Willamette University Urban Renewal Project likely Salem's First

While looking up something on the Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Area, a different URA nearly a decade earlier showed up. One for Willamette University, and not the Hollywood or Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Areas, now appears to be Salem's first. (But now we will be alert to the possibility of an even earlier one!)

July 6th, 1961

A concept for an area roughly bounded by Trade Street/Millrace, 12th, Bellevue/Shelton Ditch, and Winter Street was discussed at least as early as 1961.

It did involve large scale demolition and displacement. From 1961:

Included in the proposed area are 115 private dwellings, seven court apartments with a total of 52 units, two large apartment houses, a wrecking yard, lumber yard, beer distributor's warehouse, trucking company garage, rest home, tavern and three two-story commercial buildings....

After the property is cleared, it is offered for sale. In the case of the ten-block university area it will be sold to the school....

Planners said the procedure for launching the Willamette University project is similar to that used recently for Chicago University and other schools. 

In these cases, under the federal Urban Renewal Act, cities may launch such renewal projects....

In the case of the Willamette University extension area, much of the residential and court apartments property is of an older nature, although it is not of slum nature....

By 1970 it was largely completed.

August 25th, 1970

The popular understanding about the priority of URAs is reflected in the historical digest at Shineonsalem for 1971:

The urban renewal of the Hollywood district in North Salem begins. In June, the Hollywood Theater, which gave this suburban business neighborhood its name, was demolished. The Highland neighborhood has produced an excellent online history of Hollywood’s transformation....The Hollywood Theater, which gave the area its popular name, and Mootry’s Pharmacy, are now only fond memories of senior citizens. This was the city’s first Urban Renewal project.

If by "city" we mean the municipal corporation, "City of Salem," maybe this is correct on a technicality. But if by "city" we mean the general city area, then the WU project certainly appears to be the first. In any case, it does appear to have employed a kind of pass-through via the City of Salem, and the City proper did execute it. So at the moment it looks like it should be regarded as Salem's first Urban Renewal project.

We may come back to this in more detail another time. Resolving the questions about pass-through and priority, the nature of the buildings demolished, and the rhetoric around all that might be interesting. For the moment it is just something interesting to register.

(In the top clip from 1961, note also the "stream of mystery" roughly along Mill Street. Construction for the URA and the Parkway seem to correlate now with its disappearance.)