Salem in 1980

World Events

• President Carter's attempt to rescue our embassy hostages in Iran fails. However, six American diplomats disguised as Canadians, escape.
•  Lech Walesa leads successful workers' strikes at Gdansk Shipyards. An agreement provides for the first free trade union in the communist bloc.
• In Winter Olympics, the "Miracle on Ice" brings hockey victory to U.S. team. The summer games in Moscow are boycotted by 50 nations because of Russia's invasion of Afghanistan.
• Republican Ronald Reagan is elected president with the support of the Conservative "Religious Right". Democrats and Moderate Republicans acknowledge that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), passed by both houses of Congress and ratified by 35 states by 1979 will not receive the necessary 3 more state ratifications due to Conservative opposition.
• Mt. St. Helens volcano in Washington State erupts creating a  transformation of the landscape, killing 57 and causing 3 billion dollars in damage.
• Voters in Quebec reject a proposal to seek independence from Canada.
• John Lennon is shot and killed outside his New York City apartment.
• Academy Awards:" Ordinary People" (US). "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears" (USSR). Prize-winning books: Sophie's Choice, William Styron and The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer.

In Salem
The character of downtown has now developed from local street-front merchants to commercial malls, enclosed areas filled with franchises of name-brand enterprises where the entrance is often through a parking structure. Nordstrom Mall is completed, bringing another nationally recognized name into the local business market. New competition is developing as large national retailers such as Costco, Shopko, Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot recognized Salem's market potential and open outlets in suburban Salem. The state buildings are rising ever northward from the Capitol as the Employment and Agriculture buildings are built north of Union Street and future major state construction is planned for the Mill Creek area bounded by Capitol, Summer, Winter and D Streets.

Residences just outside the traditional core of the city, the older neighborhoods of the 1920s-1930s, are being by-passed by newer residential developments, especially those further south. Fifteen of our nineteen neighborhoods have organized into associations; two more will be established this year. The photograph above is a home in one of these, Croisan-Illahe.
This romantic French Normandy style home is nestled among large oak trees, Croisan Creek running through the front yard of the home. It was built on the original Donation Land Claim of Henry Croisan who joined a wagon train for Oregon in 1846 and established a homestead here, three miles southwest of Salem. After a successful 1849 search for gold in California, he returned to farm on the original claim. The Croisans sold parcels over the years and in 1930 sold almost an acre to Earl S. Sandifer. This home, which he planned with his wife, was completed 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. The property changed hands once again in May of 1969 when current owners purchased the property. This property has recently been designated by the City as a Local Landmark.

When you visit
This is a private residence, so enjoy the view from Croisan Creek Road.
The neighborhood covers 2,504 acres in the South Salem hills and has about 700 residents. Its borders are Kuebler Road, Croisan Creek Road and South River Road. The Association area is almost universally residential. Within the boundaries is one developed City Park, Nelson Park, and City owned land for a second park adjacent to the Bailey Ridge subdivision on S. River Road for future development. The Croisan-Illahe area offers easy access to Minto Brown Island Park, downtown Salem, as well as the multitude of resources throughout South Salem.

Other events

• Population reaches 98,830.
• South Salem neighborhood is also established this year. (It merged with Croison-Illahe to become SWAN.) Pioneer Cemetery is located here as well as the historic Salem Heights properties. Notable family residences are historically associated with the names Calaba, Thompson, Taylor, Nohlgren and Falk. The original owners of Buttercup Hill on Sunnyside Road are yet to be discovered. These have already been described in earlier years of this series.

• One of the aeration ponds of Windsor Island is photographed this year. The towers and buildings of the Willow Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant are mirrored on the water's surface. Since 1976, the facility has been improved with a larger capacity and a significant reduction in discharged pollutants into the Willamette River.
• Two local newspapers, the afternoon Capitol Journal and the morning Oregon Statesman, having already merged into the Gannet Company in 1974, now unite into one publication, a morning newspaper named the Statesman Journal.
• From the Oregon Historical Society comes Thomas Cronise ~ The Art Perfected, a book illustrating many of that local photographer's sensitive portraits taken in his studio on the second floor of the Bush-Brey Building on Commercial Street during the years between 1902 and 1927. An Oregon Historical Society article of this year describes the studio and equipment: The reception salon of the studio was haphazardly decorated with photographs. In the rear was the camera room where the usual array of photographic equipment, backdrops and props were located. A skylight allowed diffused north light to enter the camera room providing the soft, natural illumination so essential to fine portraiture. Cronise used a 11X14 inch studio portrait camera made of mahogany with brass fittings, which sat on a table specifically designed for raising and lowering the camera. Always accommodating and sociable to his clients, a brass birdie was supplemented by a "Jocko" hand puppet for holding children's attention.
• Another important book about local history published this year is Elizabeth McLagan's A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940, published in Portland by The Georgian Press. This has been an important resource in learning about Salem's African American cultural heritage and has been one of the starting points for the further research and publication by the Oregon Northwest Black Pioneers.
• At Willamette University, an $18 million fund raising drive begins. This project will sponsor the renovation of several major academic buildings, campus grounds will be improved and the Mark O. Hatfield Library built.
• Mount St. Helens, fifty miles northeast of Portland, erupts on May 18 causing the deaths of fifty-seven people and the loss of homes, bridges and railroad tracks in addition to severe highway traffic disruption. The fall-out was apparent here in Salem and caused a new awareness of the west coast potential for geologic disaster in the future.

