August 27, 2015 Episode.

Our own Kimberli is the Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Salem, Oregon, and as such she visits with us each month to keep us apprised of new projects on the horizon and also reports on the work of the Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC).

Today Kimberli was excited to share that the HLC's popular "This Place Matters" photo contest will be taking place again in April 2016.  Categories include photos of neighborhoods, buildings, and a general Chairman's Choice field.  Prizes are awarded to the winners.  Begin taking your photos now so you will have lots to submit.  Click here to see the rest of the 2015 contest winners, or check out the City's Heritage Portal site.

Furthermore, Salem has been designated as the host city for the Oregon Heritage Commission's "Spring Heritage Conference" to be held at the State Capitol Building in May 2016.  The Heritage All-Star Forum is playing a key role in developing content for the sessions and relevant tours of the area.  If you'd like to add your suggestions for programs or tours, you can send them to us here [salemhistorymatters@gmail.com] and we'll pass them along.  

Also, the Salem All-Star Forum is partnering with CCTV to prepare six to twelve, 3-5 minute You-Tube videos highlighting Salem history.  The project is tentatively named Capital City Cornerstones. Eventually, all the videos will be stitched together to make a one-hour video that will be available for tourism promotion and air periodically on CCTV.  If you'd like to participate in this project, check out the Forum's website on our Links Page.

The City is in the process of purchasing LeBreton Hall located in the historic Fairview Complex.  The building was named after George W. LeBreton, a prominent member of Oregon's provisional government, and was the site of the signing of Senate Bill 100, putting in place Oregon's land use laws.  The City hopes to adapt the building for future public use.  A graduate student is developing alternative use ideas as part of his thesis. Although not accessible to the public currently, the City hopes it will eventually become part of a park in the Morningside neighborhood.

Check out our NEW CONTEST PAGE : "Guess The Location" is our initial entry, where you can view a photo and guess where it is located.  Prizes will be awarded!!

August 20, 2015 Episode.

Elizabeth Potter joined us again to continue our conversation about Salem Pioneer Cemetery, one of two National Register cemeteries in Salem.  Did you know there is a "language" of the icons carved on gravestones?  Elisabeth educated us on this esoteric language as well as the art of headstone carving, for which Portland, Salem and Albany were once industry centers.  Just as in any art, work of specific artists can be recognized and some were even signed. 

Relating some of the stories of those buried in Pioneer Cemetery, Elisabeth advised that six of the 60 representatives at the original Oregon Constitutional Convention are interred here.  She also highlighted a few local illustrious personages, as well, including:  Benjamin Forstner, inventor of a an impressive woodmaking bit, the Forstner "webfoot augur," still in use today; John Minto, 1844 pioneer and explorer of Cascade Range passes, known for raising purebred sheep on his lands at the northern end of Minto Island, and the organizer of the first State Fair in 1861; Frederick Schwatka, a graduate of both West Point and Willamette University with medical and law degrees, known for his explorations of Alaska, the Yukon, and other arctic sites;  Olive England-Enright, one of the first women graduates of Willamette Law School, was a suffragette in the early 1900s and instrumental in Oregon granting women the right to vote; Chloe Clark Willson, the first instructor at the Oregon Institute, the forerunner of Willamette University; Tabitha Moffatt Brown, founder of a school for orphaned settler children, now known as Pacific University, who was officially designated in 1987 as the Mother Figure of Oregon; several Oregon governors, one of whom served concurrently as both the governor and secretary of state; and Asahel Bush, founder of the Oregon Statesman newspaper and Ladd & Bush Bank.

The folks at Salem Pioneer Cemetery are rightfully proud of this cemetery and take their role in preserving history and educating us about those buried there seriously.  They are most happy to help you discover something you never knew about someone buried there.  You can also check out their website, Salem Pioneer Cemetery, for maps and more information on this local treasure.

August 13, 2015 Episode

What do the Historic Embree Cemetery, the Hart-Riggs Pioneer Cemetery, and the Ball Family Cemetery have in common?  All these small Polk County cemeteries were rescued by the Polk Cemetery Savers!  Ray Files and Lloyd Collins, founding members of this organization based in Polk County, joined us today to tell us their story.  Ray was a volunteer photographer for FindAGrave.com and was assigned to take a photo of a gravestone  for a member of the Hart-Riggs family.  Upon finally finding this small cemetery, he was disheartened by its unkempt, overgrown condition.  He placed an ad in the local newspaper requesting volunteers to help him restore the cemetery, and Lloyd Collins responded.  Along with a few other volunteers, they went to work on this cemetery, restoring 38 monuments and making it eligible for registration with the State of Oregon as a Pioneer Cemetery.

They were hooked!  They found that there were 51 known cemeteries in Polk County, and almost all had no official caretaking oversight.  They decided they would take on the 10 cemeteries around Dallas, one by one, and branch out from there, and to date they have completely restored 7 or 8 cemeteries.  Lloyd told us of the painstaking care they take to locate, research, repair and restore the grave monuments and headstones in these small private cemeteries.  The cemetery map they develop as the final part of each restoration is then forwarded to the Historic Cemeteries Commission and also filed with the Polk County Historical Society Museum in Rickreall.  If you'd like to learn more about this organization or want to work with them restoring another hidden treasure, contact them on their webpage, PolkCemeterySavers.org, or follow them on Facebook.

Kuri Gill staffs the Oregon Historic Cemeteries Commission under the auspices of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, and she joined us to talk about the Commission and the assistance they can provide.  She advised that the Commission  is charged with maintaining the registry of these historic pioneer cemeteries, along with encouraging the restoration of similar sites.  Their staff can offer technical assistance to such volunteer organizations and assist them in the restoration and registration process.  Registration as an historic cemetery provides some legal safeguards as well as eligibility for preservation and maintenance grants.  

Photos courtesy of Polk Cemetery Savers and Polk Itemizer-Observer


 

August 6, 2015 Episode

McRae Carmichael joined us today to talk about living in historic surroundings.  McRae, whose background is in urban planning and sustainability, is a member of the Salem Historic Landmarks Commission and lives in the Fairmount Hill neighborhood, an area of many historic homes just south of the Downtown Historic District.  A few years ago, several Fairmount neighbors approached the HLC requesting help in establishing their neighborhood as a National Register Historic District.  Unfortunately, this grass-roots effort ultimately failed when they were unable to garner support of the potential district from the required majority of the neighborhood's property owners.  McRae noted that she was not a member of the HLC  at that time, and her home would have been just outside the proposed boundaries based on the early development plats, but she would have welcomed the designation. 

McRae is also a part of the committee working with the City's Neighborhood Enhancement Division to plan more events in the downtown core that are pedestrian and bicycle friendly and therefore promote more person-to-person interaction.  The program, known as Salem Sunday Streets, is in its third year and is scheduled for Sunday, August 30, 2015.  The streets in the eastern portion of the Downtown Historic District around the Capitol building will be closed to motor vehicles, with the area being turned into the site of musical concerts and other family-friendly events.   McRae is dedicated to working on ways to promote the Downtown District as a viable, happening place with lots of things to entertain both visitors and Salem residents alike. 

For more information on this event, check out the Sunday Streets website or their Facebook page.