Salem in 1891

World Events

• After the Hawaiian regent David Kalakaua dies, his sister Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii. Her attempts draft a new Constitution and extend voting rights led to her overthrow by the U.S. within two years.
• Java Man, considered the "missing link" between apes and humans is discovered by Eugene Dubois. The fossils are at least 700,000 years old.
• In France, troops fire on a workers' May Day demonstration in support of the 8-hour workday, killing 9 and wounding 30.
• New Scotland Yard becomes the HQ of the London Metropolitan Police.
• Croatian-born Nicola Telsa invents the Tesla Coil, a high voltage transformer. With Westinghouse, Telsa produced the electricity that lit the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.
• Edison exhibits his kinetoscope, creating an illusion of movement on film.
• In Coney Island, Jesse W. Reno patents the first escalator.
• Appearing this year in British magazines:" A Study in Scarlet", by Conan Doyle and "The Light That Failed" by Rudyard Kipling. Also published in  (in a censored and serialized version), "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented" by Thomas Hardy.

In Salem
Willamette students at a YMCA Conference in Massachusetts came home to Salem excited about the new game of basketball, invented by James Naismith. Frank E. Brown, a first year student at Willamette University Academy, was the leader in promoting the game after hearing about it from students who attended the conference. They reported that Naismith had taken two peach baskets and had hung them in the gym as targets for the ball. The first Salem games were played in the YMCA gym housed a handsome, three story building at the northwest corner of Chemeketa and Commercial Streets (The photograph above was taken in 1898.). Players from the YMCA and the University followed the "crudely simple" rules: including players lying in circle and scrambling for the ball at a beginning whistle. A Girls Basketball team was described in the 1905 Wallulah yearbook as "five of the pluckiest girls that ever bloomed forth in bloomers."

When you visit
The YMCA moved out of the building in the following year and the building itself (the State Insurance Building) was demolished before 1948. In 1895 Brown convinced University trustees to build a gymnasium and it was used for basketball until it burned in 1921. After his death in 1958, the University dedicated a recreation area to Frank Brown.

Other events

• P. H. D'Arcy is elected mayor and will serve for two years.

• Fire destroys the interior of Waller Building at Willamette University. The photograph of that date shows men and women, all dressed formally (everyone in hats), watching smoke bellow from the roof.
• Two business establishments are constructed. The Burke Building just north of Ferry on Commercial Street, is significant as the location where the Salem Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1922. The Gray Building at the corner of State and Liberty (above), stands in one of our most important downtown locations. In the early 1900s, the Russell Catlin and James Lynn, merchants doing business together, bought the building. The present owners are descendants of Russell Catlin. (See these in the SHINE Downtown Walking Tour.)
• Two substantial farmhouses that had recently been built beyond the city limits are now Local Landmarks in the NEN neighborhood. The Pettygrew house at 587 Statesman Street was owned by that farming family from 1910 to 1939. It has retained its integrity for over a hundred years. The Matthews house at 2010 Nebraska Street was not so fortunate. Owned by that family for about 40 years, it had a number of subsequent owners and suffered many unfortunate alterations during the years it was modified into apartments. The current owners have restored it to its former dignity.
• The Strang House, on the southwest corner of Capitol and Leffelle Streets in the SCAN neighborhood, is somewhat of a mystery. Believed to be of this construction date, it was moved here from its original location on Front Street, in 1891 a typical Salem middle class residential neighborhood. It is likely to be the oldest house in the Gaiety Hill/Bush Pasture Park Historic Residential District. (It can be seen in the SHINE Gaiety Hill/Bush's Pasture Park Walking Tour.)
• A "development" of three Simpson Cottages are built on Court Street on the block between 17th Street and Mill Creek. These are now part of the Court-Chemeketa Historic Residential District.
• Four miles southeast of Salem, a $50,000 institution, serving as a reformatory for boys was established as the Oregon State Training School. Inmates would be instructed in behavior and given military drill and discipline. By the 1920's Salem's city limits were closer to the Reform School and townspeople were alarmed by the city's proximity and the relative ease of escape by its youthful inmates. A 1927 fire gutted the main building and the decision was made to relocate the facility to Woodburn, now the MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility.
• The North School is constructed this year. The name of this imposing building at Market (Garden Road) and North Winter Street was changed in 1908 to Grant School. It was razed in 1954 for the modern school building in that location today.

• The original First Baptist Church at Marion and Liberty Street is built in an elaborate style that includes a tower and turret, windows of various shapes decorated with stained glass, and a center section rising to a peak in two elevations. It was demolished in 1943.
• On August 5, a surprise undertow at North Beach (near the former Tioga, WA) took the lives of two members of a bathing party: Willie Steel and Nellie Boise. The tragic incident is reported at length in a newspaper article entitled, "A Cruel Ocean." Miss Boise was the daughter of Salem Judge Reuben Boise.
• In December, F. S. Dearborn, a book seller on Commercial Street, offered Oregon wild flowers nicely presented and arranged in booklet form as a Christmas gift to be mailed.

