A Solstice Toast with Salem Beer and a Poem by Campion

Salem Beer sure seems to help Santa with the ladies - at least that's the suggestion. The scene looks rather pagan and the Santa more than a little creepy!

CHRISTMAS CHEER
And Salem beer are one and inseparable. Try a case this Christmas and you will find it the finest flavored, purest beverage you ever tasted. It is bottled by the Capital City Brewing Co., who supply it promptly to all who order.
Capital City Brewery and Ice Works, Mrs. M. Beck, Proprietress

Here's a winter poem by Thomas Campion:

Now Winter Nights Enlarge

Now winter nights enlarge
This number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
And cups o'erflow with wine,
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine.
Now yellow waxen lights
Shall wait on honey love
While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights
Sleep's leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense
With lovers' long discourse;
Much speech hath some defense,
Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well:
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys,
And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys
They shorten tedious nights.

Here's to the turning season and longer days again. Prost!

Salem Beer for Christmas Cheer - Saloon Loon Anderson - Xmas Dinner at Hotel Willamette

Here are some snapshots from Christmas in the years a little before and a little after 1900.

In 1903 the imagined role of bright beer for holiday cheer is especially winning! We also like the idea of toning the system with beer. A beer tonic anyone?

Our Beer Promotes Christmas Cheer
Families who like to have a case of bright, sparkling, beer at home, which will give a zest to their food and tone to their system, will have a case of ours now. It is a fine beer. Call up phone 2131.
Salem Brewery Association

You might think of SantaCon as a distinctly modern and naughty take on Christmas. But even a century ago, there were Congresses of Santas!

Gilgamesh is hosting a more sedate form of it on Saturday:

When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Gilgamesh's Winter Ale House, #106 in the Reed Opera House
Cost: Free, but everyone is encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots, in which case they will get half-price draft beers

Bill Anderson was Salem's near-sociopathic saloon-keeper. We hope to have a longer story for you sometime. You may recall his prank with a cadaver's skull at a "free lunch" promotion. Here he is in 1898 trying to scare the bejesus out of his Christmas customers! Well, it looks like Someone may had his patrons' backs instead...

Hand Badly Injured.

W. R. Anderson, the proprietor of the Elk Head saloon, met with an accident Saturday evening which may cost him his right hand. While at his place of business he thought to startle his customers a little for a Christmas joke, and procured a large Chinese bomb, which he intended to explode in the middle of the floor, but scarcely had he applied the match to the fuse when it went off in his right hand, shattering that member In a ghastly manner. The hand was torn asunder between the third and fourth finger from the base of the fingers almost to the wrist. The palm of the hand and the Inside of the lingers were badly lacerated. Mr. Anderson was taken to a doctor's office and the injury dressed it requiring 20 stitches to close the wound. It is thought that the hand can be saved.

Finally, here's the menu from the Hotel Willamette for Christmas dinner, just a decade earlier than the Thanksgiving menu we saw. There's no "Chateaubriand of Moose" or "Saddle of Alaska Antelope" this time. The menu is much more conservative and straight-forward. Oranges and bananas are the exotica. Oysters have to come from the east - or at least say they do. The Sauterne and Claret are almost certainly from California rather than France.

Big Christmas Dinner.

Following is the bill of fare at Hotel Willamette for Christmas day. 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., price 50 cents:
Fresh Eastern Oysters Raw
Consomme
Fried Salmon, Julian Potatoes
Chicken Salads
French Olives
Sweet Cucumbers and Dill Pickles
Sugar Corn French Peas Cauliflower
Baked Sweet Potatoes
Mashed and Steamed Potatoes
Roast Turkey Dressing Cranberry Sauce

Roast Duck Roast Chicken and Dressing
Boiled Ham Cold Tongue
Oyster Patties
Banana Fritters with Wine Sauce
Apple Mince Strawberry Pies
English Plum Pudding with Hard Sauce
Fruit Marble and Sponge Cakes
Star Kisses Crescents Chocolate Eclairs
Lady Fingers
Naval Oranges Apples Bananas
Pineapples
Fancy French Mixed Candy
Assorted Nuts and Raisins
Sauterne and Claret Wine Vintage 1891

The Hotel Willamette, aka Hotel Marion and Hotel Chemeketa, was located on the corner of Ferry and Commercial, where the Conference Center is today, just next door and north of the Capital Brewery, located where the sculpture garden is at Commercial and Trade. The photo here, from the Salem Public Library Historic Photograph Collections, is from around 1870 and is an old Cronise image. If you click through the link it will enlarge to show tremendous detail!

