Mystery of the PEP Co Warehouse Solved

The Oregon Historical Society periodically announces a new batch of digitized photos, and it is always interesting to go through them to see if there are any new Salem scenes.

One of them some time ago, a batch old photos from PGE, showed a good mystery.

Mystery Solved!
PEP Co, Line Division Warehouse, 780 N. Liberty
(Oregon Historical Society)

This photo was labeled quite vaguely,

Photograph of Salem warehouse building with automobile parked outside. A paved street can be seen in the front of the frame, and another building is visible at the left.

Where was this warehouse?!

Preliminary research didn't turn up anything and it went onto the backburner. 

On a recent walk near Boon's, historical signage on the corner of Division and High at the new-ish bank building showed a very similar picture and had more detail to fill in some of the blanks. Though the sign was on the corner with High Street, it wasn't wholly clear the older building it referenced was on Liberty Street, on the other side of the block from the sign. So we can fill in a few more blanks.

November 4th, 1927

Back in 1927 the electric company purchased the lot.

By 1929 they had definite plans for a warehouse there. A later piece suggested the actual cost was closer to $25,000 than $40,000.

Salem Reporter on Downtown should Examine Drive-to Model

Yesterday Salem Reporter published a story on downtown health, "The problems and promise of downtown Salem."

At Salem Reporter

With the photo they highlighted, the first impression was the traffic sewer of Commercial Street at its intersection with State Street. The street was the center and the buildings a little incidental.

The story summary focused on "people coming into their stores" and the photo emphasized downtown as a drive-to destination like a mall. Driving was normative. Driving is what makes downtown.

But the story undercut a good bit of that and some other themes might have been given even more prominence.

[Dino Venti is] hopeful the housing developments downtown will bring in more foot traffic. He’s also looking forward to larger developments, including The Cannery which will add 382 apartments, a brewery, restaurants and retail north of downtown.

“I’m optimistic about downtown,” he said....

[T. J.] Sullivan said that the investments in housing downtown make him feel optimistic.

“The more people we get living downtown, the more eyes you get on the streets, the more there is a sense of safety. And the more people that are right there, for ready-made consumers for the downtown businesses,” Sullivan said. 

The most important thing for downtown is the increase in residents, in treating downtown as an actual neighborhood and not as a drive-to destination and mall.

"Foot traffic" really means foot traffic. Walking, not driving, is the key!

The Cannery Project at the Hearings Officer Tonight

The Cannery redevelopment for the former Truitt Bros. site is at the Hearings Officer tonight, Wednesday the 25th. The project generally looks like a good addition to Salem, but it also still seems uncertain and complicated.

Previously:

• "Questions on the Cannery Proposal" (2023)
• A little, and links to more, on an historical homage, "A Mansard Roof for the Cannery Project"
• On the disposition of surface parking, "Latest Version of Cannery Project Retreats from Walkability, but may offer More Housing"
• And on Front Street, "Questions on Front Street"

The project is for 382 homes in three new apartment buildings and for 422 off-street parking stalls, 291 of them in a basement garages under each building.  The City eliminated minimum parking requirements last year, but we still have maximum limits, 930 stalls in this case. So 422 is very much a middle quantity of parking.

Newer renderings: 1914 building, food hall,
mansard roofs, interior driveway, river path
(updated project website)

There's also some adaptive reuse for buildings along the river, conceptually assigned to food and wine businesses. Riverside dining, perhaps!

We've already discussed the Mansard roof on the main buildings along Front, and in the packet are revised drawings for a tasting room on the interior of the lots, and food hall and market along the river. 

The oldest building is retained with few modifications, and currently the concept is for a tasting room and perhaps even a small winery or brewery. (There may not be enough room to deliver grapes and such at the site, and also the wine industry is currently experiencing a contraction with an oversupply of grapes and wine inventory, so this is very much a detail not to attach to.)

Adaptive Reuse: Tasting room

For the food hall and market concepts, these would use structural elements from older existing buildings but not maintain much else of the buildings themselves.

