Historic Downtown Salem #31: Enright-Halik Building & Steeves Building

339-347 Court Street NE

Enright-Halik Building & Steeves Building on September 4, 2006.

Olive Stanton England acquired these properties in 1899. Originally a one-story building stood at 337 Court Street. In 1905, she and her husband John F. Enright operated a tailor shop in their newly-constructed building (pictured on the left) and lived upstairs. Olive and John Enright remained in Salem until the mid-1910s, when they moved to Portland. In 1924, they sold these two properties to Frank E. and Emma Halik and Alvin and Minnie Stewart. Frank Halik came to Salem in 1918 and opened the Halik Electric Company, with himself as president and his wife Emma as vice president. In 1924 Halik partnered with A.C. Eoff to open the Halik and Eoff Electric Shop at 337 Court Street. By 1928 the Halik Electric Company occupied the space alone. The Halik Electric Company remained in the Enright-Halik Building until 1932 or 1933. In 1936 Cherry City Cleaners occupied the first floor of the Enright-Halik Building with radio station KSCM on the second floor. Burroughs Electric moved into the first floor of the Enright-Halik Building around 1938. The Haliks moved to Portland around 1941 and Frank Halik died there in 1962.

In March 1929, the Haliks and Stewarts sold the property at 347 Court Street to Dr. Burpee Steeves. Steeves had the present building (pictured on the right) constructed later that year. Eoff Electric, Inc. was probably the first occupant of the ground floor of the Steeves Building. Dr. Steeves died in 1932, but his wife Sarah continued to own the building. In May 1936, the Court Street Dairy Lunch restaurant opened in the Steeves Building, operated by Glenn T. Morris. Later in 1936, the Steeves Building was purchased by Henry W. and Ellen Meyers, owners of a mercantile business in Salem. In 1946, the Steeves Building was sold to Herman A., Abbott A., and Ruth Feitelson. In 1977, the Steeves Building was purchased by K.G. and G.R. Morris, owners of the Court Street Dairy Lunch. At some point, the building was remodeled in a Spanish Mission style with facade of stucco and Spanish tile. The Court Street Dairy Lunch was owned and operated by three generations of the Morris family until 1994 and is still in business today. The interior is decorated with historic pictures of Salem.

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