Salem in 1920

World Events

• Irish fight for Independence begins; there are riots between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem; President Carranza is assassinated in Mexico.
• Congress refuses to ratify the Versailles Peace Treaty, objecting, especially, to the decision-making power of the League of Nations. The U.S. signed a separate treaty with the Central Powers.
• Republican Warren G. Harding is elected as President after a "front porch" campaign in which he rarely leaves his home in Ohio. He defeats two opponents: James Cox, Democrat and Eugene Debs, Socialist.
• The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution gives women the right to vote, which they do for the first time in this election. The League of Women Voters established in Chicago.
• Anna Anderson in Berlin claims to be the late Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, youngest daughter of Nicholas II. After many interviews and mental examinations, her identity remained a mystery until DNA after her death in 1984 proved her to have been Franziska Schanzkowska. (See 1957 film "Anastasia", starring Ingrid Bergman.)
• The first licensed radio broadcast is made by KDKA of Pittsburgh.
• New books: The Pulitzer Prize goes to Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence.  Also introduced this year is This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

In Salem
William G. Allen, a prominent Salem business man (Allen Fruit Packing) designed this house and his own crew built it. For brining, drying and packing cherries, he leased on half a streetcar barn on North Front Street in 1934 and after a year it was the largest processor of cherries in the Pacific Northwest. By 1937, several types of fruit juices were produced. During World War II, Allen processed potatoes for the armed forces. The fruit processing industry was crucial to Salem's prosperity in the during the Depression and years of World War II. 

When you visit
After nearly fifty years of owning or managing plants in Salem, he announced in 1952 that he was closing the Front Street plant. After retirement, he and his wife continued to live in this home at 901 Capitol Street until his death on New Years Day in 1954. An interesting feature of the living room is an inglenook framing the fireplace area. The office has become office space and has had a new tenant since this photograph was made in 2007. This former home will be a part of the anticipated Grant Historical District, a nomination being prepared in 2010-2014.

Other events

• O. Wilson becomes mayor and the census shows the city population at 16.679.

• Oregon Pulp and Paper Company starts operations on the property that later became Boise Cascade. The last negotiation with city gave the company right to the property at the foot of Trade Street. [Ben Maxwell added to the news report: "In early pioneer times, an Indian cemetery with very shallow graves was located here."]  A long time feature of the Trade and Commercial intersection, across from the Convention Center and Civic Center Park, the building was partially demolished soon after the 2006 photograph. A new development of the property was still underway in 2014.

The Pulp and Paper Company Building at Trade and Commerical, 1920

The same structure as Boise Cascade in 2006

• The new Lausanne Building replaces the greatly remodeled Willson residence, serving as a dormitory on Willamette University campus. Students participated in the demolition, using axes to splinter old woodwork interior features.
• To the north of the city, John MacDonald builds a farmhouse on a rural path accessed from Portland Road. In 1936, the railroad overpass was constructed, cutting off the former access: the new entrance road was named for the family. After the widowed Mrs. MacDonald left in 1948, the house had many occupants and was converted into apartments in 1968. The current owner-residents have remodeled what had become a business address.
• An English cottage is built for Albert and Doris Adolphson on D Street. They were proprietors of the Klasic Photo Shop. In the late 1940s, Franklin and Doris Silkey were residents. The property was acquired by the State in 1959. This Local Landmark is now a part of Heritage Park, a group of seven state-owed properties bordering the Mill Creek between Summer and Winter Streets in the CAN-DO neighborhood.
• Just a few blocks north, is the home of Wolcott Buren, a prominent Salem physician. Howard Belton, the Treasurer of the State of Oregon, lived here between 1961 and 1980. It became a rental property until the present owners bought the house. It has retained its original style with few alterations. The Buren/Belton house is in the historic Grant neighborhood.
• The probable first owners of a house built at 396 18th Street were Henry L. and Jennie Briggs who lived here until 1930 when it was sold to Russell and Valerie Bonesteele . Mr. Bonesteele was in the automobile business. He served on the Salem Hospital Board and other community boards including the Salem City Council. He became mayor of Salem 1959-62.

The Sprague House

• An English Tudor house was built for Charles and Blanche Sprague at 425 14th Street. He was then publisher of the Oregon Statesman and, in 1939, was elected Governor. After several subsequent political posts, he returned to publishing. The Sprague family lived here for 25 years. It was sold to the state and became part of a social services agency. Both houses are Local Landmarks in the NEN neighborhood.
• South of Trade Street, two previously rural streets are becoming residential. Church Street is filling with rental houses built by Daniel Fry, many for his employees at the Fry Drug Store on Commercial Street. 651 Church Street was an early rental home of Conde McCullough, designer of Columbia Gorge bridges and probably the one just north of his home. Along High Street, south of the Fry property and west of Bush's pasture, many new bungalows are contracted for construction as property owners move south of Mission Street. Both of these streets are in the present Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Historic District. A walking tour of this district, including these two streets can be found on SHINE.
• A hilltop English cottage is built this year for Edward and Kathryn Piasecki, one of the first houses built in the Kingwood Heights area of West Salem. A boating tragedy on the Oregon coast near Newport claimed the life of Edward and another Salem attorney in August of 1952 when he was 72 years old. Kathryn Piasecki continued to live in the house until 1965. It is now a Local Landmark.

