Watched
the Roosevelt series at all?
You might not know Theodore visited Salem briefly on May 21st, 1903.
The city was in a tizzy.
Mayor Charles Bishop owned the Woolen Mill Store, and was one of two local electeds who gave the welcome addresses to the President. He did not shy from seeing it as an advertising opportunity!
More interesting here, Otto J. Wilson, who in April had brought the first car to Salem, was advertising as an agent for the Oldsmobile and also for his bicycle business.
So that's an interesting moment of transition in Salem transportation technology and history.
(You can read
more about Wilson here. SHINE also has
additional notes on some of the other VIPs in Salem's welcoming party for the President. And the KMUZ "Your Salem Through the Years"
on 1903 as well.)
2 comments:
State Archives has a facebook post on the dedication of Bonneville Dam on September 28th, 1937 -
https://www.facebook.com/OregonStateArchives/photos/a.332597276807385.77905.328291870571259/756657587734683/?type=1
In a couple of days the State Library Building will greatly reduce public hours and services.
Yesterday at the Council work session on Portland Road, the need to improve the 1930s rail underpass was a lurking issue.
And of course the Capitol itself.
Our legacy of "New Deal" projects associated with FDR is huge!
You might have mentioned also the O & C land fraud episode of 1904, whose consequences we still feel today in the funding problems in rural counties.
About that "500-mile New York-Boston Reliability Run" in a 1903 Oldsmobile - it must have been a round trip. Even in colonial times when there were no superhighways, roads followed the lay of the land, and taverns and inns were were staged for horses, the Boston Post Road - the Boston-New York mail route - was not much over 250 miles. Actually there were three post roads of about 225, 250 and 270 miles. Some roads are still called by that name.
This blog tells a tale of Walking the Post Road:
http://www.walkingthepostroad.net/Walking_the_Post_Road/Blog/Blog.html
Right now I'm visiting my son in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, just over the hill from the 5-mile stone marker that first caught the author's attention. I lived in this neighborhood myself for several years and have been past that milestone many times but don't remember if I ever noticed it.
I made the New York-Boston trip by Amtrak last week in about 4 hours after going to the People's Climate March in NYC. I've made that trip by train or car many times when living on the East Coast.
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