Addenda: Salem School Architecture and the Legacy of the Pughs

One of the small mysteries in Salem architecture is the identity of the "old Salem High School" attributed separately to Fred Legg and to Walter D. Pugh towards the end of their lives.

The mystery is small because, well, it's really probably not all that important. But the accounts are more than a little unclear, and the curious want to know! Our conclusion is that Legg designed no high school and the 1905 old high school is Pugh's. (This is also an especially baggy and meandering note, so be warned.)

Portland School Buildings in the Early 1900s

Over at Portland Architecture, Brian Libby has been running these terrific profiles of the Portland school buildings. Two of them, ones on Grant and Roosevelt, help point the way to filling in details on Salem's school history.

About Grant, Libby quotes from the Portland Public Schools own architectural history:

Beginning with the construction of the main building and a gymnasium in 1923 and closely followed by an additional auditorium unit and two wings between 1925 and 1927 Grant High School was part of a dramatic building program begun by the Portland Public Schools in the early 1900s. Two of the most influential district architects during this period included Floyd Naramore and George Jones, who designed a majority of the schools from 1908 to 1932. Due to the large number of projects conducted by the district in the early 1920s, however, the school board hired Knighton & Howell, a Portland architectural firm to create the designs for Grant High School.

Grant's design doesn't concern us directly, but a more-or-less concurrent design does. About the same time, in 1922, George Jones,

reused most of the architectural drawings from Franklin High School to lay out the plans for Roosevelt.

A decade earlier Naramore had designed Franklin. In 1919 he moved to Seattle, but before doing so Naramore designed 16 Portland schools, including the Kennedy School, whose single story layout was a response to fire safety.

North High, Parrish and Leslie

It turns out that what we might think of as a Portland "pattern book" for schools was useful here in Salem.

William C. Knighton is known in Salem for some really lovely buildings, perhaps the most elegant in Salem: the Richardsonian Romanesque Capital National Bank, Deepwood, the Bayne building, and the Supreme Court building - historic drawing here. (There are many others, and a full list would be useful!)

A tip from reader RC pointed us to his school designs, a group of more utilitarian works. The contracts for Parrish and North were substantial, if not especially stylish, commissions. He was also involved in the design of Leslie.

RC shared an image of North, on the left in the composite, from the October, 1940 issue of Architect and Engineer, in an article "Current Trends in Oregon Architecture." And you can clearly see the common Colonial Revival pattern in North and Roosevelt. If Jones patterned Roosevelt on Naramore's Franklin, it seems likely that Knighton modeled North on Roosevelt. It wouldn't be at all surprising to learn that the internal plans are similar - though the Depression-era WPA contract for North yielded a plainer facade than the more ornamented one of Roosevelt from the roaring twenties.

Parrish is also by Knighton and Howell - Robert West had noted this and it wasn't much in doubt, but it was something we could have confirmed easily, simply by walking by the front door and looking at the building dedication plate!

Finally, there's Leslie. It was never identified as a "high school," but we wanted to make sure Legg or Pugh wasn't involved. Its architectural pedigree is a little odd. There's no obvious cornerstone outside, but perhaps it was swallowed up by South High's theater and music wing that wraps around the northwest corner of Leslie. The Statesman of July 14th, 1926 has an article on the selection process: With a headline "BOARD DIVIDED ON ARCHITECTS," it continues "Knighton & Howell, Freeman & Struble Asked to Collaborate." Neither Legg nor Pugh had submitted a proposal. It seems that Knighton & Howell hadn't either, but the school board liked the Parrish work well enough that they didn't want to leave the commission solely in the hands of the Salem firm of Freeman & Struble. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the school board needed for political reasons to carve out room in the commission for a local firm. Either way, the building may be something of a red-headed stepchild, a design no one wished to claim.

The 1905 Old School is a Pugh

So the only "high school" buildings left for Pugh or Legg are the 1905 Salem High School and the 1887/1893 East or Washington School (at least two dates are attested).

The paper gives a clear trail on the 1905 and confirms it is Pugh's!*

On February 27th, 1905, the Capital Journal ran a piece about the school board awarding the school design contract to Pugh. At that meeting, and in the paper throughout March, there is much grousing about the potential for graft in a no-bid contract. In the March 20th paper, the school board formally accepted the plans, with Dr. Byrd first taking exception to the inclusion of a gymnasium and shower rooms. These were struck from the plans. No Physical Education for the good doctor! The plans did, however, retain separate "bicycle rooms" for the boys and girls.

Construction bids would be accepted at Pugh's offices and opened on April 1st, the building to be completed by September 30th. Pugh estimated a wood building would cost $34,000 and a pressed brick $41,500.

By summer, Fred Legg had joined Pugh's practice. On August 29th a notice appears announcing "bids will be recieved at the office of Pugh & Legg" for a "one-story frame school building to be erected in school district No. 61, Polk County." District 61 was in Airlie, and this two-story school building in Airlie (courtesy of Oregon Hoops History) could be it, though of course it's got an extra story (and solving this mystery is another story itself! and may be out of the CT purview).

So it seems pretty clear that Pugh drew up the designs for the Salem High School, and it was likely that Legg was involved in supervising the school's construction. It should not surprise us, then, that memories were fuzzy at the end of Legg's life, and that some or all of the credit for the school might go to him. But Pugh is very clearly the designer.

The school was dedicated on January 1, 1906. Welch and Mourer were the builders, and they also built the "Klinger and Schreiber Block."

