In 2017, the WHC received a large donation of drawings from the former Salem architectural firm Payne Settecase Smith/Architects, and subsequent iterations of the firm.  The collection includes nearly 1200 original drawings and plans created by the firm, and some collected by the firm during renovation projects.  While the bulk of the collection includes materials from the 1950s-1970s, there are some plans dating back to the early 20th Century.

Significance

The architectural plans in this collection represent the work of a firm who changed the look of Salem and the wider Willamette Valley during the post World War II era, one of the largest building booms in American history. The plans of Payne, Settlecase, and Smith (as well as a few other iterations of the firm) also represent the changes in architecture during the 1950-1970s. Influenced by the modern art movement, architecture during this time diverged significantly from traditional architectural styles. One of the best examples of this in Salem is the Salem Civic Center. Built in the brutalist style, the Payne, Settlecase, and Smith firm pushed the boundaries of acceptable public architecture.

Firm founder, James L. Payne, served with the Seabees, officially known as the Naval Construction Battalion, during WWII and historian Francesca Russello Ammon, suggests that Payne and his fellow Seabees made a huge impact on the American understanding of progress in the architectural landscape.  Seabees like Payne, using the skills they learned in clearance and construction during the war, inspired several decades of unprecedented development upon both the urban and rural American landscape. ^*

Payne was elected as President of the Oregon Council of American Institute of Architects in 1965, and his firm contributed to a historical pattern of change in architecture that can be seen reflected throughout the architecture of the region today. This style is currently out of vogue, and as a result many of these buildings are in special danger of demolition.

The firm also participated in a number of renovation and adaptive reuse projects on older buildings.  The collection contains older sets of drawings for buildings utilized during rennovation.  In some cases, like that of the Sacred Heart School and Convent, the building no longer exists.  The plans provide a weath of information related to the history of Salem’s past.

As well as maintaining the history of the buildings themselves, the plans showcase the history of architecture as a professional field. They contain handwritten notes, drawings, and other hand-drafted work that are not a part of modern practice, which relies so heavily today on CAD and other computer assisted techniques.  Some of these drawings are works of art.

^* Francesca Russello Ammon, Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016).

This project made possible through a grant from Oregon Heritage – a program of the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department.

Thank you to:

Sarah Purdy
Sandy Bond
Zoey Rizzo