Historic Downtown Salem, OR

I originally posted the Salem PLACES pages on my website on April 27, 2008, and last updated them on March 17, 2010.

Living in Salem, Oregon for two years, I amassed a lot of pictures of the city; so many that one page wasn't enough. I broke my Salem information into four parts. Part 1 featured Salem’s main historical sites. This is Part 2, featuring Salem's historic downtown.

I referred to many internet resources for this project, including the Oregon State Library Photograph Collection, the City of Salem, the Salem Historic Landmarks Commission, Salem Online History, the Salem Public Library's Oregon Historic Photograph Collections, Salem Historical Quarterly, the Salem Oregon Community Guide, the Salem Heritage Network, the Salem Historic Downtown Historic District Walking Tour by Virginia at Picasa Web Albums and American Classic Images. Other internet resources are linked throughout the pages. I also used a 1965-1966 copy of the Oregon Blue Book. Historical photographs and some graphics were photographed from interpretive displays at various locations in Salem. Most other graphics, including maps, are my own creations, though they may be based on maps from other sources.

Introduction

Salem's historic downtown area features buildings dating back as far as the 1860s. Most of downtown Salem's historic buildings are part of the Salem Downtown State Street-Commercial Street Historic District, however I have included on this page a few notable buildings just outside the boundary of the historic district. The Salem Downtown State Street-Commercial Street Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 28, 2001.

The above map shows the location of the inset below, which shows the Salem Downtown Historic District.

This map shows the Salem Downtown Historic District. The boundary of the district is indicated in red. I have numbered all of the locations, and have included a few buildings that are technically outside the boundary of the historic district, but still have some significance.

1: Burke Block
2: Umpqua Bank (Site of the Nesmith Building)
3: Salem Conference Center (Marion Hotel site)
4: 198 Commercial (Cox/Buren Building site)
5: Marion Car Rental & Park (Holman Building site)
6: Weber’s Bar & Scott’s Cycling
7: Ladd & Bush Bank
8: Anderson's Sports Building
9: Murphy Building
10: Pioneer Trust Bank
11: White & Sons Company Building
12: Catlin & Lynn Building
13: Meredith Building
14: Salvation Army Building
15: Smith & Wade Building
16: Catlin-Loose Building
17: Reuben P. Boise Building
18: Samuel A. Manning Building
19: D. A. White & Sons Warehouse
20: Durbin, Watkins-Dearborn & Alejandro’s Buildings
21: Capitol National Bank
22: Bush-Breyman Block
23: Bush & Brey Block & Annex
24: Breyman Brothers Block
25: Anderson Building
26: Starkey-McCully Block
27: South First National Bank Block
28: Eldridge-Greenbaum Building
29: England Block & England-Wade Building
30: Pearce Building
31: Enright-Halik Building & Steeves Building
32: New Breyman Building
33: Christopher Paulus Building
34: Kopper Kitchen & Offices
35: Steusloff Brothers Building
36: Electric Apartments & Yeater Building
37: Elfstrom & Eyre Department Store
38: First National Bank Building
39: Brewer Block
40: Moore Building & Skiff Block
41: H.L. Stiff Furniture Building
42: Adolph-Waters Building
43: Reed Opera House
44: McCornack Block Addition
45: Skiff Building
46: Hughes-Durbin Building
47: Engleberg Building
48: Eckerlan Building
49: Roth Company Building
50: McGilchrist Building
51: Bligh Hotel-Theater Site
52: Grey Belle Restaurant
53: Western Security Bank
54: Capitol Center
55: J.K. Gill Building & Adolph Block
56: Bayne Building
57: Farrar Building
58: Pomeroy Building
59: Gray Building
60: Quisenberry Pharmacy
61: Checks Cashed Building
62: Phoenix Grand Hotel (Salem Armory Site)
63: Crystal Garden Ballroom
64: Vick Building
65: J. Hughes New Salem Hotel
66: Elsinore Theater
67: Bligh Building
68: Capitol Theater Site
69: Hubbard Building
70: Kelly Services Building
71: Masonic Temple
72: Central Stage Terminal & Hotel
73: Odd Fellows Hall
74: Meyers & D’Arcy Buildings
75: T.G. Bligh Building
76: Arthur H. Moore Building

Salem Links:
City of Salem
Salem Historic Landmarks Commission
Salem Online History
Oregon Historic Photograph Collections
Salem Historical Quarterly
Salem Oregon Community Guide
Oregon Department of Transportation Highway - Geo-Environmental Section: Architecture
Marion County Historical Society
Discover-Neighborhood-History
Salem Heritage Network
Friends of Two Bridges in Salem, Oregon

Continue to 1: Burke Block…