This saloon ad from August 1904 references the Klinger block on the alley, between the Schreiber building and the Bligh. Another reference from about the same time mentions old, decayed wood, so it's not clear that at this time in 1904 there's a brick building there. More mystery!

East/Washington School

Back to the schools, the main remaining question is the 1887/93 school (at top).

Pugh's father, David Hall Pugh, is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery, and the biography they cite there is helpful.

Mr. Pugh became one of Salem's foremost contractors and builders and left many beautiful monuments to his handicraft.

He built the E. N. Cook mansion**, that has graced Court Street for over half a century. He also built the old Cumberland Presbyterian and the Presbyterian churches, besides many other public buildings and good residences of the early capital city. Always his work was of the best and he was heard often to remark that he was not afraid when his work was inspected.

It also notes that he

was a member of the immigrant train of 1845 that brought his father, David Pugh, Sr., his mother Jeanette and brothers William, John, Andy, Silas and sister Mandy Anne and a little sister to Oregon.*** The brother William was captain of the train, and other families in the caravan were Alva Smith, Commodore Rose, whose wife died on the plains and whose children, Commodore, Jr., Sarah and Nancy, went to live in the Pugh family.

Walter's uncle, William, appears in school history as the original superintendent of District 24J.

So it seems likely that Walter's father, David Pugh, Jr., was involved in the design and construction of East School. The Cooke mansion looks like a finer, more delicate version of the school, even! But we are not sure to what extent this reflects stylistic patterns common to the era and to what extent it might express a personal style of the Pughs. The Piper/Boothby Courthouse looks similar, too. (Walter himself was not even 20 at the beginning of construction for the school, and seems therefore too young to have led any of the phases, though he might certainly have labored on the project. On the other hand, by 1888 he designed the Shelton-McMurphey House in Eugene, and the National Register form suggests he was active as a carpenter in 1880 as a teenager.)

If it turns out not to be a Pugh, our old friend Wilbur Boothby is a likely suspect.

Construction for the school ran from 1883-87. (The 1893 date for a Pugh school cited in the OSH nomination form is wrong and is most likely an error for 1905.) There were financial difficulties and construction was delayed at least once. By fall 1886 construction was complete enough for students and teachers to use the building, though it didn't seem to be finished until 1887. We hope to have more on the school.

* Well, after we got into this a bit, we found an old-media note that would have simplified things! Drawing on her earlier 1932 dissertation, Constance Weinman contributed "A History of the Salem Public Schools, 1893-1916," to Marion County History, XIII: School Days I, and said clearly that Pugh designed the school. Weinman also added that among the chief cities in the Willamette Valley, Salem was late to develop high school education; she also felt Salemites were generally dismissive of education. It's an interesting antecedent to the So-Lame/Salemia meme.

** The Cooke-Patton house was razed for the State Library and Capitol Mall in 1939. Virginia Green's note on 1938 has some of the history and notes on the passing of Luella Patton in 2007.

*** This piece references a Reverend William Pugh as the patriarch, not David Pugh, Sr. The biographical material cited here in the cemetery records is in part compiled from the oral histories in the Book of Remembrance of Marion County, Oregon Pioneers, 1840-1860 by Sarah Hunt Steeves (1927). Drawing on material from Catherine Entz Pugh, the wife of David Hall Pugh, it contains several short biographies of Pugh family members, and identifies the father as David, Sr. The Reverend William must be interpolated from some other source.

The Lost Towers of Walter D. Pugh

(Image of old City Hall and other images courtesy Salem Public Library Historic Photograph Collections)

The basic vertical unit of Salem's historic downtown is the two-story brick storefront. The only real exception that comes to mind is the Livesley Building. There are a few three-story buildings like the Reed Opera House and Montgomery Ward buildings on Liberty, but two is the basic meter.

But a steady procession of two is too much like a march. Our predecessors understood this, and in the first half of the twentieth century, one of the elements that gave the Salem skyline rhythm and variety was the clock or bell tower.

We've lost them. The transit mall has one, and I find myself looking to it often (the architect, alas, didn't plan the sightlines from Church street very well). But the really interesting historic ones are gone.

Walter D. Pugh (April 4, 1863 – Nov 23, 1946) has a special place in Salem architecture. Little is known about him. But he's responsible for some of the gems, lost and standing, in Salem architecture. Many of his buildings featured towers.

Towers, of course, weren't uncommon. The Eldridge Block, part of which remains today as Greenbaum's, had a tower called the Parvenue Tower. (You can see Daniel J. Fry's drugstore in the picture - his warehouse is being demolished this month.) The old Marion County Courthouse also had one. Even the Reed Opera House has an ornament to break up the horizontal roof line.

But Pugh had more of them, and his buildings were more integrally a part of Salem's architectural fabric. Consequently, his absence in memory and in stone looms as a greater void.

His obituaries said that

Pugh was born in a small house on the corner of Winter and Union streets, April 4, 1863. He attended Prof. Sellwood’s private school* and Willamette University and received his architectural training while in apprenticeship to McCall and Wickersham, Portland architectural firm. Later he established his own firm in Salem.

His most beloved building is lost. At the corner of Chemeketa and High, where there's a parking lot today, stood the old City Hall. A Romanesque brick structure with a tower, it was started in 1893 and completed in 1896. Efforts to keep it as a museum were unsuccessful and it was demolished in 1972.

