Salem in 1928

World Events

• Herbert Hoover sweeps into the White House with 444 electoral votes, defeating Al Smith ~ the first Catholic nominated to be president.
• Chiang Kai-shek is named Chairman of the National Military Council of the Nationalist government of the Republic of China.
• Famine claims 25 million lives in Soviet Union.
• Haile Selassie is crowned king of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
• In England the women's voting age is lower from 3o to 21.
• The Kellogg–Briand Pact is signed in Paris, the first treaty to outlaw aggressive war.
• Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
• Mickey Mouse is introduced in Disney cartoon movies. Mae West is "Diamond Lil" on Broadway. The Academy Award goes to "Broadway Melody". 
• The Pulitzer Prize awarded to Scarlet Sister Mary, Julia Peterkin. The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the three volume Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Unset. It remains a classic for its "powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages".

In Salem
An orphan before he was 10 years old, young Herbert Hoover was sent to Newburg in 1888 to live with his aunt and uncle. In the next year, his uncle, Dr. Henry Minthorn, opened a land-settlement office in Salem, and the family moved into a house at Hazel and Highland Avenue. (see below)

According to remembrances of Hoover Published in the Capital Journal, he was a quiet, serious teenager with few close friends and an intense appreciation for the outdoors. He was introduced to literature by local educator Jennie Gray who had the greatest influence on his life. With Gray’s help, Hoover left Salem in 1891 to attend Stanford University. In his successful career as a mining engineer, he made a considerable fortune before entering public service.
During his three years in Salem, Hoover became acquainted with another orphan his age, Charles McNary. Hoover's presidency is remembered for the beginning of the Depression era. His 1932 presidential campaign was unsuccessful, but it involved and influenced a ten-year-old Marion County boy named Mark Hatfield. Hoover's final visit to Salem was in August 1955 when, at age 80, he spent a night in Salem’s Senator Hotel. He died in 1964.

When you visit

Dr. Henry Minthorn was a leader in the Society of Friends (Quaker) community here in Salem. He was primarily responsible for the development of the Highland section of the city. The home where they lived still standing on Hazel Street, but too much changed to be recognized. (See above)
The Highland Friends Church that Hoover's family attended is at 580 Highland Avenue, however the handsome building has been sold to another religious institution.

Other Events

• The Hollywood Press, a weekly agricultural newspaper, is established. In 1932 it became the Capital Press.
• The Senator Hotel is built with 111 rooms, 3 tubs and 24 showers. It was in the 1915 Derby Building at northeast Court and High Streets, the location of bus parking at the former Transit Center at Courthouse Square. A photograph shows the hotel as it appeared in about 1957. The hotel was demolished in 1997.
• The Chemeketan Club is organized to promote use and preservation of our out-of-doors. A recent issue of their Chemeketan Bulletin contains pictures and accounts of 1930s hikes in the Salem area.William and Nora Anderson build their home on Court Street.
•  The Andersons owned a sporting goods business downtown and she was a prominent supporter of Salem's cultural life: the Anderson Rooms of the Salem Public Library are named in her honor. The house is now a contributing property in the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District in the NEN neighborhood. In order to build their new home, the Andersons had to remove the Spayd cottage, already on the property, where they had lived since 1909.
• Grace McLauglin (or perhaps her parents, the Robertsons) whose home was across the street, offered to put the cottage in her back yard. It remains there, a significant historical property in that historic district. Mrs. Spayd and her husband had purchased the cottage in 1906 from August Wilhelm who bought the property in 1903 and presumably built the cottage.
• The Cole House is built on Capitol Street. Removed for the construction of the State Archives Building in the 1990s, it is now on Hood Street in the Grant neighborhood. It is a designated Local Landmark.

• A Tudor style house is designed by Clarence Smith for Hubert and Rose Stiff at 795 Winter Street. Mr. Stiff was general manager of the H. L. Stiff Furniture Company. The house was sold to Daniel and Edith Jarman in 1942 and Mrs. Jarman continued to live there after her husband's death until 1966. At that time the State of Oregon bought the property and it became the residence of Governor & Mrs. Tom McCall, then of Governor and Mrs. Victor Atiyeh. Bob Koval photographed at that location in 1978. It has recently been photographed in its new location on Winter Street. It was moved in the early 2000s for the construction of the State's North Capitol Mall Office Building. The former residence is now a state office is in this CAN-DO neighborhood. It is also a Local Landmark.

Franklin Home on Portland Road

• North of the city on Portland Road, Olie Franklin and his wife Maude, move into a new Colonial Revival home on 8 acres near their cleaning establishment. The new house is similar to their former home on High Street except a second story has been added.

Franklin Log Cabin

•  A few years later, a neighbor offers a log cabin on his property: it was moved to the Franklin back yard where it is today. A historical architect who examined it recently does not believe this is an authentic cabin of pioneer days, but a replica built in the 1920s to reflect nostalgia for early, pioneer years.

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."