The footpath and its tall stairway were built as a convenient route from Granite Street to Emil Peil’s Ashland Plaza in the 1930s; the stairs have been replaced after about 90 years of service

By Peter Finkle for Ashland.News

Have you taken the Alice Peil Walkway shortcut between Granite Street and Winburn Way? If you have, you can thank Alice and Emil Peil. Read on to learn who they were, why the shortcut was named after Alice, and how it came to be.

You might have noticed that the Alice Peil Walkway stairs were rebuilt this summer, so I think this is a good time to share these photos and stories. Emil and Alice Peil were both prominent Ashland citizens for many decades, both worthy of individual recognition.

Emil Peil

Describing his early life, Emil Peil said: “My father was a sergeant in the Swedish army for 40 years. I was born in Sweden, Oct. 6, 1857. There were seven children in our family — six boys and one girl. I came to the United States with a neighbor of ours from Sweden, when I was 15. I got a job in a blacksmith shop … in Calumet, Michigan.”

After working in many states, Emil came to Southern Oregon. In 1884, he built the first commercial building in the new railroad town of Medford. He then moved to Ashland in 1893, taking over an existing business in a prime spot across the street from Ashland Flour Mill, on the southwest corner of the Ashland Plaza. His new blacksmith shop and farm implement store was so successful that people began calling the location “Peil’s Corner.”

Upon his death, his obituary in the Ashland Tidings of Jan. 7, 1938 stated: “On June 10, 1910, he was married to Alice Applegate, the daughter of Ivan D. Applegate and the granddaughter of Lindsay Applegate, a prominent pioneer of Oregon. … For the past 45 years Emil Peil had been a citizen of this city, and had taken an active part in its business, social and civic life. Perhaps no other individual more completely exemplified that pattern of life which we are proud to call American. … His humble store was a shrine where men of all classes came for sympathy and advice.”

Alice Applegate Peil

Alice Applegate Peil was born March 28, 1872, into the well-respected Applegate family. She carried on the family teaching tradition for 15 years. She was the first female Klamath County high school principal as well as a “teacher of teachers” at Ashland Normal School. When she married Emil in 1910 and settled on Granite Street in Ashland, she left classroom teaching, but continued to influence generations of Southern Oregonians as a leader and educator.

Alice was an active partner in her husband’s farm implement business and became a pioneer in a new way: She was one of the first women in Southern Oregon to drive an automobile. According to Marjorie O’Harra, Alice “saw the need of assistance to her husband in his business and so she purchased an automobile in 1916 and began her work as a chauffeur. She didn’t miss one old wagon road in Southern Oregon as she carried out her duties. She drove the Greensprings stage road to Klamath Falls, where she insists [she] changed gears 1,100 times as she steered up and down and around over rocks, mud and holes. She drove for 40 years.”

Their house at 52 Granite St.

The Peils’ house was built in 1910, when many of Ashland’s wealthy citizens and leading business people were building on Granite Street. When Emil Peil purchased the property at 52 Granite St., it came with a view of his Peil Implement Co. store, below at the corner of the Plaza.

The Peil store: Farm implements, wagons, eventually automobiles

As mentioned, Emil began his career as a blacksmith. Soon after opening the Ashland shop, he expanded into farm implements, which drove the success of his business until his death in 1938.

Take a look at the above1895 photo of the Plaza, Ashland Flour Mill, and Peil’s “Blacksmithing and Wagonmaking” sign at the right edge of the photo. The photo shows why he sold lots of wagons — every farmer needed at least one.

In later years, Emil began selling both Studebaker wagons and Bain wagons. If you are an old-timer, you may remember that Studebaker transitioned from being a wagon-making company to being an automobile-making company.

The story of ‘the shortcut’ — the Walkway

According to John Murphy, they hired Harry Morris of Oak Street Tank & Steel to build the stairs from the back of their property down the steep hill directly to Winburn Way and the Plaza. (Parenthetically, I am happy to report that Oak Street Tank & Steel is still a family company in Ashland as of 2024!) The convenience that the stairs provided was obvious, and other neighborhood residents also began using them.

Emil and Alice Peil could “keep an eye” on the store from their house on Granite Street, but walking there was another matter. The drop-off from Granite Street to Winburn Way was (and still is) the height of a two-story building.

So to reach their store from home, they had to walk north a block on Granite Street, east a block on Main Street, then south a block to the end of the Plaza. Sometime during the 1930s, toward the end of Emil’s life, they decided to shorten the trip between home and shop.

As usage of the shortcut increased, the Peils created a fenced path for people to access the stairs without walking through their yard. After Emil’s death in 1938, his business and the Plaza building were sold. Though Alice moved from her house into the Lithia Hotel (now the Ashland Springs Hotel) in 1942, she continued to own the house.

In September 1948, Alice Peil donated the 6-foot-wide pathway on the Peil property to the city of Ashland. It was named the Alice Peil Walkway in her honor.

She continued to be involved in the community, including the Ashland Study Club, the Oregon and Southern Oregon historical societies, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She moved to Rogue Valley Manor when it opened in 1961. Alice died in 1968 at the age of 96.

Rebuilt for safety

Adroit Construction was hired to build new, safer stairs. I spoke with Nick Kapphahn, the company’s stairway Project Manager. He said that the original steel stairs, about 90 years old, were near the end of their useful life. The city of Ashland hired ZCS Engineering to design the new stairs. Then Adroit carefully removed the old stairs and built the new ones in eight weeks this summer. During construction, Kapphahn was impressed by how many people stopped to say “thank you” for the stairs being upgraded.

The new stairway tread material is a fiberglass composite with a non-slip coating. This material is strong, lightweight, corrosion-resistant, should last longer than steel, aluminum or wood, and has low maintenance requirements.

As you walk the new Alice Peil Walkway in the years to come, think of this industrious and caring Ashland couple who gave so much more than just a steel stairway shortcut to our town.

Peter Finkle leads history, art and “Haunted Ashland” walking tours. See WalkAshland.com for walking tour information, or to request a private tour for your group or family.