Early 1950s Supermarkets show Appetite for Parking

In the few years right before and right after 1940, Safeway built new stores facing the sidewalk. In the late 1930s they were right on the corner, and in the 1940s local new stores had a small parking lot on the corner, but still faced the main street. 

A little more than a decade later, new stores were set in the middle of large parking lots, recessed away from the sidewalk on the main street.

Successor store, just 15 years later
November 13th, 1951

We have often understood the story of the Center Street Safeway as a story of loss, of the loss of one of Salem's earliest school buildings from the 1880s. But it is also a story of our autoism. The store's central location, starting with that one in 1936, on the edge of downtown has proved durable and useful, but the evolution in store plan showed our appetite for parking.

East School / Washington School, 1949
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

November 13th, 1951

Erickson's had opened a "super market" on Portland Road at Lana Avenue in 1946, and Berg's another one in the Capitol Shopping Center in 1949, but the Erickson's store does not seem fully realized, and Berg's wasn't stand-alone. At the moment, the Center Street Safeway seems like the best candidate for the first modern supermarket in Salem.

Short-living Safeways of the late 1930s: The Grocery Trade in Transition

Though refrigeration technology and retailing practice would have had impacts, it may be bigger parking lots that changed grocery stores more than anything between 1935 and 1955. The change is striking in the two stores serving the same close-in neighborhood, one opening in 1936 and the other just 15 years later in 1951.

June 19th, 1936

Successor store, just 15 years later
November 13th, 1951

In researching the Ericksons Supermarket on 12th Street, I found an old Safeway I had missed. At the corner of State and 13th, recently a pastry shop and Sassy Onion Catering, is an old Safeway (top image). The front has had a stone facade applied and new storefront system, but the corner detailing at the roof is still there.

At Oxford Park site Ericksons Supermarket building now home to Fitts Seafood and Santiam Wine

You may recall the note this summer about Hall of Famer and Negro League star Bullet Rogan and the game at Oxford Park in 1921.

April 10th, 1920

Oxford Park (also known as Oxford Field) opened in 1920. It was in disrepair and neglected by the late 1930s, and in 1956 an Ericksons Supermarket was built there. That store building, a little remodeled, remains and Fitts Seafood and Santiam Wine occupy it today.

May 7th, 1938

I'm still working on finding out when it was finally demolished or erased. It seems to have been a gradual erosion from deferred maintenance and a lack of ongoing investment.

July 2nd, 1953

In 1953 when Biddy Bishop died, the obituary noted that he had arranged for Oxford Park after World War I, but it did not say anything about the park's end. It said he "induced the late George E. Waters to provide the financing for the construction of a ball park on south 25th Street."

Waters Field was built in 1940 at the current site of the main Post Office at 25th and Mission. It burned down in 1966.

Even if there might have been a lingering open field at the Oxford Park site, 1940 likely marks the end of organized baseball there.

A little over a decade later, in early 1956 there was a notice for a zone change, from residential to business for the grocery store. It would be interesting to know how Oxford Park had been originally zoned and whether there was an intermediate stage of park to residential to commercial zoning.

Retrospective on Lancaster Mall Should Focus More on the Autoism

After a couple of days off, the paper is back, though the snow and ice may still impede it, and on the front page on Sunday was a retrospective look at Lancaster Mall and its rebrand.

Not enough on local history

For background, the piece places the mall in the context of national retailing, but it may have a little too much template and potted history, and not enough specifically on Salem history.

A national element in mall history that is missing is the development of the Interstate Highway System, which made it easy for suburban drivers to reach and collect, and also for wholesale distribution, at new destination shopping centers. Highways and bigger roads are a "driver" here. We should not underestimate the logic and appetite of our autoism and centralizing logistics.

Diversity along Lancaster Dr., 2010

Locally, the story talks about "white flight," but this may not be the best way to interpret Salem history and development. There was centrifugal movement to the edges, but how racialized this move was here in Salem particularly is likely overstated. Still, especially in the hills the zoning and large lots and large houses functioned in an exclusionary way. Wealth, rather than race, might be more significant locally in the genesis of the mall. Later as the Salem area developed, Lancaster Drive then became our most diverse area, the least white part of town. The role of "flight" and separately the subsequent development in east Salem are topics that deserve more consideration in any history of the mall, and they are more complicated than a simple trajectory of "white flight" from the center.

Document Sneckdowns in the Snow!

It's sneckdown time.

As you are out and about this morning in the snow, take pictures where you find extra space in the road clear of the tire tracks. This is space that could be repurposed for bike lanes, extra sidewalk, or reduced auto travel lane width to slow cars.

Traffic Camera at 12th and State this morning

See notes from 2016 and 2018 for more on sneckdowns.

And, for those driving, be careful out there.

December 26th, 1921

Driver Kills Person Walking Early Christmas Morning

A man identified as a driver who struck and killed a person on foot along Lancaster Drive, and then fled the crash apparently with the body was arrested early Christmas morning.

From Marion County Sheriff last night:

At just after 2:00 a.m. on December 25th, 2021, a 911 caller reported a pedestrian had been struck by a car on Lancaster Drive NE near Ward Drive NE in the unincorporated area of east Salem. When deputies arrived at the scene, they learned a red Honda Civic had left the area at a high rate of speed. There was evidence at the scene the victim had sustained serious injuries and likely did not survive the collision.

Investigators from the Marion County multi-agency Crash Team were called out to process the crash scene. Lancaster Drive was closed between Iberis Street NE and Hayesville Drive NE for four hours during the investigation.

At close to 3:30 a.m., a caller reported a red Honda Civic with a deceased person inside several miles away near Wheatland Road NE and Brooklake Road NE, north of Keizer. Investigators were able to determine the deceased adult male inside was the pedestrian victim from the earlier crash.

Through the investigation, deputies identified Armando Rodarte Jr. (26) of Salem as the driver of the Honda Civic. Deputies located Rodarte shortly after 6:00 a.m. walking on Devonshire Ct NE, in Salem, and were able to take him into custody without incident. He has been lodged at the Marion County Jail on the following charges:

Manslaughter in the First Degree
Manslaughter in the Second Degree
Hit and Run – Injury
Reckless Driving
Reckless Endangerment

Rodarte is scheduled to appear at the Marion County Circuit Court annex for arraignment on Monday, December 27, 2021, at 2:30 p.m.

The victim has not yet been identified. This is an ongoing investigation; no additional information is available for release at this time.

Update, Jan 24th

NYE print edition

Addendum, February 23rd, 2023

Salem Reporter with an update. Rodarte was sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison. The details are grim.

The victim, Samuel Lannigan, lived about a block from the crash and was walking to his grandmother’s house for Christmas when the crash occurred, according to a sentencing memorandum....

Police found evidence of the crash over about a half mile long with clothes, car debris and human parts scattered along the road. That indicated the car was driving at a high rate of speed when the crash occurred, according to the court filing.

Surveillance video from local businesses showed a red Honda Civic around the time of the crash driving over 90 miles per hour down Lancaster Drive, running through several red lights and passing a gas station near the crash scene....

Stabilizing South River Road Bluff a Candidate for new Bond Projects

Yesterday another landslide on south River Road fell from the bluff near Minto Park.

Via twitter

Today the City announced River Road would be closed for a while:

Due to continued safety concerns, it is estimated that River Road could remain closed for about 7-10 days. Cleanup of the River Rd S rockslide may not be safe until weather improves.

Maintenance of detour routes will be a priority until repairs can safely be made.

Here are a number of them (but not all of them), testifying to their frequency in the last decade. The combination of unstable bluff and road below create problems for all of the traveling public, not just those in cars.