Salem in 1939

World Events

• In June, the St. Louis, a ship carrying 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later die in Nazi death camps during The Holocaust.
• In September Germans invade England's ally, Poland and World War II begins. United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, India and France declare war on Nazi Germany. The U.S. declares neutrality.
• African-American opera star, Marian Anderson, denied the use of the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., sings before an audience of 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigns from the DAR.
• Legendary baseball retires after contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ~ now commonly known by his name: Lou Gehrig's disease. University of Oregon defeats Ohio State to become champions of the first NCAA basketball tournament.
• Academy Award: "Gone With the Wind". Prize-winning novels: Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck:  Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo and The Yearling, Margorie Kinnan Rawlings.

In Salem

One Salem citizen, Ralph Barnes, with his young wife and two daughters, is witnessing the political affairs in Europe as Foreign Correspondent for the NY Herald Tribune. The news Ralph is getting from his Salem father that the new State Library in the North Capitol Mall has been completed and that the Piety Hill homes along Court Street will be demolished next, for the Public Service Building. The Barnes handsome family home on Chemeketa Street, threatened by the construction of the state buildings on the North Capitol Mall, is safe for the present. Ralph learns that Charles Sprague, owner, editor, and publisher of the Oregon Statesman newspaper has been elected governor.
This scene, looking west on State Street, would be familiar to Ralph. Business is picking up with industry anticipating wartime contracts and increased employment. With few suburbs, downtown is in easy walking distance for many residents. It is the center of shopping and professional appointments for adults, for teenagers' drugstore sodas after school and movies on weekends, for family church services. But this is a watchful and anxious time as residents of Salem gather around their radios to listen to the news broadcasts and President Roosevelt's "fire-side chats".

When you visit
Many of these buildings remain, but of significant loss is the Capitol Theater to the left with its marquee dome. It was demolished in 2001: the lot remains empty with the only the back wall of the theater as evidence of its past presence. Beyond the next intersection at High Street, the interurban electric rail line, even then, no longer operated; travel of any distance was by automobile. Other familiar landmarks of this photograph remain, several recently renovated. From left to right, the Livesley Building, still our only skyscraper at 11 floors, the Pioneer Trust Bank and the Masonic Hall. Since 2001, a significant part of downtown has been accepted on the National Register of Historic Places and Heritage Tourism is encouraged. The new Grand Hotel and Conference Center have replaced the Marion Hotel (which was destroyed by fire in 1971) as a social center for both residents and visitors. Civic efforts are strongly focused on bringing more business downtown.

Other Events

• William W. Chadwick becomes mayor. He is among the group at the railroad station greeting Prince Olaf and Princess Martha of Norway on their brief stop in Salem. Since 1926, William W. and Lorena Chadwick had made their home at 1390 Winter Street NE. (above) Mr. Chadwick had been in Salem for only a few years, having been the Postmaster in Canby before 1921. From 1932, He rose in his local hotel career, becoming manager of the Senator Hotel, and General Manager of the Chadwick Hotel Co. Inc. and Chadwick Operating Company. The Chadwicks continued to live in their Winter Street home through his death in 1968.

• With the Patton residence gone, the new Oregon State Library and one remaining tree loom over empty space. The first of four state buildings envisioned for North Capitol Mall, it is an impressive structure. Faced in Georgia marble, granite steps lead to the main entrance, on the east, and the seal of Oregon, carved by Gabriel Lavare. This artist also created the "Pioneer Mother" statuary in the main lobby, the brass elevator, and the decorative architectural features of the second floor; plaques along the wall memorialize persons and symbols important in Oregon history.
• The last two Salem Civil War veterans, John Olsen and Al Feilen, march in the Memorial Day parade.
• South of town, the Buena Vista ferry operates across the Willamette near the town of Independence.
• At Wheatland to the north, another ferry is in operation. One commercial ferry or another has crossed the Willamette River between Yamhill and Marion Counties for over 160 years.
• Hugh Morrow becomes Director of the Salem Public Library, beginning a more than 30 career of service to that facility and our cultural community.
• The first wedding takes place in the new Oregon State Capitol.