Pugh's obituary also mentions the "old Salem high school." Dates are a little confusing. It's possible the school was the 1905 high school built where Meier & Frank's/Macy's stands today (original structure, and with additional wings), but other sources suggest it was an earlier school. The State Hospital National Register nomination form dates a school Pugh designed to 1893.** East or Washington school was erected in 1887 according to photo captions, and it has a tower. I believe the towers are a signature of Pugh's. Here's the old view and a view shortly before demolition.

The most famous of his lost towers was the dome of the old Capitol. It burned in 1935.






Though its tower is lost, one of Pugh's buildings that does remain is the Grand Theatre and Ballroom at High and Court, across from the old Court House. It was originally built as the Odd Fellows Hall. It had a more massive, Italianate and blocky square tower. Without the tower the Grand's facade is more static, a square and imposing box.

Pugh was active elsewhere in the city. His obituary notes that

As state architect under Gov. Penoyer [sic], he designed several state institution building, including Kidder hall at Oregon State college***, Halls at Chemawa Indian school and buildings for the Indian reservation at Phoenix, Ariz., were also part of Pugh’s work.

Another of his institutional works was an addition to the State Hospital. Pugh designed easternmost part of the J Building. That would be the wing called "building 48" and possibly building 47 (both in blue).

These currently house the forensic patients - the maximum security section of the hospital. The building follows the patterning of the original building, and does not appear to offer anything new. It is going to be demolished - though the original part of the J building, which has a tower, will be preserved!

An article celebrating Pugh's 80th birthday in 1943 suggested that "the original building at Fairview home" was one of his. Information on his buildings at Fairview was not readily available to me. Perhaps research at the State Archives would turn up something. Here's a photoset from Fairview, and his buildings must be among them.¹

His obituary notes that he had designed many houses, too. The most famous is the Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson House in Eugene. Whether any of his houses remain in Salem is not known.

Buildings that do remain in Salem include the Bush-Breyman-Brey blocks on Commercial and the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill at Mission Mill. The wooden mill had burned in 1895 and Pugh designed the brick mill today standing.

Pugh died at his home in Salem on 18th street just south of Center street.

* It is almost certain that this Sellwood is part of the family who provided the second Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. For the educational situation generally in Salem, and a brief reference to J. W. Sellwood's private school see the Salem Online History article. For more biographical material see this 1901 biography and this 1889 article.

** Here's the National Register of Historic Place Nomination Form (big pdf!) for the State Hospital with a few additional details on Pugh.

*** Kidder Hall was named this only temporarily. It was first Cauthorn, then Fairbanks, then Kidder (but is NOT the structure now known as Kidder Hall!). This OSU alumni association article shows both Fairbanks (1892) and Kidder (1918) Halls. Note the tower on Cauthorn/Fairbanks/Kidder!

I'll try to find some way to link Pugh to beer, I promise! It's just that Pugh seems to have designed an unusually high number of important Salem buildings - and no one remembers him today! I keep coming across his name and he's worth remembering. So it seemed like I should write something.

[Update - here's a couple of other Pugh buildings:
Crook County Courthouse in Prineville
Whitespires Church in Albany]

¹Update 2 - LeBreton Hall (1908) is the Pugh building. Here's one image and another.

Lost Glories: Old City Hall - Knighton Perfects, Pugh Struggles with Concrete

With news about the Police Station's growth and the seismic instability of New City Hall, maybe it's time to revisit Old City Hall.

Sue Bell writes:

Nothing remains now to mark its presence but a stone shaft and plaque on the southwest corner of Chemeketa and High Streets. Erected in 1989, the monument was installed 17 years after demolition of the original City Hall building when the Civic Center Complex was completed in 1972....

The remaining salvageable material was carted off by wrecking contractor E.S. Ritter to dispose of as he saw fit.

Though the property is now bank parking lot, in a corner which stands the easily overlooked stone shaft commemorating Old City Hall, there are still bits and pieces of the venerable municipal structure scattered throughout the City. In these traces, the memory lives on.

It's a little lonely here.


Not long after it was built it looked like this. Chemeketa is not yet paved here.

Bell continues:

On the 19th of January, 1893, Mayor Gatch and the City Council received recommendations from the Committee on Fire and Water to begin the process of acquiring new City Hall property in order to consolidate all the municipal offices in one central area. An amendment to the City Charter was called for to allow bonding to float a $10,000 indebtedness to the City, which would be added to the $20,000 proceeds from sales of current City property. By April, the Building Committee had completed specifications on the City Hall and were ready to entertain bids on the new construction.

The plans for a "High Victorian Gothic" edifice submitted by Walter D. Pugh were accepted by the Council on April 20th. Pugh's compensation was to be 4% of the contract price for the construction. However, one change in the specifications was recommended at the Council meeting: the clock tower would be 136 feet high, rather than the 156 feet in Pugh's plan.

Here's a much larger image from more recent times, complete with parking meters - be sure to click to enlarge!


One detail that seems have been lost to history is the role William C. Knighton had in the design. According to an article from 1894, just before he was finishing up the Deepwood project (though it didn't get that name until well into the 20th century), Knighton's

first work was to perfect a set for plans for the Salem City hall now under construction.

It would be interesting to know just what this "perfecting" involved! Was it detail work a draftsman might undertake? Was it structural engineering, perhaps for the tower? Was it what we'd today call "value engineering"?

In February 1895, a list of warrants shows that Knighton was still working with C. S. McNally and that Charles Burggraf also had his fingers in the cookie jar!