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.)

Holiday Shopping and the Empty Lots - Argo Hotel, Busick Market, Eldridge Block

Since big box shopping season is upon us, along with the crazy hunt for a parking spot, here are a couple of lost buildings - and the big box car parking that replaced them. The lost aren't necessarily "glories," especially the Busick Market, but you have to admit they're more attractive than what is currently there. (The angles and scales on the modern shots are pretty close to those of the old.)

(Argo Hotel, Salem Public Library Oregon Historic Photo Collection)

This isn't exactly an empty lot - we'll call it a series of stacked lots over a retail cavern - but it's not put to very good use, either. On the north side of Chemeketa street between Liberty and Commercial you can see the corner of the alley in each photo. On the alley today are Carl's Cuisine, the elevator, and J.C. Penny. Presumably the Argo was demolished when the parking garage went up (but we haven't confirmed this).

On the south side of Chemeketa, the parking garage wiped out the Eldridge Block. The very south-most portion remains today as the home of Greenbaum's, but before the garage the block was three times as big, and extended to the corner where the shoe shop is today. You can see it here and here. And here is one a little later in 1954 that shows the whole Eldridge block with Greenbaum's.

(Eldridge Block, Salem Public Library Oregon Historic Photo Collection)

Another of the empty lots is the one behind TJ Maxx and Rite-Aid downtown. Next to TJ Maxx is a curious building, a gabled garage with two mostly parabolic-y arches on the side facing Marion Street. You can just see it behind the man's head in the first image.

(Orignal photo, badly identified, Salem Public Library Oregon Historic Photo Collection)

There's not a whole lot written and easily accessible on the Busick Market in this location, but the name remains in the Busick Court restaurant on Court Street. There was more than one Busick Market location, and we don't know the relation between them all.

So here are three ways the old downtown used to have a lot more character. We drink a toast to lost charm and buildings lost!

Ventis Taphouse Hosts Holiday Seasonal Taste-Off

Last summer you might remember the Best of the West IPA Bowl. It seemed unwieldy to us, and we didn't make much of a brew-ha-ha about it. And indeed it went on waaaay too long.

But Venti's executed a course-correction, and v2 looks great!

The Brew-Ho-Ho is a four round set of four beers. The same 16 beer draw, but half the number of rounds and twice the beer in each round. Win!

It's also much more interesting to get away from the IPA, same-ol', same-ol' thing.

Nicely turned!

At Venti's Downtown

Meanwhile, at the other Venti outpost, on Wednesday,

Venti’s Basement Bar at the Cafe and New Belgium Beer Ranger Mat Robertson will be hosting a New Belgium Brewing Party December 7th from 6PM to close featuring six rare New Belgium Beers: New Belgium Lips of Faith Fresh Hop IPA, Lips of Faith Super Cru Belgian Strong, Lips of Faith Prickly Passion Saison, Snow Day Winter CDA, Lips of Faith “La Fleur Misseur?” Belgian Pale Ale and Abbey Dubbel.

That's a solid beer week in Salem!

UPDATED: Repeal Day

Fiddlesticks! Almost forgot about Repeal Day.

Toast the 78th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition! Today is Repeal Day, December 5th, the date in 1933 the states and nation formally ratified the 21st Amendment.

Smallpox Epidemic Wipes out Pratum Family in 1910

Today's news about vaccination compliance is worrisome. We think of the diseases as "gone," but it's not difficult to imagine some of them returning. Just a century ago smallpox occasionally burned through families and places. While smallpox is officially "eradicated," other diseases yet linger.

In her research, SOME SMALL CEMETERIES and MISCELLANEOUS BURIALS, Bernita Jones Sharp writes about the Herr family:

The Daily Oregon Statesman, 10 December 1910, on page 2, has a bold headline: BIG EPIDEMIC OF SMALLPOX. The article goes on to say a report had been received from Pratum that a smallpox epidemic was raging there and the Herr family had fallen victims of the disease, with more than a dozen families having been exposed and many houses quarantined, including Howell School. The county health officer reported the first death occurred on Saturday, Mr. Herr, the father of the family being the unfortunate one. The mother, daughter, son and his wife were also ill.

