The Corner of Cottage and State: Hallie Ford Museum of Art at 25

As Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette celebrates their 25th anniversary next month, it is a little interesting to consider the history of development on that corner. It cycled through homes and then two phases of important 20th century technology.

May 18th, 1964

For the current building, in the spring of 1964 the phone company announced plans for a new customer service center and the job went out to bid. James Payne, whose firm did the Civic Center and many other mid-century modern projects in Salem, perhaps even defined the era here, was the designer.

Construction started on June 29th, 1964, and the building opened to the public a year later on July 28th, 1965.

July 28th, 1965

The site of course has a history. In the first phase of development it had wood-framed houses.

State Street between Winter and Cottage, c.1920
(detail, Willamette University)

During construction for the phone company building excavators found an "ancient cistern," apparently for the the John Ferguson Miller house, visible on the corner in this photo from the old Capitol, after the Library c.1920.

July 3rd, 1964

July 3rd, 1964

In the photo looking down State Street it is hard to see detail on the house. According to the piece from 1964:

...the Miller house was old when [Lewis] Judson was a boy in Salem in the 1880s, that it faced State Street until being torn down for the Fiering General Tire station.

Miller, Judson said, was a major general in the Oregon National Guard and was a leader in fighting against the Modoc Indians, 1868-73....

Miller was also a Democratic candidate for governor in 1862, but lost out, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1864, and lost again, and a director of Oregon Central Railroad....

The house visible in the photo doesn't really look like a house already "old" in the 1880s, but it's not possible to be certain about that.*

February 20th, 1901

John Ferguson Miller is buried in the IOOF Pioneer Cemetery and died in 1901.

John F. Miller (OHS)

The site was an early gas station, and a different name is attached to the house.

March 17th, 1920

The house may have been moved rather than demolished.

The site transitioned from a service station to tire sales.

The first ad for a tire store appears in 1941. They seem to have moved from a more central downtown location to the edge of downtown.

May 14th, 1941

December 18th, 1961

And the last ad in 1961.

State & Cottage, Tire Co. in yellow, c.1955
(detail, Salem Library Historic Photos)

So that is three distinct phases of development for the corner, the maximum that we have seen in Salem. (Still looking for any site that has four!)

The corner's place in the local history of automobile and communications technology is notable. Now it's all about art and creativity.

See also:

• On the corner across the street, "Elks Purchase Werner Breyman House in 1920"
• "Belluschi's YWCA of 1954 gets some Love" and a short bit on the older building of 1930 done while Pietro Belluschi was working for A. E. Doyle.
  
• A note on George Post, designer on the first redevelopment project on this block face, the Carnegie Library.
  

Back to the anniversary, the museum and its promo for the anniversary features the window art we have here called the "Apotheosis of the Bike Reflector." They are teasing free admission all through October.

Bike Reflectors!
Detail of "Portals Through Time"
(Hallie Ford Museum of Art)

Celebrating 25 years

Previously see also:

• "Celebrate Hallie Ford Museum of Art at 20" with links to some favorite shows over the years

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* This all is assuming the reminiscences of Lewis Judson are correct. Trying to verify with some newspaper detail leads to conflicting information. Using the 1895 Sanborn map for addresses, the corner property is at 244 State Street, in which John Aiken died in 1894. In 1888 the "well known John F. Miller house" is "about three miles south of Salem."  In 1899 a John F. Miller is advertising a stray mule and gives his address as 211 Cottage Street, which is near the corner of Cottage and Ferry and on the northwest side of the intersection, across the street from all the phone company buildings, which are on the east side of Cottage. This last address is the most consistent with the obituary from 1901. There is also a Gen. John F. Miller from California, and he appears in the paper also multiple times to run interference for us. Maybe there will be more to say another time, on our John F. Miller or on a different person who in fact built and lived in the house.

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Addendum and Correction, September 14th

There are multiple news items that suggest the house on the corner of Cottage and State was primarily associated with the Keyes family, as the 1920 note about the gas station says, and not with John F. Miller. (The gas station was in fact built.)

August 26th, 1932

Son, Walter Keyes, was Mayor in 1917 and 1918, and associated with the Port-Manning house on the diagonal of the block, on the corner of Ferry and Winter. Mrs. Keyes was the sister of R. A. Booth, also.

August 7th, 1917

August 7th, 1917

News about the death of Amanda Viola Booth Keyes mentions consistently that the Keyes lived in "a home at Cottage and State streets."

This new evidence suggests Lewis Judson in 1964 had misremembered one or more details on the house and corner.

For another time it might be interesting to consider the mid-century articles in Marion County History, several of which were written by Lewis Judson. Salem Reporter has started a series on corrections the City is making to the captions and other information on photos in the historic photo collection at the Library. Ben Maxwell, whose photos are a central portion of that collection, often wrote from memory, and did not always verify his facts or document them with citations. We've seen here how Smith's Brick and Salmon Brown's house (and more) both have been misidentified by later researchers. The loss of accurate information and development of what is essentially new legend is constant here, and it might be interesting to see if we can identify other gaps in the Judson narratives.