In any case, in the same report as the list of warrants there was apparent confusion in authority between the superintending architect Pugh and construction superintendent Harrild, and within a few months it had blossomed into a full reprimand over - wait for it! - concrete and masonry:

The report listed several problems with structural concrete, masonry, and iron, and concluded

Architect Pugh has exceeded his authority and has violated the spirit of his contract with the city and laid himself open to just criticism and reprimand by the council.

Maybe it's no wonder the tower on the Grand Theater collapsed in a snow storm! (A correspondent has mentioned another problem tower associated with Pugh, but we couldn't find the reference - we'll update if we can.)

Today the early 70s brutalism of New City Hall probably looks ugly and useless in the same way the chunky Romanesque Gothic of Old City Hall looked in 1972. So that's a cautionary tale about the vagaries of fashion and about probable folly in rushing to vacate and demolish the Civic Center. It's also a little alarming that Salem seems to have a problem with public buildings and their concrete!

But more than anything, it's sad that nothing better than a parking lot has replaced the Old City Hall. That's real ugliness.

(Images: Old City Hall late 1890s and Old City Hall with Parking Meters from Salem Public Library Historic Photograph Collection. It has lots of other images in the collection.)

Salem Burns Fred Legg - Neglected Architect of Fairview and More

One hundred years ago Frederick Legg was an important architect in Salem. Today he's mostly forgotten. As it turns out, though, his buildings remain standing more often than those of any other historic architect in town.

Though Legg's designs aren't the most beautiful, elegant, or innovative, they are handsome, and it is possible that through solid engineering and practical design, his buildings have remained useful longer than more distinctive designs of his peers and predecessors. In any case, as measured by the quantity of his structures still standing, Legg stakes a claim as the most important historic architect in Salem.

At least three of Legg's buildings have also burned. Just a week ago, Pierce Cottage at Fairview Training Center burned down. According to the University of Oregon photo archives, Frederick Legg (also Frederick Legge) designed it, and was also responsible for the design of Hoff, Holman, Kay, Kozer, Olcott, and Smith cottages.(Photo: Ruth Liao, Statesman-Journal)

Walter D. Pugh (the Grand Theater and old City Hall) designed the very first building at Fairview, LeBreton Hall. As the list suggests, next round of commissions was substantial and it went to Legg. Legg had been a junior partner in Pugh's firm, and it's not at present clear whether the commissions had gone to the firm for Legg to execute or if, perhaps, Legg took the client with him when he left.

According to Richard Ritz in his book, Architects of Oregon, Pugh and Legg practiced out of Portland between 1907-09 and dissolved the partnership in 1910. Legg's primary office continued to be in Portland until 1915, when he moved to Salem. The Polk directories give Legg's offices in the Murphy block (destroyed by fire; see note on it below). Once Oregon started licensing architects, Legg's was number 0056. (Pugh was never licensed and became a "contractor.")

At any rate, by 1910 Legg was established on his own, and in a January 1 puff piece in a substantial advertorial section published annually in the Statesman, the list of his buildings is substantial. Curiously, the Nomination Form for the Salem Downtown Historic District fails to attribute many of these buildings to Legg. It is possible his considerable contributions to Salem have been forgotten.

SALEM ARCHITECT WINS REPUTATION

DREW PLANS FOR BANK BUILDING, MUTE SCHOOL, AND GARFIELD SCHOOL

Mr. Fred A. Legg, known as "Salem's architect," is known throughout the Northwest as one of the most proficient workmen of his trade. He has been a resident of Salem, Oregon, from time to time, for twenty-five years, several years of which he and Mr. Pugh of this city were partners in business. Mr. Legg's unquestionable competency is evidenced in his works. The development of his plans and designs for the United States National Bank building [Pioneer Trust], of this city, has produced one of the most admirable buildings in the Capital City.

The architectural work on the Oregon State Mute School buildings was done by Mr. Legg. The plans of this group of buildings [photo: Wikipedia, building demolished in 1975], located about one mile north of Salem, has rendered them the most convenient of any of their kind in the Northwest.

The new Garfield school [and here], on the corner of Cottage and Marion streets, was also planned and designed by Mr. Legg. The patrons of this school claim the honor of having the most artistic public school in Marion county.

The big barn on the Oregon State Insane Asylum Farm was built according to his plans and Dr. Steiner, the superintendent of the Oregon State Insane Asylum, and many other state officials claim it to be the best barn in the west.

At the Oregon State Fair grounds the most commendable piece of work that attracts the attention of the visitor is the big Arcade at the entrance of the Administration building designed by Mr. Legg.

At the present time Mr. Legg is working on the plans and designs of the Union Bank & Trust Company building of Portland. The dimensions of this building are 50x100 feet and twelve stories high.

No architectural work is too great or too small for Mr. Legg, and if he undertakes to do any work for you, you are going to be satisfied.

Near the end of his life, incidental to a series on pioneers of the 1840s in the "Bits for Breakfast" Statesman column, on May 26, 1936, R. J. Hendricks surveyed Legg's career on the back end:

...Information has since reached this desk that to a long time and prominent resident of the capital city, C. C. Bozarth [pioneer of 1845] was a grand uncle on his father's side and a first uncle on the side of his mother.

He is Frederick Arthur Legge, the well known architect, more familiar to Salem old timers as Fred Legg, whose home is at 1499 State street....

William Thomas Legge married Christine Rachel John on July 3, 1859, and there came to this union one daughter and five sons, Frederick A. being one of the five, born in Multnomah county, Oregon, Nov 16, 1868.

He married Lulu Smith, daughter of Dr. Harrison Smith of Salem, on January 21, 1893.

