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Pacific Northwest Office
4600 25th Avenue, NE
Salem, Or 97313-1000
Phone: (503) 463-2131
State Farm Insurance Website: www.statefarm.com
State Farm Insurance has been a fixture in Salem since the
opening of its brick, one-story regional office just off Interstate
5 in 1957. However, the company was doing business here long
before then.
In fact, State Farm started issuing automobile insurance
in Oregon in 1930, eight years after a retired farmer in Bloomington,
Ill., founded the company. By the end of that year, State
Farm had 765 auto policies in force in Oregon. Then came life
insurance the following year, and fire insurance in 1937.
W. Ludd Read was the company’s first State Director of Oregon,
and likely Salem’s first State Farm Agent. The State Farm
office was then located in the Masonic Building at 485 State
Street. Over the next several decades, a handful of local
agents handled State Farm business--selling policies and handling
claims--for Salem residents.
Then, in 1956, State Farm bought 26 acres just north of the
city limits for a new regional office. Gerry Frank, who was
then managing the Meier and Frank Store and active in the
Salem Chamber of Commerce, was instrumental in bringing State
Farm to Salem, rather than Yakima, Wash., which was also in
the running.
In the spring of 1957, local dignitaries, including then-Secretary
of State Mark Hatfield, helped State Farm officials break
ground on the $759,000 building. On December 16th of that
year, State Farm’s newest regional office opened in Salem
at 4600 25th Avenue N.E.
Originally serviced by the Western States Office in Berkley,
Calif., the five-state Great Northwest Region was born. The
newly formed region encompassed Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon,
and Washington.
Some employees from California ventured north to help open
Salem’s new office. But most of the 202 employees were local
Salem-area folks, eager to come on board with such a steadily
growing company.
Over the years, the Salem Office, in its colonial modern
architectural style, grew as the company grew. Additions in
1969, 1977, and 1987 expanded the building from its original
56,720 square feet to over 236,000 square feet today.
In early 1992, the company announced the purchase of 50 acres
in Dupont, Wash., and construction on a second regional office
was underway by late 1993. A year later, the region was changed
to the Pacific Northwest, and grew to six states with the
addition of Hawaii in 1995. This new region became one of
only two in the nation to include two processing offices.
Salem would handle Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, and Dupont,
Wash., would handle the other three states.
Today, about 400 people work in the Salem Regional Office.
Another 50 employees handle auto and homeowners claims in
the Keizer Service Center. And over 20 agents offer State
Farm’s insurance and financial services to the Salem/Keizer
area.
The Salem building is one of 27 State Farm regional offices,
and the Keizer Service Center one of 1,000 claim offices,
company-wide.
Much has changed over the years in the way State Farm does
business, but one thing has not: State Farm’s commitment to
the customer. The words of company founder G.J. Mecherle remain
as true today as they were then:
"The standard of success will eventually be the measure
of the service given."
Compiled and written by Jeff Aeschliman, Pacific NW Regional
Public Affairs, State Farm Insurance Companies, November,
2001
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