1910 Albert Moores House

At 895 Chemeketa Street, on the northwest intersection with Summer Street, Albert and Cora Moores had a home. Mr. Moores, son of a Salem pioneer family, was Vice president of the Mutual Savings and Loan Assoc. Inc. and Cora was the daughter of Obed Dickinson, the first pastor of the 1852 Congregational Church and later a successful nurseryman.

By 1940, this house was occupied by a WU fraternity and the Moores had moved to a smaller retirement home next door at 855 Chemeketa Street. This home (pictured above) was purchased from the state by Ridgely and Wanda Miller who had it moved to 920 Leffelle Street in 1952. The truck carrying the structure, minus the front porch, traveled south across Bush Park.

The Millers had twin daughters, Kristine and Katherine, in their teens when the house was moved. In 1962, Katherine married Wallace Reed in the garden on the home. The next year, Kristine married Nicholas Liepins in the living room. Her widower, now married for the second time, still lives there. See The Thompson-Brand House for the continuing record of the Miller family's relation to these houses.
Below is a photograph of the Moores house as it looks in 2011.

1919 Thompson-Brand House

A neighbor of the Moores was Dr. Frederick Thompson at 351 Summer Street. By March of 1952, when both houses were moved, it was occupied by Judge Brand who was a Justice at the Nuremburg Trials.

This house was was purchased by the Stephens family, but moved at the same time as the Moores House, by the same mover, Augie Koenig, and followed a similar route south through city streets and across Bush Park. (see below)

It was placed beside the former home of the Moores. The two are side by side in this Leffelle Street photo taken in the late 1950s. (The south edge of Bush Park is in the foreground with the Moores house at the right.)

Katherine Miller, daughter of the family that lived in the Moores house after it was moved, married in the garden of the home. She and her husband, Wallace Reed, moved away from Salem, but returned nearly every summer, visiting Nick and Kris and later Nick and Mary Liepins. They enjoyed the view across the back yard to the house next door. In the 1990s, they asked the owners, Dawn and Ed Marges, if they would consider giving the Reeds a "first refusal price" if the Marges ever wanted to sell. This happened in 1990. The Reeds retired from their careers at the University of Virginia and took possession of the Thompson-Brand house in 1991. They continue to live there in 2011 and have been active in the SCAN neighborhood projects for which they have been honored by the City of Salem. The two properties have become a compound with shared garden, equipment and other activities.
The generously sized house, over 4000 square feet, is seen below as it looks today.
Our thanks to Kathy and Wally Reed for the stories and pictures of this "moving history".