Marion Hotel: Over A Century Of Oregon History
“Within its walls, the paid lobbyists and attorneys of corporate interests have framed measures which were favorable to the interests which they represented and bargained for their passage, and contracted for the killing of other measures which were unfavorable to their clients; within its walls scheming politicians have formulated plans which have brought about the appointment to office of their henchmen – – stripped United States senators of their togas and placed them on the shoulders of their favorites; and could the walls of its rooms talk and tell the stories they know, it would be a story of political plotting and intrigue which has never been chronicled in Oregon history, and could tell besides the story of many scandals and human tragedies which have never and probable never will reach the ear of the public.” – 1910
It was day after Christmas in 1870 when the doors of the Chemeketa House opened and brought to Salem a new age of genteel luxury and elegance. That age, though often troubled, lasted over 100 years. On December 26, 1970, the Chemeketa Hotel, long since renamed the Marion hotel, celebrated its centennial. The secrets of a century were hidden behind the bilious green paint which hide the ornate brickwork of the venerable old building at Commercial and Ferry Streets SE. The tradition was still there in the 1970s for this grand hotel. In the old portion of the building, there were still about 50 of those high-ceilinged rooms ready for occupancy. Many of them are furnished in eloquent antiques dating back over the history of the house. Disaster would follow 11 months later when on November 12, 1971, the historic Marion Hotel burned to the ground in a famous fire many still recall to this day.
Marion Hotel, 200 South Commercial Street. View from intersection of Ferry and Commercial Street. Taken after chimneys removed and top floor added. Burning damage on first floor, BPOS Banner at entrance., WHC Collections 0084.021.0005 OVR
To say the Marion Hotel is simple an historic building is something of an understatement. The old hotel is tied more closely to the history of Salem and, indeed, to all of Oregon, than any other building in the state. The history of the Marion Hotel determined the elevation of City streets it was that much of a landmark to the community!
It long served as the social center of the community, and its justly deserved reputation that more laws have been made and unmade in its rooms than in all of the official chambers of State government put together. In 1870, the year the hotel was built, the Legislature was meeting across the street in the Holman Building, and the Supreme Court convened in the Nesmith Building. The Chemeketa was a handy place for lobbyists and committees, and it served as a local watering hole for people with State Government business. That was the year the Oregon & California Railroad reached Salem, and the hotel offered omnibus rides to and from the depot. The steamboat landing was only a block from the hotel, at the Trade Street docks.
The Salem Directory of 1871 gives just a hint of the pride with which the addition to the community was greeted: “It (the Chemeketa) is beautiful in its outside appearance and most agreeable it is interior arrangements, and has hardly an equal on the Pacific Coast outside San Francisco.” Other accounts of the period give testimony that this was no idle boast. But, to fully appreciate its stature in the community, one should know something of its predecessors in Salem.
That era came to an end with the Chemeketa and its “hot and cold water in rooms, electric bells, speaking tubes, and something like modern plumbing at least in the gentlemen’s room on the ground floor.” “For the first time,” Maxwell wrote, “guests who itched when they registered were regarded askance and unwelcome.”
The hotel was four stories high and contained 150 rooms. It was “along Franco-Italian lines with the French influence predominating. Along the mansard roof stood 28 chimneys ‘like sentries on a watch-tower.’ Below the chimneys, dormer windows looked out upon Commercial and Ferry Streets.” The first floor of the hotel had ceilings 17 feet high. The second floor had 15-foot ceilings and contained 11 suites and eight single rooms. “The floors and halls were carpeted with Brussels to ease the tread cold feet padding down the hall to wash rooms in which flowed hot and cold water . All the furniture was of black walnut.”
In the basement of the new Hotel was a sumptuous bar run by one O .H.. “Baldy” Smith. It included ornate chandeliers and paintings described by the Weekly Salem Mercury of January 7, 1871, as “beautiful, suggestive, and interesting.” Off the saloon was a barbershop with marble bowls, a billiard parlor with three tables, and a comfort station boasting “five self-acting water closets.”
Salem was surveyed in June of 1861 by Jerome B. Greer and Walter Forward. It set 19 survey control points (monuments) from which exact locations could be measured legally. Most of the monuments are still used. The point from which all elevations were measured was a brick projecting from the Marion Hotel’s northwest corner, 2.78 feet about the sidewalk and 48 feet from mean-low water level of the Willamette River, Davis explained.
In 1880, The Chemeketa House was “open all night” and provided omnibus service free to and from the hotel to the railroad station. Accounts of luxuries included water closets on every floor and al the modern improvements…including speaking tubes. Each of the 165 rooms had “water, gas, and a telegraph”. It was valued at $125,000.
