Salem in 1989

World Events

  • East Berlin opens checkpoints in the Wall, which is demolished. The entire leadership of the East German Socialist Party resigns.
  • The Dalai Lama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Hirohito dies and Akihito becomes the 125th Emperor of Japan.
  • Students stage a protest in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. An unknown young “Tank Man” defies the military as seen on TV around the world.
  • The US invades Panama, with “Operation Just Cause”,  in an attempt to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega, accused of drug trafficking.
  • English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web with a commercial dial-up connection via the internet.
  • Jerry Falwell announces Moral Majority, Inc. will be dissolved. He states that that “the religious right is solidly in place.”
  • The “Keating Five” create a savings and loan industry financial crisis that cost many their life savings. Charles Keating goes to prison.
  • Florida executes Ted Bundy for the murders of 30 young women.
  • Alaska’s Prince William Sound is contaminated by 240,000 barrels of oil after the Exxon Valdez goes aground.
  • Academy Awards: “Driving Miss Daisy” (US),”Cinema Paradiso (Italy) Prize-winning Books: Spartina, John Casey and Breathing Lessons, Anne Tyler.

In Salem

The photograph above was taken in 1988 just before this Mill Street industrial property was donated to Willamette University and these cannery buildings demolished. The California Packing Company, developer of a Blue Lake type bean, opened a plant in Salem in 1963. They were the first to shift their entire bean production to these bush beans and they were delivered in bulk, eliminating the need for tote bins. Their Del Monte brand and shield was used after 1967. By 1970 the Salem Plant had grown to be the largest green bean cannery in the world. The company continued to grow and in 1979 merged with R. J. Reynolds, Inc. However, in the early 1980s, the company’s bean production was moved to their production to their more centrally located Wisconsin plants.

A city council zoning change made it possible for Tokyo International University of America (TIUA), after a 20-year exchange student and faculty association with WU, to build a Salem dormitory on these six acres. The grand opening ceremony of TIUA (Tokyo International University America) was September 8, 1989 with Mike Mansfield, former Ambassador to Japan, Oregon’s Governor Goldschmidt, Salem’s Mayor Neilsen, Willamette University President Hudson and other dignitaries in attendance. Sixty Japanese students and two professors participated in that year’s American Studies program. This cultural experience, now over 40 years in operation, is designed to educate students in being global citizens. By living for a year in another country, as these foreign students do, they get a resident’s view of the host country. Many former TIUA students have gone on to careers not only in America, but also in countries around the world. They carry with them the values of “Vision, Courage, Intelligence” that have been promoted within this educational experience.

When You Visit

This site on Mill Street, directly south of the Willamette Heritage Center’s Mission Mill property, is now the campus for students of Tokyo International University who attend classes at TIUA and Willamette University. Students use the sky bridge over 12th Street to reach the campus. The TIUA building is open weekdays and the public is free to eat at the Kaneko cafe’. The original residence hall and cafeteria have been remodeled which doubled the capacity. It is a LEED Gold certificate building. For tour information, call 503-373-3330.
 

Other events

Memorial at the site of our former City Hall
  • Adjacent to the sidewalk at the southwest corner of Chemeketa and High streets, a shaft with plaque and picture of the old structure, is erected as a memorial to the 1896 City Hall that had been demolished 17 years before. Salem voters didn’t want to pay the cost of saving the old city hall, preferring to build a new civic center. Ironically, Dr. Vern Miller, the former Salem mayor for whom the replacement city hall was later named, was unsuccessful in his recommendation for keeping the old city hall alive as a museum. Sue Bell, writing for Salemhistory website, gave us a history of our former city administration buildings, “At the beginning of Salem’s municipal government history, the City officers were housed in the Rector Building located on the lower west side of Commercial Street between Trade and Ferry. The two-story frame building had been erected by William H. Rector in 1851 specifically for the purpose of a Town Hall. (Briefly, both before and after the 1855 burning of the original Capitol Building, the State government shared the premises.). As the wooden structure deteriorated, quarters for the town’s officials were found in various other commercial buildings in town – – the Patton Block, built in 1869, was one of these. Later, the Recorder’s Office was located at 236 Liberty and, by the early 1890s, unofficially City Hall was on Liberty Street, the southeast corner of State (present site of Key Bank)”The statuary eagle is on the ground, ready to be placed on the rocks atop the Hatfield Fountain at the Bellevue Street entrance at Willamette University. At the base of the fountain there is a plaque explaining the symbolism of the eagle’s nest.
  • Large national retailers such as Costco, Shopko, Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot recognize Salem’s market potential and are opening outlets in suburban Salem, especially in the Lancaster Drive area.
  • Salem’s roots in the lumber and textile industries are gradually giving way to high technology. In this year, Siltec, a computer chip manufacturer, establishes a facility here.
  • On May 27th, the YWCA in conjunction with Willamette University holds the first Cultural Diversity Conference on the Willamette campus to help raise awareness and promote sensitivity about equality, racial justice, violence against women, hate crimes, and affirmative action
  • The body of James Michael Francke, Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, is discovered on the floor of the north portico of the Dome Building on January 18 and an autopsy determined he had been murdered. A local petty criminal was eventually tried and convicted for the crime, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. However, the convicted killer maintains his innocence, and several conspiracy theories have been advocated. A 1995 film, Without Evidence, was written by Gil Dennis and Phil Stanford, an Oregon columnist who has investigated the case extensively. It is also based on subsequent investigations by Kevin Francke, Michael’s brother.
  • Willamette University football and country singer/actress Dolly Parton may not seem like a natural fit, but somehow the Country Music Hall of Fame found herself leading cheers for the Bearcats alumni football team in September. She attended the game as a friend of her business-associate Heine Fountain, a Willamette alumni who was coaching the alums. “I just love this part of the country,” she told a reporter. “It’s always beautiful, and the people are always nice.”