Salem Reporter has a story this morning about a proposal for the former Statesman annex building, a printing plant I think, on the corner of Church and Court.
The proposal is for a combination of rental storage units and social service hub. Senator Patterson and Representative Andersen are chief sponsors of a bill, SB 1570, that would help the YMCA with some funding for it.
The corner also has an interesting history of redevelopment.
 |
| Ben Taylor at the Breyman House (Salem Library Historic Photos) |
You might have seen this late 1880s or 1890s photo of postman Ben Taylor
on his high wheel, riding east on the sidewalk of Court Street. The
Eugene Breyman house was on the corner of Church and Court. (1903 obituaries of Breyman in the Oregonian and Daily Journal.)
In 1930 the house was moved to a new site on the west side of Summer Street along the south side bank of Mill Creek.
 |
| March 2nd, 1930 |
 |
| Breyman House moved to Summer Street (Salem Library Historic Photos) |
Texaco built a gas station in its place.
 |
| Former gas station on Church & Court, c.1935 (State Library of Oregon) |
In the photo you can see the old YMCA building on the right, and the spire for the old St. Joseph's in the back center.
When it opened in 1930 the gas station got a full width headline, a small feature, and a photo.
 |
| June 28th, 1930 |
They hyped it as "The first completely modern super service station on the Pacific highway in downtown Salem" complete with an "artistic arrangement" of buildings and landscaping.
It's funny now to think of a time when a gas station might be artsy.
The State Library dates the photo to c.1930, but you can just make out that the trees in the photo are significantly taller than in the more securely dated image in the newspaper. So it's probably from 1935 or a little later.
Between the wood-framed house, the gas station, and then the newspaper annex building, it's had three phases of development, very typical as we've seen for the downtown area.
Previously see:
- On Ben, "The Story of Salem's First Bicycle: Ben Taylor talks with Fred Lockley" (2013)
- On a misidentified building behind several pictures of Ben in that 2013 post, "Smith's Brick, not Nesmith Building, was Home of the WCTU Ramp Memorial Hall" (2020)
- On a misidentified lost statue, "Breyman Fountain Lost Between World War II and Proposed Vietnam War Memorials" (2019)
- And elsewhere: I got through this post before I remembered to check Virginia Green's blog, and she'd already written about it, covering the same material. But it's not well known, so there's no harm in repetition! A couple of minor details can also be corrected.
No comments:
Post a Comment