Fourth of July Parade to feature local business owners, including fifth-generation steel fabrication business and 50-year ‘eclectic’ general store Paddington Station

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

Oak Street Tank & Steel has been fabricating metalwork by hand since the early 20th century.

At least “100-and-some” years, said Chris Decker, who co-owns the business with brother Jim Morris. She will help represent the business as one of at least 13 businesses being honored as collective Grand Marshals for the Fourth of July Parade on Tuesday, July 4, organized by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce. The fifth-generation fabrication business will join others in the lineup, including Paddington Station, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Oak Street Tank & Steel was started by the Morris family, led by R. Gene Morris. From steel fabrication for boats to steel, water, and fuel tanks to even bomb shelters during the height of the Cold War, the business has continued to evolve and change to customer needs over the years without changing its industrial methods. 

The business has since fabricated materials for solar arrays, and also makes handrails and steel beams.

“If it’s made out of steel, we can pretty much make it here,” Chris said. “It’s all by hand. We don’t have any computerized machinery yet.”

Sales are focused both out of the area, especially delivering to northern Oregon and northern California. Farm and vineyard owners are among the clientele, as are local contractors needing housing materials.

“We usually sell to a dealer that then sells to the public,” she said. “We ship on our own trucks loads of tanks to certain areas and drop them off at the dealers and then they distribute them to the public. We do sell to the public, too, but most of our business is through a dealer or someone who distributes.”

The business is a testament to keeping the art form while meeting customer needs. 

“We’ve kind of had to change with the times, which is probably one of the reasons we’re around still,” Decker said. “We kind of had to branch out and look at new products.”

Decker said she believes the business started in 1923, though the family was doing 

fabrication work in 1912 at a local blacksmith shop on Winburn Way where the Ashland Community Development office building is currently located. 

Decker said the family rented a building in 1923 on Oak Street where Standing Stone Brewery used to be housed.

In 1945, the business moved to the corner of Oak and A streets.

“There used to be a packing house down there but we moved in there,” she said.

In 2000, the business relocated to Jefferson Avenue, where they have been since.

All the moves can be counted on one hand for 100-plus years in business, so not bad.

Decker stopped to do the math on how long she’s been with the family fabrication company — 50 years.

“We actually worked in the business as kids,” Decker said. “We’d come down on weekends and pick up scrap and put it in the scrap bin.”

Decker noted the strong Ashland ties with her grandmother Ruth Morris’ maiden name was Emery, which was among the founding families of the city of Ashland.

“She married Harry Morris, who, with his Dad, started the Oak Street Garage,” Decker said.

It is not the first time Oak Street Tank & Steel has been honored by the Chamber of Commerce or the city, according to Decker.

“It’s nice to be remembered,” Decker said, of the parade’s theme focusing on businesses.
“My Dad (R. Gene Morris) was very involved in the city,” she said. “He was on the Planning Commission.”

The business was operated by he and his sister, R. Gayle Morris.

Now it is owned by Decker and brother Jim Morris.

“It’s been a brother-sister operation for the last couple generations,” she said. 

For those surprised by a steel fabrication business in Ashland, Decker said: “There’s a lot of diversity here, a lot of different types of businesses. Some like ours are kind of behind-the-scenes … I don’t think a lot of people realize there’s an industrial section to Ashland as well, not just a tourist section.”

Paddington Station: An ‘eclectic emporium’ meets old-fashioned general store

The parade will also feature representatives from Paddington Station, which is celebrating 50 years in downtown Ashland this year. 

“We love our Ashland business community, so we’re excited for another 50,” said co-owner Kelly Hammond, in an interview with Ashland.news on Tuesday.

“Being alongside companies that have been here for more than a century is really amazing,” Kelly added later in the interview, noting she hopes the business continues to have “staying power” well into the future.

Hammond said the Paddington Bear will make a reappearance, riding in the parade car after a 10-year hiatus. The bear will be the focus of an upcoming event held in celebration of the store’s 50th anniversary, with events to follow each month through 2023. 

Plans are in place for events at the store every month, as well as a robust Grand Open House during the holidays this winter, with prizes and music at the store.

Hammond was 5 years old when her mother, Pam Hammond, bought the store from Judy Patterson in 1992 (Patterson started it in 1973). The mother-daughter duo now co-own the store with Joe Collins, who has been with the store for two decades.

“All of my earliest memories are in the store and I grew up there,” Kelly said.

“I like to say we’re an old-fashioned general store,” she added. “We’re a little nostalgic, we’re a lot of fun; We’re really an experiential store, and we try to make sure we have something for everyone …. A one of a kind store that you’re not going to find everywhere, with a lot of heart and soul.”

Pam Hammond was a department store buyer down in Los Angeles and Kelly told Ashland.news her mom really wanted to get out of the corporate world.

“She was lucky enough to find Paddington, and find this awesome community here in Ashland with the Shakespeare Festival right down the street and all of these other cute boutiques,” Kelly said. “It was just a great space for us to spread our wings and now we have two more 

stores and a receiving warehouse and offices, and we’ve just really grown with the community and we’re really proud of that.”

The Hammonds also own The Paddington Jewel Box, opened in 2012 and Inspired by Oregon, opened in 2015.  

Now a co-owner with a daughter of her own, Kelly wants to continue the legacy for the next generation for the store, which she said her dad calls an “eclectic emporium.”

Her daughter, who is 2-and-a-half, is now growing up as the “first toy sampler” at the store.

“We love being a family business,” Kelly said.

Dana Preston, membership and business development director for the Ashland Chamber, said this year, the focus of the annual parade is marking special anniversaries for various local businesses like Paddington Station and others, but also about the importance of all local businesses in Ashland.

Each of the grand marshals represent a decade, starting with the 1880s. Ashland Chamber of Commerce, which is not a for-profit but advocates for local businesses, was first known as Ashland Board of Trade. It was the first board that came together to support business and commerce in Ashland, Preston said.

“The whole driving point of the Fourth of July theme and by honoring our grand marshals this year is really a celebration of the entire business community,” Preston said. 

For more information on the Fourth of July parade, go online at ashlandchamber.com/Page.asp?NavID=784.

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at hollyd@ashland.news.