Central Area in Salem in Marion County, Oregon — The American West (Northwest)

Ekerlen (Bishop) Building

1894

— Salem Downtown Historic District —

Ekerlen (Bishop) Building Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Douglass Halvorsen, October 14, 2025

1. Ekerlen (Bishop) Building Marker

Inscription. This property has been placedon the
National Register of Historic Places
by the United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
and is subject to the provisions of the
Oregon Special Assessment Program
ORS 358.475-.565

Topics. This historical marker is listed in this topic list: Industry & Commerce. A significant historical year for this entry is 1894.

Location. 44° 56.433′ N, 123° 2.327′ W. Marker is in Salem, Oregon, in Marion County. It is in the Central Area. It is on Liberty Street Northeast, on the left when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 145 Liberty Street NE, Salem OR 97301, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Oregon Wine Country

and in the Willamette Valley.

It is also on the American Pacific Coast,

in the Pacific Northwest,

and in the Lewis & Clark Corridor.

Globally, it is in North America,

in the Cascade Range,

on the Ring of Fire,

in the Pacific Rim,

in the Western Hemisphere,

in the Western World,

and in the Anglosphere.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Hughes-Durbin Building (within shouting distance of this marker); Roth Company Building (within shouting distance of this marker); Gray Building (within shouting distance of this marker); Reed Opera House (within shouting distance of this marker); Pomeroy Building (within shouting distance of this marker); Public Amusement in Salem (within shouting distance of this marker); McGilchrist Building (within shouting distance of this marker);

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First National Bank, Old/Capitol Tower Building (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Salem.

Additional commentary.
1. Contributing Building
The Ekerlen (Bishop) Building is not individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places but is a contributing building as part of the Salem Downtown State Street-Commercial Street Historic District. The following verbiage is taken from the NRHP Registration Form from 2001:

The Eckerlen Building was built in 1894, and added to in the 1910s. The second-floor facade retains substantial architectural integrity. As a result of major exterior renovation in 2000, the second-floor windows along with some architectural details, once obscured, have been recovered. Additionally, the building is associated with the Gray and, primarily, the Eckerlen families, who played an important role in the transportation and commercial history of Salem in the late 1800s and 1900s.

The Gray family evidently had this two-story constructed in 1894, just three years after the completion of the larger Gray block of shops immediately to the south. In 1895 both floors of the Eckerlen Building housed agricultural implements

Photographed by Douglass Halvorsen, October 14, 2025

2. Ekerlen (Bishop) Building Marker

The marker is located to the left of the right entrance to the building, as seen in the photo.

and machinery. The Gray brothers, Charles A., George B., and William T., contributed to the turn-of-the-century up-building of Salem. In the late 1880s, Charles A. Gray was the superintendent of the Salem Street Railway Company. The Polk Salem directory listed George B. and William T. Gray as a realtor and a capitalist, respectively. By the early 1900s, William and George Gray pursued their hardware business in the Gray Block, at the northwest corner of Liberty and State streets, and William T. Gray worked as a general contractor. All three Gray brothers left Salem around 1907.

Gertrude G. Lownsdale owned this building briefly from 1907-1909. Eugene Eckerlen bought the property in May 1909. For many years, Eugene Eckerlen operated a saloon in the 200-block of Commercial Street and, later, in the 100-block of Commercial in what became known as the Eckerlen Building. After Eckerlen purchased the building at 145-147 Liberty Street in 1909 it became known as the “New Eckerlen Building." Eckerlen, however, did not move his saloon into the building and, instead, rented out space to other Salem merchants. By the early 1920s, Eugene and Alice Eckerlen no longer operated a saloon on Commercial Street; they pursued farming until Eugene Eckerlen’s death in 1933. The Eckerlen Building on Liberty Street passed to Eugene Eckerlen, Jr., and his wife, Virginia Eckerlen.

In 1936,

Ekerlen (Bishop) Building image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Douglass Halvorsen, October 14, 2025

3. Ekerlen (Bishop) Building

during the Great Depression, Bishop’s clothing store for men and boys, moved from their Commercial Street store in Salem to the Eckerlen Building and remained there through the 1960s. Bishop’s store was founded in Salem by Charles P. Bishop, a pioneer merchant and woolen mill owner and operator. Bom in Contra Costa, California, in 1854, Bishop came to Oregon with his parents two years later, where he grew to adulthood on a farm in Linn County. After engaging in milling and mercantile businesses in Brownsville, Crawfordsville, and McMinnville, Bishop came to Salem in 1889, where he helped build and operate the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill with his father-in-law (Thomas Kay, Sr.). In 1891 he bought the Salem Woolen Mills Store that evolved into Bishop’s men’s furnishings store—one of the largest enterprises of its kind in the state outside Portland. Between 1909 and 1920, Charles and his sons, Clarence, Roy, and Chauncey, bought three woolen mills—Oregon Worsted Company in Portland (Sellwood), Oregon, the Washougal Woolen Mills, in Washougal, Washington, and the Eureka Woolen Mills in Eureka, California. Bishop’s men's clothing store continued in operation in Salem at its Liberty Street address through the 1960s, when it moved to Center Street. Charles Bishop served as Salem mayor (1899-1906), state senator (1915-1918), and, for three decades, as trustee of Willamette University. Bishop

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died in 1941 at the age eighty seven.

— Submitted October 23, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Credits. This page was last revised on October 28, 2025. It was originally submitted on October 23, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. This page has been viewed 66 times since then and 23 times this year. Last updated on October 25, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on October 23, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. 3. submitted on October 24, 2025, by Douglass Halvorsen of Klamath Falls, Oregon. • Devry Becker Jones was the editor who published this page.