Salem in 1888

World Events

• Democrat  Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote for re-election as President, but loses Electoral College vote to Republican Benjamin Harrison.
• Eastman registers the Kodak, using rolled film. Frank McGurrin, court stenographer in Salt Lake City, is first to use touch typing.
• The Great Blizzard sweeps across nation: in the eastern states, more than 400 die; in Mid West at least 350 victims, many children on the way home from school.
• The National Geographic Society is established in Washington, D.C. The Washington Monument in that city opens to the public.
• Jack the Ripper is notorious for brutal murders of women in London.
• In a famous incident, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, after a quarrel with a friend in Arles, France, slices off a part of his ear.

The former D'Arcy home on Church Street

In Salem
Peter D'Arcy, a prominent local attorney and historian, known as the "silver-tongued orator of Oregon", builds a new home (above) on his Church Street property. In 1909, Mr. D'Arcy constructed the commercial building at 467 Court Street that has long been occupied by Whitlock's Vacuum Cleaner Clinic. He was one of the original charter members of the Salem Chamber of Commerce and served as its president in 1914. D’Arcy presided over the Oregon Pioneer Association in 1910, and, for twenty years, the Champoeg Memorial Association, which was responsible for erecting a log building in 1918 to memorialize the creation of the Oregon provisional government. D’Arcy was a life member of the Oregon Historical Society and sat on the board of directors for many years. He died in 1933 and his wife, Teresa A. D’Arcy, passed away less than three years later.

When you visit
Although this house and the Endicott house next door are still there, many of the older homes on this block of 600 block Church Street are gone. On Church Street, further north where Mill Creek crosses, there are still residences built in the 1920s. Offices now occupy the handsome D'Arcy and Endicott houses.

Other events
 J. J. Murphy is elected mayor. His Court Street home in described in the 1887 profile.

Oregon Statesman in the Nesmith Building

• In 1888, the Oregon Statesman was housed in the historic Nesmith building at the southwest corner of Commercial and Ferry Streets. The state's second oldest newspaper, it began in March 28, 1851, in Oregon City in opposition to the Whig newspaper. It moved to Salem in June, 1853, when the Territorial capital was relocated to city. Founder Asahel Bush II was active and influential in Democratic causes. Bush sold the Statesman in March of 1863, and went on to a career in banking and other businesses. The Statesman had a succession of owners and editors until Charles A. Sprague came to Salem in 1929. Sprague became owner, editor, and publisher, establishing a reputation as one of the Nation's great editors. The building was demolished in the 1960s after serving many purposes in the early city.

• A young orphan, Herbert Hoover, moves with the family of his uncle, Henry Minthorn, from Newberg to Salem when Dr. Minthorn becomes president of the Oregon Land Company. They live on Hazel Street in the new Highland neighborhood, founded by a Quaker community led by his uncle. This photograph was taken by Ben Maxwell in 1948 and the house was still in good condition. Later, when it was unoccupied for a number of years, it deteriorated. The house was rescued by new owners who completed transformed its appearance as it stands in the same location at the intersection of Hazel and Highland Streets.
• The Polk County Observer of July 7 records the death of Hannah Gorman, "Pioneer negress of 1844". The reporter told that in 1878 Mrs. Gorman had found a 6-week-old white baby abandoned near the river and had cared for the little one until he was strong enough to be sent to Glen Oaks Orphanage. The article continues, "...when the story of the foundling is told him he will bless Mrs. German and the good ladies of Salem who cared for him when he was a helpless little waif throw[n] upon their charities."

Ben Maxwell, recalls from the 1888 Capitol Journal:

 The measles epidemic is signaled with blue flags hanging from doors as 600 cases are reported.

 A camp of Indians located in North Salem: men, women and children. They begged from door to door and were the “most impudent, disagreeable set of animals that ever passed through this part of the country.”

 Dr. Darrin has taken rooms at the Chemeketa Hotel and testimonials were published. He cured Myan Otis (Portland) of deafness in five minutes, he straightened Miss Lucy Morgan’s (Monmouth) crossed eye in one minute and cured Wesley Graves, formerly of the Chemeketa House in Salem), of sciatic rheumatism and the opium habit.

 Two Salvation Army ladies are disturbed by Dave Shepard who wanted to hold their hands. He was arrested and placed under bond of $50.

 (See Ben Maxell’s Salem, Oregon edited by Scott McArthur, 2006)