There’s a big, historic and domed building sitting vacant near the Oregon State Hospital.

A growing coalition of local organizations and elected leaders believes it could be the perfect community center. They’re hoping to purchase the building as a home for an array of small nonprofits currently scattered across Salem homes, garages and storage units.

At the helm of the effort are Brian McKinley, a longtime Salem volunteer, and Stephan Price, the executive director of the Young Leaders Program. About three months ago, they began working to build the Dome Building Community Coalition to garner public support for preserving the building and demonstrate its potential for public benefit.

The building is owned and maintained by the state’s Department of Administrative Services, but “has been in mothballs since the pandemic,” when the offices moved to other buildings and sitting vacant, said McKinley. A department spokeswoman did not reply to an email seeking information about the building’s status.

McKinley learned that, after several failed attempts to put it on the market, the state was considering selling the building for a nominal fee to someone who would use it for public benefit. They decided to make the pitch for local nonprofits.

“So when (the department) brought it up as surplus, I was like ‘let’s do it,’” McKinley said. 

McKinley worked in the Legislature for two decades, previously served on the Salem planning commission and was behind the effort to replace Salem’s city flag in 2022.

“I happen to know all these people, and finally all the connections I’ve made over the years came to fruition,” he said.

A gathering of coalition members last week included State Rep. Kevin Mannix, former Salem Mayor Chris Hoy who is serving as the coalition’s government liaison, and representatives of local nonprofits who hope to use the space including Simply Birthdays and the Oregon State Hospital Museum of Mental Health.

Others who’ve shown support include Salem City Councilor Mai Vang, whose ward includes the state hospital’s campus, and State Sen. Kim Thatcher.

The pair’s three-month effort feels like a race against time. The building is in great shape, they said, with a new roof, internet connectivity, plumbing and the essentials. But they fear it will degrade the longer it sits vacant, to the point of demolition.

It feels like each time they visit they’re greeted with another one of its window panes broken and replaced with wood, Price said.

“How many boards on windows before it’s abandoned? Before it’s a derelict property?” he said. 

If they succeed in gaining enough community traction to purchase the building for public use, they’ll be moving nonprofit services in to brighten a space infamous for its darker times. 

Built in the early 20th century, the Dome Building is next door to the newly renovated Yaquina Hall, a former nurses’ dormitory that was once state property. The state sold the property to the city of Salem, which turned it into affordable housing. It sits across Northeast Center Street from the Oregon State Hospital’s Museum of Mental Health.

Originally built as a place to receive new patients in response to overcrowding, historians have called the Dome Building the finest example of the French Beaux Arts style of architecture in the county. Built as a reflection of the original Oregon Capitol building, it has a three-story central dome with wings out to either side. 

Over the last century, the building was used by the Oregon State Hospital, then as the hospital’s K-12 school, then office space for the state Department of Corrections starting in the 1970s. It’s featured in several scenes of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

In 1989, Michael Francke, the corrections department director, was murdered on the front steps of the building. McKinley said they got approval from the Francke family to pursue the community center, and are considering ways to honor him in the new space.

“I don’t like to anthropomorphize a building, but starting as a receiving ward, working the Department of Corrections, having the assassination here, this building’s been through so much trauma as a structure,” McKinley said. “Finally after 110 years of being used for not-so-happy things, being the site of not-so-happy events, we see it as something that could be easily converted.”

Under their plan, the coalition’s board would guide the usage of the space using community feedback. Nonprofits would chip in to pay for utilities, and maintenance and upkeep of the property and landscaping would be done by volunteers. They’d apply for historic preservation grants for any major projects or repairs that would come up.

“(The coalition) would have ownership of it, so there wouldn’t be any more state funds directed,” McKinley said. “That’s one of the goals, is to take this cost away from the state.”

Part of the motivation was to give a permanent home to Price’s nonprofit, Young Leaders. The Salem-based organization is known for its week-long overnight summer camp that has about 100 students from around the state come to simulate running the world, complete with governments, businesses, law enforcement, media and its own currency.

This year’s camp took place at Linfield University, but it operates for most of the year out of Price’s garage, and has to make an effort to find and pay for venues for its camps year after year. The Dome Building would serve as a constant, central meeting space.

The Capitol-like design of the Dome Building will allow for more space for the students to roam, with bunks separated into the “House” and “Senate” wings of the building. There are also plenty of little rooms for the students to meet.

Several teen participants joined Salem Reporter at the Dome Building to share their support of the new space. Among them was Anna Mae Walker, a high school senior from Springfield, who led the media team this year and learned how to edit videos.

“I really appreciate what Young Leaders does as a program. As for this Dome Building, having a place to keep all this stuff, to have smaller events and to have bigger events, I feel like it could really open it up to a lot more kids and just a lot more opportunities for the camp as a whole,” Walker said.

They’ll continue to collect community support and gauge the interest of nonprofits, and once they secure the building they plan to have community meetings to decide on exact uses for the space.

McKinley said the project is a spiritual successor to an effort he was involved in to prevent the demolition of Howard Hall at the former Oregon State School for the Blind. It was demolished  about a decade ago, and its bricks were made into an arch.

“I don’t want to see this happen to (the Dome Building), because unlike Howard Hall, which was arguably dilapidated, this building is in as pristine condition as possible for a building of its age,” McKinley said.

“It has good bones,” Price added.

Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.

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