Historic Downtown Salem #30: Pearce Building

305-321 Court Street NE

Pearce Building on September 4, 2006.

Robert M. Wade came overland to Oregon in 1850 and founded R. M. Wade & Company in Salem in 1865, selling agricultural and household equipment. In 1869, Wade built this brick building at the corner of Commercial and Court. Wade & Company, commonly called “Wade’s,” later specialized in farm equipment, including iron tools and eventually tractors, and pioneered the use of sprinkler irrigation equipment called “Wade Rain.” George J. Pearce began working in Wade’s store as a clerk in 1871. The company was incorporated in 1885, and Pearce became president and treasurer of the firm. By the early 1890s, Wade & Company distributed its goods throughout the Pacific Northwest, and Wade established the company headquarters in Portland. In 1902, the Salem branch of R. M. Wade & Company became Wade, Pearce & Company. George Pearce retired as president of Wade, Pearce & Company in 1912, and the company was divided between its vice president, Ray L. Farmer, who began working for Wade around 1883, and its secretary, Lot L. Pearce, George’s younger brother who was also the company’s bookkeeper for many years. Farmer remained here in the corner location, operating the hardware portion of the business as the Ray L. Farmer Hardware Company, Lot Pearce operated the implement and machinery business three doors north on Commercial Street, as Lot L. Pearce & Sons.

In 1918, George Pearce’s daughters Helen and Dorothy acquired this building (along with the northern third of the England Block and the building constructed by Wade in 1889) from the Wade-Pearce Company. Dorothy Pearce graduated from Willamette University in the early 1900s. She became a musician, attending the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and also studying music in New York. She later maintained a music studio in Salem and taught music. She belonged to several local and national music clubs and organizations, and prior to her death in 1966, she served as an officer in the Salem district of the Oregon Music Teachers Association. Helen Pearce graduated from Willamette University in 1915. A student of English, she received her master’s degree from Radcliffe College in 1926 and her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1930. Helen was the first female graduate of Willamette University to receive a Ph.D., and she taught English at Willamette University from 1920 to 1955. Later in her career, she chaired Willamette’s English Department. She co-edited the first ten volumes of “Marion County History,” became the first Oregon woman to preside over Zonta International from 1938 to 1940, and was a charter member of the Salem branch of the American Association of University Women.

Pearce Building on September 8, 2007.

Ray L. Farmer died in 1934, but two of his sons, Clifford and Ivan continued operated the hardware business in this location until 1939, when the business moved to 123 South Commercial Street. In 1940, the Pearce sisters remodeled this building with a Modernistic style. In the early 1940's, this building was home to the Moderne Gift Shop and Modern Modes Women's Clothing with a dance school on the second floor. Helen Pearce died in 1978 and the Pearce family estate retained ownership of the building into the late 20th century.

Historical Photos:
September 10, 1883 (Salem Public Library)
Previous Building, 1890 (Salem Public Library)
July 4, 1892 (Salem Public Library)
July 4, 1902 (Salem Public Library)
Pearce Building & Commercial St., 1940 (Salem Public Library)
Pearce Building & Commercial St., 1943 (Salem Public Library)
October 23, 1961 (Salem Public Library)

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