Historic Downtown Salem #42: Adolph-Waters Building

176 Liberty Street NE

Adolph-Waters Building on September 9, 2006

This corner was originally occupied by a small one-story Chinese washhouse. In the mid-1880s, a two-story building was built here with two shop spaces and a meeting hall above. In April 1923, the property was purchased by Joseph and Lillie Adolph and George E. and Margaret Waters. The two-story building had been neglected by this time, and in January 1924 the Adolphs took out a mortgage on the property from the Ladd and Bush Bank for a new building, with construction taking place that year.

Joseph Adolph was born in 1882. He clerked at Rostein & Greenbaum groceries in the early 1900s before opening his own cigar store on Commercial Street around 1910. He and his brother Samuel expanded the business known as Adolph Brothers to include soft drinks and billiards, and by the mid-1930s they had joined Edward Rostein in a venture that eventually became the Salem Drug Company.

George E. Waters was born in Nebraska in 1869 and came to Salem with his parents in 1872. He opened a cigar store in Salem in 1891 and 15 years later was engaged in the wholesale tobacco business in his shop on State Street. He eventually expanded into wholesale candy as well.

The Adolph-Waters Building was never occupied by the businesses of Adolph or Waters. Water died in 1940 and Adolph died in 1942. The building passed to Margaret Waters and Joseph and Lillie Adolph’s sons Rex and Alden. The building was remodeled in the 1960s and again in the 1980s. Among the businesses that have called it home is Gay Blade Clothes for Men, which was located there in the late 1960s. Today it is a branch of the Washington Federal Savings Bank.

Historical Photos:
Adolph-Waters Building, 1968 (Salem Public Library)

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