Salem in 1979

World Events

• The Islamic Republic of Ayatollah Khomeini replaces the Shah of Iran. Iranian radicals invade the US embassy in Tehran taking 90 hostages of whom 53 are American. They demand the U. S. send the former Shah beck to Iran for trial.
• Pope John Paul II vists his native Poland. This nine-day visit was one of the inspirations for the Solidarity Movement against Communist control.
• Saddam Hussein on becoming president of Iraq, arranges the execution of 70 members of his revolutionary Ba'ath Party. He nationalizes the oil resources and takes brutal control of all aspects of the government and social behavior.
• Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman elected as British Prime Minister.
• Lord Mountbatten and one of his grandsons are killed by a bomb placed on his fishing boat by members of the IRA.
• NASA's  Skylab Space Shuttle returns to earth after 6 years of orbit.
• Sony Walkman and the compact disk (CD) go on sale as well as McDonald's Happy Meal.
• Academy Awards: "Kramer vs. Kramer"(US), "The Tin Drum" (Germany). Prize-winning Books: Going After Cacciato, Tim O'Brien and The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever.

Cherriot buses in Salem, 1976

In Salem
This year, by a 3 to 1 ratio, the voters within the Salem Urban Growth Boundary approved a ballot measure on November 6, 1979, creating the Salem Area Mass Transit District encompassing the City of Salem and unincorporated areas of Marion and Polk Counties. At this same election, 5 of the 9-member Board of Directors were also elected. Subsequently, the Salem City Council appointed 2 Directors from its membership and the Marion and Polk Boards of Commissioners each appointed 1 Commissioner to the Board.
Our buses are "Cherriots". This had been the name and logo for local Salem buses as early as 1966. According to Clarence Pugh, writing for Salemhistory, the name "Cherriots" was chosen from an entry by Kenneth Yost in a contest and he was awarded a $50 gift certificate. New buses were purchased and upgraded service was begun with A. R. Hampton as first Transit Superintendent for the City of Salem. However, the use of private cars had multiplied after World War II, suburbs had spread beyond established bus lines and gas prices were uncertain. Growth of bus service was slow in the 1970s with 22 buses and 3500 riders during the weekdays: adult fare was thirty cents. In order to serve the public better, the bus system needed to be a separate entity with its own funding. This came about through the creation of a Transit District this year through an Oregon legislative act.
Oregon Legislature passes Senate Bill 462 providing a procedure through which the voters could create transit districts with an outer boundary no greater than the Urban Growth Boundary of a city.

When you visit
Courlette Hiscocks wrote the second half of the online history of the transit system with events after 1979 and leading up to the acquisition of the property of the former Senator Hotel and the building of Courthouse Square. "In November 1995, the District introduced a proposed project, Courthouse Square, on the Senator Hotel block, downtown, as a joint project with Marion County to provide the County with a centralized County Service Center and to replace the District's current transit transfer facility on High Street and move its administrative offices into downtown. The $30 million project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2000. The transit portion of the project is $9.844 million of which $7.675 million is from federal (FTA) grants."
Courthouse Square was completed in 2000 as planned, but suffered a number of other complaints. Construction for shops along the north side of the block did not occur as expected, the size and style of the structure seemed out-of-place to many citizens, and, most recently, the transit center closed because of unexplained faults in the foundation. Bus riders, who must make connections between various routes, were accommodated in a temporary on-street location. By 2014, Courthouse Square had been completely repaired and county offices were back in place as well as bus facilities.

Other Events

Gov. Atiyeh's Salem Home

• Victor Atiyeh is elected governor of Oregon and moves in to the Stiff House on Winter Street where he and his wife will live until 1987.
• Sue Miller is elected to the Salem Area Transit District Board at its formation this year. She found that not only did she appreciate the results of campaigning and setting public policy as an elected official, but she also enjoyed the campaign process.
• Scott McIntire designs the first commissioned Art Fair poster; the fair begins with a parade and ends with a bagpipe procession, which becomes a tradition.

