S.A. Manning Building Salem, Oregon

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 Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.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 warehouse known as the S.A. Manning Building is located in Salem Oregon, at the foot of State Street, where State intersects with Front Street on the east bank of the Willamette River. This intersection is the heart of the original industrial-wholesale district of the capital city which once extended along Front Street from Trade Street on the south to Marion Street on the north. Directly across State Street from the subject property is the Reuben Boise Building (1913), at least five years later in date than the Manning Building. The Boise Building has been listed in the National Register.

Together, these two-story warehouses anchor the easternmost end of a two-block long corridor of 19th and early 20th Century commercial buildings of such unusual density in downtown Salem, the area was once considered the east-west axis of a potential historic district.

Owing to significant losses in recent years along the north-south cross axis of Commercial Street, the potential for district designation has faded. In 1970, other elements of the district were lost to the Front Street Bypass improvements. The former Salem Iron Works of 1868 was one of the oldest in the district, yet was subsequently demolished in the 1970's. Additionally, the former Oregon Electric Railroad Freight Station was lost in the mid 1970's due to a right-of-way relocation. Other losses have included the Marion Hotel (or Chemeketa House) due to fire.

The Manning Building has been considered to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places in the Front Street Improvement Environmental Impact Statement of 1979, but the determination has never been ratified by the Keeper of National Register.

The Manning Building meets National Register criteria "a" and "c" in the context of Salem's historic role as an agricultural marketing and shipping center for a large portion of the Willamette Valley and as one of the oldest and best preserved examples of early 20th Century warehouse construction in the city.

The riverfront area is the capital city's equivalent of Portland's Northwest Industrial "triangle." Owing to development of a Front Street by-pass which eliminated the Salem Iron Works of 1868 in 1977, the subject property is now one of the oldest and least altered buildings remaining in the historic industrial/wholesale section of downtown Salem.

The Manning Building was built between 1905 and 1908 as a traditional, two-story warehouse of heavy timber post and beam construction with brick masonry walls. Its ground plan measured 60 x 124' until the building was expanded by a 25' rear addition of reinforced concrete in the 1920s. Its ground story display windows are largely intact, including the two cast iron piers dividing the facade into three equal bays, although modifications were made to entrances in later years. Upper story fenestration is regular, confined to the north and west elevations, and consists of double-hung wood sash having three lights over three. The openings are without frames, and the only detailing on the facade consists of galvanized sheet metal belt and parapet cornices.

The earliest occupants of the site were blacksmiths, who served neighboring industrial plants and wholesalers. While possibly built for S. T. Northcutt as early as 1905, the nominated building was acquired soon after it was built by Samuel A. Manning, a dealer in farm machinery, automobiles and bicycles.

Salem City directories from 1907 - 1921 indicate the occupancy of the building by Manning's firm. Manning held the property until 1921, leasing portions of it to such concerns as the Salem Truck and Dray Company. The elevator and rear addition date from the building's longtime use as a warehouse for grain and feed and seed after 1921.

Salem dates its founding from 1840, when the principal station of the Methodist Mission was relocated on Mill Creek. The Indian Manual Labor Training School was established by the missionaries in 1841, and the town was laid out in 1846 — partly as a means of supporting the Methodist-sponsored academic enterprise which ultimately became Willamette University.

In 1851 the Oregon Legislature named Salem the Territorial capital, but the designation did not become a fixed reality until 1855. With the advent of Statehood, in 1859, Salem was the undisputed capital. The town was incorporated in 1860. While its early growth owed equally to higher education and politics, the town's situation on the Willamette River was an advantage in terms of commercial development. Flour and woolen mills were among the earliest manufactories to be established. Business enterprises grew up along Commercial Street, which parallels the east bank of the river. Always a waypoint along the main corridor of travel up and down the broad Willamette Valley, Salem was reached by the Oregon and California Railroad in 1871, and a new age of commercial growth was ushered in. Lumber and paper mills were added to woolen and flour industries, the iron foundry, banking and retail enterprises. Thereafter, Salem was the center of growth and activity in the mid-Willamette basin.

The Dictionary of Oregon History relates the early development of flax, hops, hay and orchards in the fertile areas outlying Salem. With the development of water and road transportation, the perishable crops, chiefly vegetables and fruit, became more accessible to regional markets.

An indicator of the relationship of buildings such as the S. A. Manning Building and the local agricultural economic base of the period 1905-1925 is given by Harry Stein in his A Pictorial History of Oregon's Capital.

"...the Salem area was garden-like in its flourishing orchards, which in these decades replaced many wheat farms. Huge amounts of fruit as well as abundant flax, nuts, hops and wool came into the appreciative town."

"...downtown began to appear more like a small city than a farm trading and service center. Small boat yards launched wooden ships into the Willamette River. Businesses shifted in the new century from Commercial Street to a concentrated mercantile zone around Liberty and State Streets."

"In the new century, Salem made fruit processing its leading industry.

Farm co-ops and private concerns started or enlarged small canneries and dehydration and pressing plants. It became acceptable for women and children, not just men, to work seasonally in canneries, hop fields, and orchards. To encourage better cherries, the Elks in 1903 began a small annual Cherry Festival. As official Cherry City of the World, Salem expanded the festival in 1908 into an all-encompassing exhibition and celebration of orchardists and itself."

