Instructor

This short walking tour includes four buildings and frontier-themed statues in Salem, Oregon, including the Circuit Rider Statue which honors clergy who rode between scattered congregations.

In the mid-19th century, several cities—most notably
Oregon City, Corvallis, and Salem—competed to become Oregon’s territorial and
state capital. Oregon’s capitol building was constructed of wood in the Greek
Revival style in Salem in 1854. It soon burned to the ground under suspicious
circumstances. Some suspected arson inspired by the fight between Corvallis and
Salem to serve as the state capital. 

Construction of the second Oregon capitol building began in
1873. It was designed by J. Krumbein and W. G. Gilbert. Like many United States
statehouses of the era, it was shaped like a cross and topped with a towering copper-gilded
dome that was added in 1893. It combined elements of classical and Italian
Renaissance architecture. Fire destroyed this second capitol on April 25, 1935.
The fire was believed to be accidental.

For the third capitol building, a jury selected from among
123 design submissions ranging from classical domed structures to simple modern
designs. The jury selected a compromise design submitted by Francis Keally and
the architectural firm of Trowbridge &amp; Livingston. The architects described
their design as a&nbsp;<blockquote>“forceful and vital modern structure with broad and masculine
feeling.”<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">1</a></blockquote> It
is in the PWA Moderne (also known as Federal Moderne or stripped classical)
style typical of buildings constructed using Public Works Administration funds
during the Great Depression. PWA Moderne style combined classical symmetrical
form with Art Deco decorations. A flat-topped cylinder stands in for a
classical dome on top. The main structure is made from concrete, but the
exterior is sheathed in white marble.

In place of the elaborate exterior decorations typical of US
statehouses, the designers offered strong, simple lines sparsely decorated with
architectural sculpture. Two large marble reliefs sculpted by Leo Friedlander
decorate the front of the building. One depicts the Lewis and Clark expedition;
the other features a family of white settlers migrating to Oregon in their covered
wagon. A 23-foot-tall gold-plated statue of a pioneer sculpted by Ulric
Ellerhusen stands atop the flat-topped “dome.” Both artists’ work were typical
of pioneer monuments erected in the 1920s and 1930s. Nonetheless, Oregon
residents penned numerous complaints about the artists’ work during the 1930s. They
questioned the works’ historical accuracy and complained of their perceived
modernism.&nbsp; One complained that an “eastern
sculptor [Ellerhusen] has pictured our Oregon pioneer as a smooth shaved gent,
probably wearing rayon underwear.”<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">2</a>&nbsp;Over
time, Oregonians warmed to “Gold Man.” Today, it is one of the best-known
symbols of the state.

The interior was decorated with marble. Murals by Frank H.
Schwarz and Barry Faulkner depicting Oregon history line the central rotunda
and legislative chambers.

The new capitol building was dedicated on October 11, 1938. In
addition to building the new statehouse, the Capitol Reconstruction Project
added a four-block mall stretching north from the capitol to meet the needs of expanding
state government, including a state library. Stylistically matched legislative
wings were added to the capitol building in 1977.

Oregon's 1876 state capitol building burned down in 1935 and was replaced with a new building in 1938 in the PWA Moderne style.

1938 Oregon statehouse. Photograph by Cynthia Prescott.

Oregon State Capitol

At the turn of the 20th century,&nbsp;New York artist Allen G. Newman sculpted an Oregon pioneer based on historic objects provided by the Breyman family of Salem, Oregon. The original zinc casting was erected near the Oregon state capitol in Salem in 1904. J. L. Mott Iron Works in New York cast numerous copies of "The Pioneer." One in Ashland, Oregon, was known locally as "Pioneer Mike."&nbsp;Other castings were erected on the University of Colorado campus and in Storm Lake, Iowa. None of the original statues are known to have survived. In recent years, Pioneer statues were recast for Ashland and Storm Lake. The original Salem statue was toppled by a windstorm in 1917 and never replaced.

Sculpted from zinc by Allen G. Newman. It was modeled after an early white settler's hat, rifle and pouch provided by the Breyman family of Salem, Oregon. Statue was toppled by a windstorm in 1917 and never replaced. Later castings of the statue were erected in locations across the United States.