They have a daughter, Margaret, who was married to Wallace C. Griffith on June 9, 1926, and they have a small daughter Margaret Claire, born in Salem April 7, 1927. Mr. Griffith, a teacher, has charge of CCC educational programs in the district just below the Oregon line, headquarters at Crescent City, Cal.

Also a son, Kenneth C. Legge, who married Velma Baker September 22, 1929. He is an architect and they now live in Portland, he being connected with PWA headquarters for Oregon, under C. C. Hockley.

Frederick A. Legge came to Salem 50 years ago next September and entered Willamette University, graduating after four years; then went to Philadelphia to study pharmacy.

From 1905 he owned an operated a drug store in Salem, on State street, for 16 years.

Since that time he has followed a profession of architect. Many fine buildings in this state testify to the fact that he has been busy, and efficient.

Among them are Lausanne hall, Willamette University; U.S. National bank building, Salem; Salem Bank of Commerce, now Guardian building; building occupied by the Hamilton Furniture store; the White Corner, Commercial and Court; Willis building, occupied by the Stiff furniture company; Roth Grocery company building, now occupied by the Silver Grand store, and numerous others.

Also the Salem high school, and most of the other public buildings in Salem; those of the state school for the deaf, and about a dozen at the Fairview home, formerly called the state institution for the feeble minded. And many more.

Mr. Legge some months ago suffered severe physical injuries by a fall from a building. It was feared he might not recover, or would emerge a cripple.

But sheer grit and faithful persistency have brought him to a point near complete recovery, with prospect of full physical vigor very soon...

The list of additional buildings is impressive. The most interesting is the reference to "the Salem high school." It's not clear whether this refers to the old Salem high school built in 1905 or the new school now known as North Salem High School, completed in 1937, and in process of design and construction in May 1936. Less likely, Parrish Middle School was completed in 1924.

The old school's massing is very similar to the buildings at Fairview, and some accounts have associated it with Walter D. Pugh. Since the building lacks Pugh's signature towers and more resembles the Fairview buildings, it is reasonable to associate the design with Legg, perhaps executed under Pugh's supervision. At the same time, with the new high school in progress at the time of the article, Hendricks article is ambiguous, and we cannot rule out the newer school.

Several school buildings are securely identified with Legg. Lausanne Hall is the most distinctive. Others are more generic and gave rise to templates. The original plan of Englewood is almost exactly like Garfield. Highland and Richmond are quite handsome, and resemble more of the two- and three-story commercial buildings downtown. Clusters of the schools were clearly built at the same time and from the same basic plan.

The list of Legg's commercial buildings is also impressive. The Willis building and Stiff Furniture Company is the current home of the Book Bin at 450 Court St. NE. In 1936 the Hamilton Furniture store occupied 340 Court St. NE, the current location of Sid's Home Furnishings. The kinship between 450 Court and 340 Court is unmistakable. The Roth Grocery building was the former home of Jonathan's Long Bar at 120 Liberty Rd. NE. It was built in 1916.

Other commercial buildings identified with Legg that are included in the Nomination form include the Boise Building at 217 State St.; the Vick Building at 525 Trade St. SE; and the Farrar Building at 351-367 State St. Again there are stylistic commonalities.

Although Hendricks associates the White Corner with Legg, it, also known at the Breyman Block, was an old building originating in 1874, and it is difficult to place it on a reasonable timeline with Legg. The two buildings (here and here) were remodeled in the late 1940s, after Legg had died. It's not clear what this means.

Legg also designed residences. At least two are known. He is responsible for the John Minto bungalow of 1922 and the Cusick mansion of 1911.

Legg died November 2, 1941.

His own home at 1499 State St. was demolished for a medical clinic.

After his death, his buildings were were no stranger to fire. The Salem Bank of Commerce, also known as the Guardian building, burned in 1947. The Murphy block, home to McMahan's Furniture, and earlier where Legg had his offices, burned in 2006. And, of course, Pierce cottage just burned.

Legg's reputation has been neglected - if not exactly "burned," too. As this list shows, there are tons of handsome, if not quite first-rate, buildings of his remaining, but few of them are called out as designed by Legg. As I think about Legg's buildings, I think especially of his rooflines, cornices, and in general the edges of his buildings. I like the way his buildings meet the air and sky, and meet other buildings. Perhaps in another note we can touch more on his style - or perhaps readers with shrewder eyes and a better sense of architectural history can comment on Legg's style and favorite moves.

Even if his style is not first-rate like that of Knighton or Lawrence, surely it is the kind of second-rate that is never cheap and often with time wears better than the flourishes of a more original mind. There are so many block faces in downtown with a Legg on it! Legg deserves to be remembered better than through fire and loss! Tip your next pint to Frederick Legg and his legacy!

Pugh, Hops, and a Tower in Independence

The City of Independence once called itself the "hops capital of the world." It turns out that a historic bank, related even to a hops fortune, was designed by Walter D. Pugh. So there you go: That's the beer connection!

In The History of Oregon (1922), Charles Henry Carey writes of that in the late 1880s

H. Hirschberg* entered banking circles, establishing a private bank, which he conducted until January 7, 1889. He then organized the Independence National Bank, of which he has since served as president, with C. A. McLaughlin as the vice president and Ira D. Mix as cashier. The bank Is capitalized for fifty thousand dollars, has a surplus of fifteen thousand dollars and deposits amounting to four hundred thousand dollars. In 1890 Mr. Hirschberg erected a modern bank and office building which the bank has since occupied....On first coming to this county he invested in farm land and has since added to his original possessions, now owning fifteen hundred acres in one body, in addition to other farm property in the county. He is extensively interested in the growing of hops and in 1920 raised from three hundred and fifty acres, a crop valued at one hundred and eighty-three thousand, seven hundred and twenty-eight dollars. He has seventeen hop houses on his land and all modern equipment necessary for the proper production of hops...

