 1965 film based on 1957 Boris Pasternak novel.)
• The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles with 32 nations debating Allied terms of peace and reparations to be paid by the Central Powers.
• The League of Nations, which will meet in Geneva, is founded with a first meeting to be in January 1920. The U.S. does not join, however President Wilson is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his crucial role in establishing the League of Nations".
• Prohibition of alcohol passed in Congress as the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution.
• Babe Ruth, a sports hero, breaks the record for most MLB home runs.
• Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company.
• The Dutch airline, KLM is formed (now oldest airline flying under original name).
• President Wilson suffers a severe stroke, his condition hidden from the public: his wife makes decisions for him until the end of his term of office.
• New books: Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson and The Moon and Sixpence, W. Somerset Maugham. Carl Sandburg publishes Corn Huskers and Ring Lardner humorously captures the perils of buying a house in Own Your Own Home.

In Salem
Robert Paulus of Salem led an effort this year to form a statewide marketing organization of fruit packers and growers, serving as sales manager of the Oregon Growers Cooperative Association. He and his wife Juanita built this home at 1155 Summer Street at about the same time. A 1927 company with brother George was the first time vegetables in any quantity had been canned in Salem. In 1942, the Paulus brothers fruit packing company in Salem was authorized to provide dried fruits and vegetables for the armed forces. Their contributions to the war effort brought them awards for outstanding accomplishment as a food processor. In 1954 they were the largest independently owned canning firm in the Northwest. The sale of the company in 1955 to Dole Hawaiian Pineapple Company marked the end of an era.

When you visit
This private residence on Summer Street is a designated Local Landmark. The exterior of the house has recently been renovated after Design Review by the Historic Landmarks Commission of the Salem Community Development Department. The property includes a lot to the north that once contained a formal garden (now being renovated) possibly designed by the outstanding local landscape architects of the 1930s, Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schrvyer. The low iron fence on the street side of the property came from the Pioneer Cemetery and was purchased when it was replaced at the cemetery. This home is located on one of the last remaining residential blocks of what was once a socially prominent residential area of Salem before the expansion of the North Capitol Mall. In this Grant neighborhood, volunteers are working with the State Historic Preservation Office to prepare a nomination to establish a National Register Historic District.

Other Events

• C. E. Albin becomes mayor.
• The record low temperature reaches six degrees below zero and the city is blanketed with 22 inches of snow.

Valley Packing Company soon after it was established in 1919

The former meat packing facility as it looked in 2012.

• Curtis Cross, the Steusloff brothers and A.N. Bush establish the Valley Packing Company. The large plant occupied 55 acres just west of the Southern Pacific Railway crossing on Portland Road in an almost deserted neighborhood. It was the only U.S. Inspected full-line meat processing plant in the state outside of Portland. Cascade Meats Inc. took over the plant in 1956. In 1959, the year before it closed, there were 130 employees. This Highland neighborhood building is now used for tire storage and has an abandoned appearance from the exterior.
• Waller Hall burns for the second time. The fire was believed to have originated in the chemical laboratory in this classroom building. The work of dragging heavy hose 500 feet through deep snow handicapped firemen. Losses on the second, third and fourth floors amounted to more than $35,000.
• Lausanne Hall is demolished on the Willamette University Campus.
• The American Legion establishes Capital Post No. 9 that creates a relief fund for military veterans and their families.
• Myrtle Gilbert is selected as president of the Salem Art League, later to become the Salem Art Association. That first year the Salem Arts League held art displays, conducted classes in art, literature, and design. The Weaver's Guild and the Writer's Club, organizations still serving Salem artists, grew out of those early years. She died in 1970 at the age of 88, but her many local contributions to the appreciation of the arts are a living Salem legacy.
• The Rotary Club is founded by a few business and professional men who met above Giles Wholesale Fruit Store at South High and Trade Streets. From the beginning, Wednesday luncheons were held in the Hotel Marion. The Club went to work on community projects in cooperation with the Police and Juvenile Court authorities, the Children's Playground Project and aid in furnishing supplies and funds for the Salem hospitals.
• President Woodrow Wilson visits Salem during a speaking tour to gain support for America's participation in the League of Nations. It is possibly one of his last engagements: he collapsed on September 25 in Pueblo, Colorado and suffered a disabling stroke the next month. The extent of his disability was kept from the public until after his death in 1924.

 Capitol Journal news:

• Salem's new city administration pledged itself to make every effort to stamp out the flu. The spitting ordinance would be enforced and restaurants must provide straws with drinks served.
• All doctors were against lifting the ban against public meetings. More than 200 homes were under modified quarantine. An emergency hospital capable of caring for 23 patients was in operation. Nevertheless, except for dances, the city's ban on public meetings was revoked on January 27.
• The 91st Division made up of men from Washington, Oregon and California and known as the "Wild West" division, broke all records for wartime acquisition of decorations> 150 distinguished service crosses, 101 French Croix de Guerre, 150 Belgium Croix de Guerre and 5 Congressional medals.
• The Salem Cigar factory resumed making "La Corona" and "Little Salem" cigars exactly as they were made before the war. "Smoking them reminds one of old times."

Featuring our Summer Street Heritage

Today the Statesman Journal featured Grant neighborhood's efforts to establish a National Register Historic District in an area including this historic Summer Street house. Originally built in the 1930s for Juanita and Robert Paulus, it is now owned by Lola and Christopher Hackett who are active in preservation activities and are quoted in the current newspaper article. On October 8, the Marion County Historic Society will welcome Norma Paulus as speaker at their annual dinner, held at Mission Mill Museum. We are fortunate in Salem that both newcomers to our community and representatives of past generations work together to preserve our valuable cultural heritage.

Their House Fell on Them

photo from the collection of Eileen and Doug Ebanks

Eileen and Doug Ebanks had already done a lot of research on their 1909 house when we met them in 2007. It was probably built by Adam Korb or his son David, both concrete contractors whose name can be seen pressed into many older sidewalks in Grant and SESNA neighborhoods. By 1962 when this photograph above was taken, the house was owned by Kenneth and Lucille Bass.

Walking in our Grant neighborhood one afternoon, we saw this house and were attracted by the handsome, blue-painted residence with matching fence, flowers and landscaping softening the strict lines. We introduced ourselves to the Eileen and Doug Ebanks who owned the property.

Photograph by Timothy Gonzalez of the Statesman Journal

Not many months after we met the Ebanks, we were alarmed to hear the house, on supports to excavate for a basement, had fallen in the middle of the night, July 24, 2008. Eileen, Doug and one of their young sons were sleeping inside. Eileen was seriously injured, the others only superficially. The photograph above was published in the Statesman Journal with an article stating that the Ebanks planned to rebuild their home as close to the original as possible.

Now, almost a year later, here is the rebuilt house as it appeared on June 21, 2009. They have stayed true to the spirit of the house, considering the present code requirements and the need to accommodate their careers and their family. Eileen is recovering from her back injury and so this is a happy ending to a story that could have been tragic. Yes, it has a basement ~ and will be painted blue.