Archivists and Heritage Conference at Old Site of Brewery

The Northwest Archivists and the Oregon Heritage Commission together are holding their annual conference Thursday and Friday. Welcome conventioneers!

Hopefully they'll be thirsty. Hopefully they'll also take a moment to remember all the great history and great buildings that used to be on the block.

Regular readers will know the Convention Center's sculpture garden, on the southwest corner, was the site of Salem's big brewery.

By 1911 the brewery had expanded dramatically.


The labels are a little hard to read. In the outer circle, clockwise from top: Armory, Machine Works, Wagon Sheds, Stables, Bottle House, Wash House, Brew House, Cellars, Storage, Hotel Marion (the cellars and storage are in the building pictured at the top of our blog header!)

In a sort of inner Circle, clockwise: Ice plant, Boiler House

Along the edges: Trade Street, Oregon Electric RR, Southern Pacific RR (SPRR), Commercial Street

Look at all the rail service! And even in 1911, horses rather than trucks were the most important transportation for local delivery.

Here's the brewery between 1953, when it closed, and 1956 when it was demolished.


And here's the view today!


That's the Conference Center, hotel, and parking lot.

On the northwest corner, hopefully the historical marker and interpretive panel on the stair landing in the Salem Conference Center, overlooking the intersection of Ferry and Commercial will be back. You may recall that it disappeared.

It commemorated the Holman and Nesmith Buildings, currently where the parking garage and Umpqua Bank are. The Territorial and early State governments met in the Holman and Nesmith buildings, and you can see the heading "Statehood began here" at the top of the panel.

Visitors should also take a moment to rememeber Fred Legg, not the most distinguished architect active in Salem, but probably the "Salem-iest" of architects. Many of his buildings remain, solid and still useful, if not always remarkable.