Walter D. Pugh designed the bank! It still stands today. I believe it is a Sterling Savings Bank. For a larger photograph see the University of Oregon collection here.

Hops in Independence are making a comeback. Rogue Brewery notes that

The Rogue Nation's Department of Agriculture has entered into a strategic alliance with Heritage Hop Growers, the Coleman Family. The Rogue Hop Farm is on the Willamette River, south of Independence, Oregon on the former John Haas Alluvial Hop Farm. Four varieties are now being planted on 42 acres with an initial harvest in 2009. The four varieties are Perle, Sterling, Horizon, and Centennial. The hops will be processed and baled on the farm.

The historic bank sketch is from The Oregonian's Handbook of the Pacific Northwest By Edward Gardner Jones (1894).

*I didn't try super hard, but I wasn't easily able to find his first name.

Copperjohn's

Another of the venerable buildings downtown is the Bush & Brey Block and Annex. It was part of a row of buildings - you can see its kinship to the Bush & Breyman building. Notes on the Bush & Brey Block Photo in the Oregon Historic Photograph Collection say that the buildings

were built in 1889 as part of a redevelopment project which replaced two blocks of wooden structures with eighteen stores and were designed by Walter D. Pugh. The project was spearheaded by Asahel Bush who inspired local bankers and merchants to become a part of the revitalization. The buildings have cast iron facades, or simulated cast iron in later changes, the cast iron coming from the nearby Salem Iron Works. Asahel Bush came to Oregon in 1850 and founded the "Oregon Statesman" newspaper, organized the Democratic Party, and after selling his paper in the 1860's, promoted many local institutions through his Ladd & Bush Bank. The Brey in the name was Moritz Brey who came to Oregon in the 1850's and within a few years was considered a capitalist; his son A.C. was bookkeeper at Ladd & Bush Bank. The building has undergone extensive remodeling from the original, both inside and outside, and the corner Queen Anne tower it was designed with was never even built. It does still have the decorative work at the ends on both levels and particularly over the entrance, and all across the width of the three-bays on the second floor.

(For more on Asahel Bush see Wikipedia and the Oregon Encyclopedia entries.)

The Salem Online History notes

The first tenant of the Bush and Brey Block was Myra Sperry, a photographer. Bryon Randall used Sperry's studio in the 1930s. Randall subsequently acquired great notoriety as a California artist. Sperry sold her business to Cherington and then to Tom Cronise who also used the studio.

The State Library Photo Collections have a number of Sperry's portraits online. They can be accessed by searching for "sperry the artist."

A terrific photo taken from the studio is this photo of the buildings across the street and one block north. You can see the Turner/Eldridge Block (site of the Chemeketa Parkade), Greenbaum's/Eldridge Block (still standing), as well as the R.M. Wade building (site of the Pearce Building), and far to the right the building that holds Venti's.

Eat Salem has a nice review of Copper John's. As for the beer specifically, they have 10 tap handles, mostly macrobrews. Three handles are devoted to Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Black Butte Porter, and Rogue Dead Guy Ale. It's nice to see three craft brews, but they are ones in wide distribution. Beer geeks will not likely be very interested. Because of the extensive remodeling, history buffs won't find much period charm.

Forget Guinness...Think Independence!

Over at The Weekly Brew, Jared's got a note about Guinness and the big 250. But right here we've got our own beery celebration: The Independence Hop & Heritage Festival, starting tomorrow and running through the weekend. Rogue offers a short bit on the history and events:

The "original" Hop Festival, also known as the Hop Fiesta, began in early 1930's. The festival grew out of the celebrations in the migrant camps at the hop fields. These celebrations marked the end of harvest. At last the celebrations were combined into one large party in Independence, which continued until the mid 1950's, missing only years when the US was most deeply involved in World War II.

The festival eventually stopped, for a number of reasons:

* Rebuilding of Germany included agreement to buy their product - they were a main producer of hops
* A blight attacked the hop vines and ruined crops
* Women left at home during war time developed a taste for a gentler beer using fewer hops, thus reducing demand

In 2001, Mayor McArdle decided to bring back the Hop and Heritage Festival, which opened with a huge attendance and patriotic display following September 11th.

The festival continues to grow each year, and we’re a big part of the celebration for 2009, with the Rogue beer garden, Rogue Nation sign ups, and hop farm tours.

The Festival includes a Ghost Walk and BBQ in the park on Friday night, with 40+ “ghost hosts,” where people are invited into homes, businesses, and restaurants to hear haunted stories.

On Saturday the Hop Festival continues with vendors, bands, a parade, tractor pull, and Xtreme Lawn Games – including crochet played with bowling balls and sledge hammers.

Last year Rogue was pouring a fresh hop tea - a non-alcoholic decoction of hops, water, and a little sugar. This was a great way to dial into the flavors and aromas of hops straight up. I hope they have it again!

For more on the Independence Bank and hops see this note on Walter Pugh.

Independence Hop Festival Features Fresh Hops

The air in the hop fields this time of year is heavy with the scents of grassy citrus and pine resin! Sticky, sticky hops.

