Photo of the Day, 1995.010.0029

WHC Collections 1995.010.0029.

By Corey Rosenberg

A man sits at a desk, tinkering. To his left, a large Hall’s Safe & Lock Co. wall safe is swung open, showcasing an impressive stock of pocket watches to be repaired or sold or safeguarded, all under the words “A. B. GARDNER.” Above him, even more clocks; one apart from them all, a Self-Winding Clock Co. model with the words “U. S. OBSERVATORY TIME HOURLY BY W. U. TEL. CO.” on its face. In front of him, the antique glow of a window illuminates the image of a woman, and behind him sits a cabinet of well ordered bottles. At the bottom of the photo, the words:

A. B. GARDNER, EXPERT WATCHMAKER AND JEWLER.

332 STATE ST. SALEM, OREGON

In the year 1867, in Canada,¹ Allan B Gardner was born to William Gardner and Elizabeth Bryson². Allan grew up outside of the United States, immigrating south in 1885 or 1886. A handsome young man in his early twenties, Allan must have been a skilled and charming fellow, full of potential. Within four or five years, he would comfortably find both friendship and residence in Oregon, a state which he would call home for the majority of his life.

On the twenty-thirdof January, 1890, Allan married Ms. Zelda Burford, at the Evangelical Parsonage in Salem, Oregon.³ Born in Pennsylvania, Zelda’s father had passed away before her ninth birthday, and she and her two brothers were raised by their mother, Nancy⁴. Nancy never remarried, but she did live to act as both an affiant and witness to her daughter’s wedding⁵. Within five years, Allan had found work with S W Thompson & Co, a jewelry store located at 732 State St.,⁶ and Zelda had become one of the founding members of Salem’s Woodmen Circle,⁷ the female auxiliary to the fraternal Woodmen of the World. It was during this time that Allan’s expertise must have become known, because by 1909 Allan had opened his own shop at 332 State St., and he and his wife had purchased a home at 732 Chemeketa St.⁸

Allan’s store at 332 State St. would eventually be absorbed into the Ladd and Bush Bank Building, during one of its many renovations. Luckily, artifacts such as this photograph offer an enduring glimpse into things lost or forgotten, and from Allan’s story so far, we can tell that this particular photo must have been taken between 1909 and 1913, a date that will be subsequently explored.

Around the time of his 332 State St. storefront, Allan must have met Arthur A. Keene. Arthur was an optician by trade, and a new arrival to Salem whose skills had quickly led him to work with the John G Barr Company⁹. By 1913 Allan Gardner and Arthur Keene had come together to found Gardner & Keene, jewlers and opticians, at the new location of 386 State St. For at least seven years, Arthur and Allan would work together, often taking out weekly ads in Salem’s Daily Capital Journal. However, no jewelry store is complete without the occasional heist, and on Wednesday, the twentieth of May, 1914, one such incident occurred. As told by Daily Capital Journal, an alleged thief had been perusing the jewelry stores of State st, waiting for an opportune moment much like the one Mr. Gardner would unfortunately present. Leaving a tray of stick pins to be viewed on his counter, Allan left the main room to retrieve a requested item from the back of his store, and in that moment the alleged thief “palmed” two pins, worth approximately $25.00. Although it may not seem like much, $25.00 in 1914 would be worth $594.75 in today’s dollars¹⁰. Luckily for Allan, Charles T. Pomeroy, a fellow State St. jeweler, had followed the suspected thief out of his store and into Gardner and Keene. Alerting Allan to the danger, they worked with the local police to successfully apprehend the thief and recover the stolen pins. Despite the evidence, the thief was allowed to escape jail time, instead agreeing to a hefty fine and leaving the area.¹¹ Events such as this one help depict the good relations between Allan, Arthur, and Charles Pomeroy, and it should not be surprising that by 1921, after Allan’s retirement from Garnder and Keene, Charles Pomeroy would take his place and create Pomeroy and Keene¹².

After his retirement, Allan and his wife took to the road. Focusing on the west coast, they would eventually move south into California, living for a time in Long Beach¹³¹⁴, but often traveling back north. It was on one such occasion, on the fifth of December, 1930, in Pierce County, Washington, that Allan B. Gardner passed away¹⁵. His wife would follow in the same year, and they would be buried together in Portland’s River View Cemetery¹⁶¹⁷.