Pioneer statue (1903-1917)

Eugene businessman and former senator Robert Asbury [R.A.]&nbsp;Booth commissioned this heroic-sized statue to commemorate the mid-19th-century Christian missionaries who served multiple congregations in rural communities spread over significant distances on the Oregon frontier. Many rode a "circuit" on horseback, visiting a different congregation each Sunday.&nbsp; This monument depicts the donor's father, Robert Booth. Robert Booth had been a Methodist circuit rider. The Booth family migrated west on the Oregon Trail in 1852.&nbsp; Robert and one of his sons became gravely ill while on the trail. His wife made him promise that if God delivered him from death, Robert would become a Christian preacher once they settled in Oregon. Robert served as a circuit rider in the Willamette Valley, eventually covering seven counties.&nbsp; The statue was sculpted by prominent western sculptor&nbsp;A.&nbsp;Phimister Proctor. It portrays an aging minister who studies his Bible while riding atop a plodding horse. Proctor also sculpted the&nbsp;Pioneer and&nbsp;Pioneer Mother on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene and the equestrian&nbsp;Pioneer Mother&nbsp;in Kansas City, Missouri. An estimated 5,000 people attended the statue's 1924 dedication in front of the state capitol. It was moved a short distance to the east side to&nbsp;accommodate the construction of a new capitol the following decade. It was then reoriented in January 1953 so that the circuit rider would be facing westward. A falling tree knocked over by the Columbus Day storm on October 12, 1962, severely damaged the statue. Artist James Lee Hanson restored the statue, sculpting a new head for the rider.

Monument honoring mid-19th-century Christian ministers who served multiple congregations in  communities spread over significant distances on the Oregon frontier. Sculpted by A. Phimister Proctor, it depicts itinerant minister Robert Booth.

Circuit Rider statue

Upon his death in 1940,
former janitor and elevator operator Caroll Moores bequeathed $25,000 from his
modest estate to fund a pioneer memorial in his hometown of Salem, Oregon. Such
pioneer monuments had been extremely popular in the 1920s and 1930s. But as
World War II raged in Europe and the Pacific, Americans lost interest in
erecting bronze and marble monuments to Pioneer Mothers. 

&nbsp;After
a decade of inactivity, individuals began to suggest uses for those funds. Most
suggestions seemed to promote proposers’ pet projects: children’s playground,
an ambulance, a community building, a wading pool, or a municipal golf course.&nbsp; A special commission named by the city
favored “statuary of a highly artistic character.”<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">1</a>&nbsp;But popular opinion
appeared to strongly favor erecting a small memorial in the Odd Fellows
cemetery and using the income from the remainder of the fund to maintain that
cemetery because a number of prominent pioneers were buried there.

The people
of Salem were understandably shocked when a plan was announced to purchase a nude
1914 Venus Victorious&nbsp;statue sculpted
by prominent French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir with Moores’ bequest.&nbsp;That statue represented a dramatic departure from
traditional depictions of pioneer women in sunbonnets. The opinion page of the
Salem Capital Journal filled with
outraged letters from church boards, garden clubs, and individuals who believed
that the impressionist nude sculpture of the Roman goddess of love did not
represent Oregon pioneers, and was not appropriate to erect in front of the new
county courthouse. The national media soon picked up the story.

<blockquote>“‘What
we want,’ said one member of the Lions, is a statue of a pioneer woman in a
gingham dress and a sunbonnet … not this trash.’”<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">2</a></blockquote>

When the public was invited
to comment on alternate proposals, significant public support developed for a local
artist’s modernist allegory including a male nude figure representing the Spirit of the Oregon Trail. Instead, the local park commission
settled on a much safer choice: a pioneer family group by longtime pioneer
monument sculptor Avard T. Fairbanks, which they would erect in a local park. The
Oregon Statesman columnist described Fairbanks’
design as “’safe’” and “indulg[ing] in no abstraction.”<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">3</a>&nbsp;Fairbanks was overjoyed that his traditional pioneer
imagery prevailed:

<blockquote>"This is a very great
triumph in America because at one time there were art interests and those
directing the new movements and isms who made recommendations for the erection
of a nude 'Venus' by the French modernist, Renoir. Had it been completed Oregon
would have had a French female nude to represent the pioneer mothers of the
great Oregon Trail. What a travesty... Fortunately, we have real Westerners
and true Americans who still believe that our cultural heritage is well worth
memorializing with true and sincere presentations rather than by sophisticated
misrepresentations."<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">4</a></blockquote>

Tellingly,
Fairbanks declared the iconic white pioneer woman to represent not only “real
Westerners” whose ancestors had carried white civilization westward, but also
all “true Americans,” whose identity had become inextricably linked to western
mythology by the 1950s.

Earlier
works by Fairbanks and his contemporaries tended to focus on self-sacrificing
pioneer mothers. In contrast, Guidance of
Youth placed a young man at the center of the 1950s Salem monument. In the
midst of Cold War uncertainty, mainstream America’s energetic youth, rather
than its mothers’ civilizing influence, represented the nation’s greatest hope
for the future. But the 19th-century frontier myth still underpinned American
national identity.

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Janitor Carroll Moore left most of his life savings to pay for a pioneer monument for the city of Salem. Plans to purchase a nude "Venus Victorious" statue by famous French sculptor Pierre-Auguste Renoir sparked controversy. The committee instead selected Avard Fairbanks' depiction of a pioneer family. The strapping young son leads the way into the future.

Guidance of Youth. Photo by Cynthia Prescott.

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Salem's Pioneer Monuments

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