"Happy man on main street,
Independence, Polk County," 1939,
by Dorothea Lange

Back in the 1930s and 40s there was a Hops Fiesta in Independence. It died out, but with the resurgence of craft brewing and a growing demand for local hops, it's been revived.

The Hops and Heritage Festival takes place this weekend. We're late in getting to this, and perhaps still stumbling and foggy in the morning, and are therefore mostly reposting a note from last year. Still, don't miss out on the best fair around!

And if you go, be sure to stick your nose in some hops! Try some hop tea if they have it. Sample some fresh hop ale. Luxuriate in the hopitudinousness, as it doesn't last long.

And while you're there, take a moment to admire some of the old buildings. Apparently there's a new inventory being done of historic buildings!

Here are three historic views of downtown Indy from the intersection of C and Main Street. A lot of these buildings are still around.

The building with a tower here and the single-story crenelated bank building on the other corner (below) were both built by James. S. Cooper:

J. S . Cooper was born in Missouri in 1841 and came to Oregon in 1863 and became a very prominent businessperson in Independence, establishing himself in the banking business. But in 1900 he gave up the banking business in favor of hop growing. Cooper was very politically active and was a delegate to the national Republican convention in 1888. In 1905 he represented Polk and Lincoln Counties in the legislature....J.S. Cooper died in Portland on July 5, 1921.

You may remember the Pink House Cafe. Cooper lived there from 1883 - 1913 and so the house is called the "James and Jennie Cooper House" in its very own National Register listing.

Pretty much you can't not run into an historic building in Indy!

And here's a view from across the river, looking to the site of present day Riverview Park and the amphitheater, and where the old ferry landing used to be located.

On the far left, you can also see the tower of the Independence National Bank, designed by Walter D. Pugh. The tower in the center is the Cooper block's. Both towers are also visible in the upper two photos.

As we have mentioned, we think the Hops and Heritage Festival might be the ideal fair, the right mix of old and new, agriculture and city, entertainment and history. Go check it out.

Further afield, Sisters and Hood River are also having Fresh Hop Festivals this weekend.

For more on historic Independence, see the National Register nominating forms and photos for the downtown historic district. (Both are big pdfs.) The four vintage images of downtown Indy are from the nominations. For more on Rogue's revival of Wigrich Ranch, see here and here.

Think Independence for the Hops and Heritage Festival

Back in the 1930s and 40s there was a Hops Fiesta in Independence. It died out, but with the resurgence of craft brewing and a growing demand for local hops, it's been revived.

The Hops and Heritage Festival takes place this weekend. Don't miss out on the best fair around!

(Here's the preview in the Statesman if you missed it.)

("Happy man on main street, Independence,
Polk County," 1939, by Dorothea Lange)

Earlier this month on a trip out to the bottom land near Indy, the CT Expeditionary Forces saw workers harvesting the hops, and the air was heavy with grassy citrus and pine resin. Sticky, sticky hops.

If you go, be sure to stick your nose in some hops! Try some hop tea if they have it. Sample some fresh hop ale.

And admire some of the old buildings.

Here are three historic views of downtown Indy from the intersection of C and Main Street. A lot of these buildings are still around.

The building with a tower here and the single-story crenelated bank building on the other corner (below) were both built by James. S. Cooper:

J. S . Cooper was born in Missouri in 1841 and came to Oregon in 1863 and became a very prominent businessperson in Independence, establishing himself in the banking business. But in 1900 he gave up the banking business in favor of hop growing. Cooper was very politically active and was a delegate to the national Republican convention in 1888. In 1905 he represented Polk and Lincoln Counties in the legislature....J.S. Cooper died in Portland on July 5, 1921.

You may remember the Pink House Cafe. Cooper lived there from 1883 - 1913 and so the house is called the "James and Jennie Cooper House" in its very own National Register listing.

Pretty much you can't not run into an historic building in Indy!

And here's a view from across the river, looking to the site of present day Riverview Park and the amphitheater, and where the old ferry landing used to be located.

On the far left, you can also see the tower of the Independence National Bank, designed by Walter D. Pugh. The tower in the center is the Cooper block's. Both towers are also visible in the upper two photos.

As we mentioned, we think the Hops and Heritage Festival might be the ideal fair, the right mix of old and new, agriculture and city, entertainment and history. Go check it out.

If you can't stand the thought of hops history or of Rogue, the title sponsor for the festival, Seven Brides is also holding Septoberfest, a fresh hop festival. There's no obvious list of beers or breweries, so you'll know why we think Indy might be more interesting. But it's an option, too.

For more on historic Independence, see the National Register nominating forms and photos for the downtown historic district. (Both are big pdfs.) The four vintage images of downtown Indy are from the nominations. For more on Rogue's revival of Wigrich Ranch, see here and here.

Sometimes Historic Preservation Drives You to Drink

We were out the other day and saw this notice for a public hearing. Much of Salem's downtown is in a historic district, and this means that you gotta ask permission to make changes.

The Grand Theater is, of course, one of the neater elements of downtown. It's not in fact all that ornate or grand, but unlike the old City Hall, it is one of Walter D. Pugh's remaining buildings. And its interior remains useful, a great place for folk music and chamber pop.

But, you know, just a half dozen or so blocks to the south, the Blind School's gonna get demolished.

We suppose it's possible that a solar installation could be an eyesore and building-ruiner, but who's gonna see it, at least from street level?

Meanwhile, at the Deaf School, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is doing all kinds of wacky stuff & stunt without a hearing.

Anyway, at some level we think there's a missing sense of proportionality, you know?

