Boon Brick Store - Salem, Oregon
Posted by: 
ddtfamily
N 44° 56.897 W 123° 02.004
10T E 497365 N 4977205
Boon Brick Store, now Boon's Treasury, site of Oregon's first Treasury Office.
Waymark Code: WMF6TD
Location: Oregon, United States
Date Posted: 09/02/2012
Views: 1
Boon Brick Store is thought to be the oldest brick building and oldest non-relocated commercial building in Salem. Built in May, 1860, the two-story brick structure, featuring an Italianate facade, was built for John Daniel Boon, a local merchant and politician. Boon came to Oregon in 1845 as a Methodist Missionary. He was instrumental in the founding of Willamette University (the oldest American university west of the Mississippi River) and had interests in the
Pacific Telegraph Company and the
Oregon & California Railroad.
Elected as Oregon Territorial Treasurer in 1853, Boon was also the first State Treasurer for the new state of Oregon. A local judge of the time, speaking of Boon, described him as "a scrupulously honest man with two purses. In one purse he kept his own monies, in the other the state's funds. And those funds never got mixed." As the building housed both a general store and the Treasury Office, this building is the oldest remaining building to have been used for State Government in Oregon. The land on which the building sits was known in the period as "Boon's Island" as it was encircled by Mill Creek and the Mill Race.
The building was a popular trading place into the 20th century, operated under new owner William Lincoln Wade, who also used the upper floor as a community hall. In 1885, future President Herbert Hoover, an orphan, was sent to live with his uncle in Oregon. He became a childhood friend of Wade's son, frequented the store, and local legend has it that he carved his initials in the wall.
After the repeal of prohibition, in 1933 the building became a tavern, operated by Fred Karr, a former hop grower and director of a bowling academy. Known as Karr's Tavern until the 1970s, the site featured live music. It was sold and reopened as "Boon's Treasury" and in 1998, McMenamins purchased the property, further restoring the building, and continuing the tradition of live music.
Boon Brick Store was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1975.
Click a photo to enlarge
