Douglas McKay 395 Jerris Street (D) SCAN

In 1929, Douglas McKay, his wife Mabel and daughters Shirley and Marylou, moved to this house on Jerris Street. Mr. McKay, a veteran of World War I, had moved to Salem in 1926 and founded a Chevrolet auto dealership. In 1941, Mabel McKay and the landscape gardening firm of Lord and Schryver created a garden there. It would be the family’s only home in Salem.
 A natural-born politician, McKay was Salem mayor 1933 to 1934,  elected as state Senator 1935 to 1949 and became governor in 1950. President Eisenhower appointed McKay as Secretary of the Interior in 1952. After returning from Washington, D.C. in 1956, this continued to be the McKay home until his death in 1959 and Mabel's death in 1969. A biography of Douglas McKay was published in the Salemhistory website.

Elsinore Theater, 170 High Street SE, (NR)

The Elsinore Theater was built by George Guthrie at a cost of $250,000 and opened on May 28, 1926 (see photograph) with the silent film, “The Volga Boatman” by Cecil B. DeMille. The Elsinore was designed by architect Ellis Lawrence for both stage and film, and movies were often combined with vaudeville. The theater was damaged by the Columbus Day storm of 1962. Community donations funded a renovation in 2004 that restored its Tudor Gothic ornamentation. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(CAN-DO)

Livesley Building, 388 State Street, (NR)

The 1926 First National Bank, Capitol Tower is Salem's only skyscraper at 11 stories tall. This building was financed by Thomas A. Livesley, a leading hop grower as well as a Salem politician and entrepreneur. Elaborate ornamentation decorates the exterior of the eleventh floor upward to the parapet: a standing human figure with stylized wings; bearded human faces in relief; statuary of griffins. It stands at one of Salem's most historic commercial corners at State and Liberty Street. (See 1935 photograph taken at Ferry and Liberty.) The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(CAN-DO)

Calaba, 2475 Mountain View Drive, (D)

In 1926, when this property was outside the city, it was listed as the home of Anna and Frank Calaba. Jerry Calaba, their son, grew up on this farm and later told neighbors the location of the barn and well. He lived here until 1974. His brother Rudy was a prominent Salem realtor with Ohmart and Calaba.
In 1977, City View Cemetery purchased the property and has rented it.
(South Salem)

Schindler, 1936 Orchard Heights Road NW, (D)

This attractive and spacious 1926 home, has had several former owners including the Olds, Speckerman and Schindler families. The present owners have made some landscape changes, but the house retains its original appearance and its site is relatively undisturbed although housing developments have grown up to the left (east) side of the property.
(West Salem)

West Salem Methodist Church, 1219 3rd. Street NW, (LL)

The congregation was organized in 1910, conducting services in a one room schoolhouse and community center. In 1921 Mrs. Joseph T. Hunt donated two lots that were later sold for the lots where the church is now located. Rev. Alexander Hawthorne was pastor of the church between 1921 and 1923 and headed the drive for building funds. Construction started in the winter of 1921 with a volunteer crew with teams of horses to dig the basement. The first 1925 meeting was held in the basement. The building completed in 1926.
(West Salem)

Shipley, 260 Washington Street S, (NR)

The well-known nurseryman Ernie Lufer, designed the gardens of this 1926 English Cottage built for the Shipley family. When the Depression forced the closing of their business, the house was sold to Cora Kay, the widow of Thomas Kay, the mill owner. She lived here until her death in 1944. The landscaped grounds with the original underground watering system and rock gardens were restored in 1984 by Mrs. Kay’s grandson, W. K. Huntington for the present owners.
(SCAN)

Nohlgren, 345 Salem Heights Road S, (D)

Previous neighbors remember this as the 1926 Nohlgren farmhouse, surrounded by fruit orchards. On the walls of the old, abandoned barn nearby, high school kids used to paint its walls with “Happy Birthday” messages to their friends. As the neighbor remembers, that was in the innocent years before such displays became the graffiti of today. A 1954 photograph of the restaurant associated with this family is found here.
(South Salem)