• The site for the new shopping complex "anchor", the Nordstrom Mall building is being prepared for construction bounded by Center, Liberty and Chemeketa Streets. Later in the year, a photographer catches work on the interior of the second floor.

• North Capitol Mall is extending beyond Center Street and further north on Summer Street with the construction of the Revenue Building designed by BOORA Architects from Portland. It was constructed in two phases. The first phase included the underground parking, the front plaza, and the main building, which would be completed in 1981. The second phase included the “tower,” which is the smaller section of the building in the NE corner of the block, completed in 1984. The building originally housed most of the state’s major computer centers, but those have now been moved to the State Data Center on Airport Road. Before the building was constructed, the property housed a retail complex and houses that were torn down or moved.

• As Vietnamese refugees arrive in Salem in large numbers, the YWCA implements programs in cultural integration, employment, secondary wage-earner projects, case management, and other programs to help them assimilate into their new environment.
• One of the more amusing incidents in State Fair history occurred on opening day this year when a steer named Rufus escaped from his handlers, swam the Willamette River, and found his way to a cornfield, where he stayed for six weeks. Rufus became the fair's mascot, and was displayed, behind reinforced fencing, from 1980 through 1987. Sadly, Rufus died in early 1988 after he injured his leg.

Salem in 1978

World Events

• Camp David Accords further peace talks concerning Israel and Palestine. Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin earn the Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Holy Crown of Hungary is returned to Hungary from U.S. where it has been held since World War II.
• Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy. John Paul II succeeds in "Year of Three Popes" since 1605. He is the first Polish pope.
• President Carter postpones production of neutron bomb which kills people but leaves buildings intact. The U.S. Senate votes to turns the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
• First "test-tube" baby born, Louise Joy Brown of Bristol, England.
• In San Francisco, Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated. Diane Feinstein becomes the first female mayor. The rainbow flag of LGBT movement flies in San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day Parade.
• Two million citizens in Iran demonstrate against the Shah.
• Garfield appears as a comic. Superman is released as a movie.
• The Academy Awards: "The Deer Hunter" (US),"Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (France). Prize-winning Books: Blood Tie, Mary Lee Settle and Elbow Room, James Alan McPherson.

In Salem

In our downtown, Urban Renewal is attempting to accommodate customers of the 1970s who need places to park their cars. Salem's business community of a century before had been built for residents who lived close enough to walk from their homes to shops and professional appointments, or lived in the upper floors of downtown buildings. However, the growth of the city had relocated families into neighborhoods that required automobile transportation. Along the east side of Commercial Street, the half-block south of the Chemeketa Street, had already been torn down for a Lipman and Wolfe (Liberty Plaza) surface parking lot quite a while before this Chemeketa Parkade came onto the scene. Here is a view looking west between High and Liberty Streets when it was almost complete. To the right of this photograph is Penney's and to the left is the First National/Wells Fargo Bank building.
In another photograph of this year, a sign identifies basic information about the building: "This four level, 720 space parking structure will open by November 15, 1978 for free shopper parking. After January 1, 1979, leased space on the top level only will be available for employee parking. Approximately 30,000 square feet of ground floor commercial space will be available upon total completion of the structure by March 15, 1979. This project is financed from a portion of the $6.8 million dollar tax allocation bond issue approved by City voters in March 1977. Total construction cost is $3,353,000.

When you visit

This structure in the photograph at the top of this page is now very familiar. Several other parkades, sky-bridges and new stores were established in the next eight years until the downtown was complete with the conveniences and appearance it has today.
Unfortunately, historic buildings were lost, or a significant portion was demolished. An example of alteration is the original Eldridge Block on Commercial Street, above, with the same beautiful external decorations as the present Greenbaum's Quilted Forest. The building extended to Chemeketa Street (in this photograph we are looking at the Commercial Street side of the parking structure at the top of the page). It housed the Barnes Cash Store (on the corner) and Fry's Drug Store (next door) established by prominent Salem families of the early 1900s. E. T. Barnes was the proprietor of the Cash Store on the southeast corner of Commercial and Chemeketa streets. Daniel Fry not only owned the Drug Store, adjacent to the Cash Store, but purchased (1909) and developed the hill south of Pringle Creek extending to Leslie Street, between High and Church streets. At the crown of the hill was the 1858 Showalter Smith house (now the Smith-Fry House), which became the Fry family home.
Looking forward, an interesting new element of downtown life as the 21st century begins its second decade, is that the city is now encouraging renovation and construction that will bring people back into the core of the city to live as well as work. Several condos have been built within a few blocks of the business and entertainment center and renovation of older buildings have offered apartments on the upper floors. A small grocery store was established in the Bishop Building. Perhaps it will once again be a city where people walk (or bicycle) to work or just to enjoy downtown amenities.
During these years of urban change, the city established the Downtown Development Board (1976). In 1979, the Pringle Creek Project Advisory Committee was merged into it and, in 2005, the Parking Advisory Board. This joint Downtown Advisory Board advises the Urban Renewal Agency Board on matters related to urban renewal and tax increment fund allocations, and advises the City Council on matters related to the Downtown Parking District and the Parking Fund. Meetings are generally held the fourth Thursday of each month at noon.

