Ketchum/Crawford House (1440 Court St NE) Salem, Oregon
National Register of Historic Places Data
The Ketchum/Crawford House (1440 Court St NE) has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Court Street--Chemeketa Street Historic District. The following information has been imported from the National Register database and/or the Nomination Form . Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- National Register ID
- 87001373
- Date Listed
- August 26, 1987
- Name
- Court Street--Chemeketa Street Historic District
- Address
- An irregularly shaped area of appr. 38.57 acres bounded by the closures of Court Street & Chemeketa St. on the west, Mill Creek on the north & east, and on the south by the rear lot lines of properties on the south side of Court St.
- City/Town
- Salem
- County
- Marion
- State
- Oregon
- Category
- district
- Level of Sig.
- local
- Areas of Sig.
- EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT; POLITICS/GOVERNMENT; ARCHITECTURE
Description
Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.
1440 Court Street, NE; Assessor's Map 26BD 7-3W
Tax Lot 81500-040
Owner: Dr. John Griffith, 1456 Court Street, NE, Salem, OR 97301
The residence of 1440 Court is a two-story Colonial Revival house built in 1906. It is distinguished by its side-gatnbreled roof and a prominent front-facing (north) gambrel dormer. The three gambrel faces each contain two large double-hung sash windows. On both gambrel ends, the walls are set out in overhangs of approximately two feet at the level of the continuous cornice surrounding the house between the first and second stories.
On the east wall of the first story, a projecting oriel window is tapered underneath in shingled sculpturing back to the wall. On the west end wall of the first story, the wall breaks into a triangular oriel. Interrupting the shingles is the plain cornice board between the stories and the simple window frames. The two-bay front porch has a hipped roof and square tapered posts resting on a shingled balustrade. What may have been a third bay of the porch is now an enclosed entry hall with a leaded glass window high on the front-facing wall.
History
Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.
The house, "a 9-room cottage," was built by Rev. Heber A. Ketchum in 1906 for $2000 (Oregon Statesman, Jan, 1, 1907, p. 7). In 1907, Rev. Ketchum and William F, Ketchum, agent for the Northwest Mutual Life Assurance Co., were listed at this address, and the Ketchum family lived here until 1917, when the house was sold to Henry and Ada Crawford.
Mr.
Crawford was a prominent Salem citizen. He was born in 1876 in Franklin, N. Carolina, and came to Salem in 1912. As field representative for Ladd and Bush Bank, he played a major role in the financing and development of the nut, fruit, cannery, and flax industries in the Willamette Valley. He was president of the Salem Chamber of Commerce, president of Miles Linen Mill, member of the State Fair board and the State Flax board, and manager of the Salem Fruit Union and of Drager Fruit Co. In 1934 he was appointed Salem postmaster and served for 11 years; during his tenure, the "new" post office (now state offices) was built. Mr. Crawford was instrumental in the adding of 80 acres (containing the north falls) to Silver Creek Falls Park; he purchased the land during a land dispute and donated it to the park. He died at the age of 79 in 1955 (editorials in the Oregon Statesman, Feb. 10, 1955, and Capital Journal, Feb. 10, 1955, p. 4).
His widow sold the house to John Griffith in 1961.