Knight Memorial Church, 19th & Ferry Street SE, (D)

On February 17, 1926 a Congregational church meeting discussed constructing the present building on the
corner of 19th and Ferry Street to replace an older structure. The congregation voted to name the new church Knight Memorial in honor of an outstanding citizen of Salem who served this church, city and state.
In 2005 the church membership had dwindled to the point that the church structures could no longer be
supported financially. The buildings were sold to the Korean Church of Salem.
(SESNA)

Charlton, 234 23rd. Street SE, (D)

During her 109 years, Luella Charlton lived in only two houses. She was born in the three-storied, cupola-crowned mansion built in 1872 across the street from the Capitol by her great-grandfather, Edwin Cooke. Her second home was this one, built in 1927 by Luella and her husband Carl, where she lived for 80 years. Luella was a great resource for local historians and lived surrounded by the love of her family, her friends, domestic helpers. She had shared more than a century of Salem memories when she died on December 23, 2007.
(SESNA)

Quisenberry, 360 Leffelle Street S, (LL)

This English cottage was designed by Clarence Smith for P. D. and Clara Quisenberry. The house has an exterior brick chimney, an entry deck with balustrade and a Tudor-arched entry door off deck. The house faces north on steep lot, deep setback with woodsy setting and steep informal steps up to house. Mr. Quisenberry was a Salem pharmacist and operated the Central Pharmacy. The family resided here into the 1940s.
(SCAN)

Meier, 328 Rural Street SE, (LL) SCAN

This Mediterranean house was built in the mid-1920s. The first person to own it for a considerable length of time was Fred Meier who purchased it in 1926 and lived there off and on for the next twenty years, renting it out periodically. Owners and residents in 1945 were Ernie and Daisy Beach. In 1946 the house was sold to Harold and Eva Jory who lived there until 1953.
(SCAN)

Mahonia Hall, 533 Lincoln Street S, (NR)

This 1924 English Tudor residence was designed by Abbott Lawrence of Portland for Thomas Livesley, prominent hop grower, builder of the Capitol Tower Building and “Good Roads” mayor of Salem. Situated at the end of Lincoln Street at the top of Fairmount Hill, its location and generous size makes it ideal as the governor’s residence. See 1958 photograph.
(SCAN)

Hinges/Kimball, 1075 Capitol Street NE, (LL)

This 1926 Bungalow-Colonial Revival house, photographed on Capitol Street in 2006, was originally located in “Piety Hill”, the residential area of four blocks that was transformed into the North Capitol Mall between 1937-57. The Kimball House, as it was known, was located at the corner of Summer and Chemeketa. Before the Kimballs, the house was originally occupied by the Hinges family. The daughter, Hallie Parrish Hinges (1885-1950), was a noted vocalist in Salem, “The Oregon Nightingale”. Her mother was the daughter of Josiah Parrish, a Salem pioneer.

The photograph below was taken when the house was in its original location.

The house was first moved to 735 Capitol St. and was used as state offices. When the state required that property for the expansion of the North Capitol Mall in the 1980s, this Local Landmark was moved a few blocks north under private ownership. Most recently, new resident owners have renovated the exterior and repainted as seen below (2019)

(Grant)

Chadwick House, 1390 Winter Street NE, (D)

In 1926 William W. and Lorena Chadwick made their home at this address. Mr. Chadwick had been in Salem for only a few years, having been the Postmaster in Canby before 1921. From 1932, Mr. Chadwick rose in his local hotel career. He was manager of the Senator Hotel, General Manager of the Chadwick Hotel Co. Inc. and Chadwick Operating Company. From 1939 to 1943, he was also Mayor of Salem. The Chadwicks continued to live in their Winter Street home through his death in 1968.
(Grant)

Knapp Place, High & Church Street NE, (D)

Developed in 1926 at the end of High Street where a wooden trestle crossed the creek, the first houses
were at the east end of the block where the creek elbows around the street. Houses averaging 600 square feet were built on 36x70 foot lots. These small bungalows have retained their doll-house charm.
This Discovery is not listed as Salem Historic Property.
(CAN-DO)