Historic Downtown Salem #40: Moore Building & Skiff Block

409-429 Court Street NE

Moore Building & Skiff Block on September 4, 2006

The Queen Anne style building on the far right was built in 1895 and was likely first owned and used as a residence by John A. Darr, who owned the property from 1892 to 1898. Mark S. and Ada Velma Calvert Skiff purchased and remodeled it in 1903. Mark S. Skiff was born in Salem in 1865, the son of local dentist Lansing S. Skiff who pioneered the practice of dentistry in Oregon in the early 1860s and founded the Oregon State Dental Society. Mark apprenticed under his father and they practiced dentistry together under the business name of L. S. Skiff and Son by 1887. Mark reportedly set the first gold crown in Salem around 1890, and in 1926 was the fourth oldest dentist in continuous practice in Oregon. His offices at the time were in the Masonic Temple Building. The Skiff dental business was never located here. Soon after the Skiff’s remodeled, the ground floor was occupied by J. A. Norwood’s grocery store, which remained here for at least a decade, with the second floor used for offices. The building later housed a millinery shop in the 1920s, C. M. Roberts & Company Groceries and the Fashionette Clothing Store. The left hand side of the Skiff Block was built in 1906 and contained offices and shops, including Arthur H. Moore’s bicycle shop from 1912 to about 1924 and a business called Margaret's Shop at one point. This property remained in the Skiff family until the late 1980s.

The larger building on the far left is the Wallace & Mabel Moore Building, also known as the Royal Building. A two-story house originally stood on this site until as late as 1914. Wallace W. Moore and his wife Mabel A. Moore bought the property from Frank W. Durbin in early 1915, and built this building in 1916. Wallace Moore was born in Tennessee in 1871 and came to Salem from Kansas in 1910. He founded the Moore Furniture Company and acquired several properties in Salem over time. Wallace Moore died in 1937, four months after the death of his daughter, Dorothy Moore Long, in an automobile accident with her husband. In 1947, Mabel sold the property to their surviving daughter, Mabel Lucille Knapp, who owned it into the 1980s. The building is currently home to a florist.

Additional Links:
Ada & Mark Skiff Block at Salem Online History

Historical Photos:
Ada & Mark Skiff Block, 1904 (Salem Public Library)
Ada & Mark Skiff Block, 1930s (Salem Public Library)
Ada & Mark Skiff Block detail, March 1953 (Salem Public Library)

Continue to 41: H.L. Stiff Furniture Building…