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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| "Always free and easy parking" in 1978 - via the Mill (WHC 2021.043.0016) |
Car storage and transportation should also get more attention. Cars and the infrastructure serving them is not incidental background. Look at all the parking! I-5 is also adjacent, and we see again the role of I-5 in the new Costco site and the other shopping centers proposed for Kuebler and I-5.
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| Car storage; also I-5, Center St, and Lancaster Dr |
Finally, there are subsidies likely in play, and they might range from national real estate and tax policy down to local government property tax abatements.
The history and significance of the mall deserves a more detailed examination.
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| Dreams of a beltline, 1984 (Year 2000 plan) |
And, turning to the present, we should give more thought to the relation of our policies, both land use and transportation, on the edges of the city to our professed interest in downtown.
The City and County are undertaking a study, "Cordon/Kuebler Corridor Study and Management Plan." This is the most recent on it from the City, last February at Council:
Kuebler Boulevard SE, Cordon Road SE/NE, Hazelgreen Road NE, and Chemawa Road NE are classified as a Parkway in the Salem Transportation System Plan. Parkways serve as high-capacity, high-speed roadways that primarily serve regional and intracity travel. The Kuebler/Cordon Road corridor serves as the primary arterial serving the Mill Creek Corporate Center. The ultimate cross section for this corridor is intended to include four travel lanes, a landscaped median with turn pockets, and a multi-use path. This planning study will help prioritize future investments in this corridor and identify management strategies to promote safe and efficient operation for all modes of transportation.
Is the focus on widening, more traffic, and more emssions? Any multi-modal aspect will be useful, but it also looks greenwashy, cover for the primary aim of widening. Further widening is also likely to bust the Urban Grown Boundary. We might think it will improve transportation inside the boundary, which coincides with Cordon Road, but when we look at the Eugene beltway system we see lots of development on former farmland the other side of it.
As we look back on the mall we should think more about the warehouses in and around the Mill Creek Corporate Center, as well as the new shopping centers proposed for Kuebler and I-5, and the extent to which we are repeating processes to devalue the central city.
1 comment:
I know the area pretty well as a child my aunt and her family lived on Lancaster Drive circa 1949 to 1959. We went there often to visit as we lived in south Salem near the airport. All the roads at the time were either gravel or like Lancaster paved as 2 lanes with large ditches on both sides. There was mostly large lots with houses lining the sides of the streets with some stores at major intersections like State, Center and Hayesville. These nodes were named and some had post offices. Four Corners, Hayesville, Badgers Corner, and so forth.
In 1952 my father took as job in a machine shop at the corner of D Street and Lancaster. In 1954 the Franciscan's built the Catholic High School, Serra. In the area behind my father's work (where the McDonald's now sits) was a vacant field that he was allowed to put in a large garden. From 1956 to 1963, I would visit the area weekly to help my father in the garden. From 1964 to 1968, I attended Serra HS. Then in 1980, my husband and I bought our first home in the area off of 45th Avenue where we lived for 30 years. We still own the home and use it as a rental. From1990 to the present I have been the land use person for the East Lancaster Neighborhood Association and have overseen the development of the area from Lancaster to Cordon between Sunnyview and Center (including any annexed land south of Center). So I know a lot about what, why and how the area was developed.
I've seen the area transition from residential agricultural with small farms that grew strawberries, fruit trees, horses, and hay. Most people had chickens and some people had cows or horses. Houses lined Lancaster on both sides with an occasional business like the machine shop my father worked at and the feed store next door, and a Roth's IGA at Center and Lancaster. Furniture manufacturing, nursery, gas station, repair shops and bars dotted the area too.
A major driving force to the development of Lancaster was the vision of one man, Larry Epping. He was joined later by Don Wyant Sr who introduced the idea of strip malls along Lancaster. Epping had the dream of developing Lancaster Drive as a major commercial area with houses along side. He began buying every parcel of land he could back in the early 1960s. At the time people laughed, but today we see that his vision has become reality for better or worse. Since the area was and to a large extent still is in the County, not the City limits, it is hard to say that there was an actual 'plan' until around 1977. Since then Salem has pretty much been lead by what the property owner has envisioned. After the state adopted the state-wide planning bill there was an effort to zone the area along what we see now. Major road flanked by commercial zone with multifamily adjacent or behind the commercial area and single family residential on the perimeters.
Epping brought the concept of col de sacs to Salem. It allowed for building of more lots per acre. Salem thought that by requiring walkways between major sections they could create "connectivity." The assumption then as now is that people will walk to get to commercial areas. It hasn't proved to be true. And buses are not generally used even though the travel right through the subdivisions. We are dependent on cars, if we can afford them, and the design of neighborhoods in my observation doesn't seem to matter much.
I've had the pleasure of knowing some of the early residents of the area who lived in the area and now have passed. I agree that it would be great to do a history of the area.
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