Phillips/Barker, 6565 Spring Valley Road NW, (NR)

Above: the Phillips/Barker House from a 1950s photograph. The damaged tree endangered the house after the 1963 wind storm and was cut down. The rings revealed its age as over 300 years.

The West Salem residence has been unoccupied since the property sale in 2002. This historic 1853 vernacular Greek Revival house was built for pioneer John Phillips, who came to Oregon via the Oregon Trail in 1845. He finished his journey to Oregon on the Meek Cutoff as part of Stephen Meek's "lost wagon train".
Born in 1814, Phillips was a native of Wiltshire England who came to the U.S. in 1834 and married Elizabeth Hibbard in 1839. He came to Oregon and bought the Turner donation land claim in Polk County for $100. The locale was once known as Spring Valley Ranch. John Phillips' daughter Hannah married Samuel Barker. The grandson, Samuel E. Barker and his wife Velma were the last occupants. Their niece remembers stories that the local Native Americans would come in the back door to warm themselves by the pot-bellied stove.
In 1976 the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2009 it is the oldest residence in Polk County and was owned for 156 years by the same family.
(West Salem)

Spring Valley School, 8295 Spring Valley Road, (D)

The former 1907 Spring Valley School, now a Community Center, celebrated its 100 year history in July 2007 with a program recalling the past and a feast of home-grown berries over ice cream. Seniors had special parking privileges and many in attendance told stories of their youthful adventures at this elementary school.
See 1954 photograph.
(West Salem)

Josh Purvine, 7555 Spring Valley Road, (D)

As seen from the exterior the Joshua Purvine House is "picture-book" perfect in retaining its original appearance. Built in 1887 and occupied by three generations of this Purvine family, this Italianate styled, Victorian home one of several properties in the Spring Valley neighborhood that once belonged to this pioneer family. Changes that are not apparent include back rooms added at two levels and a ladder entrance from the tool room to an upstairs apartment. See 1965 photograph.
(West Salem)

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)

Boot, 2545 Birdshill Drive, (D)

The earliest known owners of the 1901 house are William H Boot and wife Bertha. In 1911, two year after they moved here from Portland, their 21 year old daughter Margaret Lynn Boot married Asahel Bush, IV. The young Bush couple made their home on Bellevue Street and traveled extensively. She died in 1934, her husband a year later.
The original farmhouse has been remodeled several times. The first entrance was from the north (now City View Cemetery) leading to a carriage house, now a residence. The property has been divided and now comtains only a fraction of its acres as a prune orchard. There is a panoramic view to the west over the Willamette River and the to the coastal mountains beyond.
The owner from from 1952 to 1977 was Dilbert Milne. Hans and Helen Linde purchased the property and lived there 30 years.
(South Salem)

A. J. Purvine, 6990 Spring Valley Road NW, (D)

Andrew Jackson Purvine lived in another house to the east and set back from the present road, possibly along the wagon trail from the river. After the death of his wife, he remarried and had a second family. In 1890, at 65, he built this large residence that contrasts with his brother Joshua's home by being in a Craftsman style of architecture, perhaps Victorian originally. The stained glass in the front stairway, was brought "around the Horn”. The floor plan retains the original character of this home.
(West Salem)

Francis Smith, 578 Cascade Drive NW, (D)

This is the only West Salem house designed by noted local architect Clarence L. Smith. The original owners of the home, Francis and Bernice Smith, had the cedar shingled, English cottage constructed in 1937 to provide a view of Salem and the Cascades. The house's placement on the lot was completed before the landscape designers, Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, began their work. An interesting detail is the iron railing along the driveway. When it was removed from the Pioneer Cemetery, it was transferred to this property.
(West Salem)