Ashland City Band, Part 3: The band’s history since 1876! Including why the City Band is different from other bands, how it can rehearse as little as it does, and a reminder to see them play free in the park on Thursday evenings through Aug. 11.
Ashland’s oldest hotel is once again open for business. Ashland has two historic hotel buildings, the Peerless Hotel, built in 1900, and Ashland Springs Hotel, built in 1925. The Peerless, at 243 Fourth street in the Railroad District, was closed for three months for renovations by its newest owner, Shawn Donnille.
Originally called “Ashland Mills,” Ashland was founded around Abel Helman’s water-powered sawmill on Ashland Creek, later transformed into a flour mill. The Ashland Woolen Mill, on Helman Street, was one of the city’s major employers in the 19th century. As late as the 1950s, Ashland still boasted half a dozen lumber mills.
The question arose: Might there — despite all the years of commercial construction and trenching for buried utility lines at the Plaza — remain any evidence of an Indigenous village along the banks of what we now call Ashland Creek?
Nearly 18 months after the devastating Almeda Fire destroyed her downtown Talent business, Bonnie K. Morgan is cobbling together more than $1 million to rebuild. She’ll host an “Art of the Fire” art show Saturday at the shell of the historic Malmgren Garage.
Ashland boosters in the early 1920s would have none of building a hotel the same size as those of rival towns; they would build the tallest building between San Francisco and Portland!
Heavy rain on New Year’s Eve 1996 brought flooding to Ashland as 1997 dawned, including the downtown Plaza area, causing $50 million in property damage and displacing 1,500 people.
Lithia Park is often called Ashland’s “crown jewel.” Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it was among the first public parks in southern Oregon — but, if not for a group of persistent women, things would be much different.
What’s now a treasured-yet-crumbling Ashland landmark started as an attraction at an international exposition in San Francisco more than a century ago.
The festival began as a two-play production on July 2, 1935, performing the two Shakespearean plays. Ashland’s grant was with the stipulation, however, that afternoon boxing matches would also be held to help cover costs. The festival succeeded so well that the theater ticket revenues covered the boxing matches’ losses.
As of Nov. 3, Ashland Community Food Bank has a new director at the reins. Catie Mahoney will serve in the role with guidance from outgoing director Amey Broeker, who will officially retire on Dec. 31 after serving in the food bank role since 2022.
The Ashland City Council will review a proposal from a potential provider to oversee its extreme weather shelter during its regular business meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival has added a second screening showcasing Indigenous filmmakers on Sunday, Nov. 23.
Three and a half years into the war with Russia, Ashland violinist and longtime music teacher Faina Podolnaya is still finding ways to help Ukrainian refugees.
Herbert Rothschild: As the number of ads in The New Yorker has shrunk, it seems as if the wealth of its readership has concentrated, just as one might concentrate the flavor of a sauce by reducing it on the stovetop.
Local artist MaryAnn Shank will share the thoughts behind her newest novel “Sor Juana, My Beloved” at Bloomsbury Books Jan. 26. Shank is a finalist of The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Book of the Year 2025 award, awarded by the International Latino Book Association.
(It’s free)
