Bush Pasture Park
Bush Pasture Park is an eight minute walk from South Salem High School. Students use it as a popular hang out spot after school. Many people take nature walks, play tennis, or watch the wildlife. Bush Park is prominent in Salem’s community. The park’s designation as a public space serves as a tribute to the Asahel Bush family and their entrepreneurial ingenuity.
Asahel Bush was an American newspaper publisher and businessman in Salem. He moved to Oregon at the age of 26 from New York. Once he moved his printing press, he started the Oregon Statesman newspaper in Oregon City. In 1853 Oregon’s state capital changed to Salem, so Bush moved the newspaper company to Salem. He later renamed his newspaper to the Salem Statesman Journal .Â
In 1878, Bush moved into a 12 bedroom house as a widower to four kids, after his wife died at 30 from tuberculosis. Presently a museum, the two-story wooden building, designed by local architect Wilbur F. Boothby, is typical of the English style adapted by American merchants and professionals of the post-Civil War years.
Bush died at the age of 89 on December 23, 1913 and buried in the Salem Pioneer Cemetery. Sally Bush, Bush’s second daughter, lived at Bush House until her death in 1946. Her elder brother A.N. Bush returned to the house in 1948, bringing the elevator from his former Salem home, and lived there until his death in 1953.
The Bush House Museum, as it is now called, has been operating since 1953 and is open to the public. His estate is now preserved as Bush’s Pasture Park and his home is on the National Register of Historic Places.
