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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Samuel E May, sitting on far left Gov. Reed, sitting next to him Cyrus A. Reed, Adj. General, top left standing (See record for full caption c.1866, State Library of Oregon) |
And perhaps there's an additional reason little is conveniently available on May. He might have been a crook! He was certainly a real jerk. Perhaps because he had descendants still here and part of Salem society, narrative about him is brief and scrubbed. About Jessie Applegate, the Oregon Encyclopedia says,
At the Republican State Conventions in 1862 and 1864, Applegate nominated his friend Samuel E. May for Oregon secretary of state. After May was elected, Applegate signed the performance bonds for May for both terms of office; states often required such bonds for any officer who handled money, since the bond signer guaranteed that the officeholder was honest and the bond signer stood for the bonded individual.
In 1871, an investigation revealed that May had embezzled more than $12,000 during his terms. He was tried in criminal court and found not guilty. Civil action was brought against him, but by then he had left the state and was declared insolvent. After lengthy court proceedings, Applegate, as bond signer, was found liable for a large portion of the defaulted debt. He owed the state $5,793, and in the fall of 1874 all of Applegate’s land and his home were confiscated to cover the loss.
Asa A. McCully is the first name that really turns up on the property. He appears to have purchased it from the State, who had perhaps seized it from May after he left office.
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| May 10th, 1871 and 1871 Salem Directory |
The house was built earlier than 1873, then, and it was on the corner of Center and Winter. The 1895 Sanborn map shows its disposition on the lot.
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| NW Corner Center and Winter 1895 Sanborn, Library of Congress |
In a piece with a section on Piety Hill, the paper said
Among the private residences on the "Hill," deserving of special mention is that of A. A. McCully, and a beautiful home it is, with surroundings indicative of wealth and good taste.
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| May 25th, 1877 |
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| Asa A. McCully (Eugene Masonic Lodge No. 11) |
Asa A. McCully was an important Salemite and Oregonian. He was president of a large steamboat company, a merchant, and active in politics and business.
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| People's Transportation Co. ad |
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| August 30th, 1871 |
In 1871 railroad interests bought the steamboat company as transportation technology shifted.
You will recognize the name McCully from the Starkey-McCully block on Commercial Street downtown. His brother David McCully, whose house was saved and moved to John Street, seems to have been the principal merchant, but Asa was involved in the business also.
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| August 3rd, 1877 |
He even had a steamboat named after him! He was a City Councilor and a bank vice-president, also.
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| June 19th, 1886 |
He died in 1886 after a horse kicked him on his Yamhill County farm. The news was full of sensational details on the kicking, but not so much on his significance. (The piece is transcribed in full at the Lodge No. 11 site.)
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| June 14th, 1889 |
Probably as a matter of settling the estate, the house was sold, and a few years after his death it was associated with "the Hon. W. H. Holmes," a prominent Salem attorney. He had clerked at the Oregon Supreme Court.
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| November 9th, 1902 |
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| September 13th, 1927 |
But this house on the corner lot is not in the current site of 757 Center Street!
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| 1895 (top) to 1926 Sanborn (bottom) maps |
It's an instance of infill. At some point, and the best I am able to guess is c.1910, the house was
moved on the lot, and also rotated 90 degrees, in order to facilitate a
subdivision into five total lots. This might correlate with Holmes' move to Portland, as at least one son who stayed in Salem built a new house on Fairmount hill, the new fashionable neighborhood.
At the time of the 1926 map, the house was a sorority for Willamette University.
I am not sure that it is very interesting to try to trace any further chain of ownership and association.
But the first three owners who take the house up to the early 1900s were prominent and powerful Salemites. There is surely more to say about their influence on Salem politics, Salem development, and even historic preservation, and we may follow up on bits here and there later.
1 comment:
Here are a couple of footnotes.
- More on the People's Transportation Company.
- And on Frederick Steiwer, US Senator, and grandson of Samuel May. That's certainly part of why people weren't talking explicitly about May's crookedness!
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