Blog Archives

Historic Preservation Update - Kimberli Fitzgerald, Historic Preservation Officer

11/28/2015

Kenyon Building 1855, City Book Store & Wiley Kenyon Photography [SPL Historic Photo Collection]

November 26, 2015 Episode.

This month Kimberli brought us news of the return of a popular holiday event, celebrates the third oldest business in Salem, updated us on the projects being reviewed by the Historic Landmarks Commission, and gave us a glimpse into what is being planned for the May 2016 Oregon Historic Preservation Conference to be held at the Capitol Building. Today we are highlighting a few of the projects she shared with us.

There has long been a book store (often hosting a circulating library) on State Street in downtown Salem. The photo above shows the City Book Store, between Commercial & Liberty Streets in 1855. Later another was located adjacent to what is now Cooke's Stationery, also a longtime Salem business.

T.McFadden-Patton's State Street Bookstore c1888 [SPL]

1869 Patton Building on State Street, site of State Street Book Store, c1887 [SPL]

Kimberli reported that Commercial Business Supply, which began as State Street Book Store in 1869, is the third oldest business in Salem. It has had several addresses and owners over the years--98 State, 160 State, 263 Commercial--and now continues as Commercial Business Furniture at 1070 Commercial Street NE. One of the requirements of the Heritage All-Star Community Program is to recognize businesses in operation 50 years or more. Willamette Heritage Center also officially recognizes longtime area businesses every year.

The Court-Chemeketa Residential Historic District is bringing back their popular holiday open house event on Sunday December 1. Neighborhood organizers are reprising this well-loved tradition which has been absent for quite a few years. The decorated homes will be open from 1-4 p.m.

Kimberli announced that the City will soon be accepting applications for the next cycle of the Historic Landmarks Commission's Residential Toolbox Grant Program in February 2016. This donor-funded program is a $1000 matching grant for exterior improvements for Local Landmarks or contributing resources in our historic districts. The application is purposefully easy to complete. So if you were planning to do some work on your historic home, say, exterior painting, a new roof, window repairs, stair or rail repairs, etc., you should definitely apply for this grant designed to help with the expense of maintaining our historic legacy. And we thank you for doing so!

Rearranging History, Part I - Relocating and Replacing Pieces of Our Past

11/22/2015

Willson House at Willamette University, Women's College 1881

1894 Dr. Carlton Smith Home, 1159 Oak Street

Carlton Smith House, 1300 Cannon Street SE

All photographs courtesy of "Moving History"; Virginia & Thomas Green

1870s Eugene Breyman House, 619 Court Street, c1881

1854 William & Chloe Willson Home, NE corner of Capitol & Court Streets

November 19, 2015 Episode.
On the show today, we talked about the many times throughout our history in the mid-Willamette valley that local residents, individually or corporately, have chosen for various reasons to relocate entire buildings, even entire towns, to another site. On other occasions we chose to remove by demolition entire buildings, even neighborhoods, often in the name of public progress. In today's post, we're showcasing photographs of many of those uprooted or replaced pieces of our past. For a full report, download our podcast.

1910 Leslie Methodist Church Parsonage, 1300 Cannon Street SE

Eugene Breyman House, moved to 795 Summer Street c1940s, view 1953

1870 Werner Breyman House, SE corner of State & Cottage Streets

Werner Breyman House, moved to Cottage Street c1924, 1940s view

1903 US Post Office, west Capitol Mall

Now Gatke Hall at Willamette University, moved 1938

1907 Duniway-Lachmund House, 1937 moved to Willamette University

1910 Hinges-Kimball House at 295 Summer Street, moved to 700 Capitol Street 1938

Duniway-Lachmund house, moved again c1990 to 2430 State Street

Hinges-Kimball house moved again c1980 to 1075 Capitol Street

Researching History - City of Salem Interns Kirsten Straus & Sean Edging

11/15/2015

November 12, 2015 Episode.

If you are a recent college graduate yet unemployed, what do you do with your spare time? Why, volunteer for a major project with your nearest jurisdictional agency, of course. Willamette University students Kirsten Straus, sporting her new Classical studies degree, and friend Sean Edging, with his environmental studies degree, did just that--and then won an award for their efforts!