Other events

• Bob Moore, longtime City Manager, retires and the fifth, Ralph Hanley, is appointed. He develops an urban growth management system that is approved by City Council in 1979.
• The Thomas Kay Mill that became Mission Mill has a very different aspect this year. The renovation included completely rebuilding the Dye House and other structures that had utilized the waterpower of the millrace. The mill turbine is refurbished to provide power. This work continued into 1983 under the direction of Anthony Reid. The Dye House has become an attractive small venue for conducting public programs and meetings that take place in the mill buildings, now Willamette Heritage Center.
•  
  
• This year, Bob Koval received a CETA grant and took a series of several hundred photographs of historic Salem homes, chosen by his own idea of what was interesting, unique or of historical significance. Some are still in existence, like the Pade House on 15th Street (above). Others have been relocated, like the Carleton Smith House (now on Cannon Street). A few have been demolished, like the charming Queen Anne cottage on 4th Street (now the site of Broadway Town Square). This collection of house photographs is invaluable to historians and researchers. We are fortunate that volunteers at the Salem Public Library, under the direction of Don Christenson, have carefully scanned each photographed, supplied a caption and added it to the Oregon Historic Photograph Collections.
• At this time, Salem school district included 5 high schools and 38 elementary schools. The 1915 McKinley School gained an additional music room/gym this year. A library was added in 1980. This historic school is located in the SCAN neighborhood and is a few blocks south of Bush Pasture Park.

Salem in 1977

World Events

• The Torrijos-Carter Treaty gives Panama control of the waterway.
• Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is first Arab leader to go to Israel where he met Prime Minister Menachem Begin seeking peace.
• A collision between  KLM and Pan Am Boeing over Tenerife kills 538 ~ the deadliest accident in aviation history.
• Juan Carlos I of Spain institutes political reforms making his office a Constitutional Monarch as is Queen Elizabeth in England. Spain has the first democratic elections in 40 years.
• Space shuttle "Enterprise" makes first manned flight.
• Apple II is the first mass-market computer.
• TV dramatizes "Roots" and stirs an interest in African-American family genealogy research. Mikhail Baryshnikov's "The Nutcracker" premieres at the Kennedy Center and then is shown on TV.
• Elvis Presley, 42, dies in Graceland, his home in Memphis. Three days later, Groucho Marx, legendary comic, dies at age of 86.
• Anti-gay celebrity Anita Bryant is "pied" by gay-rights activists during press conference. Harvey Milk of San Francisco is the first openly gay person elected as a city official.
• The Academy Awards: "Annie Hall" (US), Madame Rosa (France). Prize-winning Book: The Spectator Bird, Wallace Stegner.

In Salem
The history of our Art Fair begins in 1949 when the Salem Art Association's first Art Fair was held on the lawn of the old Marion County Courthouse, attracting 10 artists. For the next three years it was held in Willson Park on the Capitol grounds and at the Walter Kirk home. The fair moved to Bush House permanently in 1953 and the next two years were as informal as a clothesline sale around the Museum with 50 artists displaying their talents. As the number of contributing artists grew, displays became more professional and booths were constructed. By 1961 there were 100 artists and 7,500 visitors; by 1975 there were more than 320 artists. The next year it moved south of Bush Barn Art Center, having out-grown its old location. For that year it becomes the Great State Bicentennial Art Fair and Festival, thanks to an Oregon Art Commission grant, and 450 artists show up. From Jenny Hagloch's article about the fair as it was in 1977, "... the Art Association decided to jury artists for the Art Fair. Although this change included the input and support of many local artists, the jury process was not popular with artists now being excluded for the first time. Artists were vocal about their displeasure with Letters to the Editor showing up in the Statesman. Art Fair co-chair Sue-Dell McCullough received so many threats before the event, the Salem Police Department provided her with a police escort during the Fair. The 1977 version of the event was still called the Great State Art Fair & Festival and settled into its Friday through Sunday format which still exists today."
 
