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 1914

World Events

• Diplomatic relations with Mexico break down, U.S. Marines land in Veracruz which they will occupy for 6 months.
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassinated. As European nations begin World War I, President Wilson promises to keep America out of the conflict. (He signs a Mother's Day Proclamation.)
• German trips invade Belgium: The British Empire declares war on the German Empire, including Austro-Hungary, which declares war on Russia. China declares neutrality. Japan extends its influence in China and seizes German territories in the Pacific and East Asia.
• Ford Motor Company establishes an 8-hour day for workers with a minimum $5 a day wage.
• Panama Canal opens in Panama with the passage of the SS Ancon, a 1901 steamship that had played a major part in ferrying supplies for canal construction. (The Path Between the Seas, David McCullough, 1977)
• Charlie Chaplin makes his first movie debut with the character of the tramp in "Making A Living". Mary Pickford's name appears above the title of film "Hearts Adrift", beginning the "Star" recognition.
• New American Books: The Titan, Theodore Dreiser; Penrod, Booth Tarkington, The Congo and Other Stories, Vachel Lindsay.

In Salem

William C. Knighton, the official state architect of that time, designed this handsome Supreme Court building costing $320,000. The exterior is finished with cream-colored terra cotta and the interior is marble and tile. At the rear of the ground floor, there is an ornate stairway leading to a handsome columned library. The third floor contains the Court Chambers with a glass skylight that includes a replica of the seal of the state of Oregon.
Former Oregon Chief Justice Wallace Carson, Jr. was honored as the Salem Citizen of the Year 2010 at the Chamber of Commerce banquet February 11, 2011.

When you visit
The building is open to visitors after passing a security officer inside the front door. You will be told whether the upper floors are available for visiting at that time. The beautiful library and courtroom are well worth a visit and you may be able to hear some of the deliberations of the court.
It is easy to see the impact the Oregon State Government has on the life of the city. It provides stable local employment and helps make Salem a destination for many visitors, but also increasingly occupies properties, particularly in the core of the city, for which the city provides services but receives no tax revenue.

Other Events

• B. L. Steeves is elected as mayor. The family's 1926 Dutch Colonial home still stands at 1694 Court Street, however the lawn and trees of the property were lost when 17th Street was widened in the 1960’s. The home was owned and occupied by the family into the second generation. The house next door at 1674 Court Street was built for the Steeves daughter, Muriel. Her family occupied this home until 1960. These properties can be seen on the SHINE Court-Chemeketa Walking Tour.
Three blocks, away in this same historic district, is the Buchner House also built this year. It was owned by Walter Buchner and his wife May. Mr. Buchner grew hops on 160 acres he owned south of Salem and established a feed store and mill in town. The family sold the house in 1942. It had long since been converted into rental apartments when it was firebombed in the early 1990s. The neighbors bought the structure, restored it and sold the house to new owners.
• The Roberts Store is established south of Salem and a farming community (complete with train stop) grew up around it. The store remained open until a recent closure (the photograph was taken in 2008), then opened again. The school was put to other uses and the abandoned church collapsed.
• The local YWCA is started in the spring of 1914 with Mrs. C.K. Spaulding heading the board. The organization’s headquarters were in the Knight home on North Liberty Street and the Salem Women’s club made the arrangements and gift of money which made the organization possible. An excerpt from the front page of the Daily Oregon Statesman on April 1, 1914 says, “Salem business men have heartily endorsed the organization plan and have promised to assist in any manner possible should the association care to call on them”.

• 

  Richmond School in its first year, 1914

  Students of the new Richmond School pose for a photograph.
• Two years after the completion of the new Carnegie Library on State Street, the city takes over financial responsibility for this cultural institution. The Salem Public Library Advisory Board (our first Advisory Board) is created with members appointed by the mayor and councilors. The nine members presently meet at the library with the Director on second Wednesday of each month at 7 pm. The public is welcome.
• Another public structure, the Mt. Crest Mausoleum, was completed this year. The architect was Ellis Lawrence who designed the Mahonia Hall, Elsinore Theater and other Salem structures. The building has been added to 9 times, have 6 governors interred there and a number of other prominent people of Salem through out the years. It is a part of City View Cemetery, just to the west of Pioneer Cemetery, sharing a fence.
• April 18 on this year, John Zachary began serving an indeterminate sentence of three to twenty years in the Oregon State Penitentiary.  He did not survive his sentence, dying in the prison hospital on November 27, 1915.  He is buried a short distance from his great-grandmother, Tabitha Brown, in Pioneer Cemetery. His widow, Maud Hill Zachary, moved to Front Street with their five children, making a living as a laundress.

From the Capitol Journal:

• Governor Oswald West made an official visit to Washington, D. C. and the round trip cost the state of Oregon just $1.50. In New York, Governor West made a speech for which he was paid $375. This he turned over to Secretary of State Ben Olcott when he filed his expense account. The state's share of $1.50 was the cost for the governor's travel between Salem and Portland.
• Benjamin S. Via and C. L. Imus, sponsors of the organization of a cavalry troop in Salem to participate in a possible war with Mexico, said they had their quota signed up and were ready for a call by the proper authorities.
• In December, "Old Tiger", the fire engine that had seen service in Salem for many years, was taken to Willamette Slough to pump water on the ice and make the surface smooth for skaters.

(See Ben Maxwell's Salem, Oregon, edited by Scott McArthur, 2006.