On 11 December 1910, page 3 of the Daily Oregon Statesman, another bold headline proclaims: WILL SUBDUE BIG EPIDEMIC. This article, under a Silverton dateline, tells "of perhaps the most virulent type of hemorrhagic smallpox that has ever been known on the Pacific coast". It goes on to say that Mr. Herr, a wealthy citizen of Ohio, in company with his wife, had been visiting his son, Simm Herr, and while here but a few days, Mrs. Herr of Ohio, broke out with the disease in a mild form. This rapidly spread to the remaining members of the family resulting in the death of Simm Herr, Mr. Herr of Ohio and Mr. Herr's sister. Mrs. Sim (sic) Herr and little son Clarence were "suffering greatly" but there was hopes of their recovery.

WHOLE FAMILY IS WIPED OUT, emblazons page 2 of the Daily Oregon Statesman on 13 December 1910 and tells that another victim has been added to the death list in the Pratum smallpox epidemic. Mrs. Sen (sic) Herr died "yesterday"; and tells us that her husband died on Saturday. Mr. Herr & his wife, from Ohio, visiting their son, Sen (sic) Herr, were the first afflicted and it was doubtful the son of the Sinn Herrs would recover. Mrs. Herr, of Ohio, was slightly improved and her recovery was looked for.

The Silverton Appeal, on 11 Jan 1911 pg 5 provides a little more information on the Herr family when it is reported that "Mr. Herr" from Bluffton, Iowa had arrived to assist in arranging his father's business affairs [after) "his father and sister died of smallpox a few weeks ago".

On 20 January 1911, pg 6 of the Silverton Appeal is a Card of Thanks from Mr. & Mrs. Peter Herr & the Lichty family and refers to the, "terrible illness and death of Mr. Christ and Sim Herr".

The Oregon Death Index provides the following information:

HERR, Christian, died 03 December 1910

HERR, Fanny M., died 08 December 1910

HERR, Sem (sic) S., died 08 Dec 1910

HERR, Matilda Sarah, died 11 December 1910

Christian Herr was the father from Ohio.

Fanny M. & Sem S. Herr were the daughter & son of Christian and his (unnamed) wife.

Matilda Sarah "Tillie" was the wife of Sem S. Her maiden name was, reportedly, Lichty. The 1895 Census does include a Lichty family with a daughter Matilda, aged between 10 & 18.

The 1910 Census tells us that Sim S. Herr was 36 years of age, born in Ohio, and had been married 4 years. His wife, Tillie S., was 27, born in Oregon, she had had one child and one child was living. Their son, Clarence, age 3, was also born in Oregon. [Clarence Herr did survive the epidemic.]

Peter Herr was apparently another son of Christian Herr. For more on Peter & his family see the reference to them in the section on Mt. Hope Cemetery, in this volume.

In none of the above referred to articles is there any mention of the disposal of the bodies of these victims of smallpox. Reportedly, those who died from communicable diseases were not allowed to be buried in public cemeteries, so burial usually took place on the victims own land and that may have been the case with this family. No obituaries were located for any of the victims.

(Headline from the Oregonian, December 11th, 1910)

The Beer Goddess to Read at Willamette U Bookstore Thursday

Need some bibulous bibliographic bliss?

Join the Beer Goddess for a reading at Willamette University Bookstore on Thursday, December 1st, at 3:30pm!

From the release:

Lisa M. Morrison
Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest: A Beer Lover’s Guide to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia
3:30pm-5:15pm

The Beer Goddess, a.k.a. Lisa Morrison, is a Portland-based beer writer, author, and host of Beer O’Clock, a radio program on Newsradio 101 FM KXL. Each week, Beer O’Clock connects beer lovers in Beervana (Portland, Ore.) and around the world to the best in great beer through exclusive interviews, brews news, event listings, and tasting notes and a lot more. Unlike most radio programs, Morrison personally buys the air time for Beer O’Clock and uses sponsorship to pay for it.

Morrison also is the executive director of Barley’s Angels, a nonprofit organization focused on helping women learn more about craft beer and brewing so they can chart their own course of beer discovery.

About the Book:

Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest is the first book in more than a decade that brings beer lovers the very best insider information on the best places to source Northwest beer. This book is a suds-soaked adventure through the northwest, with 18 mapped-out pub crawls, listings, labels, photos and details on more than 115 different places to have a great beer, and a great beer-experience in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

The New School has a nice interview with her here.

(Image of Morrison from the interview.)