When you visit
The Art Fair has continued to grow in size, now reaching over a considerable section of Bush's Pasture Park. But as it has evolved, there have been new organizational requirements to make the three-day arts festival sustainable. For several years, there were temporary barriers around the display areas to guide patrons into designated entrances where donations were suggested. In 2010, for the first time, there was an admission fee during most hours of the fair.
Because the fair can accommodate only 200 booths, the task of the jury continues to be selecting from hundreds of applicants to obtain for the fair the highest quality work in a range of mediums and prices. Recently, for example, to accommodate as many artists as possible, three galleries at Bush Barn had exhibits: Radius 25 displayed artists living within that range of miles; Camus Gallery featured regional landscape artists; Focus Gallery presented a local artist. Every year brings changes to improve production of this local attraction, both for residents and visitors.

Other events

Kent L. Aldrich became mayor and will serve three terms in office.
 

• A 1977 photograph of the Minto-Brown Park sign on South River Road reminds us of the contribution made by former Mayor Vern Miller in promoting the purchase of this 838 acre outdoor recreation area for the residents of Salem. Wes Sullivan wrote: "Another legacy to Salem of which Mayor Miller was most proud is the 800-acre Minto-Brown Island Park. Even though Salem voters refused to appropriate money for its purchase, he persisted in its acquisition. Many who treasure this unique adjunct to the city’s park system have forgotten that but for Mayor Miller’s tenacity, it would have been lost to future generations."
• Ed Ritter retires after a long career in the building and wrecking business. His company handled many of the most important Salem demolition projects. After 1977 he continued to own the building materials and salvage portions of the business.
• A plane crash near Vancouver, Washington takes the life of 63-year old Harry Eyerly, a respected local aviator. He was performing aerobatics for the Northwest Antique Airplane Club when the accident occurred.
• In 1977 our Salem Public Library has many modern features, but looking for books and research materials still require the old card catalog files. George Happ becomes Director of the library this year. As our current (2012) library Administrator, B J Toewe, reminds us, he established the Salem Public Library Foundation, one of the first in the U.S, and focused resources on developing innovative services that would make the library a community center. His vision included an AV and technology center, a fine arts center and the Children’s Discovery Room. He expanded the library collection to include A-V materials like 8 mm films and eventually DVDs, and supported the expansion with the installation of a fully automated library system. Just ten years after the advisory board hired him, George Happ was the director of one of the busiest 100 libraries in the nation. He continued to foster the growth of services to the community through a building expansion in 1991 and by adding the West Salem branch library in 1995. By the time he retires from this service in 2000, he will have brought our library into the computer age and will have established it as one of the finest in the state.
• Scott Elementary School opened this year. It was named for Harry W. Scott, a bicycle shop owner in Salem from 1919 until 1963. He was well known for fixing children's bikes, often for little or no cost. Mr. Scott was on the School Board from 1946-1961, serving as chairman for five years. The Chamber of Commerce named him Salem's First Citizen in 1962.

• Does Salem have a continual traffic problem, or was it only at Christmas this year that cars were bumper-to-bumper on Liberty Street? Snowstorms, like one this year, cause traffic problems on the Center Street Bridge.
• Floods continue to damage structures in Salem. High water on Salishan Street forced Greg Jennings, a Leslie Junior High School student, to use a rubber raft to get to his mail box.

Salem in 1976

World Events

• Mao Zedong of Communist China dies after a mortality record of causing up to 70 million deaths due to executions and forced labor.
• IRA bombs explode in London. Ten thousand Protestant and Catholic women demonstrate for peace in Northern Ireland. (Irish rock band U2 is formed by drummer Larry Mullen.)
• The US celebrated its 200th anniversary. Jimmy Carter is elected as President after a Democratic convention keynote address is delivered by a first African-American, Barbara Jordan.
• "Legionnaires' Disease" strikes in Philadelphia causing 29 deaths. The Ebola virus occurs in Yambuku, Zaire.
• The (supposed) last U.S. convertibles roll out of Detroit, new Apple Company, founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
• At Uganda's Entebbe Airport, Israeli commanders free 103 hostages held by Palestinian hijackers of an Air France plane.
• Viking 2 spacecraft lands on Mars: NASA releases Mars photo. 
• Nadia Comaneci earns the first of 7 perfect scores 10  in gymnastics at the Summer Olympics in Montreal.
• Academy Awards: "Rocky" (US) and "Black and White in Color" (France). Prize-winning Books: J R, William Gaddis and Humboldt's Gift, Saul Bellow.

