Steinbock Junk Moved Around a Century Ago, Likely Last Tenant of Big Central School

Over at the Mill they recently posted a "then and now" set on the corner of State and Front.

Steinbock Junk on south side of State Street at Front
(Detail, WHC 2022.044.0138)

With the Furlong Porcelain Empire and the two brick buildings still around, the Manning Building on the corner gets much of the attention.

Downtown Historic District Nomination

But the plain gabled building, sided perhaps in plain corrugated metal, is of interest, H. Steinbock Junk Co. It's been replaced by the Meredith building, currently with the locksmith, and we don't think about the older one at all. The Downtown Historic District Nomination says it was part of Jerman & Pugh's Livery and Feed, and then it "housed 'junk.'"

March 2nd, 1926

We have not given enough attention to "junk"! The "junk problem" was at the center of conversation and debate in the development of our first zoning code. It was not only a discussion of aesthetics and "curb appeal," it was also at least partially ethnically and class coded.

April 16th, 1903

The site on State Street may have first been associated with junk dealers when J. Brownstein & Son moved from Albany to Salem about 1903.

January 6th, 1904

The Steinbocks appear to have purchased the business about 1912. (I take "stembock" as a typo.)

June 21st, 1912

March 18th, 1913

The building burned in 1921, recently purchased by Frank Meredith. That gives nearly two full decades for "housing junk."

Jan. 26th, 1921

While Steinbock's was apparently using it for storage in the later 19-teens, they had moved in 1915 to a new main storefront on the northeast corner of Chemeketa and Commercial, where the parking garage is today.

May 1st, 1915

Steinbock junk store on NE corner
of Chemeketa and Commercial, 1915
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

Steinbock didn't last long there, either. In 1919 Standard Oil announced plans for that corner to became a gas station. The headline called the buildings "shacks."

March 15th, 1919

Standard Oil station, Chemeketa and Commercial
April 1927 (State Archives)

Steinbock then seems to have moved into the old Commercial Hall, which was the relocated Big Central School.

Commercial Hall, formerly Big Central School
On the NE corner of Commercial & Center
September 2nd, 1912

It was at Center and Commercial on the northeast corner of the intersection.

In 1923 the railroad considered building a downtown station on it for the streetcar system.

August 18th, 1923

The piece also described the Steinbock Junk company — the former Big Central School, again — as "notoriously the worst looking building in Salem."

The railroad did not build on the lot, and instead about 1923 it too became a service station (Union Oil, I believe; there was also one on the southwest corner of the intersection on what became the UGM site; there are still some details to learn).

NE Corner Center and Commercial (1926 Sanborn)

Prompted at least in part by the railroad's actions, Steinbock's purchased the business on the corner of Center and Front Streets, the old Saffron business, and moved one block west.

Sept. 20th and Oct. 19th, 1923

NE corner of Front and Center (1926 Sanborn)

Within a few years he had multiple businesses there, Capital Bargain, Capital Tire, and Mike's Auto Wrecking.

Hyman Steinbock died in a collision with a train in 1935.

April 29th, 1935

There is very likely more to say, as this side of history, both junk and Jewish merchants, has been undervalued here, and we may come back later to follow-up on one or more details.

Previously here:

• A little on the gas station kitty corner on Center and Commercial, "Soil Contamination and Monitoring Wells Point to History of UGM Site" (2018)
• In a discussion of a building now demolished, a little on the Saffron business, "What to do with Remnants of State Insurance Building?" (2021)
• And across the street, "Curbside Gas Pumps Downtown: Quackenbush Auto in the Eldridge Block" (2024)
• On Big Central School, an earlier note depended on what turned out to be an incorrect caption in the Salem Library Historic Photo Collection. A correction is appended at the bottom of it. "With New High School, Big Central School was Moved in 1906" and a note on early 20th century socialism here, "As Commercial Hall, old Central School was briefly Hub for Socialism in Salem" (both from 2020)
• On another merchant, "Arlene Schnitzer, born in Salem, Died Saturday; Father Simon Operated Stores Here" (2020)
  

Addendum, June 23rd

I forgot this picture with the first location of Harry Scott's bicycle business also had a picture of that first location of Steinbock Junk.

Scott & Piper (l) and Steinbock (r), c.1914
State Library of Oregon

And here's the Meredith Building today.

Meredith building today (center)