New Crosswalk at 13th and Marion, More on Salmon Brown House

In his "State of the City" address, the Mayor referenced the new crosswalk on 13th and Marion, and the glorious weather this weekend was a great time to check in on it.

The crosswalk itself has a calming effect

There are two signed and striped legs, one across Marion for a north-south crossing on the west side of the intersection, and one across 13th on the south side of the intersection. (The other two crossings encounter much less traffic, have stop signs, and generally are much easier, so they do not require striping and signs.)

The beacon was wrapped in tape and not operational, so it's not exactly correct to say that the project is completed.

The flashing beacon is not operational

But even without the beacon, cars hesitated at the striped crosswalk; and between the caution signs and the striping, the whole installation had a helpful calming effect. It would be great if the City had conducted before/after studies of turning speeds to measure the actual effect. But subjectively, the calming seemed real to me and it was not necessary to execute the same frogger scamper to cross.

Just around the corner on Marion Street is the house proposed as the former Salmon Brown house.

Not the former Salmon Brown house

When Ben Maxwell was documenting some things before the old School was demolished and the Safeway built, he went up and took pictures looking at area with the swimming pool, Parrish, and North.

December 13th, 1949

The photos from c.1949 are in the Library's collection, here and here. They show the old house that Salmon Brown lived in facing 13th Street, not Marion Street. The houses along Marion Street have different forms and are gone. (The pool was not yet in a building!)

View from old School, detail with comments
(Salem Library Historic Photos, c.1949)

See previously:

• The longer discussion,"Salmon Brown House ID may be Wishful Thinking." I am more certain now the house is long gone.
• And on the Safeway, "Early 1950s Supermarkets show Appetite for Parking."
  

As something of a footnote, in the February 3rd update from the City Manager, there is an odd note about what appears to be the Library's Historic Photo Collection.

February 3rd, 2022 update

He writes:

The City, through the Salem Public Library, has an agreement with the Willamette Heritage Center for WHC to curate the City’s collection of local images (old photos, mostly). The Salem Public Library maintains the originals and provides copies (mostly in digital form) to the WHC. In return, the WHC provides an online access point for the public and has the ability to license these images to willing purchasers. We maintain ownership but the licensing allows the WHC to defray maintenance costs over time. Prior to now, these images had been stored on a now-defunct website that we can no longer support (security and technology reasons). This is being funded through the Library Advisory Board’s trust and agency account. They have committed $10,000 to the project. Money will be issued on a reimbursement basis. We think we have a lasting solution that we think can keep these historic resources intact for a very long time.

The tone of this is maybe a little careless? It doesn't read like anyone wrote it who cares about the library or history, and instead they were principally concerned with monetizing the collection. The history isn't any part of the Library's mission. The website is clunky, sure, and the text of salemhistory.net has disappeared, but photos.salemhistory.net is not "defunct." At least not yet anyway. The website does need to be upgraded and, even more importantly, many captions need updating or correction, and many images need higher resolution scans.

Having the Mill operate the website might be good, but it might also represent a reduction in access. The Library had operated a free website, and if the Mill will charge for access, not just charge for licensing for books or art or things like that, then it may not be such a great deal. And if there is not a mechanism to improve the captions and resolution of scans, it will not have accomplished very much.

Just something to watch.