Frederickson Hall
(Willamette University)
215 Winter Street
Willamette University
Salem, OR
Ernestine Ostrin, the youngest daughter of Ernest and Josephine Frederickson, recalls spending her teen years living with a variety of men. Her parents purchased the Willamette Sanitarium located on Winter Street in 1933 to convert into a large boarding house. The sanitarium was vacated but not emptied of all equipment. Ernestine remembers it still had medical instruments in cabinets and uniforms behind the doors with an aroma of disinfectant. The renovated building was renamed Frederickson Hall and had twenty-seven rooms to let. There were four floors, three used for lodging and the lower floor was the kitchen and dining room. Not all rooms had wash basins but each floor had one bathroom. The best room in the house was $35.00 per month including three meals. Others rented between twenty-six and twenty-eight per month. The location was ideal for students attending Willamette University. The legislators at the Capitol took advantage of the reasonable rent plus the hall was within walking distance. The Capitol building was known as the State House in those days. Often state workers would take their lunch at Frederickson Hall.
Ernest Frederickson maintained all repairs on the building plus prepared breakfast each morning for the roomers. Word spread of the wonderful meals prepared by Josie and each day she would feed between 40 and 60 people. She was known for her homemade breads and delicious pies. They hired a cleaning lady for a dollar a day plus meals. The Fredericksons operated the boarding house for twenty years.
In 1953 the hall was razed and today the Willamette University Law Library now occupies the site on Winter and Ferry Streets.
Compiled and written by Shirley Herrmann
Bibliography:
Interview with Ernestine Ostrin, September 2000.
Photo supplied by Ernestine Ostrin
This article originally appeared on the original Salem Online History site and has not been updated since 2006.
In 1953 the hall was not razed. The story goes on to 1953 when my grandfather former Oregon State Senator Douglas R. Yeater purchased Fredrickson Hall. My grandmother Dorothy Yeater ran the rooming house for twelve years until 1965. As a child I use to play in that big old “Willamette Sanitarium;” Fredrickson Hall. The old morgue in the basement was the scariest room! Most of the rooming tenants were Willamette University students.’ Douglas and Dorothy Yeater lived in the green mansion house on Ferry Street next to Fredrickson Hall. The house was razed in 1965 and is now office buildings. Urban renewal came in around 1965 and bought Fredrickson Hall from my grandfather former Senator Yeater to build the Willamette University college of Law Building.