A Safety Plan too Aspirational and Questions on Front Street: At the MPO

The Policy Committee for our Metropolitan Planning Commission meets on Tuesday the 24th to adopt the new Metropolitan Transportation Safety Action Plan.

Ticketable: On Commercial between Hoyt and Rural

The MPO did not in the end incorporate more of an emphasis on system speed and legal, lawful posted speed, which are often too high and too lethal for an urban area. They focused more on speeding above the posted speed.

Previously:

• "Salem-Keizer Transportation Safety Plan needs more on Speed, not just Speeding"
• "Public Comment Calls for more Attention to Speed and Speeding in draft Safety Plan"

The edits from the August draft to the September final version are mostly small.

Perhaps the most consequential set of edits undercuts the document as any kind of "action plan."

Merely a "guiding framework"

The plan doesn't actually commit the MPO or its members to doing anything. It is mainly aspirational, merely a "guiding framework" and list of "recommended strategies." It's more hope than plan.

New Buffered Bike Lanes on Commercial an Improvement, but not Game-Changer

The new bike lanes on middle Commercial are almost done, and in a preliminary way they are a solid incremental improvement for those who already bike, but not enough of a change to induce new trips by those who don't already bike.

Buffer helps with passes from large vehicles

Zooming up the hill on a throttle-bike

The buffer helps with spacing from large vehicles, and a person zooming up the hill on what looked like a "throttle bike," basically a small moped, seemed certain to appreciate it. (But it's a reminder our current bike lane configurations are not adapted to passing at multiple speeds: A person laboring up the hill with a strictly pedal bike, a person pedaling with a battery assist, and a person who does not need to pedal operate across a broad range of speeds, 20mph difference or more.)

City Council, September 23rd - CATC, new Code for Housing, Legislative Priorities

At Council on Monday is another appointment to boards and commissions pleasant to note.

Beth Schmidt teaching transit use
in front (via MWVCOG and FB)

Our Safe Routes to School Coordinator, Beth Schmidt, looks to join the Citizens Advisory Traffic Commission. 

After an initial focus on walking, the Safe Routes program has returned to its roots in bicycle safety education for kids, and has also piloted new transit training for kids. The bus is truly liberating, there is already the youth pass program, and it's great to see this expansion.

Hopefully with new voices CATC can continue to move away from its historic focus on parking and autoism. (And perhaps, as with some other boards and commissions there will be thought to eliminating the word "citizens," which has an unfortunate exclusionary history in some contexts.)

At last week's special meeting for appointments to the Planning Commission, the entire slate was voted in, and even Councilor Julie Hoy, who had seemed skeptical, joined the 8-0 votes.

Council will also hold the second reading for enactment of code changes to "reduce impacts of development standards, processes, and fees related to housing development." They continue to seem like technical fixes and changes on the margins, incremental improvements, and nothing that is going to prompt great, abrupt change.

A few previous notes here, but nothing very lengthy or detailed:

• "City Council, September 9th - McGilchrist Culverts"
• "Gussie Belle Brown Apartments at Former General Hospital Site in for Site Plan Review"
• "City Council, July 8th - Conservation Area at Former General Hospital Site"

via the former Twitter

As an interesting footnote, just before being appointed to the Planning Commission, Ben Fryback commented to Council in support of point access block construction, which services apartment blocks with a single stair and/or elevator, and without the need for long hallways allows for much greater flexibility and efficiency in floor plan, allows for more windows for natural light and cross-ventilation, and also makes odd-sized lots easier to develop. Last year the Legislature directed a start to planning for them, and it would be great if there was a way for Salem to get ahead of the process. The City Staff response to the Fryback testimony was "The City could explore this type of housing as part of the Housing Production Strategy project." This could be a terrific initiative for new Commissioner Fryback to lead!

• For a longer discussion from a couple years back, see at Slate, "The Single-Staircase Radicals Have a Good Point." 
  

Also on the agenda are two sets of legislative priorities for 2025.

From Marion Blackberry to Marionberry and a Quilt in Salem: History Bits

With the announcement earlier this week of the new baseball team name, artfully quibbling on berries from Marion County generally, and on Marionberries specifically, it prompted a closer look at the cultivar.