In Salem
A 40-year Salem controversy between a local cooperative, Salem Electric and PGE over electric power service was resolved this year, bringing underground wiring to downtown. Salem Electric was founded in 1938 by a group of West Salem residents led by Harry Read. Mr. Read stubbornly refused to limit SE's growth into downtown Salem commercial area, linking its West and North Salem service areas. During 1968, after several years of discussions, Salem Electric and PGE reached agreement on service boundaries for the Salem/Keizer area. In 1972, Salem Electric received its third point of delivery, Brush College Substation, from Bonneville Power Administration, providing a 70% increase in the co-op's available capacity. In 1975, Salem Electric's Board approved a $1 million loan to continue its acquisition of the remainder of PGE facilities and for conversion of overhead to underground facilities in the downtown area. When the project was complete, Liberty Street gained this improved appearance (seen in 2007) as part of a revitalized business environment.

When you visit
Salem Electric has moved from its former headquarters adjacent to downtown Salem. In 1968, Salem Electric had constructed a new office building and warehouse located adjacent to the old headquarters on the northwest corner of Front and Union Streets. But in 1976, the City of Salem condemned the co-op's eight-year-old headquarters as a part of its Front Street widening project. The current headquarters are on Seventh Street in West Salem.

The historic downtown, one of our most attractive civic features, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many of the designated Local Landmark buildings have informative plaques at their entrances. For an online walking tour, please click on that image on the homepage of SHINE. For a copy of the 2011 booklet that is a guide through the history of downtown Salem, call the Community Development Department at 503 588 6173.

Other Events

• Craig Metten provides a dramatic sight for pedestrians on the ground as he scales the First Methodist Church tower during repairs. The steeple is replaced at this time. An even more startling photograph is taken looking down at Craig and the street below at the intersection of State and Church Streets.

View from Methodist Church steeple

Dining atop the Equitable Building

• The new Equitable Building at Center and High Streets, now completed, rises above the one-story businesses to the south at Chemeketa Street. This new six-floor tower has a bank on the ground floor with offices above. But the real treat is the opportunity for a downtown view from one of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Loft Restaurant on top floor. Unfortunately, the restaurant was open only a few years.
• The Oregon State Capitol undergoes an expansion this year with wings at the north and south along State Street.
• Karr's Tavern occupies the historic Boon Store; the renovation to contemporary use of this 1860 building is yet to come. The interior had the appearance of a living room in a residence. The 1846 Boon House had been removed to Mission Mill Museum property and placed on the National Register of Historic Places the year before.
• Our McNary Airfield Air Control Tower receives an award for meritorious service by the Oregon National Guard. United Airlines is serving Salem this year with regularly scheduled commercial and passenger flights.
• In August, Salem residents enjoy rides over the city in a Goodyear blimp. Refer to Oregon Historic Photographs Collection for many aerial views of Salem in 1948 and 1976.
• The Downtown Development Advisory Board is created this year. Composed of a total of 11 members, 6 presently represent the interests of business, property owners and others with interest in the Riverfront Downtown Urban Renewal Area and 5 represent the community at large. Two members represent West Salem specifically.

The Reed Opera House undergoing renovation

• A major rehabilitation of the Reed Opera House provides space for almost two dozen small retail stores in the basement and first floor. An attractive mezzanine opens the area for attractive vistas of the interior. Due to the attention being given to Salem historic preservation, the building is successfully nominated for the National Register in 1978. The Reed Opera House is featured on the Historic Downtown walking tour slide show on SHINE website.

Five neighborhood associations are organized this year:

• Morningside, which is generally bordered by Madrona and Kuebler Drive as you travel south, east of Commercial and west of Fairview Industrial Drive. Businesses line both sides of Commercial Street, but the neighborhood remains residential. It was originally an area of orchards and a few properties still reflect that history. The SHINE Morningside photograph album shows 2 Local Landmark structures moved to the neighborhood, 3 that were in orchards, a significant International style home and another associated with one of Salem's most prominent early families.
• Southeast Salem Neighborhood Association (SESNA) is located south of State Street where early middle class families as well as laborers of the Kay Mill and the railroad built their small craftsman houses 100 yeas ago.
• Sunnyslope, is a relatively new South Salem section of the city and has had little historical research. The Wingate house on Kuebler Drive is the only representative so far.
• Highland was organized by Henry Minthorn as a Quaker community. It later featured the suburban Hollywood Business area along Portland Road.
• Grant, just north of downtown, is one of our oldest neighborhoods (and the smallest), containing many historic properties. The neighborhood is working on establishing a historic district. The city maintains support of these organizations and provides information on the Neighborhoods page of the city website.

