Salem, Downtown and Waterfront

This walk starts at Oregon's State Capitol and winds through Salem's downtown to the Willamette River and then back. Highlights include historic downtown Salem buildings, a pedestrian bridge across the river (formerly a railroad bridge), and a visit to Salem's Riverfront Park. The walk is 3.3 miles along, and is on level terrain.

Oregon's State Capitol, finished in 1938, replaced the previous capitol, with a traditional dome, that burned to the ground in 1935. This capitol building definitely has a 1930's art deco look to it. The dome is topped by the Golden Pioneer, also known among the building's staffers as Capitol Man. The Golden Pioneer is only gold-sheathed - his interior is made of bronze.

  

Continue to the west of the State Capitol (to rhe right when facing the building's Court Street entrance), and on the west side of the building is the pavilion of flags. Flags from all 50 states and also the nine flags of the Oregon Native American sovereign tribes are displayed. Plaques below each flag identify the state or the tribe it represents.

   

Winter Street stubs into Court Street to the west of the Capitol grounds. Cross Court Street and continue on Winter. On your right is the Oregon State Library. This building was completed in 1939 in the same art deco-public monument building style as the State Capitol, completed a year earlier. This library is definitely not for book browsing - go here if only if you are looking for a specific reference book, or come to attend the historical lectures the library hosts on a more or less monthly basis.

         

On the right side of Winter Street is First Presbyterian Church. Amazingly, this substantial church building was moved to this location. The church was originally at the northeast corner of Winter and Chemeketa Streets. In 1958 it was moved diagonally across the Chemeketa/Winter intersection to its current location, to make room for the State's Bureau of Labor and Industries building.                       

At Chemeketa Street, turn left at the next block, cross Cottage Street, and you will come to Ike's Box, a non-profit coffee shop. Ike's Box is operated by Isaac's Room, a non-profit organization whose mission is to help "divested young people build the capacity to rise to the challenges of life." The husband-and-wife founders of Isaac's Room named the organization after their son Isaac, who died in 1998 at the age of two months. Ike's Box also hosts concerts and other events in furtherance of its mission.

Continue on Chemeketa another block to Church Street. On your left, between Church and High Streets, is Courthouse Square, which contains some Marion County government offices and is a transit center for Salem public bus system, which goes by the cutesy name of Cherriots (Salem is "the cherry city"). Built in 2000, in 2010 the building was declared too dangerous to occupy and required four years and $23 million to repair. The series of events that led to this debacle remains, perhaps purposefully, murky, with Marion County, the construction contractors, the engineers, and everyone else involved  blaming each other.

Continue on Chemeketa Street three additional blocks to Commercial Street. On your right you will see several blocks devoted to the Salem Center, a shopping mall with several department stores and connecting skybridges over the intervening streets. Multi-story adjacent parking garages provide the final suburban touch. At Commercial Street turn right and go two blocks to Marion Street. Off to the left are two one-way auto bridges across the Willamette River, often choked with traffic, only one (Marion Street bridge) with a sidewalk. But the route of this walk, while going across the Willamette, does not take you across either of these bridges.

At the northwest corner of the intersection of Commercial and Marion is Marion Square Park. Head into the park and cross it on a diagonal path. The park includes a skateboarding area. At the other end of the path is the intersection of Front and Union Streets.Cross Front Street on the right side and proceed on the sidewalk toward the river along Water Street. You will cross railroad tracks which belong now to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, but were originally completed in the early 20th Century by the Oregon Electric Railway. This rail line provided electric passenger service between Salem and Portland until the late 1920's, but has hauled freight only for many decades since.

As Water Street veers right, keep going forward and you will come to the former Union Street Railroad Bridge, completed in 1912 to serve a branch line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. This line left the Southern Pacific's main line in east Salem, followed the present-day course of Union Street, crossed the rival Oregon Electric Railway's tracks, and then crossed the Willamette on this bridge to connect to lines in Polk County to the west. After the railway ceased operations in the 1980's the bridge lay abandoned until the City of Salem assumed responsibility and spent the money to repurpose it as a pedestrian bridge. It reopened in 2009. The wide bridge surface has plenty of room for both bicyclists and pedestrians.

   

From the bridge, there is a great view of the Willamette River, both north and south. This is the view to the north, and there is little trace of civilization right along the river banks. The Willamette Queen, shown in this picture, is a small paddleboat steamer that cruises up and down the Salem stretch of the river several times per day. Passengers embark and disembark to the south, in Riverfront Park.

 

Cross the river on the bridge to West Salem. While the surface of the bridge betrays no trace of its former railway use, a look below shows a typical railroad trestle underneath. There isn't much to see in West Salem - if you want to extend the walk, you can traipse around Wallace Park and its softball fields. Otherwise, once you reach the end of the bridge, turn around and head back to the east side of the Willamette.

