Oof! In unsurprising but still painful news, it looks like Cooke Stationery is closing. 21st century retailing and digital modes finally caught up with the distinctly analog and old-school stationery store.
Though the headline focuses on 88 years, the lineage of Cooke's is even older than that.
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| July 1st, 1936 |
It was a surprise to learn that Cooke's is a direct successor to the Patton book and stationery store. Perhaps that has been minimized or even erased in family and business lore. But measured that way, its roots go back to the 1870s, not merely to 1936 (or 1935 as the current news and family lore reports).
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| The Boon/Patton store in 1880s (Salem Library Historic Photos) |
The Patton Block of 1869 was right next to Ladd & Bush bank on State Street. You can see the older section of the bank on the right, a portion of the Patton Block on the left, and after cutting away part of the Patton block a Belluschi addition to Ladd & Bush, now lost, in between. Eventually it was all demolished for the rebuilt Ladd & Bush. (The cast iron facade is historic, but the building structure underneath is more modern, see here and here.)
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| Patton Block, Belluschi addition, Ladd & Bush, 1959 (University of Oregon) |
There seemed to be two stationery stores in the building in the 1870s. One was associated with H. D. Boon, son of John Boon, whose building is now our great pub, and one with Walter Jackson. (This is a little obscure, but not necessary to untangle just now.)
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| February 22nd, 1873 |
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| Jan. 17th, 1874 |
The Patton store is a successor to the Boon store.
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| January 7th, 1887 |
After Thomas Patton died, his sons Cooke and Hal took over.
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| January 16th, 1893 |
As Cooke's, in 1940 the store moved a couple doors down into the Adolph Block, also a venerable building downtown.
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| April 6th, 1940 |
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| Detail of one of many on ebay, etc. |
There are other stories, too, to connect with the Patton name:
- Virginia Green's piece "Lifelong Companions: The Patton Brothers" in Historic Marion, Winter 2003.
- In a longer piece on Portland area postcards, there is some the Patton Post Card Company.
- Here on George Sun's speech at Hal Patton's 50th birthday.
- And the demolition of the Cooke-Patton house in 1939 for the State Library.
It is possible to place Cooke's, then, in several different lineages and stories of Salem history, and there might be more to say another time.
The store and its owners will be missed!
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