Theme: Loss – Ashland Hotel

 

(challenge by Amy Johnson Crow)

 My challenge for 2021, I am writing 52 “stories” about my mother’s parents and their line instead of 52 ancestors.  I thought it would be a good way to get those stories onto the page for others to enjoy.

Today’s theme is about the loss - Loss of an icon:

John Schoenewald in his 80s with a picture of the Ashland Hotel

 

The Ashland Hotel opened its door in 1889 and razed in the early 1960s, according to the Table Rock Sentinel in May of 1981. Ashland Oregon

 

My Grandpa John was contracted to help tear down this old building, they needed more help so he hired my father, Bob.  This was in 1961. Our family was living in Central Oregon at the time and my mother a few months pregnant.  My father decided to take the job and moved us to Ashland, living close by my mother’s family, making Ashland my little sister’s birth place.

 The family has several pieces of furniture that came from the old hotel.  I personally have the little stand used to store the pot back when private bathrooms were not available in each room.

 My Grandparents moved to Ashland around 1936. Thirty years of seeing this beautiful building standing proud in the downtown area.  In it’s day, it was considered a grand hotel and so it was sad to see such an icon being torn down.

Here are a couple of articles I found on when researching about the hotel history and a newspaper article that is in the family’s possession along with a picture of my grandfather holding a picture of the Hotel.

Article:

First National Bank of Portland Building (Site 40.0), built following the demolition of the Ashland Hotel

 The original building on this site was the Ashland Hotel, a late-19th century three-story brick building built in anticipation of Ashland's connection to the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Occupying the full block and visually dominating downtown for more than three-quarters of a century, the Ashland Hotel was razed in June 1961. Completed in 1962 after the demolition, the First National Bank of Oregon Building (long the site First Interstate Bank and now Wells Fargo Bank following a series of mergers), occupies the south half of the block with parking and drive up windows on the north. The "gala ribbon-cutting ceremony feather Martha Wyatt, the lovely 'Miss Oregon' from Jacksonville," was held on Friday October 12th 1962. (Tidings, I l-Oct-1962) Built with a flat roof, set back from the sidewalk and designed in a modern, non-ornamental style with non-historic materials, the First National Bank of Oregon Building is not visually compatible with or complimentary to the historic character of the Ashland downtown.

Source:

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form  https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/00036090-5184-49bf-9e86-e92eb0d5efa4

The Article:

By the late 1800s, the Ashland Hotel (a beautiful brick building that stood on Main Street between Oak and Pioneer Streets) was built.

 “Hotel Opens its Doors to the Public.”

While today such a headline would hardly be newsworthy, in January of 1889 it was just about the most exciting event to occur in Ashland, Oregon…maybe ever!

The Hotel Oregon, later named the Ashland Hotel, was opening its doors to the public for the first time. The hotel covered an entire city block and, as one report described it, “…was a blaze of light from the office to the attic.”

The beautiful hotel boasted electricity, hot and cold running water, and 46 rooms furnished with solid oak bedroom sets, Brussels floral carpets, and tapestries. Best yet, every room had a window and some even had a closet.

Within the hotel there were several parlors, a barbershop, bar, reading room, billiard room, and a washhouse. Outside, a stable was at the ready to meet the transportation needs of the guests. 

Among the more famous of the hotel’s guests were William Taft, Jack London, William Jennings Bryan, and Joaquin Miller. 

The hotel was razed in the early 1960s to make room for a Wells Fargo Bank that today still occupies the block where the original hotel stood.

Source:

Ashland Hotel Is Favorite For Travelers.”  Table Rock Sentinel, May 1981 Vol. 1 No. 5 pg. 4-5.

As It Was is a co-production of Jefferson Public Radio and the Southern Oregon Historical Society. As It Was stories are broadcast weekdays on Jefferson Public Radio and are available online at asitwas.org.

 

Taken before the 1929 roof fire