Thursday, October 5, 2017

Wah Wah Music Fest Site of Schreiber Building of 1902

Masonic building (1912)
with Schreiber building on left (1902)
Oregon Electric tracks and wires on High St
University of Oregon
As you consider your plans for the weekend, the Wah Wah Music Fest on Saturday the 7th is looking pretty great!
Salem, we love you and want to throw you one super groovy party full of food, drinks, fun and a KILLER lineup of bands. Come join us for the first annual and we know you'll be back year after year.

Now for the lineup...

3:00pm The Redlight District
4:30pm Sallie Ford
6:00pm Redray Frazier
7:30pm Swatkins and The Positive Agenda

And the best part? It is FREE and ALL AGES!

Located downtown in the beautiful, tree filled lot between Willamette Valley Bank and Ritter's.

Made possible with the support of the Salem Main Street Association, The Kitchen on Court St., The Bike Peddler, Salem Summit Company, The Governor's Cup Coffee Roasters, Sky Window Clean and Huggin's Insurance we were able to put our dream into a sweet, sweet reality.
But in addition to the pleasures of music and the outdoor festival, give a moment of thought to the "beautiful, tree filled lot."

It's a parking lot
The Schreiber block of 1902 used to be there. It burned down in 1966, according to the library's photos. It has never been replaced, and now it's a City parking lot. As we think about "main streets," we should also think about filling in the urban voids and the commerce and sidewalk life a continuous row of storefronts creates.


Detail of top image

Schreiber building (with State Hotel)
and Masonic building, circa 1960s
University of Oregon
A full history is not possible just now, but it looks like it was built for a saloon. And our old friend Walter D. Pugh was the architect.

July 11th, 1902
Harper whisky at Farmer's Home
March 16th, 1903
Farmer's Home Saloon "You Know the Rest"
December 15th, 1902
Schreiber died on July 13th, 1913
July 15th, 1913 and buried in St. Barbara's

Addendum, May 15th, 2019

Here's some 1968 news on the planned purchase. A later story in May mentions the State and Morris hotels, which by this time were SROs and provided homes for about 50 people. Also interesting is that the first iteration of the parking lot was to be metered.

Statesman, January 23rd, 1968

6 comments:

Susann Kaltwasser said...

Next to the Schreiber Building which housed the State Hotel was the Bligh Building which also housed a Hotel. I knew the Heuy's that managed both hotels in the 1960s. Both were lost in the fire that actually began in the Bligh. The hotels were low-income housing and some rooms in the Bligh were divided into what one might call 'sleeping rooms' where for a dollar a person could 'rent' a bed and small dressing area.

After the hotels were lost we also lost the Marion Hotel a few years later and then the Senate Hotel where the Courthouse Square is now. This created a serious lack of downtown housing.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s you did not see as many homeless people on our streets because these hotels afforded a lot of low-come people to be able to afford a small room.

In recent years of course we are seeing a resurgence of housing downtown and this is good. But a lot of low-income housing was lost and it does not seem to coming back downtown or anywhere else.

While the open space for the parking lot is a good place for a bit of green, it seems sad that we lost this area to both housing and commerce.

Anonymous said...

hello
i am very happy to reed this post telling about this music FEst!!
i am living in France and i am the little little nephew from August Schreiber(my great great uncle)
I knew about his hotel but i didn't knew that it becames a public parking!
I am very happy to reed about the music fest and my son (musician)would be happy
to produce himself on this place
i have reed the comment of Susann and i would be happy to tchat with her about
the PAST!!
my email j-marc.schreiber@orange.fr

Salem Breakfast on Bikes said...

What a wonderful "small world" moment, John-Marc! Glad you found this post and found the information a little useful. Thanks for reading.

Elsewhere, here are two longer pieces on the Bligh Building Susann mentions, one of which discusses Schreiber a little, "Lost Glories: Bootlegger Bligh and August Schreiber," and "Louis Hazeltine, Bligh Theater Architect."

schreiber said...

hi to breakfest and bikes!!
i contacted you last year from Colmar FRANCE after the wah wah fest on state street
in Salem or
I'm the little little nephew of August Schreiber:you talked from the SCHREIBER hotel
situated on this tree follied parking lot:but a parking lot without name!!
do you think it would be possible yo name this parking lot:SCHREIBER's PLACE
IT would be so good to read:the 2018 wah wah fest on SCHREIBER's PLace
don't you think so?
could it be possible for you to tell about this idea to the MAYOR of SAlEM
thanks for your answer
Mr schreiber

Salem Breakfast on Bikes said...

Added a clip from 1968 on the Schreiber and Klinger Blocks. They may have been built at the same time, and on the same plan, essentially two halves of a larger building, but with the split ownership.

schreiber jean marc said...

hi breakfast on Bikes
will be in salem november 9th 2019
maybe i could meet you??
i want to make a little homage to my family on st barbara cemetery saturday 9th afternoon!!
john marc schreiber