According to a historical account in the Capital Journal of March 5, 1910, “It was one of the handsomest and best equipped hotels of its time, and it started off with good business and patronage. Like some politicians, however, it was ahead of its times . . . . In a comparative short time after the hotel’s doors had been thrown open the public, Waters Brothers (Portland financiers) were compelled to foreclose their mortgage on the furniture and the hotel’s doors closed.”
In a 1948 article, Maxwell described the early days of the hotel, It was built and equipped by a group of Salem men who wanted the city’s business center located in the Commercial Street area. The construction of the hotel seemed to assure that. But the big new building got its investors and a series of successive owners into almost endless financial trouble.
The members of the original stock company were:
J.G. Miller, President
- Hirsch, Secretary
J.G. Wright, Treasurer.
W.W. Piper, Portland, was the architect. Piper was also the designer of the old Marion County Courthouse. One year after it opened, the Chemeketa was bankrupt.
The building itself fell into the hands of Ladd & Bush Bank, which leased it to a series of owners. One of them suffered a severe setback by a $4,000 fire in the building in 1873. About 1876, the building found its mentor in F.S. Mathews, who brought it to the height of its reputation.
West Shore Magazine of Portland gave the hotel prominent mention in several editions during 1878-79:
September, 1878 – – “The Chemeketa . . . . is one of the institutions the Capitol (sic) city may well feel proud of . . . . the parlours are, with but one exception, the handsomest of any hotel on the Pacific Coast. The beautiful aquarium and the odorous plants, artistically arranged, add greatly to give the house a homelike appearance.“
December, 1878 – – ” . . . . the Chemeketa Hotel (is) located in the largest and finest hotel building north of San Francisco . . . . (It) has the handsomest parlours of any hotel in the State, and its sleeping apartments are large and well-furnished.“
April, 1879 – – “Mr. F.S. Mathews, the present proprietor, who has the reputation of being one of the best landlords on the Pacific Coast, allows no expense to stand in the way where the comfort of his guests is at stake. In this, he is ably seconded by Mr. Fred Howard, the gentlemanly clerk of the hotel. The dining room, in the charge of Mr. J.K. Morrison – – assisted by a full corps of attentive waiters – – is the largest in the state.“
Troubles persisted even in times of glory for the hotel. On June 3, 1885, the Rector building caught on fire. It was owned by Ed Hirsch, state treasurer and later Salem post master. During the height of the flaming destruction, the Chemeketa House (later the Marion Hotel) which was directly across the street was threatened by burning debris and embers. According to accounts of that event, Marion Hotel Manager W.H. Leininger and a Chinese American man named Toy worked on putting out the embers that landed on the hotel with a wet broom, at times Leiniger holding Toy over the cornice of the building by the ankles so he could have a better reach.
The glory of heavily trafficked hotels never took long to fade. In 1890, the Chemeketa was given a complete redecoration and its name changed to the Willamette. An account of the “new” hotel’s grand opening in the September 12th Capital Journal newspaper that year contained this sidelight: “The celebration was delayed several weeks ‘by reason of a mistaken shipment of silverware whereby a breakfast service was sent instead of a dinner service.'” It’s a distinction long since lost in public dining rooms across the country.
To further add to the comfort of their guests, the hotel management in 1897 installed steam heat throughout the building. But the Chemeketa-Willamette’s reputation was gradually diminishing. Newer, more modern hotels were built in other cities around the state, and the Willamette was relegated to second-class stature.
It was still the best Salem had to offer, and the officers of State government still centered their extra-official wheeling and dealing there, but the hotel was no longer the epitome of elegance. Its stature had gone down so far by March 5, 1909, that it led to this editorial lament in the Capital Journal: “Salem’s big four needs – – modern hotel, miles of paving mountain water, and the Fair Grounds boulevard.”
Whether prompted by its own editorial influence or now, on July 13th of the same year the Capital Journal at least was able to headline: “To Spend $60,000 on Willamette Hotel.” The story said, “The reconstruction of the hotel will be entirely new, except the walls and foundation. The furnishings will cost about $25,000, and there will be nothing throughout that is not up-to-date, and will place this city in the first stand of Pacific Coast hotels.”
One major manifestation of the 1910 remodeling is still readily apparent in the 1970s. The elegant mansard roof and those 28 stately chimneys were removed and the walls of the building extended straight up.
With but few changes, the Marion stayed in the state imposed on it in 1910 until 1948, when it was redecorated under the direction of Pietro Belleschusi, the Portland architect then at work designing a new courthouse building for Marion County. According to a new report of the time: “Some lawmakers are wondering if the change will have any effect on Oregon’s politicking. Many a deal has been coked up in the antiquated, high-ceilinged rooms, often ‘smoke-filled’ during Legislative sessions.” The speculation was unfounded: No more redecoration could ever displace the Marion as Oregon’s unofficial, subsidiary seat of government.
During the early 1950s, the construction of large, easily accessible motor hotels, or motels, spelled the end for many metropolitan hotels. But, again, the Marion – -perpetually on the edge of financial insolvency – – refused to succumb. Its owner, Union Securities Co., decided to meet the threat head-on.
