Willamette Heritage Center, 2014.079.0001
This recently donated photo to the Willamette Heritage Center (2014.079.0001) shows the elaborate dedication ceremony of the Holiday Inn in Salem in 1965. In the center is Vern Miller chopping the ribbon. Other individuals are unidentified. Can you help use ID them?
Thanks to our volunteer Mike N., we have been able to pull together a little more information about the Holiday Inn. According to what he found in his research:
The Holiday Inn was dedicated in 1965 at 745 Commercial St SE, the former site of the home of Lee A. Hopkins. The Inn gave up the Holiday Inn franchise and became Ryan’s Motor Inn in 1981. In 1986, it became the Oregon Capital Inn. The Inn building was demolished and replaced by The Meridian Apartments which opened in 2009. The Holiday Inn franchise apparently was not picked up by any other Salem proprietor. The Holiday Inn Express currently in Salem is another franchise type altogether.
I think the man who’s third from the left may be Gerry Frank. I cannot help with the others.