Salem in 1975

World Events

• Communists take power in Vietnam and Cambodia. Americans and a few Vietnamese citizens who worked for the U.S. in Saigon were evacuated by helicopter.
• Juan Carlos I is declared king of Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco who had ruled since 1939.
• Britain selects its first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Ella Grasso of Connecticut  is the first woman elected governor of a state who does not succeed her husband.
• John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of Watergate cover-up and serve prison terms.
• Gates and Allen start "Micro-soft': computers. VCRs enter our homes. On TV, "Saturday Night Live" debuts.
• "Jaws" is a popular movie. But the Academy Award for a U.S. movie goes to one made in Salem: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Best foreign film is "Dersu Uzala" (Japan). Prize-winning Books: Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone and The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara.

In Salem
Hollywood came to town with the filming of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". The 1912 Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital (above) was the location for several scenes in the movie. Jack Nicholson played the leading role as R.P. McMurphy, a reckless young man serving a short prison term who is sent to a mental institution for observation. His baiting of the tyrannical Nurse Ratchet (Louise Fletcher) to make life easier for other patients leads to a tragic conclusion. A small part is played by Dr. Dean Brooks, the superintendent of the hospital. Dr. Brooks was initially reluctant for the film, based on Ken Kesey's book, to be made at OSH. However, after meeting the filmmakers he was relieved of his concerns and he even played a cameo role. Interior scenes were filmed in the Dome building and a few exteriors at the rear of the "J" building are seen in the finished film. The movie won five Academy Awards.

When you visit
The Dome Building, on the campus north of Center Street, is now used by Oregon State Department of Corrections. Some driveways are accessible, but the building itself is not open to the public. In 2008 the whole OSH campus was listed as a National Register property in order to preserve the heritage structures. After lengthy testimony before the Historic Landmarks Commission, permission was given for extensive demolition of buildings south of Center Street. One of the buildings included in the renovation was the historic Kirkbride Building across Center Street. Originally a U-shape, Center Street additions to that facility gave it a different configuration: it became known as the "J" Building. The renovation project has now been completed with a museum included in this historic structure. The Dome Building is not threatened at this time.

Other events

At the top of this photograph, Pringle Parkway curves around Lindsay Tower

Lindsay Tower soon after completion.

• The Lindsey Tower, providing housing for low-income senior or disabled residents, is completed, one year after the Salem Housing Advisory Committee was founded (1974). The committee advises the City Council and the Salem Housing Authority on housing goals and policies, including low and moderate income housing needs, housing assistance programs and Housing Authority budgets.
• The Salem Social Services Advisory Board, founded in 1967, has many of the same goals: the Board advises the Council on social service needs and programs and monitors ongoing social service programs.
• The exterior of the six-floor Equitable Building under construction at Center and High streets. This modern, 6-story structure will be completed in the following year.
• Salem has the latest model of fire trucks to equip the new #1 Fire Station just completed, facing Trade Street at the Liberty Street intersection. Just across Pringle Creek from the new Civic Center, this is the headquarters of our fire department. The structure had a renovation in 2011, providing a new entrance and interior improvements of service. Salem's historic fire bell is mounted in front of the building on Trade Street.
• Toyota automobiles are being sold in a new building of Capitol Motors on Mission Street. This may be one of the first dealers selling Japanese cars in Salem.
• The historic 1912 Bligh Hotel on State Street is demolished. Located between the McGilchrist and Masonic buildings, had featured both a popular hotel and a theater in previous years. By this year, the aging building was not considered worth saving and a parking lot took its place.
• Two more local heritage properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places this year: the Boon House and Boon Store. The residence is one of the oldest in Salem and the store served as our first state treasury.
• This year two more neighborhoods organize into associations. The downtown and most historic, core area of the city, Central Area Neighborhood Development Association (CAN-DO), which contains the National Register Historic Salem Downtown (a walking tour can be seen on SHINE). Many other individual properties have been designated as National Register or as Local Landmarks. West Salem also organized as city-sponsored neighborhood. This is a very active group and is unique in our city because the meetings (first and third Mondays, 7 p.m., Roth's IGA meeting room on Wallace Road) are held "town meeting" style in which everyone can vote on issues deliberated as neighborhood concerns. Other meetings are conducted by Board (usually about 15 volunteers) where only these vote. The West Salem neighborhood and the adjoining Spring Valley community have over a dozen historic properties designated by the city as Local Landmarks. The Harriott House at 2280 Wallace Road and the former City Hall at 1320 Edgewater NW are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Salem in 1974