From the Capitol Journal:

• Plans to extend water mains into the Salem Heights area reached the stage for voter approval.
• Salem High School was dropped from the basketball tournament because of participation in the "riot" staged after the Salem-Chemewa game in March.
• A Salem man was asking for a divorce from his wife, alleging she struck him in the face without first removing his eyeglasses.
• The following comics were features: Little Orphan Annie, Reg'lar Fellows, Tailspin Tommy, Dumb Dora, Bringing Up Father and Mutt and Jeff.
• The American Legion's Committee on Subversive Activities reported that four un-American organizations were active in Oregon: Young Communists, the Communist party, German-American Bund and the Silver Shirts. The Silver Shirts were potentially most dangerous since they relied on the "vigilante spirit" in achieving their un-American ends.
• In November, other municipalities of Oregon referred to the city government of Salem as a "three ring circus" because its affairs were conducted by a mayor and 14 councilmen serving without pay and each responsible only for the department immediately under individual control.

Salem in 1937

 World Events

• In Spanish Civil War, Guernica is destroyed. Picasso's most famous painting immortalized that horror and of the coming war.
• In China, the unarmed civilians in Nanking, up to 300,000, are raped and massacred by Japanese troops.
• George VI and wife Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey: Duke of Windsor (lately Edward VIII) marries Wallis Simpson.
• President Roosevelt signs US Neutrality Act. Proposes to enlarge the Supreme Court.
• A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Automobile Workers union.
• Flight news: Howard Hughes flies from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 1/2 hours; Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear after taking off from New Guinea in her attempt to become the first woman to fly around the world (Amelia Earhart: The Sky's No Limit, Lori Van Pelt, 2009); the German dirigible Hindenburg bursts into flame in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
• Academy Award, "The Life of Emile Zola". Also movie hits: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Lost Horizon". Pulitzer Prize: Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell. Other awards to Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck and The Citadel, A. J. Cronin.

In Salem

Cornerstone Laid for new Capitol Building

The State of Oregon began rebuilding the Capitol, but needed additional space for office buildings. As the cornerstone is laid a year later (above), there have already been changes in the four residential blocks north of Court Street. The first of four construction projects has begun in the area to be the Oregon State Library. To the right, beyond this photograph, the Governor Moody/Thomas Kay home has already been demolished for the construction of the State Library. The next-door Patton mansion will follow in the next year. Of the four houses visible, the first two to the right will be moved in the next year: the home of Supreme Court Justice Henry Bean, now the Rockenfield House at A.C. Gilbert Discovery Village and the home of former Mayor Lachmund, saved by being moved to Willamette University and then to State Street.
The two nearest the corner at Capitol Street, the Charles Spaulding and Henry Miles homes, will remain in place for another dozen years. The first four marble state buildings of the North Capitol Mall were constructed at the cost of losing "Piety Hill", a distinguished residential section of Salem. It took twenty years to accomplish the state's first segment, to Center Street.
 

When you visit
 North Capitol Mall continued its march north for over half a century, adding new buildings as residences were demolished, until the North Capitol Mall Heritage Park spans Mill Creek as seen in the charts here. The area effected begins at Court Street, in front of the Capitol Building, and extends north to "D" Street. It is bordered on the west by Capital Street, on the east by Winter Street adding new buildings including the Employment Building, the Agriculture Building, the Veterans Building, the State Archives and, finally, the North Capitol Mall Office Building as residences were demolished, until the North Capitol Mall Heritage Park now spans Mill Creek. The area effected begins at Court Street, in front of the Capitol Building, and extends north to "D" Street. It is bordered on the west by Capital Street, on the east by Winter Street. The Revenue and Barbara Robert Human Services Buildings are to the east of Capitol Street.


Other events
    A small Jewish community begins meeting in private homes, then as the congregation grows, moves into temporary quarters downtown at Chemeketa and Commercial. Services were held three flights up, around an old wood stove, with about 20 to 30 people attending. •    The Skiff/Montgomery Building is completed on Liberty Street downtown. A photograph of the year before, shows the before the new construction and another two years later shows the street much as it appears today. In 1867, L. S. and Mary Gardiner Skiff had built a residence here, set back from the street. In 1885, Dr. Skiff built a brick building in front of their home to house his dental office. Their son, Mark Skiff, had a dental office there 1905-1917. This building is featured on the SHINE Historic Downtown Walking Tour.

