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

Bicycle Week in 1924 and 2024

As with Bicycle Week in 1923, in 1924 it was limited. It had only a single day of promotion 100 years ago on April 29th.

April 29th, 1924

The morning paper offered a couple of brief advertorials for each to the two advertisers, Lloyd Ramsden and Harry Scott. The themes they hit, of course, are perennial: Modest exercise, much cheaper than a car (cheaper than a streetcar fare, also), freedom from a streetcar schedule.

(A much more dated theme is the preparatory manliness, the "man-making" element.)

Governor Geer, Commemorated by Geer Park, Died 100 Years Ago

Back in 2006 Council named Geer Park for the "pioneer Geer family."

Gov. T.T. Geer, 1899-1903
(State Library of Oregon)

This includes Ralph Carey Geer, whose farm has recently been operated as Geercrest, out on the end of Sunnyview Road at the t-intersection with Cascade Highway.

March 28th, 2006

Here we have a very special fondness for Governor T. T. Geer, nephew of Ralph. He rode a bicycle and signed the first bicycle path legislation in 1899.

• For more see "Geer Park: New Site for Pump Track offers Deep Cut of Local History" (2016)

Geer died 100 years ago today.

February 22nd, 1924

Mystery of the Observatory on Waldo and High in SCAN

With SCAN history at the Historic Landmarks Commission and in mind, one of the minor mysteries in SCAN has been the observatory at the corner of Waldo and High.

via Shineonsalem

In her history notes at Shineonsalem Virginia Green writes:

This observatory is in the rear of the former Hatfield home on Waldo Street. The Senator remembers it had been abandoned when his family moved into this house in the 1930s. Some say it was the hobby of a former tenant who had a bicycle shop downtown.

The observatory has been somewhat absorbed into the Hatfield story, but of course it has its own story independent of Hatfield. The time line doesn't line up exactly, also. But it is in outline right! And the story is even more interesting than any rumor or legend.

June 8th, 1926

Around 1929 Boliva "Buck" L. Bradley came to Salem and worked in insurance. He had two or three years earlier married the daughter of bike dealer Arthur H. Moore.

January 21st, 1932

Astronomy was a serious interest, and with real mechanical skills he built a large telescope.

December 16th, 1934

He hosted viewing parties at his home on Waldo and High.

Parade Photo may show Rough Riders on State Street in September of 1899

For a Veterans Day post, the Historic Landmarks Commission reposted this photo from the Library's historic photo collection.

"Military marching band" on State Street
(Salem Library Historic photos)

It was worth a closer look. A decade or so ago, we remarked here on some lady bicyclists in the background. Was there more?

Ladies on bike (detail)

In the foreground, it certainly does look like a "military marching band." Earlier I had thought a sign on a building might be a significant clue, but that is likely a red herring. It is interesting anyway!

Advertisement for Walter L. Main circus (detail)

In the back pasted onto a building wall is a large ad for the Walter L. Main circus. It appeared a few times in the late 1890s here.

Moore Building Celebrates 100 Years this Week

The building erected by early 20th century bike dealer and City Councilor Arthur H. Moore celebrates its centenary this week.

Moore Building on High Street (via Streetview)

September 1st, 1923

September 1st, 1923

Nine months earlier he'd purchased the lot(s) and a couple months later announced some design details. (The TG Bligh Building on the corner also went up at the same time, frequently linked in stories, and that might be for another time.)

Bicycle Week in 1923 Lower Energy than in Previous Years

Back in 1923, the first week of May was "Bicycle Week." This was the seventh edition of the annual trade celebration. In 1923 it also seemed a little tired.

Bike week ad, April 29th, 1923

Bicycle Week, April 29th, 1923

The paper had an article, but it was forced:

"Bicycle week" serves as the special period of the year when bicycle enthusiasts advance the many arguments in favor of wheeling for economy, health, pleasure, sport and general utility. The importance of of the bicycle as an independent form of individual transportation is undoubtedly appreciated now more than ever before. The average man or woman now has little or no time to waste for common conveyances such as street cars and railway trains. Much time is lost in waiting for a trolley car and when the car does come it is generally crowded. The natural desire is for some form of individual vehicle that adds to convenience, saves minutes, improves health and is generally useful seven days in the week. This is where the bicycle comes in. The bicycle is now more popular than ever before front the utility standpoint.

The trusty bicycle has always formed the cheapest vehicle of transportation. In this respect it is hardly likely that the bicycle will ever be supplanted by any other means of personal transportation. Authorities on the subject point out that even walking is expensive when compared with wheeling. Moreover, cycling is twice as easy as walking and three times taster. The bicycle will never pass out.