The announcement pamphlet, Feb. 1957
(Oregon Raspberry & Blackberry Commission)

The first time it appeared in the papers was in the Oregonian on December 6th, 1956. There is it identified as the Marion Blackberry. This was continued in the pamphlet formally introducing it in February of 1957.

First news, December 6th, 1956

December 31st, 1957

In the March of 1958 a headline writer abbreviates Marion Blackberry to Marion Berry, and the piece also refers to "the Marion" several times.

March 12th, 1958

It wasn't until the mid-60s that the term "Marionberry" really starts appearing. Then something happened around 1980 for the usage to flip and Marionberry to prevail in a wider shift. One candidate is a new product or new marketing effort by one or more fruit processors. But it seems like a bit of a cultural shift and there were many independent agents, farmers, marketers, and consumers, making decisions on which word to use. It may not be possible to locate any single cause. But the name, and not just the cultivar, also has a history. It may also have peaked around 2010.

Dominant name changes c.1980

Separately, yesterday online the Oregonian published "Quilt may finally be finished after patterns, printed in The Oregonian a century ago, mysteriously donated."

Ian Davidson Named new ODOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager

Though ODOT does not seem to have made a formal announcement, in the agenda for the next OBPAC meeting there is a pleasant kind of Easter egg.

On a summer 2023 ride (FB)

Ian Davidson, whom you will know from Salem Bike Vision and the Cherriots Board, is listed as the new Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager. (It's listed with "pedestrian" first, and perhaps this is not an accident. But historically it has been "bicycle" first.)

OBPAC agenda for this month

ODOT had announced the recruitment in May, and it's good to see it filled.

Interestingly, Davidson seems to have more of a background as administrator in government, and not a background as engineer or planner, like previous occupants of the position. This may be significant for ODOT upper management and the way they see the job.

Until Jessica Horning maintained a base in Portland, first Michael Ronkin and then Sheila Lyons maintained a base in Salem, and hopefully this will return with Davidson. Portland might be the leading bike city in Oregon, but Salem needs all the help it can get, and other cities, except perhaps those with large universities, have problems more similar to Salem's than to Portland's.

At the same time, institutionally ODOT has ensured that OBPAC and the programming associated with it remained very marginal. They have input on statewide project funding in the tens of millions of dollars per year, but little input on larger projects. Freight interests and cars always are primary. Getting incrementally larger tiny slices of the pie is nice, but these remain tiny slices. There are larger structural and institutional changes that need to be made at ODOT and even the OTC in order to make the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program something more than signalling and amenity on the margins.

It's the cars, driving, and their speeds that need adjustment.

There are other issues, too. 

Ebikes and scorching is an increasing problem.

It will be interesting to see if focus at ODOT shifts to protected bike lanes or to sidewalkification and multi-use paths.

And there is ODOT's appetite for more funding for mega-projects and how better funding for walking and rolling will fit into any new Legislative program in 2025.

All in all it's a moment with challenge and with opportunity.

Congratulations to Davidson, and Good Luck!

In 1924 AAA Reframes Safety for Motorist Innocence, with Kids as Intruders on Road

Yesterday the Smithsonian magazine published a note on a terrible anniversary, "On This Day in 1899, a Car Fatally Struck a Pedestrian for the First Time in American History."

via Bluesky

It surveyed a little of the history, and cited Peter Norton's research prominently.

As the popularity of cars exploded, officials charged with keeping order in cities stood firm in their view that pedestrian safety was the responsibility of the motorist, much like it was with carriage drivers.

“Every time, the judge would say, ‘A pedestrian has no obligation to watch out for motor vehicles; it’s the motor vehicle operator’s responsibility to watch out for them,’” Norton explains. “This is Anglo-American common law tradition that says the street is a public space. Everybody’s entitled to use it, provided they don’t endanger others or unduly inconvenience others. [That] put the burden of responsibility on the driver, because the pedestrian is not endangering anyone else, but the driver is.”

Here's an example from a Salem editorial in 1914. It sides with people on foot.

