Mountain Meadows: an overview

09 Jun Mountain Meadows: an overview

Community, Independence, Dignity.

Founder Madeline Hill: Dreamer and Doer.

Partner Larry Medinger: Builder.

Awards and more awards.

Published June 2025.

“This is a local project, planned, financed and built by local people. It is ‘home grown’ for Ashland.”
Madeline Hill

1995 – construction begins after years of dreaming, planning, doing

Picture yourself standing on a rural dirt road called North Mountain Avenue, one and one-half miles from downtown Ashland, but within the city limits. Madeline and Hunter Hill bought 22 acres of ranch land here in 1988 – and slowly, patiently, slowly, patiently (dealing with neighbors and regulations and sewer lines and dirt roads and city planning bureaucracy), they finally (in 1995) have the go-ahead to build the first house.

What comes before the first house? A cattle round-up! Remember, this was rural Ashland.

Now, in 2025, this ranch land has become a thriving senior independent living community called Mountain Meadows, 27 acres in size. Part of the genius of Mountain Meadows is that it feels and looks like another Ashland neighborhood. Not like a “golden years place for old people to retire,” or even like a “planned community.” You can thank co-developers Madeline Hill and Larry Medinger for that, as well as architectural firm Mithun Partners from Seattle. 

Madeline Hill has been the passionate, unstoppable force creating Mountain Meadows since before 1988. See more about Madeline’s life journey below.

Partner Larry Medinger: Builder

Larry Medinger joined as a partner in 1991. At that point, he had been building in Ashland for 20 years. His best-known project at that time was the 61-home Mill Pond neighborhood off East Main Street. His focus was on high-quality, comfortable, well-built homes without luxury home prices.

Why is this photo important?

This photo is a practical example of Madeline and Larry collaborating on building design for seniors. Larry knew how to build livable homes. Madeline knew she wanted every detail in the Mountain Meadows homes to support and enhance the lives of active, but also aging, senior citizens. 

Madeline explained to me that this photo summarizes their solution to one safety design challenge – grab bars in the bathroom. Why grab bars? For bathrooms in a senior living community, an important safety feature would be grab bars in the bath tub or shower, to minimize the chance of slips and falls. However, this is a 55+ senior community, so most of the people buying homes will not be frail elderly seniors. From a marketing standpoint, many “younger” prospective home buyers may be put off by seeing grab bars in the bathroom, and may choose not to buy a house built for “older” people. 

The photo shows how their solution gives people flexibility. Madeline is standing by a bathroom wall during construction, before the sheetrock and tub or shower are installed. She is holding a 2×6 board. The board is placed at just the right height for a grab bar to be added to the bathroom whenever the homeowner wants to, since the bar can be firmly attached to the 2×6 board behind the tub or shower wall.

Many conversations and much thoughtfulness went into the construction details. No steps to enter the front door, or between the garage and the home. Seamless transitions between carpet and wood or tile floors, to minimize the chance of trips and falls. Electric outlets are higher than normal on the walls, to reduce the need to bend over. And so much more.

Awards and more awards

As a result of the general architecture and the attention to detail, Mountain Meadows has been recognized as one of the best and most innovative “retirement communities” in the nation. The community received three major awards, all in 1999 when it was still in development.

• *Best Small Active Retirement Community in America 1999
• by the National Council on Senior’s Housing.
• *100 Best Communities 1999
• by Where to Retire Magazine.
• *Grand Award – Best Senior Housing in the West 1999
• by the Western Building Show.

“In my opinion, aging is not a series of losses. It is a series of changing opportunities to expand and experience life in newer, fuller ways.”
Madeline Hill, in the Sneak Preview, September 30, 1996

Madeline’s journey led to Mountain Meadow’s journey

Madeline was raised in a self-reliant, working class family. She speaks of two childhood influences that shaped her life: (1) her mother worked as a school bus driver for handicapped children, and Madeline often rode along with the kids in the bus; (2) Madeline’s best friend in high school was in a wheel chair, so Madeline learned first-hand the mobility challenges her friend faced in everyday life.

These early experiences led her to a social services job in Southern California, where she worked with physically handicapped children who had lived their entire lives at a hospital. Within a few years, she got every one of them out of the hospital, and living in homes. 

Founder Madeline Hill: Dreamer and Doer

Madeline and Hunter Hill moved to Ashland in 1972. Her focus shifted to working with seniors, initially at the V.A. Domiciliary in White City. All of her working life, she had been bothered by people being institutionalized. Now she dreamed of finding ways to help seniors stay in their homes. 

She is a dreamer — and also a doer, someone who takes action rather than just thinking about it. Through many years of work in social services at the county, regional and state level, she introduced new ideas that changed the way services were provided. 

As Madeline was dealing with the challenges of bureaucracies and budgets and poor nursing homes that had to be fixed or closed, she began to ask herself: “Why can’t somebody build a senior community based upon my value system, instead of what I see around me?” So, she looked around and she thought, “Why not me?”

And after many years of turning dreaming into doing, here we are.

The Mountain Meadows site plan was designed to include an abundance of open space. There is an emphasis on views in the arrangement of buildings and open space, so you can see Mount Ashland, forests and mountains all around, and the lights of Ashland at night.

Mountain Meadows is unique

Mountain Meadows was unique when it won all those awards in 1999. Thirty years after its founding, it is still unique. Now 27 acres in all, it includes single family homes, duplexes, condominiums, a four-acre park, a creek and pond, a large community garden for residents, and a large clubhouse with meeting rooms, fitness center, woodworking shop and an excellent dining room. I should also mention 25,000 or so daffodil plants, which turn Mountain Meadows into a wonderland when they are in bloom. This is all “owned” by the residents themselves!

Community, Independence, Dignity

Mountain Meadows was designed to create a real community feeling among the residents, who could age in place with independence and dignity. 

Joseph Craig, who worked for decades on housing and quality of life for seniors, wrote in the Mountain Meadows newsletter of October 2003: “I had never seen a retirement center that wasn’t totally built and managed by a church, the government or a corporation with their own rules and regulations. Two years ago,­­ Madeline and Larry began the process of turning over the remaining holdings (clubhouse, fitness center, parks and community garden), valued at just over five million dollars, to the Owner’s Association. That is a five million dollar gift.”

As of 2025, there are 226 properties and nearly 300 residents in the community. It is a self-governing non-profit, through the Mountain Meadows Owners’ Association (MMOA). As mentioned above, the MMOA, and thus the residents, also own all of the community common areas and non-residential buildings. Owners elect a Board of Directors, which oversees a professional management company hired to provide day-to-day management of the facilities, services and grounds.

30 years from the first house until today

Founders Madeline Hill and her husband Hunter still live in the Mountain Meadows community. As I walked the streets and ate in the dining room with Madeline, as I listened and learned, I felt both the passionate scope of her decades-long vision and also the relaxed joy of seeing it realized.

Note: I will write additional photo essays with more detail about the history of Mountain Meadows, and about every street in the community.