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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| January 5th, 1956 |
Construction went quickly, at least it seems so today, and the store was ready early fall of 1956. They held a soft opening around September 7th and the grand opening in October. (And the notice in the afternoon paper.) Arthur Erickson had said "the new market was developed to meet the needs and convenience of the fast growing South Salem suburbs." It also offered "80 off-street parking spaces."
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| October 4th, 1956 |
The full grand opening two-page spread ad is a little interesting.
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| September 19th, 1954 |
Perhaps more interesting is a funny ad from two years earlier. South Salem High School had just been completed to service those growing "South Salem Suburbs" in 1954, and real estate interests had arranged a promotional letter from Walter Snyder, the Superintendent of Schools, who repeated canards against rental apartments and those who live in them while quietly implying praise for the exclusionary function of single home ownership:
Families living in homes which they themselves own tend to remain fixed rather than constantly on the move....children from such homes have a feeling of security and stability which helps them to engage in school work with greater effectiveness and satisfaction....parents who own their own homes tend to take a more active and constructive interest in their school and thus contribute to the growth of the entire community.
Are they actually inviting more home ownership or is this a coded message really saying "no rentals here"? The goal does not seem to be broader home affordability, but is more of a weeding function to make neighborhoods more exclusive and homogeneous. It is more than a little ambiguous.
The Ericksons building today has a new window system and some cosmetic changes to the facade, but the basic box is still there. The front corner storefront has struggled with a gym most recently, and the back storefront has been a series of restaurants. But the middle two, for seafood and wine, have seemed stable.
Again, old grocery store buildings prove useful, even if their seeming 20 year lifespan as grocery stores seems short and wasteful. Some other examples:
- School District HQ in an old Safeway
- Howard Street Charter School in old Bergs Market
- Wilco in newer old Safeway
- Northwest Hub, Barrel and Keg, and Christos in very old grocery stores
Weathers Music also Ericksons Supermarket
As a footnote, the old Weathers Music store on south Commercial, now demolished for the Panera redevelopment of 2014, was a slightly earlier Ericksons Supermarket. The addressing is confusing, as it is said to be at 2820 South Commercial, and Weathers was at 2825 Commercial St. SE, but I am nearly certain they were the same building. Perhaps there was an address change.
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| Weathers was in an old grocery store May 20th, 1951 and uncredited reddit image |
Its grand opening in May of 1951 recieved a large spread in the paper.
More history of grocery stores, especially Safeways, collected here as "grocery history" and a few notes on "baseball history" also.
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