Cycling twice as easy as walking? 'Fraid not. Though it certainly is faster. (And is that that the bicycle will never pass out of fashion? Or that the bicycle will never pass out from exhaustion? That's a funny ambiguity.)

From Jessie Dalrymple to Mrs. Joseph H. Albert: A Cycle in Bicycling

Earlier this week the Mill posted that great cyanotype of the Fourth of July parade on Court Street in 1892. A strong candidate for one of the women cycling is Jessie Dalrymple. She seems to have biked mostly before marriage and not so much, if at all, afterwards. It's hard to disentangle gender and class, however. Her story, as we can sketch it here, and perhaps later say more if new evidence comes to light, might really illuminate bicycling in Salem society during that first great bike boom of the 1890s.

Myra Albert Wiggins (l) and Jessie Dalrymple (r)
at Myra's wedding (detail)

We've actually seen Jessie before, at Myra Albert Wiggins' wedding in 1894. 

Myra and Fred Wiggins had met bicycling. With Otto J. Wilson and Myra's brother, Joseph, at least five people in the wedding party are known to have biked. Others are possible, even likely.

Joseph Albert, as we saw yesterday, was son of an important banker and later a banker himself.

Albert-Wiggins Wedding, Nov 24th, 1894
(Oregon State Library)

Jessie had in fact married Joseph, a year after Myra's wedding, in 1895. (He's kneeling directly in front of Jessie.)

November 13th, 1942

January 3rd, 1939

Joseph was, at least for a while, a figure in Salem bicycling. An early bike club, the Chemeketa Bicycle Club, organized in May of 1887.

4th of July Bike Parade in 1892 Shows Women Biking

The Mill posted a very nice detail of a cyanotype this morning. They didn't say much about it, however.

A child followed by two ladies

It has people bicycling! And not just men, but what looks like a child under a parasol and several women on bike also.

The full detail WHC 81.9.1.3 (1892)

The day after the evening paper published a story about the celebration in 1892.

July 5th, 1892

Included in the long order of parade was the Bicycle Club.

Some Bike History in Salem Reporter

It was nice to wake up this morning and read in Salem Reporter a piece by the late Sue Bell on some bicycle history in Salem!

It was interesting especially as something produced by a person who did not seem to have any great interest in bike transport. 

She led with an image of progress, a kind of "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" trope, the idea that kids growing up recapitulate the progress in transportation and independence we have made as a society:

Who hasn't, as a youngster, asked Santa for a bike all their own? It's almost a rite of passage into independence that young people learn to ride a bicycle.

In this reading bikes and bicycling are an inferior stage, and full adults move past it.

Consequently, a focus in the piece was municipal effort to regulate scorching and bad bicyclist behavior. Immaturity is aligned with bike use, on this view. She cites the Statesman criticizing

outrageous behavior around town and their lack of courtesy in cursing within the hearing of young women attracted to their antics.

And then shifts to the exceptional feats of long-range bike trips, and not on changes in city transport.

In the end, the piece is entertaining as a cabinet of curiosities, but does not really help us place the bicycle in Salem history. And maybe it doesn't need to.

Still, there is so much more, and the piece's omission of the first bike bill in 1899 for a statewide system of side paths has to be at the top. It was not a success, but at the time it was a big deal.

February 21st, 1899

If you are interested in more:

• Part of a series on Harry Scott, whose shop is still open today, "100 Years Ago Today: Harry Scott Reopens Around the Corner at 147 South Commercial Street" (2019)
• Ben Taylor appears in the Salem Reporter piece, and here's more on him: "The Story of Salem's First Bicycle: Ben Taylor talks with Fred Lockley." (2013) The building he's in front of has been misidentified persistently, and here's more on that: "Smith's Brick, not Nesmith Building, was Home of the WCTU Ramp Memorial Hall." (2020)
  
• A note on nostalgia and the way bike history gets framed, "A Slightly Cranky Note about Romancing the Penny Farthing." (2016) And on that trope of progress, "The Narrative of Autoist Triumphalism and a Family History." (2015)
  
• Maybe best overview here, "Geer Park: New Site for Pump Track offers Deep Cut of Local History." (2016) And more on the end of that bike bill and thoughts on contemporary politics, "Pedaling Licenses: Repealed in 1913, but Will the Legislature try Again?" (2013)
  