In an expansive echo of that 1910 headline, the Capital Journal of March 1, 1956, announced “Marion Hotel to Spent Million.” In 1959, the hotel expanded to the southeast of its block, leveling the Sick’s brewery building, for a 52-unit motel, swimming pool, and large parking lot. In the next few years, the hotel was expanded from 115 rooms to 245. A large “motor hotel” complex was added to the old structure, and its convention and banquet facilities were greatly expanded. In 1963, the remainder of the block became part of the hotel with the addition of 75 more modern motel units. One notable acquisition was the old Salem National Guard Armory on the same block. It became the Marion’s “Starlight Ballroom ” and the remodeled auditorium and convention hall facility.
Despite the investments, however, the expansion plan was somehow all wrong. For one thing, the new complex turned its back on the old hotel structure. Those arriving at the Manor, in effect, entered through the “back door” on the Commercial-Mill Streets side of the building.
In addition, the new motel complex was a labyrinthine affair which seemed to hide rooms rather than make them easily accessible. A tired Legislator, after a long day’s work, likes to fall easily into bed, not wander around in a state of confusion wondering which door his key fits.
The expanded Marion did not provide that luxury.
Despite its new appearance, the old place was again close to financial disaster. One of its principal stockholders was Harry Hawkins, president of Commonwealth, Inc., Portland investment bankers and property developers. Hawkins took a personal interest in the Marion property, and is reported to have spent substantial amounts of his own money in keeping the operation afloat.
Nothing seemed to help, however, and the Marion, looking a little more tired and worse for the wear, again fell to foreclosure. The only bidder at the sheriff’s sale was General Acceptance Corp., a New Jersey investment company which held the $2.4 million mortgage on the place. GAC has turned the property over to MacMillan Inns, Inc., to operate. The new management intended to propagate the tradition of the Marion, but were only able to afford a “modest capital investment” to keep the place together. Charles Fyock, who managed both the Marion Hotel and the Senator Hotel in the 1970s, blamed the hotels’ business decline mostly on insufficient convention business, weak support from local businessmen, and the draining off of the tourist trade to clusters of new motels along the freeway.
In spite of its wear and tear, the 100th birthday of the historic Marion Hotel was a major community event. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Marion, State and local officials were invited to participate in the “Opening-Day” ceremonies on December 26, 1970. An enormous three-tiered cake bearing 100 candles was set up in the lobby of the hotel, and in attendance at the cake-cutting was Secretary of State Clay Myers, who served as Master of Ceremonies for the opening-day celebration.
Others who participated in the ceremonies included – –
* Thomas Vaughn, Director, Oregon Historical Society.Â
* Dr. Herbert Spady, President, Marion County Historical Society.
* Pat McCarthy, Chairman, Marion County Board of Commissioners.
* Lewis H. Judson (92-years-old), the oldest member of the pioneer Judson Family of Salem.
* C.A. Schaefer, President, Salem Area Chamber of Commerce.
* Dr. Vern Miller, Mayor, Salem.
Cutting the cake was guest of honor Senator Robert Elfstrom, a former mayor of Salem from 1947 to 1950.
Celebration activities featured in the week-long centennial celebration included – * Displays of photos from the files of the late Ben Maxwell, Marion County’s unofficial historian.
* A Gay Nineties luncheon at an “Old-Fashioned” price.
* Daily tours of the hotel, especially the “Lincoln Room.”
* Spinning wheel demonstrations.
* A Gay Nineties fashion show.
The Marion Hotel limped into its hundredth year after its celebration, featuring a Motor Hotel at which Legislative members still cut deals. On November 12, 1971, the Marion Hotel came to its demise as a fire engulfed the historic hotel.
What remained after this fire was the more modern, 1960s wing portion of the hotel. The Motor Hotel was operated by the Red Lion Hotels in the 1980s and included a Black Angus steak restaurant with the motor hotel, many civic groups held their meetings in the conference rooms and ballroom.
By the end of the 1990s, the hotel was closed, seeking another rescuer. It came from the City of Salem supporting efforts to acquire a downtown convention center in 2002 which will have an adjoining hotel complex with it. This historic place of so much of Oregon’s history will again be a gathering place where decisions are made which will affect its very future.
Article compiled by Monica Mersinger and originally appeared on the original Salem Online History. Language was reviewed and updated in 2022.
Bibliography:
Capitol Journal newspaper, section three, Wednesday, December 23, 1970
Statesman Journal newspaper, April 29, 1991
Statesman Journal newspaper, January 11, 1970
“The Chinese In Salem”, by Ben Maxwell, Marion County History, Volume 7, pages 9 to 15. Marion County Historical Society
Marion County HISTORY, Vol. 10, Pg 56(10th in a 15-volume set)
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