This is a 1903 photograph of the 1841 Methodist Parsonage, the second building constructed in Salem. The Jason Lee residence preceded it by just a few months in the same year. The earliest families to occupy the building were those of Reverend Gustavus Hines and Reverend David Leslie who shared it with visiting teachers and circuit riders. It became the official boarding house of the Willamette Station.
The Parsonage was built originally where the water tower stands on 12th Street, north of Mission Mill Museum (now Willamette Heritage Center). This location was convenient to the Institute that was the center of early Methodist educational efforts, now Willamette University. The Parsonage may have served as the Indian Manual Labor School while the Institute was being built.
By the 1920s, the Parsonage had been moved to 1325 Ferry Street, a couple of blocks from its original location. In 1966, to preserve this historic building, which had remained relatively unchanged, the Parsonage was temporarily relocated back to its original site on the grounds of the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill. By 1974, in its present location, the Parsonage was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Like the Jason Lee House, it is part of the historical exhibits at the Willamette Heritage Center where it appears as seen in the photograph below.
The fourth house in Salem, seen above in a drawing, was built by the Rev. David Leslie. He lived here with his second wife, Adelia Judson Ollie, and two daughters of this marriage, Sarah and Emma. Both girls died before the age of 8.
When the Methodist mission was discontinued in 1849, Leslie had been assigned the claim lying between what is now Mission and McGilchrist streets and between the east edge of Bush Pasture Park and Willamette Slough. Here he built this home and planted an orchard with numerous varieties of apples and pears. In 1860, Leslie sold 100 acres of his property to Asahel Bush II, and Bush House now stands on the site of the Leslie's home. The Bush family lived in this house, moved down the hill to Mission Street before theirs was built in 1877-78. In 1863, while the family lived in the former Leslie home, 30 year old Eugenia Zieber Bush, wife of Asahel, died. She left four children under seven years of age to be raised by their father who did not remarry.
The 1900 photograph below, taken from the porch of Bush House, may give a glimpse of the Leslie House after its move. It would be the house to the right in photograph, approximately at the present intersection of Mission and Cottage Streets. It may have been moved from this location after the Oregon School for the Blind was established on that property.
The next location of the residence was probably a block west to the present northwest intersection of Mission and Church Streets. It may have remained there until the 1950s, but no picture is available.
This artist's view of Salem was published the same year the new State House was completed. See it upper right center. The space before it is Willson Park with the Courthouse at the near end of the park. Court Street runs along its north border, to the left in this view. Summer Street is at right angle to Court Street, near the State House, extending a few blocks north into the countryside.
Please click on the image to enlarge it and you will be able to pick out familiar sites: Waller Hall on the Willamette University campus, perhaps the Leslie residence where Bush House now stands, the flour mill at Pringle Creek's entrance in the Willamette River, a covered bridge at Commercial Street and even a train puffing away out on the track at 12th Street ~ out in the countryside.
This is a 1903 photograph of the 1841 Methodist Parsonage, the second building constructed in Salem. The Jason Lee residence preceded it by just a few months in the same year. The earliest families to occupy the building were those of Reverend Gustavus Hines and Reverend David Leslie who shared it with visiting teachers and circuit riders. It became the official boarding house of the Willamette Station.
