 A.N. Gilbert House, 116 Water Street  Rockenfeld-Bean House, Court & Summer Streets, c1920  Parrish House, 745 Capitol St. NE, c1910; porte-cochere added c1915.  Little Gem Grocery, 17th & Chemeketa Streets NE | July 6, 2017 Episode. Many of us have taken our children and/or grandchildren to the children's museum at A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village, a complex of historic resources on the north end of Riverfront Park developed by local residents in 1989 as a place of education and active exploration for area children. We were joined today by Alicia Bay, executive director of the museum, now known as A.C. Gilbert Children's Museum. Alicia provided a brief history of how the museum came to be as a large community build project. The City of Salem owns the site and has moved several historic resources to the riverfront campus. The A.T. Gilbert (A.C.'s uncle) house is in its original location. The Rockenfeld-Bean house, originally at the NE corner of Court and Summer Streets, was relocated to 755 Capitol Street in 1937, and then moved here in 1991 as part of the North Capitol Mall expansion. The Parrish house of 745 Capitol NE came to the riverfront c1980 to make way for the State Archives Building. The Little Gem Grocery came over from the Court-Chemeketa National HIstoric District. The foundation of the Wilson-Durbin house (Salem's oldest house) was uncovered here and the existing house is a replication built on that foundation.  Rockenfeld-Bean -A.N. Gilbert Houses-AC Gilbert Childrens Museum  Parrish House, Little Gem Grocery, & Wilson-Durbin House on Water Street |
So, what is so important about these Gilbert folks, and just who is this A.C. Gilbert fellow, and how did he save Christmas? There are quite a few Gilberts in Salem's history. Isaac Newton (I.N.) Gilbert came to the northwest at the request of Marcus Whitman in 1844. He became the first clerk of the Marion County US District Court, as well as the County Surveyor. He laid out and platted the Territorial Road from Salem to Foster's Station at the end of the Oregon Trail, and made the first plat of Salem for William Willson in 1846. His house was originally next to his nephew's house on Water Street but no longer stands.
Isaac Gilbert's nephews, Andrew Taylor (A.T.) Gilbert and Frank Newton Gilbert, were partners in the banking house of Gilbert Brothers, 1879-1901, doing general agency work until becoming a general bank in 1885. Frank and wife Charlotte A. Hovenden built a home at 700 Marion Street NE, the current site of the First Congregational Church. Frank N. Gilbert is the father of Alfred Carlton (A.C.) Gilbert, once Olympic athlete, magician, medical doctor, toy inventor, and holder of 150 patents for his various inventions--including the Erector Set. A large replica of such an Erector Set was built on the campus at his namesake children's museum.
A.C. Gilbert, 1902 A.C. Gilbert's family moved to Idaho in 1892, from where he once ran away to join a minstrel show. His father located him, and the family moved back to Salem in 1900. A.C. attended Tualatin Academy where he set world records for the running long jump and pull-ups. He went on to Pacific University, and then on to Yale University where he graduated with a medical degree in 1909. To help pay his tuition, he performed magic tricks he had learned as a child, often making as much as $100 a night, and developed his first toy, a box set of magic tricks he sold for $5. He qualified for the 1908 Olympics in London, but his win was controversial due to his use of a pole of his own invention. He won again using a standard pole, but the sting of controversy soured his love for athletics.
| ilbert turned his creative energy toward magic and opened his first business in 1909, Mysto-Manufacturing, with friend John Petrie in New Haven, Connecticut. While watching steel girders being raised to hold new power lines in 1911, he conceived the Erector Set. He personally marketed the invention at the Toy Fair of 1913. He renamed his company A.C. Gilbert Company and won the Gold Medal at the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition. Over the next 20 years, more than 30 million sets were sold, both to boys and to architects and engineers who used it to build scale models. Following his philosophy that play should be educational, he developed a chemistry set in 1917, and later purchased the American Flyer Train and redesigned the cars to be more realistic. By the late 1950s, Gilbert held 150 patents for various mechanical toys as well as industrial machines. |   |
His educational toys revolutionized the toy industry, making him a leader and spokesman for that industry. With our entry into World War I, the nation's manufacturers turned their focus toward the needs of war. Production of non-essential products--including toys--was ceased to provide the raw materials needed to support the war effort. In 1918, Gilbert testified to Congress that not only were these construction toys valuable learning tools, but they showed the long-term effects of fostering inventiveness, creativity, ingenuity, and problem-solving abilities. He argued that we must take care of our current human resources, “our children,” for the perpetuity of American ingenuity and the value of learning. His lobbying was successful, and thereafter A.C. Gilbert was known as "The Man Who Saved Christmas."
Today, A.C. Gilbert Children's Museum continues to carry on the philosophy of its namesake. Their mission to “inspire children [and adults] to learn through creative play” exemplifies Gilbert's legacy. They accomplish this through 15 fun and challenging hands-on exhibits, Outdoor Discovery Area, camps, birthday parties, field trips, and educational programs for children--and adults--in the sciences, arts, and humanities. They are continually developing and renewing exhibits so that every visit can be a new opportunity for discovery and fun. We encourage you to visit this local gem--and even to take your kids, grandkids, and neighborhood kids. You're sure to learn something new and wonderful! For more information on the museum, visit their website: acgilbert.org.
Posted by Deb Meaghers
Photographs courtesy of T.N. Green Jr., Salem Online History, ACGilbert.org
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