• Communists take power in Vietnam and Cambodia. Americans and a few Vietnamese citizens who worked for the U.S. in Saigon were evacuated by helicopter.
• Juan Carlos I is declared king of Spain following the death of dictator Francisco Franco who had ruled since 1939.
• Britain selects its first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. Ella Grasso of Connecticut  is the first woman elected governor of a state who does not succeed her husband.
• John Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are found guilty of Watergate cover-up and serve prison terms.
• Gates and Allen start “Micro-soft’: computers. VCRs enter our homes. On TV, “Saturday Night Live” debuts.
• “Jaws” is a popular movie. But the Academy Award for a U.S. movie goes to one made in Salem: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Best foreign film is “Dersu Uzala” (Japan). Prize-winning Books: Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone and The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara.

In Salem
Hollywood came to town with the filming of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. The 1912 Dome Building of Oregon State Hospital (above) was the location for several scenes in the movie. Jack Nicholson played the leading role as R.P. McMurphy, a reckless young man serving a short prison term who is sent to a mental institution for observation. His baiting of the tyrannical Nurse Ratchet (Louise Fletcher) to make life easier for other patients leads to a tragic conclusion. A small part is played by Dr. Dean Brooks, the superintendent of the hospital. Dr. Brooks was initially reluctant for the film, based on Ken Kesey’s book, to be made at OSH. However, after meeting the filmmakers he was relieved of his concerns and he even played a cameo role. Interior scenes were filmed in the Dome building and a few exteriors at the rear of the “J” building are seen in the finished film. The movie won five Academy Awards.

When you visit
The Dome Building, on the campus north of Center Street, is now used by Oregon State Department of Corrections. Some driveways are accessible, but the building itself is not open to the public. In 2008 the whole OSH campus was listed as a National Register property in order to preserve the heritage structures. After lengthy testimony before the Historic Landmarks Commission, permission was given for extensive demolition of buildings south of Center Street. One of the buildings included in the renovation was the historic Kirkbride Building across Center Street. Originally a U-shape, Center Street additions to that facility gave it a different configuration: it became known as the “J” Building. The renovation project has now been completed with a museum included in this historic structure. The Dome Building is not threatened at this time.

Other events

At the top of this photograph, Pringle Parkway curves around Lindsay Tower

Lindsay Tower soon after completion.

• The Lindsey Tower, providing housing for low-income senior or disabled residents, is completed, one year after the Salem Housing Advisory Committee was founded (1974). The committee advises the City Council and the Salem Housing Authority on housing goals and policies, including low and moderate income housing needs, housing assistance programs and Housing Authority budgets.
• The Salem Social Services Advisory Board, founded in 1967, has many of the same goals: the Board advises the Council on social service needs and programs and monitors ongoing social service programs.
• The exterior of the six-floor Equitable Building under construction at Center and High streets. This modern, 6-story structure will be completed in the following year.
• Salem has the latest model of fire trucks to equip the new #1 Fire Station just completed, facing Trade Street at the Liberty Street intersection. Just across Pringle Creek from the new Civic Center, this is the headquarters of our fire department. The structure had a renovation in 2011, providing a new entrance and interior improvements of service. Salem’s historic fire bell is mounted in front of the building on Trade Street.
• Toyota automobiles are being sold in a new building of Capitol Motors on Mission Street. This may be one of the first dealers selling Japanese cars in Salem.
• The historic 1912 Bligh Hotel on State Street is demolished. Located between the McGilchrist and Masonic buildings, had featured both a popular hotel and a theater in previous years. By this year, the aging building was not considered worth saving and a parking lot took its place.
• Two more local heritage properties are listed on the National Register of Historic Places this year: the Boon House and Boon Store. The residence is one of the oldest in Salem and the store served as our first state treasury.
• This year two more neighborhoods organize into associations. The downtown and most historic, core area of the city, Central Area Neighborhood Development Association (CAN-DO), which contains the National Register Historic Salem Downtown (a walking tour can be seen on SHINE). Many other individual properties have been designated as National Register or as Local Landmarks. West Salem also organized as city-sponsored neighborhood. This is a very active group and is unique in our city because the meetings (first and third Mondays, 7 p.m., Roth’s IGA meeting room on Wallace Road) are held “town meeting” style in which everyone can vote on issues deliberated as neighborhood concerns. Other meetings are conducted by Board (usually about 15 volunteers) where only these vote. The West Salem neighborhood and the adjoining Spring Valley community have over a dozen historic properties designated by the city as Local Landmarks. The Harriott House at 2280 Wallace Road and the former City Hall at 1320 Edgewater NW are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.