   

Once you reach the east end of the bridge take a right turn onto Water Street and pass underneath the Marion and Center Street vehicle bridges. Beyond, on the left, is A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village, a children's museum located in these brightly painted Victorian structures. A.C. Gilbert (1884-1961) was a Salem native who became a renowned toy maker, most famous as the developer of the Erector Set. The museum is home to the world's largest Erector Set tower, at 52 feet. The museum itself is a private non-profit. In this picture is the Andrew T. Gilbert house, built on this site in 1887.

 

On the right is the Willamette River. As you pass under the two auto bridges you can look back at the pedestrian bridge you crossed earlier.

 

Continue on Water Street to its end. A pathway continues into Salem's Riverfront Park. Prior to the 1980's the 23-acre park site was a Boise Cascade lumber mill. After the mill closed the city purchased the property and created the park. There are many benches such as these with scenic views of the Willamette River. The view in this picture is actually of a side channel to the Willamette. Across the channel is the 1.5 square mile Minto-Brown Island, another Salem city park, with the only access several miles upstream. The city plans to construct a pedestrian bridge from this spot to the island.

 

Follow the path along the riverfront to its southern tip, which is the location of the eco-earth ball. The source material for this sculpture came from an acid ball left over from the Boise Cascade lumber mill formerly on the site. The acid ball was necessary to the processing of wood pulp into paper. The sculpture is described as "a vibrant symbol of our world's struggle for peace, cultural diversity, and ecological awareness."

 

The eco-earth ball is at the south end of Riverfront Park. Go around the ball and start north on the pathway that is farther inland from the river. After a few hundred feet of walking you will come to Salem's Riverfront Carousel. Inside is a carousel for youngsters and those who feel young, costing $1.50 per ride. Given Northwest weather, the enclosure of this carousel is a good idea. The carousel is operated by a non-profit association.

   

At the carousel, turn right and cross the railroad tracks and then Front Street. Continue straight ahead on State Street, which begins once you cross Front Street. One block beyond, at the corner of Commercial and State, on the right, is the Ladd and Bush Bank Building, constructed in 1869, with the original cast iron facade intact. After another block, at the corner of Liberty and State, also on the right, is the Capitol Center, originally the First National Bank of Salem, built in 1927, and at 151 feet and 11 stories the tallest building in Salem other the Capitol (and not counting the spire on the First Methodist Church, which you will see later on this tour).

 

Continue on State Street. One block beyond, at the corner of State and High Streets, on the right, is 101 High Street, now the home of the Willamette Valley Bank, but originally constructed in 1911 as the Masonic Building. The first floor was streetfront commercial space, the second through fifth floors were office space, and the top floor was the Masonic Hall. The building has beautiful details in an Italianate terra cotta style, especially on the top two floors.

As you cross High Street, look to the right. Halfway down the street is the historic Elsinore Theater, constructed in 1926 as a palatial movie house, and now refurbished for showing of vintage films and live shows. But perhaps the most interesting sight involving the Elsinore is not on High Street, as you shall soon see.

   

Continue straight ahead on State Street for another block to Church Street. The street is most likely named for this structure, the First Methodist Church of Salem on the corner of State and Church Streets, originally built in 1878. It's spire is taller than every other structure in the city other than the State Capitol.  The original spire had to be replaced in 1984, but the new spire is an identical match.

 

At Church Street turn right. One the left side of the street is the First Methodist Church. On the right side, after a Wells Fargo bank building, you will see this mural painted on the back of the Elsinore Theater building. It is a homage to silent films, which played at the Elsinore when it opened in 1926. The man in the hat on the left is Charlie Chaplin; the hatted figure on the right is W.C. Fields. But do you recognize the female silent film star between them? Here are some hints: despite being characterized by her studio as "the daughter of an Arab sheik and a French woman, born in the Sahara," she was actually born in Cincinnati. She became known in her films as "the vamp," and her most famous screen line (as revealed on one of the intertitle cards in a 1915 silent movie) was "kiss me, my fool."

 

Continue on Church Street one more block to its intersection with Ferry Street.  At Ferry, make a sharp left. The traffic on Ferry Street curves to the right (with a name change to Bellevue St.), and the original Ferry Street continues straight ahead to the east. Stay on the "old" Ferry Street. After one block, turn left on Cottage Street. Before you reach State Street, the MICAH building is on your left. MICAH is the Methodist Inner City Activities House, but this building was originally constructed in 1925 as an Elks Lodge.  The Cottage Street frontage of the building is a Baha'i Faith Center. The Baha'i Faith was founded in 19th century Iran, and asserts a synthesis of past prophets of many world religions into a new monotheistic religion of world peace and unity. There are about 5 million adherents worldwide. The largest number used to be in Iran, but the Islamic regime under Ayatollah Khomeini and his successors has worked to ruthlessly extirpate the faith from that county since 1980.

 

At the intersection of Cottage and State Streets, cross State and continue into Willson Park on the right. This park blends into the State Capitol Grounds to the north. A site in the park along Cottage Street was home to several dozen "occupy Salem" protesters in 2011-2012.    

Continue through the park back toward the State Capitol, past the Walk of the Flags again. And here is the end of the walk, back at the State Capitol building.