• A little on the way scorching was gendered, "Some Thoughts on Scorching." (2015)
• A couple pieces on bike dealer, and City Councilor, Arthur H. Moore, whose shop site and apartment building still is on High Street across from the transit center. "Arthur Moore Building Built by Bikes" and "More on Arthur Moore! A 1948 Profile." (2013)
• On an important bike dealer, then car dealer, and mayor and legislator, "Santiam Bicycle's Building in Transportation History: The Story of Otto J. Wilson." (2012)
• On Paul Hauser and Watt Shipp, two more important bike dealers, "Early Bike Dealers Hauser and Shipp Remind us of a Better Downtown." (2012)
• And before he was Governor, a glimpse of urban transport in "Oswald West Bikes to Depot, Apprehends Forger." (2019) 
• And, lastly, though I have some quibbles with Bell's bike history here, an appreciation for her when she passed away in 2019.
  

Break the Annual Cycles of Bike Month

The all-hours vignettes in the Bike Week ad of 1922 are very cute, but with Bike Month in 2022, and with ever increasing urgency on climate, it is clear we need to think more about "Drive Less" and "Don't Drive." Bike promotion itself has proven insufficient. It's time to break that annual cycle.

Bike Week in 1922

The ad in 1922 is a little breathless but basically is true and accurate. Bike travel is merry.

"Ride a Bicycle!" The sum total of economical, zestful transportation, of health-building, muscle-developing, and merry-making in the wonderful outdoor world, where Nature welcomes you as one of her own and makes you glad to be alive!

"At all times ride a bicycle"
Bike Week, May 1st, 1922

Contemporary studies echo this. Here's one from 2019.

Why the happiest? Let us tell you.

Salem doesn't seem to have much going on for Bike Month, but in cities nearby here are a few interesting events. Perhaps others will surface.

• The City of Eugene is hosting an eBike Expo on May 6th. Update: Postponed to May 20th.
  
• Albany Tweed Ride, May 14th at 10am. Followed by Vintage Bicycle Show.
• Keizer skills ride for kids, May 14th 
• Salem Bicycle Club hosts the local Ride of Silence, May 18th

It would be nice to have more enthusiasm here in Salem for Bike Month, but it is clear that we will not reach our goals for improved bicycling and numbers of bicycle trips until we get more serious about reducing our subsidies and incentives for cars and car travel. No amount of cheery contests, bicycular amusement and bike culture, advertising and educational programming will sustain a shift to bikes until we quit artificially propping up cars.

Bike Shops Advertise Motorcycles during Bicycle Week in 1921

Probably margins were higher on motorcycles than bicycles, and clearly there was coop advertising available for motorcycles also, but it is interesting nonetheless that for National Bicycle Week in 1921, the Salem bike shops didn't run any promotions, and focused on the motorcycle trade instead.

April 30th, 1921

No ad in Salem this year
The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer
Bridgeport, CT
April 30th, 1921

Scott's had been selling both motorcycles and bicycles during the 19-teens for several years, so it was not some new line of business. But the emphasis was new.

March 19th, 1921

Later in the summer they did run a big subscription drive and contest for a Harley bicycle with the morning paper.

Sunday History Column features the Sroat & Wilson Salem Cyclery

It was nice to wake up to see some bike history in the paper today.

Salem Cyclery in the Sunday Paper

We've written about Otto J. Wilson many times (Paul Sroat has been more elusive) and in more detail - with more pictures! - than is possible for a brief history column. If you'd like more see here:

• After the partnership of Sroat & Wilson dissolved, and Wilson sold bikes on his own for a little while, he had very significant Buick dealership where Santiam Bikes is now. "Santiam Bicycle's Building in Transportation History: The Story of Otto J. Wilson" and "With Marion Car Park's Demolition, let's Revisit Otto J. Wilson's Garage." Here is more also on the cluster of car dealerships at the intersection, "Soil Contamination and Monitoring Wells Point to History of UGM Site."
• As the piece mentions, Otto J. Wilson was in the orbit of Myra Albert Wiggins, attended her wedding, and her husband, Fred, sold bikes for a while. "Myra Albert Wiggins Shoots Home and Flood in 1890" and "Show on Photo-Secessionist Myra Albert Wiggins Opens this Weekend."
• Here's a piece on the furniture store in the photo and the way until recently it has been often misidentified, "Address Change of 1904 and the Spaghetti Warehouse Move." It has a cyan reproduction of the image, and this post on the Columbia brand has a close-up of the storefront, "Belle Epoque Bike Bits."
• Watt Shipp and Paul Hauser had a shop in the brick storefront that replaced the wood-framed "cyclery" building. For more on the buildings where the parking lot just south of the Bike Peddler is today: "Early Bike Dealers Hauser and Shipp Remind us of a Better Downtown," "Staff Recommends Approval for Remodel on old Alessandro's Building Downtown" and the fabulous 360 panorama of the 1913 Moose Carnival, "The 360 Panorama at Fox Blue is Spectacular."
  
