The Alice Peil Walkway: a not-so-secret shortcut (with new stairs)

25 Jul The Alice Peil Walkway: a not-so-secret shortcut (with new stairs)

Who was Alice Peil?
“Her” stairs were rebuilt in 2024.
Where was her husband’s store?
What was the shortcut?
Published July 2024.

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 (2024), so I think this is a good time to share these photos and stories. Let’s begin with a brief introduction to this couple, who were prominent Ashland citizens for many decades.

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, October 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, a blacksmith shop, in the brand new railroad town of Medford, Oregon. In 1893, he came to Ashland and opened a successful blacksmith shop and farm implement store here, which came to be known as “Peil’s Corner.” It was on the Plaza, in a prime spot on the corner, across the street from Ashland Flour Mill.

Upon his death, his obituary in the Ashland Tidings of January 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 a “prominent pioneer family” (as the Ashland Tidings described the Applegates). Both of her parents believed strongly in the value of education, and had been teachers themselves. Alice carried on the family teaching tradition, and pioneering tradition, for fifteen 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.

She was a member of the women’s Ashland Study Club from 1910 until her death in 1968. Founded in 1902, this group of twenty educated and community-minded women met twice a month to discuss books and world affairs.

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 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 1100 times as she steered up and down and around over rocks, mud and holes. She drove for 40 years.”

The Peil house at 52 Granite Street

Granite Street may have been “the best address in town” in 1910, when the Peils’ house was built. Many of Ashland’s leading citizens built their houses there.

When Emil Peil purchased the property at 52 Granite Street from Jacob Wagner, it came with a view of his Peil Farm Implement Company store, which was located at the corner of Mill Street [now Winburn Way] and the Plaza. The photo below shows how you can still see their house from the Plaza corner where their store was located. The news of the day reported that construction workers rushed to get the Peils’ house built so the couple could move in after their 1910 marriage.

The Peil store: Farm implements, wagons, eventually automobiles

As mentioned, Emil began his business in Ashland as a blacksmith shop. 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 this 1895 photo (above) 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 Studebaker wagons along with Bain wagons. If you are an “old timer,” you will remember that Studebaker transitioned from being a wagon-making company to being an automobile-making company. As mentioned above, his wife Alice was one of the first women in Southern Oregon to drive a car.

Here’s the story of “the shortcut” – the Walkway

As noted above, Emil and Alice Peil could “keep an eye” on their store from their house on Granite Street. Walking to the store was another matter. The drop-off from Granite Street to Winburn Way was the height of a two-story building. So to reach their store, 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. 

According to John Murphy, they hired Harry Morris of Oak Street Tank and 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 and Steel is still a family company in Ashland as of 2024! The convenience that the stairs provided was obvious and other Granite area residents soon began using the shortcut as well.

My 2020 photos of the “old” Alice Peil Walkway

Though these were still “their stairs,” the Peils were generous with community access. At some point, they built a fence and created a narrow 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 six-foot pathway on the Peil property to the city of Ashland. It became legally a public shortcut from Granite Street to the Plaza area, and 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 the Rogue Valley Manor when it opened in 1961, then died in 1968 at the age of 96. . 

Rebuilt for safety in 2024

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, almost 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 during eight weeks this summer. 

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

Nick described a lot of public interest during the building process. Passers-by offered many stories about the history of the stairs, but the only thing consistent was the inconsistency in the stories. In terms of comments, what stood out the most was the number of people who came by daily and had something to say about the Alice Peil Walkway. Specifically, Nick said numerous people expressed a “thank you” for the stairs being upgraded.

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

Closing words regarding Emil Peil: “His humble store was a shrine where men of all classes came for sympathy and advice.” [Ashland Tidings quote]

Closing words regarding Alice Applegate Peil: She influenced generations of Southern Oregonians as a leader and educator.

More 2024 photos of the “new” Alice Peil Walkway

The photo below shows what you see now at the corner where Emil Peil had his store from 1893 to 1938.

References:

Anon. “All the World’s a Stage: Ashland, OR,” National Park Service website, accessed 3/13/2021.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/all-the-world-s-a-stage-ashland-or.htm

Ashland Tidings. March 28, 1910, 5:2.

Ashland Tidings. “Aged Resident Met Death by Clothing Catching Fire,” 31-December-1918, 1:4-5.

Ashland Daily Tidings, “Modoc Prayer Received by Mrs. A.A. Peil”, 6-January-1959, 3:3.

Kramer, George. National Register of Historic Places, Registration Form, “Emil and Alice Applegate Peil House, 52 Granite Street,” 1991.

Lockley, Fred. Oregon Journal, Portland, June 30, 1936, page 12.

McCollough, Faith. “Daughter of Pioneer Oregonians Will be Ninety-Five on Tuesday”, Medford Mail Tribune, 26-March-1967.

O’Harra, Medford Mail Tribune, July 1961

Peil, Alice Applegate. “Old Oregon School Days”, Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 3, pps. 198-9.