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.
In a reversal of fortune, a proposed 6-acre solar installation on Ashland’s northwest side along Highway 99 appears headed for approval after a public hearing Monday, Dec. 1, before a county hearing officer. The proposal had been tentatively denied by staff, then appealed to the hearing officer by the applicant, Medella Bison Ranch.
With growing concerns over major state budget deficits, stagnating population growth, rising unemployment and new data showing Oregon businesses have started looking elsewhere as they expand, Governor Tina Kotek announced her intention to dig the Beaver State’s business cred out of the basement
Asante Ashland Community Hospital’s birthing center and inpatient surgery will close by spring 2026, leaving only the emergency room and outpatient services, according to plans shared with staff Wednesday, Dec. 3, by Asante, the Medford-based health care provider serving Southern Oregon and Northern California.
Obituary: Mary Linda Jackson passed away on Thursday, Nov. 27, after a courageous battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. A Catholic Mass and Memorial Service will be held on Monday, Dec. 22 in Ashland.
Ask Strider: For Christmas, a reader would rather have pizza in her pajamas than Beef Wellington in her dressing up clothes, but family members feel differently. What to do? And another reader makes Strider wag his tail and think of pancakes.
A potentially dire budget cliff prompted the Ashland City Council Monday to look at possible future cuts to police, fire, the City Band and burial services, along with various ideas to increase revenues. The council held a five-hour “retreat” in its council chamber Monday to hash out ways to avoid expected budget shortfalls over the next three bienniums that ranged from just over $1 million in a best-case scenario to more than $23 million in a worst-case scenario.
(It’s free)
