Silverton, Oregon

Silverton, Oregon
City
East Main Street in downtown Silverton
Nickname(s): Gateway to Silver Falls
Motto: Oregon's Garden City
Location in Oregon
Coordinates: 45°0′24″N 122°46′57″W / 45.00667°N 122.78250°W / 45.00667; -122.78250Coordinates: 45°0′24″N 122°46′57″W / 45.00667°N 122.78250°W / 45.00667; -122.78250
Country	United States
State	Oregon
County	Marion
Incorporated	1885
Government
• Mayor	Stu Rasmussen
Area[1]
• Total	3.47 sq mi (8.99 km2)
• Land	3.43 sq mi (8.88 km2)
• Water	0.04 sq mi (0.10 km2)
Elevation	252 ft (76.8 m)
Population (2010)[2]
• Total	9,222
• Estimate (2012[3])	9,344
• Density	2,688.6/sq mi (1,038.1/km2)
Time zone	Pacific (UTC-8)
• Summer (DST)	Pacific (UTC-7)
ZIP code	97381
Area code(s)	503
FIPS code	41-67650[4]
GNIS feature ID	1126975[5]
Website	www.silverton.or.us

Silverton is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States, along the 45th parallel. The population was 9,222 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Geography

Unlike most small communities^{[citation needed]} in Western Oregon in the nineteenth century, Silverton was laid out largely around its local environment. Instead of the rigid north-south grid of the township and range system, in 1854, Silverton's founder Polly Coon Price,^[6] planned the town around a large old Oregon White Oak, locating the town square around it. She named the town Silverton after Silver Creek, which flowed by the several hundred yards to the west of the oak. The tree had been a meeting spot along the Santiam Trail for the local Native Americans. Silverton is located on the eastern edge of the Willamette Valley, at the base of the Waldo Hills, which are foothills of the Cascade Range.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.47 square miles (8.99 km²), of which, 3.43 square miles (8.88 km²) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km²) is water.^[1]

Demographics

As of 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $38,429, and the median income for a family was $46,196. Males had a median income of $34,707 versus $24,479 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,062. About 10.4% of families and 13.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.7% of those under age 18 and 6.0% of those age 65 or over.

2010 census

As of the census^[2] of 2010, there were 9,222 people, 3,452 households, and 2,442 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,688.6 inhabitants per square mile (1,038.1 /km²). There were 3,677 housing units at an average density of 1,072.0 per square mile (413.9 /km²). The racial makeup of the city was 89.0% White, 0.3% African American, 0.8% Native American, 1.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 5.9% from other races, and 2.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.3% of the population.

There were 3,452 households of which 37.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.0% were married couples living together, 12.6% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 29.3% were non-families. 24.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.65 and the average family size was 3.15.

The median age in the city was 35.8 years. 28.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 7.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.7% were from 25 to 44; 26% were from 45 to 64; and 13.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.6% male and 52.4% female.

Education

Silverton is the population core of the Silver Falls School District. In 1994, voters passed a bond levy for construction of Phase I of a two-phase project to build a new high school. The new Silverton High School was constructed on Pine Street. It was completed in 1997, with a capacity for approximately 500 students. The bond levy for Phase II, failed, however, leaving the Silver Falls School District with two high school campuses. As of 1997, the roughly 350 freshmen attended the new campus, and were routinely bused to the old campus for some higher level classes and electives. As of November 2006, a new bond levy passed and Phase II of the high school was slated to begin. The second phase was completed in the summer of 2009, and in the fall of 2009 the old campus moved into the new campus. All of the students are now in the same building together.

Points of interest

A frog kite hangs from the ceiling of O'Briens, a coffee house on Water Street

Silverton is the gateway to Silver Falls State Park, Oregon's largest state park. It is also the home of the Oregon Garden, an 80 acre (320,000 m²) botanical park. Located next door to the Oregon Garden is the Gordon House, the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed home open to the public in the Pacific Northwest. Each summer, Silvertonians celebrate their most famous citizen in the Homer Davenport Community Festival and parade. Also notable is the farmers market on Saturdays where local farmers and artisans sell their wares. The first bank robbery and chase scene in the movie Bandits (starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton) was filmed in Silverton.^[7]

The Palace Theater in the downtown Silverton historic district is a movie theater constructed in the early 1900s. Originally called the Opera House, it has been showing motion pictures to the public since at least 1909. The Palace Theater has survived two fires, one in 1935 that destroyed a large portion of downtown, and the other in April 2012. The 2012 fire was mostly limited to the concession area, although the smoke damage was extensive and caused at least one other business to temporarily close.^[8] One of the current co-owners of the theater is the mayor, Stu Rasmussen, the first openly transgender mayor in the United States.^[9]

Killing of Andrew Hanlon

In June 2008 Silverton came to international attention when an unarmed Irish citizen, Andrew James (AJ) Hanlon (20), was killed by a police officer, Tony Gonzalez, in controversial circumstances.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} Gonzalez, who was responding to a reported disturbance of the peace, shot the unarmed Hanlon five times, although Hanlon's sister recalled seeing seven bullets in her brother's body.^[15] The death, the first in Silverton in twenty years,^[16] was greeted with shock there as well as in Ireland, particularly when it emerged that Andrew had being experiencing psychological issues and had most probably got lost on his way home to his sister's house in Silverton.^[17][18] Complaints were made by Andrew's family that it took six hours for the police to inform his sister of her brother's death, despite her living only a mile away,^[19] and questions were asked why the police had not used a tazer, which was available to them.^[20] Requests for transparency were greeted by obfuscation and secrecy and claims that, in Andrew Hanlon's mother's words, the City's establishment "had closed ranks on" the Hanlon family to protect Gonzalez.^[21][22] while the Consulate in San Francisco of the Government of Ireland registered concern over the killing.^[23] Protests outside Silverton City Hall were also ignored.^[24] On 24 July 2008 a Silverton grand jury found that because Gonzalez had testified that he believed that Andrew James Hanlon was armed, his killing was justified.^[25] 8 days later, on 1 August 2008, and just over a month after Andrew was killed on 30 June, Tony Gonzalez resigned from Silverton's police department. He had been arrested in July and charged with child abuse.^[26] On Monday 7 December 2008 Gonzalez was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months imprisonment when he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a teenage girl.^[27]

Notable people

• Bobbie the Wonder Dog (1921–1927), traveled on his own from Indiana to his home in Silverton
• Greg Craven, climate change activist who produced a viral video on YouTube^[28]
• Homer Davenport, political cartoonist
• Scott Gragg, NFL tackle, Silverton High School varsity football coach
• Bill Grier, head men's basketball coach at the University of San Diego
• Donald Pettit, astronaut
• Stu Rasmussen, first openly transgender mayor in the United States^[29]

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Silverton has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.^[30]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Silverton, Oregon.

• Entry for Silverton in the Oregon Blue Book
• Silverton Chamber of Commerce
• Homer Davenport Community Festival
• June Drake's recollections of Silverton's beginnings

v t e Municipalities and communities of Marion County, Oregon, United States County seat: Salem Cities Aumsville Aurora Detroit Donald Gates‡ Gervais Hubbard Idanha‡ Jefferson Keizer Mill City‡ Mt. Angel St. Paul Salem‡ Scotts Mills Silverton Stayton Sublimity Turner Woodburn CDPs Brooks Butteville Four Corners Hayesville Labish Village Marion Mehama Unincorporated communities Breitenbush Clear Lake Macleay McKee Middle Grove Monitor Niagara North Howell Pratum Saint Benedict Saint Louis Shaw Talbot Waconda West Stayton Ghost town Champoeg Footnotes ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties