The New International Encyclopædia/Salem (Oregon)

SALEM. The capital of Oregon, and the county-seat of Marion County, 52 miles south of Portland; on the Willamette River, and on the Southern Pacific Railroad (Map: Oregon, C 5). It is situated on ground rising gradually from the river, and has wide and beautifully shaded streets. The State Capitol, a handsome building surmounted by a high dome, occupies a site overlooking the city. Other prominent structures are the Federal building, city hall, court-house, State Penitentiary, State Insane Asylum, and the opera house. Salem is the seat of Willamette University, originally founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church as an Indian school and opened as a university in 1844; the Academy of the Sacred Heart; and a large Indian Training School. The State School for Deaf Mutes, the State Institute for the Blind, and the State Reform School also are here. The State Library has 25,000 volumes, and there are also in the city Masonic and Odd Fellows libraries. Salem is surrounded by a region having extensive fruit, hop, and wheat interests, and is of considerable industrial importance. Flour, woolens, foundry and lumber products, and machinery constitute the leading manufactures. The government is vested in a mayor, elected biennially, and a unicameral council. Population, in 1900, 4258.

Salem was laid out in 1844 near the site of a Methodist mission, established ten years earlier. It was chartered as a city in 1853. In 1864, by a popular vote, it was made the permanent State capital, though the Legislature had previously met in the city, and in 1857 the Constitutional Convention had been in session here.