Tip an extra pint today!

The Rogue Hop Farm: Tall Trellising and Telling Tales

In search of Rogue's "World Class beer" and "Unique Thunder," the Capital Taps Expeditionary Forces* recently trekked out to American Bottom, just south of Independence, for some hop harvest action.

The fact that there's a tasting room on a working hop ranch is undeniably cool. Except for a few pockets of pre-prohibition vineyard land scattered around the state, the history of Oregon wine really starts in the 1970s. It's a baby here. Hops in Oregon, of course, solidly go back for more than a century.

At the same time, the operation rides on the coattails of a much larger enterprise. The thunder isn't all Potemkin village, of course, but it's more than a little bit of puffery, a courting display for the beery masses.

If you're already a member of the Rogue Nation, you'll love the farm. If you're not, but you don't mind a little bit of theater and pomp, you'll also enjoy yourself. And if you're not on board with Roguery, well, happily the craft beer industry is diverse and big enough you can easily move along to something more to your liking.

Tall Trellises

A couple of years ago Rogue leased 40-some acres from the Coleman family, the current owners of the Alluvial Hop farm, a much larger 290 acre commercial farm. The Rogue goal was to open a tasting room on the winery tasting room model, to develop and market a home-grown beer terroir, and to sponsor in-house some hops research and development.

But more than anything is the impression of the commercial scale of the enterprise. It looks like Rogue is operating a giant hops farm! A hops kiln dominates the compound.



Just around the L in the compound, hops are being unloaded. Their piney, resinous fragrance wafts over the entire driveway and yard. Hop trucks rumbled in about every 5 or ten minutes, leaving the road dusted in hop cones and tendrils.

Nevertheless, the center of Roguery is surely the Chatoe. It looks like a trailer, set up inside with lots of Rogue ales and t-shirts. There's one tap. It was pouring Creek, clearly offered as a Kriek-a-like.

On the entry ramp a wrought Iron gate sign reminded visitors of the olden times. We weren't able to learn whether it was modern or vintage.

Across the driveway is a 1912 farm house, once used apparently as a children's dormitory for hop pickers' kids, and now operated as the Hop-n-Bed. (If you snicker at all the innuendo, you won't be alone.)

Telling Tales

Rogue's "unique thunder" appears to invoke some minor-myth-making. In the spirit of the "jumping frog of Calaveras County," Roguery is all about the story.

The main story is the brand, the sometime slumming snobbery of the $11 six-pack: The chic socialist imagery of revolution and risk looks populist, but in fact the pricing is solidly capitalist, and more than a little elitist. It's like the winery that puts out a Chateau Moo-ton wine with a cow on the label: You have to know about Chateau Mouton Rothschild (itself a fine example of social climbing) to get the joke. Over at Beervana, Jeff has a more detailed "brand dissection."

This isn't the only switcheroo. Since Rogue is working cooperatively with the larger commercial farm, it is not difficult to imagine that the Coleman's Alluvial Farm activities take advantage of the contagion of Rogue glamor and indirectly pick up its branding. Equally, Rogue's farm gets to look bigger than it really is. The symbiosis is clever!

The history is also perhaps stretched.

A slightly skeptical commenter on the Beer Northwest blog noted that the farm isn't actually on what might be considered the original "Wigrich terroir":

Wigrich Farms, a consolidation of Wiggins and Richardson**, was located about three miles west (towards the town of Independence) and was regarded as one of the largest hop farms; whereas Alluvial Farms was always at the end of Wigrich Road. Also in the American Bottom was Wells, Hunnicutt, Pattons, Pinkus, Turners, Hadleys, Haeners, Sloper, McLoughlin, Millhouser, Prather, Hop Fields.

Delimited boundaries always get expanded - just look at the history of Napa. It's a benign stretch, but a stretch nonetheless.

In the end, we wish there was more education and less direct marketing and merchandising. Like how about bowls of each hop variety that you can scoop, and touch, and smell? Instead of bloviating about Risk™ and Dare™ malts, how about bowls of them as well? And so on... Maybe this is at the Hop-n-Bed, which seems to have a museum component, but no person or signage directed us there.

We found the experience aimed too squarely at members of the Rogue Nation and not at people with an interest in beer generally. Maybe this is by design, essentially a members-only perk. Still, as a pioneering tasting room and ranch combo, we wish its goals were a little more ecumenical.

The story of Oregon hop farming is worth telling, and even if we didn't find thunder (or rockets and OREgasm) at the farm, the Rogue Farm makes a worthy contribution.

So if you don't have the first weekend of fall on your calendar, make sure you mark the weekend of the 25th for beer! The Salem Beer and Cider Festival will be at Mission Mill, and the Independence Hop and Heritage Festival will be on Main street - where Rogue will have presence in Independence!

*Thanks to Agent RC for special help!

**The portmanteau "Wigrich" is especially interesting. The writer suggest "Wiggins" + "Richardson," but we could not confirm that easily. The Polk Directories, however, give a Wigan, Richardson & Co, based in the Bush-Breyman Block of Walter D. Pugh. The British company has a long history, going back to the 1700s, and had established an office in Salem apparently between 1905 and 1909. Here's a photo from the 1920s, when they had moved to the JC Penney's building (replaced in the 1940s by the Metropolitan building at 160 Liberty NE). We think the portmanteau, therefore, is Wigan + Richardson. (But clearly there's more research to be done!) While the hop farming was local, the parent companies were multi-national, and the hops a commodity. Wigrich here is far, far from terroir!