Vintage 1950s Oregon State Capitol Postcards
Anyone who knows me knows I'm silly in love with my native state's capitol building - the 1938 Oregon State Capitol, at 900 Court Street, NE, in Salem.
Yesterday, my wife found me two gorgeous postcards that I couldn't wait to share. They're undated, but my guess, based on what I can identify of the cars and the lack of one building, is that these were taken in the mid-to-late 1950s. This first one is taken from a vantage point from the top of the state Transportation Department building, one block north and a s'kosh east:
This next one is very telling as to date. In 1977, the Oregon State Capitol itself was expanded, extending the wings and adding space onto the back of the building (the south side fronts to Salem's State Street), principally for offices for the Oregon Legislature. That expansion is noticeably absent. But more importantly, there is a building in the next card, to the right and two blocks north, that isn't there – the State Labor and Industries building, which was finished in 1961.
The Oregon State Capitol Mall, which is what you have here, is a nifty and neat little constellation of state buildings with the Capitol as pride of place.
More information and attendant rattling can be found at my blog, http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com, search for Capitol Mall.