After the snow storm, Liberty Street

  In January, 27 inches of snow falls, setting a local record and halting traffic while repairs are made due to falling trees. The tower above the Odd Fellows Hall is damaged and the roof of the Salem Alliance Church collapses. Downtown marquees, including that of Miller Store on Court Street, were not designed for excessive weight. They snapped their supporting chains and crashed on to the sidewalks. The sneaker storm mantled the city and hundreds of cars were stalled, schools were closed and a cattle barn on the state fairgrounds collapsed. There were no reports of serious injuries.
•    In October the new Federal Building is completed on the Church Street site of the old Post Office. Postmaster General James A. Farley comes to Salem to dedicate the structure and 2000 residents turn out in the rain to watch the ceremony. In 1978 a new Post office was built on 25th Street. Purchased by the State of Oregon, this became the Executive Building.
•    Blue Lake Producers Cooperative begins as a restructuring of another West Salem cannery.
    

Francis and Bernice Smith House

On Cascade Drive in West Salem, Francis and Bernice Smith build a home overlooking the river and the city beyond. When the iron railings from Pioneer Cemetery were removed, many sections were transferred to this landscaping. There were many existing tall trees on the property, with the eastern border dropping off into wilderness. The Audubon Society now owns much of this wilderness area.

Salem in 1935

World Events

• Congress passes the Social Security Act.
• Senator Huey Long is assassinated in Louisiana. ("All the King's Men",  a 1949 film, was based on prize-winning novel, based on Huey Long's life, by Robert Penn Warren, )
• Great dust storms in the U.S. hit the mid-west the hardest. The Dust Bowl ballads and photographs will become classics. Grapes of Wrath, a novel published in 1939 captures the plight of farmers forced to leave their homes and migrate to the possible opportunities in California.
• To give employment in the Depression, The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and other government-funded work programs are instituted. Hoover Dam, dedicated this year, had many of these skilled laborers.
• Radar equipment able to detect aircraft is developed. Humorist Will Rogers and pilot Wiley Post are killed when their plane crashes in Alaska.
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is founded.
• The Academy Award goes to "Mutiny on the Bounty". Applauded as the most original fiction of the year is The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney. Pulitzer Prize: Now in November, Josephine Winslow Johnson.

 In Salem

The State House fire beginning in the late afternoon...

...its climax that night.

The event most transforming of Salem life occurred on April 25th when an accidental fire begins in the late afternoon, destroying the State House in a spectacular blaze that is witnessed over a wide section of the city and attracting a large crowd of on onlookers who stood along Court Street in amazed wonder. The gentlemen who lived in the mansions lining the north side of the street joined the rescue of state papers and records, rushing into the building even as the blaze spread. Artifacts were carried into living rooms, despite the objection of several ladies, and were soon scattered on carpets and in hallways. A six-year old Spaulding grandson joined his family watching from their front porch directly across Court Street. But he had seen pictures in a book about Pompeii, and as the copper dome began to glow brightly, he took refuge under a bed, thinking another citywide catastrophe was in the making. Later he was teased because he missed its brilliant collapse.

Ruins of the State House with dome collapsed, April 1935

Interior of the Sate House the morning after fire

These photographs taken the next day demonstrate the tragedy. The neighbors lived with the ruins for many months as the state authorities decided how, and where, to rebuild.
Immediately after the fire, discussions had begun as to where a new capitol building should be constructed: in the same place or, perhaps the Candalaria Hills? If in the original location, how can new state buildings, needed for many years, be accommodated in that core of the city surrounded by Willamette University on the south, the railroad tracks on the east, the stately residential "Piety Hill" on the north, and the downtown on the west?
Meanwhile, where would the governor and legislature be housed? Kathleen Carlson Clements wrote, "State clerks spent the day after the fire sorting through saved records and filing cabinets, removed to the armory during the fire. The businessmen of Salem called a special session of the Chamber of Commerce to offer space for state offices displaced by the fire, which were quickly set up at various locations including the Oregon Building and the Supreme Court Building. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a cable expressing his sympathies and offering federal aid in rebuilding."

