Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Historic Downtown Salem #45: Skiff Building

155 Liberty Street NE

IMG_3218 Montgomery Ward Building in Salem, Oregon on September 4, 2006
Skiff Building on September 4, 2006

This site was originally the site of a number of small, single-story wood buildings. In the early 1860s, the property was purchased by Dr. Lansing S. Skiff, who pioneered the practice of dentistry in Oregon in the early 1860s and founded the Oregon State Dental Society. In 1867, Dr. Skiff and his wife Mary Gardner Skiff built a residence on the site set back from the street. In March 1885, Dr. Skiff had a brick building constructed a few feet from the house fronting on the street for his modern dental office, which included an operating room and laboratory. By 1887, Dr. Skiff’s son Mark S. Skiff, born in Salem in 1965, had apprenticed with his father and they were practicing dentistry together under the business name of L. S. Skiff and Son. Mark reportedly set the first gold crown in Salem around 1890, and in 1926 was the fourth oldest dentist in continuous practice in Oregon. By that time his dental offices were in the Masonic Temple Building on High Street.

IMG_5114 Montgomery Ward Building in Salem, Oregon on January 27, 2007
Skiff Building on January 27, 2007

In 1936, Mark S. Skiff and his wife Ada Velma Calvert Skiff entered into an agreement with Montgomery Ward to construct a department store building on the site. The Chicago-based company hired architect Robert A. Rowe to design the four-story Colonial Revival style building, which was completed in 1936 and was occupied by Montgomery Ward for the next several decades. More recently the building was the home of Gold's Gym.

IMG_8973 Montgomery Ward Building in Salem, Oregon on September 8, 2007
Skiff Building on September 8, 2007

A renovation completed in 2007 led to it being called the Salem Arts Building. It is now home to clothing store Madison Avenue and Awakenings Therapeutic Massage & Body Work, with 13 residential rental spaces on the upper floors.

IMG_8974 Montgomery Ward Building in Salem, Oregon on September 8, 2007
Skiff Building on September 8, 2007

Historical Photos:
Previous Storefronts, 1936 (Salem Public Library)
Montgomery Wards Building, 1939
(Salem Public Library)

IMG_8975 Montgomery Ward Building in Salem, Oregon on September 8, 2007
Skiff Building on September 8, 2007

Continue to 46: Hughes-Durbin Building

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