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State Capitol Fire, 1935
In a spectacular blaze which began as Salemites ate dinner,
the Oregon State Capitol was destroyed by fire a second
time on April 25, 1935. Smoke was discovered coming out
of an elevator shaft at about 6:30 that evening; the fire
had apparently started in the basement of the 59-year-old
statehouse. Firefighters up and down the valley rushed
in to try to save the brick and sandstone structure, but
the fire had already reached the dome when they arrived,
and smoke poured out of it. The flames moved quickly,
spreading between walls, and racing from the basement
up through an elevator shaft to the east wing roof, and
finally to the dome. Learn
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Guardian Building Fire,
1947
One of Salem’s largest downtown fires gutted the
Guardian Building on the morning of November 3, 1947.
Built at the turn of the century, the five-story building
at the corner of State and Liberty Streets was one of
Salem’s largest office buildings, home to approximately
thirty business, including two medical clinics, several
dentists and attorneys, a medical laboratory, pharmacy
and savings and loan, among others. Total damages to the
business was estimated at $500,000. Learn
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Marion Hotel Fire, 1971
The Marion Hotel stood out as a classic ever since it
opened as the Chemeketa on December 26, 1870, at the
southeast corner of Commercial and Ferry Streets. It
was billed as "the finest and largest in Oregon"
and as "the finest north of San Francisco, with
all modern improvements." But by early Saturday
morning of 1971 what remained was a jumble of rubble
where wooden floors had collapsed, surrounded by smoldering
remains of jagged brick walls that had buckled into
many nearby streets. No loss of life occurred during
this historic fire that many remember to this day. The
fire started in the ceiling of the main floor kitchen.
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Historic Hotel Fires
The Marion House, a wooden structure built in 1853 on
the southeast corner of State and Liberty Streets, claimed
to have the best cook in Oregon. It became the Mansion
House in 1861. Like several other Salem hotels, the Marion
House suffered from one serious malady - - bedbugs. One
person staying in the Marion House hotel in 1857 reported
that the bedbugs "hardly let me go in the mornings."
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