When you visit
Today this site is completed changed with the newly positioned building and the area half a mile to the north transformed from residential to state offices. By 1939 the new Vermont marble Capitol (not called the State House anymore) was constructed in a modern style of on the same site, facing north instead of west. Needing new office space, the state acquired by "eminent domain" the immediate residential area 4 blocks to the north of the Capitol and over the next twenty years, from 1937 to 1959, the dignified "Piety Hill" homes were either demolished or sold for removal. A few that survived in another location were those associated with the families Judge Henry Bean, Mayor Louis Lachmund, Ladd and Bush Bank officers David Eyre and Joseph Baumgartner, pioneer descendant Cora Moores, prominent physician Dr. Frederick Thompson and Judge Brand. Lost were the homes of prominent families such as Kay, Patton, Spaulding, Miles, Bush, McNary, Barnes, Albert, Rigdon, Bishop and many others. The First Presbyterian Church was moved, another church demolished. In all, the process took 20 years and created the North Capitol Mall with four state buildings: the first, in 1937, was the Oregon State Library.

Floyd McMullen, a 22-year-old Willamette University Student and a volunteer "sleeper" for Salem Fire Department, is the only fatality. He dies of injuries sustained from falling debris inside the building.
Seventy-five years later, Floyd McMullen remains the only Salem fire fighter to die while on duty. Fire Station #7 is dedicated to his memory and contains a museum with artifacts from the fire which so greatly changed the future of Salem.


Other events

• V. E. Kuhn is elected mayor and he showed strength in pursuing a North Santiam, clean water source. The business community was against such a "risky venture" at such high cost. A pipeline and treatment system from Stayton Island was accepted by the City Council.
• Max and Mark Gehlhar establish the Oregon Fruit Products Company in West Salem. The fruit dryer was destroyed by fire, but the cannery building across the street was saved.
• Dancing is allowed at Willamette University for the first time.
• An unusual, cobbled-stone English Cottage style house is built on D Street for Guy and Edele Irwin. Mr. Irwin worked as a meat packer. After his death, Mrs. Irwin married Ernest Hobbs and continued to reside here into the 1960s. Mr. Hobbs was employed at the State Printing Board. The house was acquired by the State in the late 1990s is now an office. This former residence and the Adolphson house next door are the only two North Capitol Mall Heritage Park houses still in their original locations. They are both designated as Local Landmarks.
• Along Church Street, on the east side of Fry Hill, Daniel Fry builds homes to rent. Employees of his Commercial Street Drug Store occupy several. Conde McCullough, a bridge engineer, rents one. He may have influenced the design of the Church Street Bridge across Pringle Creek near this house. (The bridge is credited to R. A. Furrow, a city bridge engineer.) Mr. McCullough later moved to an English Arts and Crafts residence on Leffelle Street designed by Clarence Smith. McCullough favored the arch form for bridges, taking Oregon bridge building to a fine art. He designed 32 major arch bridges existing in Oregon and a prototype for a covered bridge that was used as a model for many of the covered bridges built in Oregon between 1905 and 1925. He died suddenly at his home in Salem in 1946.

The Tonning House

• South of the city, a young couple's romantic vision of an English cottage leads to the construction of a remarkably beautiful home on Croisan Creek Road that became known as the Tonning House. This residence, modeled on an architect’s “dream home” that had won a blue ribbon in the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, was begun in 1935, but completed later by new owners, Nels and Olga Tonning. Among the guests in their more than thirty years of hospitality were John Croisan and his wife who had lived in the old homestead on the back of the property. When their home burned down, they lived upstairs while they were building another home next door. This house is in the Croisan-Illahe neighborhood (now SWAN).

Moving Salem History #11 of 12

Trovar photograph, courtesy Oregon State Library

This Craftsman house was owned in 1907 by Willis S. Duniway and wife Alice. He was the son of Benjamin and Abigail Scott Duniway, a pioneer Oregon advocate of women's suffrage. When the residences of “Piety Hill” were demolished for the construction of the North Capitol Mall (1937-57), this one was spared. Then the residence of former Mayor Louis Lachmund, it was moved in 1937 to Willamette University to serve as residence of the president.

When the Johnson House at 325 Lincoln Street was selected for the Willamette University president, this house was moved to its present location in the 2430 State Street and is now part of a city-owned apartment complex. This is a prime example of how a house associated with Salem history can be useful today.