The Cherry Festival was a proud civic celebration and reflection of the importance agriculture had assumed in Salem's economy. The S. A. Manning Company was only one of a number of firms which supplied implements and mechanized equipment to the area's farmers (in the historic period 1905-1925), but its building is one of the ten remaining and the best preserved of its type in the City.

The building site is located on property which was part of the original town plat recorded in 1850 and re-recorded in 18?1. By 1880, Thomas Holman, proprietor of Salem Electric Light Works and Salem Abstract and Land Company as well as manufacturer of grain cleaning machines, had acquired the property by two separate transactions, one in December 27, 1880 and the other on January 20, 1873.

Holman sold the property to S. T. Northcutt on January 7, 1889.

In 1864 Northcutt had purchased a farm about 10 miles north of Salem, after coming here from the southern Oregon gold fields. He sold this farm in 1889 at the death of his wife and bought the subject property. He mined in the Cascade Mountains until 1905. He bought and sold several farms in the Willamette Valley until his death in 1926.

During Mr. Northcutt's ownership of the building it was rented or leased to:

1889-90 C. W. Scriber & Herman Pohle, Blacksmiths 1891 Herman Pohle, Blacksmith 1893 Arthur Glover & Edward Pugh, Blacksmiths; Herman Pohle Blacksmith; Henry Pohle, Carriage & Wagon Maker 1896 Herman Pohle & Clyde Bellinger, Carriage Makers;
Arthur Glover & Edward H. Pugh, Blacksmiths 1902-10 William H. Siegmund & Edward H. Pugh, Blacksmiths

Mr. Northcutt sold the parcel to S. A. Manning on September 3, 1908.

While there were improvements located on Northcutt's property during his ownership, it is believed that the subject building at 200 State Street was not built until 1905-1908, based on Sanborn maps and Marion County Assessor's records.

The 1884 Sanborn map indicates a frame building at this site occupied by Holman's Fan Mill manufacturing with power supplied by Salem Iron Works. The 1888 and 1890 Sanborn maps still show a wood frame building ocupied by Glover and Pugh Livery and Feed. The 1895 Sanborn map shows that one property continued to be occupied by a frame building.

A significant change in construction and building type appears to have occurred between 1905 and 1910. In 1905, the Marion County Assessment rolls on file with the Oregon State Archives indicate that there were improvements valued at $1,200. By 1908, the Sanborn maps indicate that the earlier frame structure was replaced by a two-story brick-walled building of post and beam construction with a composition roof, metal cornice, and 24" fire wall above the roof.

A short time later, in 1910, the Marion County Assessor's records show a dramatic increase in value, with the improvements worth $5,000 and the land at $6,300.

It would appear therefore that the building was constructed sometime between 1905 and 1908.

Samuel A. Manning purchased the building from S.T. Northcutt, September 3, 1908. According to an article found in the January 1, 1908 issue of the Oregon Statesman, Mr. Manning operated a business located at 119 to 125 Liberty Street. He held a prominent position among the leading retail establishments of the city, which contributed to the importance of Salem as the market place for a large portion of Willamette Valley. He carried a complete line of farming implements, machinery and vehicles of all kinds. He was the local agent for Studebaker automobiles, McCormick harvesting machinery, John Deere farming equipment, and Petaluma incubators, famous throughout the west as the most nearly perfect made. He handled a large part of the bicycle business in Salem. Mr. Manning had been in this type of business for five years at various locations prior to his purchasing the building at 200 State Street in 1908. Salem City Directories revealed that Manning owned and occupied the nominated building until December 21, 1921, at which time he sold the property to Frank N. and Marion A. Derby.

An article in the September 1, 1910 Daily Oregon Statesman reported that Salem Truck & Dray Company was located in the Manning Building on the corner of State and Front Streets. A copy of a photo acquired from Mr. Ed Gulp shows this office to be 200 State Street. The 1917 Salem City Directory still showed them doing business at this location.

The Derbys did not operate a business at this location, but, according to the Salem City Directories, between 1921 and 1931, Charles R. Archard leased the space from which to sell farm implements, grain, feed and seed as well as Shell oil and gas lines.

The 1927 Sanborn Map shows an addition of reinforced concrete was made to the south end and an elevator was installed between the old and the new parts of the building. The addition was being used for grain cleaning and the original building was being used for implements at that time.

Between 1932 and 1953 Salem Seed & Implement Company occupied the building.

Again, the property was used for the retail sale of farm implements, feeds, seeds, Ford Tractors, Gould Pumps, Viking Cream Separators, dairy supplies, Miller Products, fertilizers and spray and seed cleaning.

During 1953-54, E. H. Bingenheimer Distributing Company conducted business on this site. Mr. Bingenheimer was owner and manager of Salem Seed & Implement Company between 1942 and 1953.

Mr. Bingenheimer said while he occupied the building he upgraded the seed cleaning equipment to make it more efficient. The equipment is no longer on the premises. During the 1940's he had a contract with the Oregon State Prison to do all the prison industry's flax seed cleaning.