Orville Station and the Oregon Electric: Connection for Vitae Springs

Orville and Prospect Hill (1917 USGS map)

The history column about Vitae Springs in the Sunday paper focused on fire and water, two elemental forces.

Yesterday

It also took in radio communications, vineyards, blueberries, and bauxite.  It was a wide-ranging review of human geography and history.

There are a lot of other directions a piece might have gone also, and of course it was not possible to write everything.

The name it traced to 1910.

first mention

At least online, if not always in print, it is a mystery why they don't reproduce more newspaper clips. Those have an immediacy and presence second-hand report lacks. Additionally, collapsing the history of the Statesman-Journal into one newspaper is weird. There were two papers! Here is a mention in the Capital Journal.

July 26th, 1910

That's a minor quibble. A more significant one concerns the role of the Oregon Electric, and even transportation history more generally.

December 20th, 1929

A Letter to the Editor in 1929 concerning the development of new market roads limned the neighborhood through Oregon Electric station names.

Indeed, Vitae Springs Road connects to River Road by Orville Road. The Liberty and Independence Road appears to have been split into two named segments.

August 13th, 1920; Monmouth Herald, June 10th, 1921

Having helped with an alignment on his property, Orville Butler gave his name to the Oregon Electric station, and station presumably to the road.

Not long after the station was finished, the railroad proposed a hops warehouse.

July 30th, 1913

And the station was significant enough that the University of Oregon paper, the Emerald, would advertise Easter holiday fares.

Oregon Emerald, April 1st, 1915

While the connection of Vitae Springs northeast to Salem is important, at least in the early auto age, the connection downhill west to the station might be even more important.

February 28th, 1920

In a piece from 1920 for a special "industrial and development" edition, a map of market roads and planned paving shows the primary connection via rail at Orville and not by an improved road connecting to Liberty.

In and of itself that's not determinative, but for the history of the Vitae Springs district the role of the rail connection at Orville deserves more attention.

Oregon Electric alignment was abandoned (2018)

Though the Oregon Passenger Rail project ultimately abandoned the Oregon Electric alignment, it remains an underutilized resource that will likely grow in significance as we grapple with our climate crisis. Contemporary stories that touch on its history should underscore its role.

Certainly there is more to about the neighborhood generally. Tracing the origin to 1910 is not fully satisfying and there may be more behind that and earlier. Maybe there is more to say about health fads, mineral water, and entrepreneurialism. Not far away was the farm and home for John Pollard Gaines, and there earlier 19th century history to explore also.

It was a productive and suggestive piece about a neighborhood we don't think about a great deal - except when there's a fire.

Addendum, November 1st

Here's a few additional notes. 

In the summer, a group of realtors drove out for a promotional junket. Lots of groups camped and picnicked out there in the 1920s. Bohrnstedt was a Salem realtor also, and clearly was organizing promoting the area as investment, for speculation, and as sales opportunity.

June 23rd, 1923

A little later, a boy scout troop from Salem Heights went on a hike. Interestingly, they did not proceed south along Liberty to Vitae Springs, but instead went into town and took the Oregon Electric Train.

December 31st, 1929

One reason they might not have used Liberty was the roads were very difficult in the rainy season. A note from 1932 suggests the road was not an "all year around throughfare."

June 1st, 1932

The very next year, Federal relief funding was passed through for paving County roads, and Vitae Springs was one of them. Maybe we should consider it a bit of a WPA-era project.

March 11th, 1933

May 15th, 1933

Since the SJ piece went into the pronunciation of Vitae Springs, it is perhaps relevant here to note the spelling Vita Spring, which is evidence for the long i and schwa a, rather than any more Latinate variant.