• 
  

World Events

• Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, highly respected by world political and religious leaders since 1916, is deposed after a critical famine. This ends the Solomonic dynasty begun in 1270. He died the following year.
• When impeachment conviction by Congress becomes certain, Richard Nixon resigns. Gerald Ford becomes President and pardons Nixon.
• India detonates a nuclear weapon, being the 6th nation to do so.
• OPEC oil rises from $4 to $12 a barrel; concern rises over nuclear energy.
• Patty Hearst, grand-daughter of publisher, Willam Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army with whom she participates in a bank robbery and other crimes. Imprisoned for two years, she was later pardoned. (Read the complete story in American Heiress, Jeffrey Toobin, 2016)
• Muhammad Ali regains his boxing title at the "Rumble in the Jungle" in Kinshasa, Zaire.
• After 23 years, "Here's Lucy" ends its TV series. The Rubik Cube is invented. Hank Aaron becomes all-time MLB home run leader with his 715th. Rosenkowitz sextuplets all survive in the Cape Town birth.
• The Academy Award: "The Godfather Part II" (US),"Amarcord (Italy). Prize-winning Books: Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pychon and A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories, Issac Bashevis Singer.

In Salem

Mill Race Plaza with SAIF building in background

The cannery industry continued to shrink. The Salem Fruit Union plant is razed for part of the urban renewal project. Photographs of 1974 show construction of buildings being completed and large landscaping projects underway. The open, raw acres are dotted with thin new trees and concrete blocks mark the edges of new paths for the waterways flowing through the city. In 1974, Salem is a city that is changing its image to become more welcoming to the visitor and provide more amenities for the residents, but it is losing a vital factor in its economy by the demise of its canning industry.

When you visit
Today it is hard to remember that for much of Salem's history there was a railroad track in the center of Trade Street. And it now seems natural that Trade Street takes a curve southward into Pringle Parkway and onto Bellevue, traveling east between the expanded Willamette University campus to the left, Shelton Ditch and the Salem Hospital to your right. At 12th Street, we meet the natural barrier that our Southern Pacific railroad tracks have made. Turning north, Mill Street is on our right with Mission Mill Museum and the historic SESNA neighborhood. Turning south on 12th Street, we are just a block away from a left turn over an overpass taking us, without railroad interruption, to Mission Street and the I-5 corridor.  Ignoring the overpass, one more block south on 12th Street will take us to Deepwood Estate and its gardens. This contemporary thoroughfare, creating in the 1970s, gives contemporary traffic easy access to important cultural features of our city. This 1970s restructuring of Trade Street and the new uses of land south of Pringle Creek and Shelton Ditch continue to have a positive effect on downtown traffic and adjoining land uses.

Other Events

• Cars wait in long lines for gas at local stations. The Capitol is the scene of protests concerning the gas shortage.
• Politics is in the news this campaign year: Robert Straub, a candidate for governor of Oregon (he wins in November) has a booth at the state fair in August; Bob Packwood (already elected) congratulates a Baker City student for winning the Centennial Essay and Art Contest during that city's celebration. Mayor Lindsey helps out the Salem Bike Club by posing by an old-fashioned penny-farthing bike while members of the club watch from their own bikes. Lindsey Towers, named for this mayor, is a high-rise, senior residential facility located at the intersection of Church and Trade streets.

Bush House Museum

• Bush House Museum and historic structures on the Bush property are listed on the National Register this year. The majority of these acres were obtained by the city in 1946 by purchase from the Bush family just before Miss Sally's death. After this death of her brother, A. N. Bush, in 1953 the "homestead" was obtained. The Salem Art Association planned to make the house into a gallery and so held a "yard sale" to depose of furnishings (many of which have been returned or repurchased). At that time alterations were made in the upper floor of the Bush residence, but the house still qualified for the National Register. A volunteer committee, under direction of the SAA, regulates the public use and the events held in the house museum.
• One more neighborhood organizes this year: Northeast Neighbors, known as NEN, stretching between Market and State streets. Urban development of the 1970s changed the Court and Chemeketa streets residential section of NEN east of 14th Street. In 1984, a federally funded street reversal project closed both streets with barriers at 13th Street, supplying a fourth boundary line. The homes on these streets were located in a natural progression from downtown, Willamette University and the Capitol. They have a unique physical presence with Mill Creek at the north and to the east, State Street on the south, and the railroad to the west. By 1986, resident historical research, led by Bonnie and Roger Hull, produced a nomination for the National Register that created the Court-Chemeketa National Historic Residential District. Other individually recognized National Register properties in NEN include the Lee Mission Cemetery on D Street, The Stratton House at 1599 States Street and the Samuel Adoph House at 2493 State Street. There are also 23 Local Landmarks and several more candidates whose history you may not know.  It is a tribute to the present owners of these NEN sites that all these properties are preserved so well.

• Among the unofficially recognized sites in NEN is the Friends Meeting House at 490 19th Street, home successively of the Nazarene Church (1913-1931), the Foursquare Church (until 1950) and the Unitarian Universalists (until 1997).