• A little later, like Otto J. Wilson, Watt Shipp moved to cars, and was part of the original partnership of the Valley Motor Company, "Vick Bros Sell to Watt Shipp et. al., who form Valley Motor Company."
• And in an earlier phase of bicycling, Ben Taylor, "The Story of Salem's First Bicycle: Ben Taylor talks with Fred Lockley," pictured a few times in front of what we now know is Smith's Brick.
  

And here's Wilson in a two-page booster spread when he was mayor from a century ago.

In 1920 Otto J. Wilson was mayor, Feb. 28th, 1920

Ads for National Bike Week in 1920 Criticize Streetcars, not Automobiles

With groups rides gone and in-person contact greatly reduced, Bike Month this year is mostly virtual.

Marketing to adults - May 6th, 1920

In 1920, National Bicycle Week rolled out the advertising at the beginning of May, and in many ways streetcar transit was the foil.

Changes to Bike Month in 2020

In the shadow of the Pandemic, National Bike Month this year has to accommodate physical distancing measures. Several things in May are changed or postponed. Its national sponsors say

Most years, National Bike Month centers on biking to work and riding with a friend to a local coffee shop to get them back on a bike. In 2020, we’re doing National Bike Month a little differently. This May, the League encourages everyone to get on a bike, go for a ride, and share the joy online together. For the 31 days in May, #BikesUnite us.

Closer to home, the Street Trust postponed the Bike More Challenge to June.

Though May is traditionally National Bike Month, due the unprecedented events caused by the Covid-19 virus, Bike More Challenge is being moved to June.

After cancelling in 2019, Cherriots was going to hold Open Streets Salem this May, but through the Winter and into Spring, they made no announcement and clearly the project was delayed. Now, with C19, it is obviously on hiatus and it seems unlikely it will come together this year at all. Demand has seemed slack, there haven't been many calls for it, and the event does not seem to have found its footing yet here.

Even in Portland, where it has not been on hiatus, "stay home" and distancing requirements have prompted them to "reimagine" Sunday Parkways for May and June, and they will determine whether July's can proceed as usual. Things are in flux.

Bicycle Week in 1920 - Remembering the Flu

The campaign in 1920 had its own tensions, not quite pandemic-level yet still remembering influenza, and post-war society was complicated and in transition also.

Local advertising promoted bikes for kids much of the time.

Walk and Roll to School Day is Wednesday, October 2nd

Walk + Roll to School Day is Wednesday the 2nd.

If you have school age children, it's not too late to register. See the Oregon Safe Routes site and Street Trust for more information.

A back to school ad for a high-end bike on a credit plan
School also started later because of harvest
(September 27th, 1919)

With Safe Routes to School having a part-time staff presence in Salem now for a year and a half, and as they won a grant and start planning to implement a full-time staffer devoted to schools, it is interesting to see a little bit of growth in schools participating in the day.

Anderson Sporting Goods Started 100 Years Ago

100 years ago a business many Salemites will remember started at 126 South Commercial Street.

Anderson Sporting Goods had its beginning when William E. Anderson was founding partner in a firm that purchased the Watt Shipp Company, at that time located in 126 South Commercial Street.

Commercial Street looking south from State Street circa 1910-15
Hauser Bros in 126 S. Commercial, two doors down from bank
(University of Oregon Library, click through to enlarge)

Before Ladd & Bush expanded in the 1960s rebuild, there was a continuous line of buildings on the east side of Commercial Street between Ferry and State Streets. Former partners Paul Hauser and Watt Shipp at different times had separate sporting goods stores in one of the storefronts at 126 South Commercial Street, two doors down from the corner bank entry.

Another view, this time with Hauser Bros only one door down
and the RH Hunter Electrical Supply
 in 126 S. Commercial (far right)
(Salem Library Historic Photos, and similar here)

Other storefronts on this block face had sporting goods stores, too. Hauser Bros used the storefront one door down also.*

Watt Shipp sells to what became Anderson Sporting Goods
(August 30th, 1919)

At any rate, in the late summer of 1919 Watt Shipp was at 126 South Commercial, and William Anderson, who had been I believe one of Shipp's employees, was a partner in buying him out as he moved into auto sales at the Valley Motor Company.