Salem in 1876

World Events

• Korea is forced to sign a treaty opening ports to Japanese trade, beginning the Japanese domination of Korea.
• Carlist Wars in Spain end after four years: revolutionary military forces of Carlos VIII defeated and he goes into exile. King Alfonso XII enters Pamplona, historical capital of Navarre.
• 20 disputed electoral votes prevented either Tilden or Hayes winning the presidential election until the Compromise of 1877 settled the question: Republican Hayes becomes President after an agreement to end that political party's Reconstruction policies in the former Confederate states.
• Plains Indians have their last great gatherings. At the Battle of the Rosebud Creek, Sioux and Cheyenne under Crazy Horse beat back General Crook's forces. At the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Lt. Col. George Custer's 7th Cavalry is wiped out by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Also in the west: Colorado is admitted as 38th state.
• A Centennial Exhibition opens in Philadelphia displaying America's industrial wonders in the Machinery Hall, including the new Bell telephone.
• US National Baseball League founded.
• Librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

In SalemSalem has become quite a grand city by this year and begins to solve its drinking water problem. In the photograph of an artist's drawing seen above, to the right of the steamboat in the Willamette River, can be seen the 80 foot water tower, built this year. With a 45 feet deep cistern, and water from the Willamette, it marks the beginning of the Salem Water Company. This system of water supply accommodates the Reed Opera House (1869) and the Chemeketa House (1871) by allowing water to be supplied to these multi-storied buildings. However, the water tower soon began leaking and the river became too polluted to be an acceptable source of water. Other solutions were found a decade later.

When you visit
One of the most remarkable of Salem's early artifacts is this drawing, much reproduced, that gives an aerial view of the city. The tower was almost in line with State Street where the Riverfront Park (and the Carousel) is located now, so the urban landscape is much different today.
Notice the landmarks that are familiar: the present Capitol is in the same place as the State House of 1876, but the current building faces north instead of west; the former Victorian-style Marion Country Courthouse is in the same place as the current structure; the historic First Methodist Church (not completed until 1878) is barely visible just a block away and to the south; Waller Hall of Willamette University is in the background, to the right of the State House. At the intersection of Ferry and Commercial, the large building with dark roof is the Marion House hotel (later Chemeketa House). Diagonally across the intersection is the Holman Building that had housed the original legislature of Oregon and would now continue to serve the city with the Salem Theater. Along the river, at the slough, the Willamette Mill stands over Pringle Creek where the Boise-Cascade facility is now (2012) being demolished. A block south is the Commercial Street bridge. Counting three more blocks south, one may see an indication of the Smith House (now Smith-Fry House) at the top of the hill at Oak Street. Continuing in the same direction, the hill falls at City Line (now Mission Street) and another hill then rises to the Leslie House that would stand there for another year. Asahel Bush would remove it and begin building his own home there in the next year. On the Willamette River there is some industry and steamboats are busily chugging toward town. Notice the small area of business and the surrounding farmland. West Salem appears to be uninhabited as evergreen trees stand in the foreground.

Other Events

• General Sherman of Civil War fame visits Salem. (Sherman County was named for him in 1889.)

• The new State House is completed at the head of Willson Avenue. This second statehouse was classically inspired but it reflected a revived interest in the monumental architecture of the Italian Renaissance. This building, resembling the nation's capitol, was far larger than the previous structure. To contain all the departments of government as well as the legislature and officers of state, the building was three stories tall and shaped in the form of a cross. The long axis extended north to south the length of 264 feet. Minor arms, or projecting sections were centered on the east and, especially, the west front that was considered the ceremonial entrance. Walls were constructed of brick above the ashlar (building stone) ground story of native Oregon sandstone from the Umpqua region. Upper stories were trimmed with limestone and ultimately were given a stone gray finish. The monumental exterior stairways and porticoes would not be added until 1887-8 and the copper-clad dome completed in 1893. The cost of the building was $550,000.
• The Falk House, now a Local Landmark on Candalaria Boulevard, is built by a member of the Fabritus Smith Family. (Mr. Smith, a farmer in this area, was elected to be a state legislator this year.) In 1891 Samuel A. Clarke is noted in the Salem City Directory as residing in this location. Clarke is believed to have named his fruit farm "Candalaria", a name later given to that area of Salem. A later resident was Adam Ohmart, son-in-law of Fabritus Smith, who lived there in 1902. Long-time owners Conrad and Nellie Falk moved here before 1909; the Falks had a prune orchard on the property and continued to reside on the property through the late 1940s. The house, although much altered, still rises proudly above Commercial Street in the South Salem neighborhood.
• Seth Lewelling is best remembered for his work in developing new fruit varieties. In 1875, a planting produced a promising seedling that he named "Bing" after his faithful Chinese helper. When Bing cherries were exhibited this year at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, people at first thought, because of their size, they were crabapples. According to reports, the large Bings averaged 35 cherries to the pound and sold in the East for three cents a cherry.

