Historic Downtown Salem #48: Eckerlan Building

145-147 Liberty Street NE

Eckerlan Building on September 4, 2006

This building was built by contractor Christopher Paulus for brothers Charles A. Gray, George B. Gray and William T. Gray in 1894, three years after the construction of their larger Gray Building immediately to the south. In the late 1880s, Charles A. Gray was superintendent of the Salem Street Railway Company, George B. Gray was a realtor, and William T. Gray was a capitalist. Charles and George Gray later operated a hardware business in the Gray Building at the corner of Liberty and State Streets, and William Gray worked as a general contractor. All three Gray brothers left Salem around 1907.

This building was owned by Gertrude G. Lownsdale from 1907 to 1909, and was purchased by Eugene Eckerlan in May 1909. The building was addd to in the 1910s. Eckerlan operated a saloon in the 100 block of Commercial Street, and rented out the space in this building to other Salem merchants. By the early 1920s, Eugene and Alice Eckerlan no longer operated the saloon and pursued farming until Eckerlan’s death in 1933. This building then passed to Eugene Eckerlan, Jr. and his wife Virginia Eckerlan.

The building was remodeled in 1936 for use as Bishop’s Men’s and Boys Wear, which moved here from Commercial Street and remained here until the mid-1960s when the store moved to Center Street. The second floor housed Neil K. McCue's Capitol Business School.

Charles P. Bishop was born in Contra Costa, California, in 1854 and came to Oregon with his parents in 1856, growing up on a Linn County farm. He came to Salem in 1889 where, as Thomas Kay's son-in-law, he helped build and operate the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill. In 1891, Bishop bought the Salem Woolen Mills Store that evolved into Bishop’s men’s furnishings store. Bishop served as mayor of Salem from 1899 to 1906, as an Oregon state senator from 1915 to 1918, and as a trustee of Willamette University for three decades. Between 1909 and 1920, Bishop and his sons Clarence, Roy, and Chauncey, purchased three woolen mills: the Oregon Worsted Company in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, the Washougal Woolen Mill in Washougal, Washington, and the Eureka Woolen Mills in Eureka, California. Charles Bishop died in 1941 at the age of 87. His family now owns Pendleton Woolen Mills.

This building suffered a fire in 1999, which destroyed part of the interior, one bay of windows and a third of the metal cornice. Following the fire, a major exterior renovation in 2000 recovered the second-floor windows and come architectural details that had been obscured.

Historical Photos:
Eckerlan Building, March 10, 1967 (Salem Public Library)

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