The award was the Salem at Your Service Award given to them for their work on researching and producing the Grant Neighborhood Architectural Guide, as part of the City's Heritage Neighborhood Program. Kirsten, Sean, and another intern, Tiffany, walked the neighborhood taking a count of styles of homes in this neighborhood and then researched the historic context of those building styles in Salem's history.

The predominant building period for this neighborhood is the 1920s, and the predominant housing style the Bungalow, a style influenced by homes in India which had low roofs and wide porches. The Oregon Bungalow is unique in that it has a central porch rather than the typical, assymmetrical porch off to one side. This style was the first house where a middle-class person would have his own bedroom. The style is typically 1.5 stories, with 2 bedrooms, separate living and dining rooms, a full kitchen, a full bathroom, and a bonus area upstairs. Grant also has its share of Colonial and English Cottage housing styles. The variety of styles makes this a very architecturally interesting area of our city. Grant was a working-class neighborhood, with local shops and services often employing its residents. It remains a very cohesive, family-friendly area to live.

Kirsten is still working on historic projects, finishing up a fine-tuning of the historic cemeteries database at SHPO, along with helping with video production for the All-Star Forum's "Capital Cornerstones" project. She hopes to find a position as a public historian. Sean is working on an interpretive sign project for the Minto Island Park, anticipating the opening of the new Peter Courtney pedestrian bridge. The project will describe the Kalapuyan, European, and industrial use history of this park area. He hopes to find employment as an urban or regional planner for a government agency.

Wherever they find themselves in the future, Kirsten and Sean will prove an asset to their employers. Their dedication and enthusiasm has certainly been of benefit to the City of Salem, and will also serve them well in the years to come.

Restoring Public Buildings - Joy Sears, State Historic Preservation Office

11/10/2015

Joy Sears up on Scaffolding

November 5, 2015 Episode.

There is a lot of interesting work happening on the historic resources in the Salem area. Joy Sears, Restoration Specialist with SHPO, joined us today to let us know what the various cranes and scaffolding are bringing forth. One of Joy's responsibilities is to oversee any major work being done of National Register buildings.

Bligh's Capitol Theater, 1928 (Salem Online History coll.)

Some of the projects Joy described include the new Grand Theater sign. She advised that our downtown area has a history of being well-lit with many neon and other illuminated signs. Hopefully, other building owners will find similar historic photographs that will afford us the opportunity to see even more restored signs in the Downtown District.

Grand Theater, 2015

Oregon Supreme Court Bldg., 1922 (Salem Online History Coll.)

Joy described the restoration work being done on the c1920 Supreme Court Building. The cornice at the top is one of the few examples in Salem of terracotta glazed tiles being used in a commercial building. At the time, this was considered to be a less expensive alternative to stone masonry, and had the added benefit of being able to be formed into highly decorative pieces. Unfortunately, it is not a very durable material. Typically SHPO stresses using only in-kind replacement materials, but due to the lack of durability with this material, along with the fact that it is at the very top of the building where a pedestrian probably could not discern new from old materials, they are approving use of a modern replacement material. The original manufacturer of the tiles, however, is still around and will be making the reproductions. Joy wanted to assure us that the materials for the lower levels of the building facade will be in-kind to the originals.

LeBreton Hall, Fairview Complex

We were pleased to learn that during National Historic Preservation Month in May 2016, Joy will once again be leading a hands-on window repair workshop. The attendees will be working on a window at the new city-owned historic building, LeBreton Hall on the former Fairview Training Center campus in southeast Salem. These workshops are extremely popular with both homeowners and contractors. Look for more information about the variety of events planned in 2016 when Salem hosts this statewide conference!

Historic Preservation Update - Kimberli Fitzgerald, Historic Preservation Officer

Rearranging History, Part I - Relocating and Replacing Pieces of Our Past

Researching History - City of Salem Interns Kirsten Straus & Sean Edging

Restoring Public Buildings - Joy Sears, State Historic Preservation Office

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Historic Preservation Update - Kimberli Fitzgerald, Historic Preservation Officer﻿

Rearranging History, Part I - Relocating and Replacing Pieces of Our Past

Researching History - City of Salem Interns Kirsten Straus & Sean Edging

Restoring Public Buildings - Joy Sears, State Historic Preservation Office﻿

Your Hosts

You Can Join in the Fun!

Archives

Historic Preservation Update - Kimberli Fitzgerald, Historic Preservation Officer

Restoring Public Buildings - Joy Sears, State Historic Preservation Office