The Big Church in Grant, Scott Obituary - Newsbits

The SJ usually publishes things online in advance of the stories hitting print - "digital first," goes the slogan. This morning there is a fascinating piece in the paper, but not yet online.

It's a long piece on the property Salem Alliance Church owns and has recently purchased in the Grant neighborhood.

It touches on church's stated purpose of managing parking, but it also indirectly looks at the property as an investment strategy, at gentrification and potentials for displacement, at the scope of property off the tax rolls and the loss of revenue to the City and other entities, and just so many other themes. It was prompted, obviously, by the debate over the temporary Library site.

(The church is also landlord for the bike shop Northwest Hub.)

We need more of this kind of story. The swaths of property owned by institutions or large private entities and the interests of their owners together profoundly shape neighborhoods and the whole of the city. These are forces that direct policy, but which rarely do so in overt, explicit ways. They operate silently, in back rooms, unspoken. These are subterranean currents that too often are invisible, and the citizens then wonder why things are the way they are.

It's a great article, and you should read it.

Also in the paper is a note about a life well lived.

David Scott was the son of Harry Scott, whom we know as the founder and namesake of Scott's Cycle.

Here's a "bouncy motorcycle sidecar"
(March 19th, 1921)

Godspeed.

Postscript, August 19th

The piece is published online today, and it's worth reading in full.

Here's another clip that really dovetails with Susann's comment below. What is the emphasis on housing for cars relative to housing for people? Tying "servanthood" to parking seems like it might be a kind of of idolatry and is something that deserves more thought. And why is pointing out that "the streets were for public parking" a bad thing?

I know the church has the clinic and does things for and serves people in need. But the way we treat parking elevates it way too high, and our rhetoric and attitudes are distorted. We need a different moral framework around mobility.

This is a problematic notion of "servanthood," isn't it?

Belle Epoque Bike Bits - Filler Friday

While the national headlines are bonkers, there's not a whole lot of local transportation news or city things. Here's some filler.

The Harvard Library recently released a new interface for their digital collections, and if you have a personal or professional interest, it might be worth checking out. I searched for vintage bicycles and for Salem.

Columbia-Pope Catalogue, 1895 (Harvard Library)

Here's a glorious front cover for a Columbia Bicycles catalogue from 1895.  The interior pages are great, also.

Interior, model 41 (Harvard Library)

Oswald West Bikes to Depot, Apprehends Forger

Note leaning bikes, 1891 (Salem Library Historic Photos)

January 29th, 1895

Incidental to some other research, came across an amusing anecdote about Oswald West in 1895 when he was working at Ladd & Bush, much before he was Governor. At this time bikes were high-status, leading-edge transportation technology.

Another Forger Caught

Was Leaving the City With His Coin When Arrested

This afternoon, about 1:15, a tall, smooth-faced young man, wearing a dark brown overcoat and a black crush hat, walked into Bush's bank and presented a check for some $80, signed by Leo Willis. Cashier Oswald West questioned the man before cashing the check, but the forger seemed honest, replying that West could look up the signature if he desired.

The check was cashed, but no sooner had the forger passed out the door when West ran straight for Leo Willis' office [probably in the Reed Opera House], where he learned that it was a forgery. Hastening back to the bank he met Andy Coss, whose services he secured, and they went immediately to the depot on their bicycles, arriving just before the train reached the depot.

West pointed out the forger to Coss just as he was going aboard the train and they both seized the man. He offered considerable resistance at first, but was soon under control and marched to the county jail. Upon being searched, $2[hundred something] was found on his person, $255 of which was gold. Besides this amount he had eight checks already made out and endorsed by Salem business men but had not signed them. He also had the signatures of a number of Salem gentlemen, among whom were Father White and Ben Hayden....[text is increasingly garbled]

Old Depot from 12th/13th side, circa 1889
(Salem Library Historic Photos, misdated to 1920,
but clearly related to this image labeled 1889.
See also this image and this image
with baggage end we see today fully restored.)

Vick Bros Sell to Watt Shipp et. al., who form Valley Motor Company

In the Bicycle Week ad for 1919 we saw Watt Shipp's name among the other bike dealers in Salem. Shipp had built a general sporting goods business and diversified into blasting powder.

April 23rd, 1919

In 1919 Shipp made another move. Like Otto J. Wilson a decade earlier, Shipp decided to sell automobiles.

In April the Vick Bros decided to focus on tractor sales and this required a move to Portland. They sold their Ford dealership on High Street to a partnership that included Watt Shipp. The new dealership's name was Valley Motor Co.