Salem in 1867

World Events

• Alaska is sold to the US by Alexander II of Russia for $7,200,000: the purchase is ridiculed as "Seward's Folly." Nebraska becomes the 37th state.
• Emperor Maximilian, an Austrian, is executed in Mexico and Benito Juarez (considered the "Abraham Lincoln" of that nation), becomes president again.
• Skeleton of Cro-Magnon man is discovered in France. The Cro-Magnon people, who lived probably 45,000 years ago are considered the earliest anatomically modern humans.
• Richard Wagner composes "The Ring." The waltz, "Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss is first performed in Vienna.
•  Das Kapital by Karl Marx is published in Germany. It addressed the global problems caused by capitalism in disrupting political and economic systems. It created an international debate on how to reform politics and social relations.
• Charles Dickens gives his first U.S. public reading in a New York theater.

In SalemWillamette University students studying any of the political or cultural topics mentioned above, find dorm rooms and classes in the new Waller Hall, named for Alvan Waller. It has been built in the Renaissance style of architecture, designed in the shape of a Greek cross, each side with the same measurements, the top with a cupola. The five-story, redbrick building has been twice by fires gutted by fires, with the interior rebuilt each time. It went through renovations in 1987, 1989 and 2005.
Alvan Waller was prominent in the establishment of the Oregon Institute (Willamette University), to the construction of the original Methodist Church and to the founding of the Pacific Christian Advocate. he died in 1872. His wife Elepha died in 1881.
 
When You Visit: Waller Hall at Willamette University
The building is currently used for administration offices and is the oldest U.S. university building west of the Mississippi still in use. It is located at 900 State Street, across from the Capitol, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975. If the door on the south side is open, enter for a visit to the beautiful Cone Chapel on the second floor.

Other Events

• John H. Moores is re-elected as mayor, the first to serve more than one year. In the 1870s, he consolidated his lumber business with that of the Capital Lumbering Company. He was the secretary and manager of the latter company from June 1876, until his death in December of 1880. During the more than 27 years that he spent in Salem, he was actively interested in various public enterprises. He was treasurer of Marion County, a member of the board of trustees of Willamette University, and was for several years a member of the board of directors of the Salem public schools and of the Oregon State Agricultural Society, of which he was also treasurer. He was also a member of Salem's first city council, four times mayor of Salem, four years a member of the Oregon State senate, and was with the late George H. Atkinson, named as a commissioner to designate the location of the Oregon penitentiary and the Oregon State Insane asylum. Mr. and Mrs. John H. Moores were both members of the Salem First M. E. church, and Mrs. Moores was president of the Oregon Children's Aid Society that erected and maintained an orphans' home on Asylum Avenue in Salem. Their son Albert married Cora Dickinson, daughter of Obed Dickinson, the first minister of the Congregational Church. Their home was in the Piety Hill residential area, now North Capitol Mall. Their home was moved to Leffelle Street.

The former Ladd and Bush Bank

• Asahel Bush left publishing and entered banking, founding the Ladd and Bush Bank (still in business on the corner of State and Commercial Streets.) He managed and directed the bank for 45 years until his death in 1913, at the age of 89. In 1854, he had married Eugenia Zieber, the daughter of one of his printers. They had four children: Estelle, Sally, Asahel III (known as A.N. Bush) and Eugenia. The young and beautiful wife and mother had died of consumption in 1863 at age 30, and Mr. Bush raised the family with the help of servants. Mrs. Bush never lived in the Bush House constructed in 1877-78, but daughter Sally never married and continued to live there with her father and act as mistress of the household.  She died there in 1946.
• The African-American community in Salem raised $427.50, which allowed them to operate a school for six months. They placed an announcement in the newspaper this year, saying that “Notice is hereby given that the colored people of Salem expect to pay all the expenses of the Evening School now being held by them, without aid from other citizens - no person is authorized to collect funds in our name.” The following year, the city of Salem continued what they had begun, and opened Little Central School. This segregated school was located near Central School on High Street between Center and Marion. Its fifteen minority students were taught by Marie Smith and Mrs. R. Mallory. Tuition at Little Central was $4 a term, the same that white children paid to attend “big” Central School.
• The completed Millrace directly supplies water for Salem Woolen Mill and increases flow into Pringle Creek for increasingly prosperous Salem Flour Mill.
• The Starkey-McCully Building is erected at 223-233 Commercial Street with earning from a successful California Gold Rush enterprise that gained the Iowa partners, John Starkey and Asa McCully $5,000 each. They moved to Oregon in 1858 and opened a store in the present location of the historic Ladd and Bush bank. Their next enterprise was this new construction that was rented to various retail, grocery, sporting goods, furniture and auto supplies. The facade is decorated with wrought-iron detail, possibly the oldest of its kind in place. Only 70 feet of the original 120 feet building frontage remain.
• A Willamette University graduate, Edward E. Dodge, organizes a W. U. baseball team that defeated the town "Town Team" 84-23 on a field that now is Willson Park. Edward Dodge, the catcher, scored 10 runs. However, the University nine lost to the Portland Pioneers, 92-25, playing on the Fairgrounds diamond.
• John Minto purchases the 247 acre island in the Willamette River, later named for him.