On Sunday the paper had a story about expansion by a long-time auto dealership.
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| August 21st, 1927 |
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| On Sunday |
Even as something of a puff piece and advertiser service, it benefited from a long-time reporter, and had a short history section in it, "McKay Chevrolet opened in Salem in 1927."
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| August 28th, 1927 |
But there is so much more to say about Douglas McKay, who as Mayor, State Legislator, then Governor, and finally Secretary of the Interior under President Eisenhower, was very likely the most powerful car dealer in Salem, shaping Salem in ways we have not really surfaced and made very explicit.
There is also tragedy. His son died using — or perhaps misusing, as speeding seems to be implicated — a product, or the kind of product, he sold.
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| November 22nd, 1939 Albany Democrat Herald |
When in 1955 it was time to enact a succession plan, the men who had married into the family took over. There are two separate successions via sons-in-law, in fact. Daughters probably should have a bigger place in the story. Maybe they had no interest in cars and sales, or maybe they weren't allowed to have that interest. The four generations of family ownership go through women, even if the women weren't executives in the company.
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| October 31st, 1955 |
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| November 2nd, 1955 |
There was at the time of the first succession a labor dispute at the dealership. That might be worth a closer look.
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| October 20th, 1955 |
There's little written about earlier his time on City Council and as Mayor. There's likely more to say there. About his later political career in the 1950s, the Oregon Encyclopedia says:
Implementing the anti-New Deal Republican Party's war on domestic federal expenditures, Interior Secretary McKay reduced the department’s staffing level by four thousand employees and dramatically slashed its spending. He also personally oversaw the termination of Oregon’s Klamath, Siletz, and Grand Ronde Tribes and their reservations. He promoted Idaho Power Company’s construction of a privately owned hydroelectric dam in Hells Canyon and approved plans to build a dam that would have flooded Utah’s Echo Canyon and Dinosaur National Monument, the outcry over which helped spur the growth of the modern environmental movement.
In 1955-1956, McKay’s tenure was rocked when a bitter and public controversy erupted over the Interior Department’s approval of a transfer of mining claims in the Rogue River National Forest to the Al Sarena Mining Company, headquartered in Alabama. After the company logged off 2 million board feet of old-growth timber, newspaper columnist Drew Pearson dubbed him “Giveaway” McKay.
As for the dealership location, it moved around the city, starting at the center and moving in successive phases to the periphery. Its first location was next to the Public Market Building, which is now a parking lot for the former Rite-Aid on Commercial between Marion and Center.
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| Parking lot today, February 10th, 1928 |
In the late 40s they moved across the street, to the northeast corner of Marion and Commercial. That building is remodeled and part of a church, but it's still around today.
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| Building still there, c.1950 WHC 2006.001.0166 |
In the late 70s they moved to 25th and Mission.
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| 25th & Mission, Jan. 29th, 1978 |
Then of course to the Parkway.
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| A century of movement |
It is ironic, and perhaps also symbolic, that Auto Group Avenue took over part of the Winter-Maple Neighborhood Greenway route.
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| The Greenway on Auto Group Avenue |
There is surely much more to say, and we'll likely come back another time.
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