July 6th, 1914

The piece at the Smithsonian discussed the 1920s rise of AAA, the invention of jaywalking, and the process to shift blame from drivers to other users of the road.

An early example of the shift is visible right here. Exactly 100 years ago on September 14th, the morning paper printed a piece from AAA about the menace to motorists from children bicycling. Motorists were the primary group imperiled, "often innocently involved in unfortunate fatalities," not the kids. Kids were endangering the motorists, were even the aggressors, and were to blame for being kids.

September 14th, 1924

Latest Version of Cannery Project Retreats from Walkability, but may offer More Housing

The City's now published a formal Notice for a Public Hearing on the former Truitt Bros. site. It will be before the Hearings Officer on September 25th.

We've already mentioned the big style shift for a mansard roof detail echoing the mansard roofs of the long-gone 19th century mill buildings just to the south.

That's essentially a decorative detail for a bit of historical context.

Last year's renderings with plaza/walk
and retained 1914 building (2023)

A more structural element is the way what had been represented as a central plaza and walk (above) is now a parking lot with a smaller path alignment (below).

New plan. Building 5 = 1914 structure
The courtyard/walk is now a parking lot

That really shifts the project from something centered on walking to something much more autoist. There's still a line on the map for a path, but it is more peripheral now.

Latest overall site plan = tiny path, lots of parking

The retreat from a pedestrianized plaza not a reason to oppose the project, but it is a reminder not to get too attached to the first concept drawings and the hype around walkability. This is going to be a much more autoist project.

At No. 7 a parking garage previously (2023)

One reason for the change might be that the third building is housing now instead of a parking garage. (The two images flip north from right to left.) It might be that the total number of parking stalls is less and the total amount of housing is more. That would be a good change!

Additionally, even if the project wins approvals now, the applicant does not yet own the property, a design for Front Street is not settled, and the details for it in the 2024 drawing remain speculative.

Note also that these latest drawings do include trees. On FB a person objected that the elevations showing the new mansard roof did not include trees, but the site plan does show numerous trees in the landscaping.

Once the Staff Report and applicant narrative is published there might be more to say. But with ownership not yet transferred and with a new design for Front Street a few years away (not to mention funding for it, which will not be small), it's hard to project this as a near-term project and it seems unwise to get very attached to any details.

See previous notes on the Truitt Bros. site and cannery here.

A Crooked Secretary of State, a Steamboat Magnate, and a House Move: 757 Center Street's Early Story

You'll recall a few days ago a note about the mystery and demolition of the old house at 757 Center Street. It turns out to have a very interesting history. While it was very possibly too shabby and too modified to restore, it deserved a better fate than silent demolition. Its early residents had real places in Salem history, and it might have been the last real vestige of the Piety Hill neighborhood.

757 Center Street from the west in 1978
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

The Bitsman had in fact written about the house, but because the OCR generated "T57 Center street," it never turned up in searches on the address. But it was nice to find finally, as it confirmed the outlines of what had seemed most likely.

The house was Samuel May's
Oregon's Second Secretary of State
(January 24th, 1933)

He wrote:

Samuel May was prominent in Oregon politics. He served as secretary of state two terms, from 1862 to 1870. The May home was a leading social center of old Salem, in the two story house that still stands, in excellent repair, at 757 Center street.

Samuel E May (OHS)

May is not very well known. Newspaper scanning is spotty from the period. The google also turns up a German wikipedia note, but no English one!

City Council, September 9th - McGilchrist Culverts

At Council this evening, there is an application "for U.S Department of Transportation funding to design and construct the Replacement of Railroad and McGilchrist Street SE Culverts on the West Fork of Pringle Creek."

Two culvert upgrades at McGilchrist

Staff say

the West Fork of Pringle Creek regularly overtops McGilchrist Street SE and floods undeveloped property located to the northeast, prompting road closures as often as four or five times a year. The proposed project includes design and replacement of the culverts at the railroad crossing on McGilchrist Street SE and existing railroad spur downstream. The improvements will meet fish-passage requirements, add flow capacity, and provide flood mitigation. The total estimated project cost is $4 million.

This is a resubmission:

The City unsuccessfully applied for this same grant in FY 2023. The application was strong in four of the seven criteria, reaching a Level 2 review. Staff attended a debrief with the U.S. Department of Transportation review team and they indicated that the application would have been more competitive if the local habitat was more demonstrably tied into the larger/regional program. For the FY 2024 application staff will enhance the narrative based on local habitat as it applies to efforts to improve the Salem area watershed, conservation benefits to anadromous fish, ecosystem benefits, and equity.

About some new code for housing production and a formal Public Hearing there has not seemed much to say. Both the Planning Commission and Historic Landmarks Commission endorsed the changes, but a few neighborhood associations have complained. Significantly, the HLC did not agree with the criticism from the neighborhood associations, which included comments on historic review processes.

Climate Committee takes September off, Scenario Planning shares Outreach

As we come out of the latest heat wave with wildfires and smoky air, last week the NY Times had a piece about "how climate change is reshaping daily life in ways Americans may not realize."

Yesterday

Its particular focus was on the ways extreme weather accelerated bridge ageing, leading to decay or collapse.

NY Times, last week

Last month they had a piece on extreme heat and medicine.

NY Times, August 2024

Here, the Oregonian wrote about our Kelp forests along the coast.

A Mansard Roof for the Cannery Project and other Infill Bits

Yesterday's announcement about removing a skybridge over Front Street at the old Truitt Bros. cannery complex suggested that the redevelopment project was moving along and worth checking on.

Indeed the file is thick and it's met some "completeness" milestones.

A Mansard roof for the main building

Maybe the most striking element is the Mansard roof proposed for the main building.

Capitol Flour Mill as design cue
(Detail, Salem Library Historic Photos)

The designers are clearly nodding to the long-gone flour mill buildings a block south on Front Street, just across the creek. Even the building height is about the same.

• See "North Front Street Study Likely to Reveal Interesting Archeology and History"
  

Other than what is a kind of post-modern rhyme with decorative detail, in basic form it looks like pretty standard 5-over-1 construction, five floors over a podium.

There will be more to say as the project moves along! The timeline is still hard to see with the question of reconfiguring Front Street. Even with the Federal grant to fund the study, actual construction remains a little distant. Probably we should not get too attached to any particular design details just yet.

An urban mode greeting the sidewalk,
but a flood-prone site

Separately, there's a small apartment block proposed for a long vacant lot on State Street. The homes are in front, and parking is in back, and that looks good. It might be the first new project on State Street after the corridor study with new zoning and an improved street design. But it's right at the diversion dam for the Mill Race, and in years like 1996 and 2012 it's flooded significantly. It will be interesting to learn more about what provisions are being made for flooding.

Also, just north of the Police Station and across the street from Grocery Outlet there are two mixed use buildings proposed for a different long vacant lot. 

These are nice to see and maybe there will be more to say later on these also.

Labor Day in 1924 brought a Restaurant Strike to a Close

The White House Restaurant, c.1913
In the Adolph Block on State Street
the former location of Cooke's Stationery
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

Back in the spring of 1924, restaurant workers at the White House Restaurant decided to strike. The morning paper said it was for an eight hour work day and six day work week.

May 22nd, 1924

The afternoon paper saw the strike as part of a larger union organizing effort, not only for closed shops at restaurants, but for other industries also.

May 22nd, 1924

It's hard to say exactly what was going on. The papers here were biased against unions and the coverage sometimes minimized the scope of efforts and sometimes exaggerated the threat from "agitators."

Oregon Labor Press, May 30th

The Oregon Labor Press had a longer piece, discussing underage child labor and lack of bathrooms and dressing rooms. They also highlighted that some restaurants here were "fair" and "100% union": The Coffee Shop, Valley Grill, and Stage Terminal restaurant.

The unfair restaurants were Grey Belle, Electric, Spa, Argo, Jack's Place, Home, and the White House. 

To that list the Statesman added as opposing the union effort, the Oyster Loaf, Royal Cafeteria.