Mountain Meadows: Mountain Meadows Drive, Boulder Creek Lane, South Alley, Cobblestone Court, Stony Point.

24 Nov Mountain Meadows: Mountain Meadows Drive, Boulder Creek Lane, South Alley, Cobblestone Court, Stony Point.

Streets of Mountain Meadows, Part 2.

Phase 2: Hillside condominiums and houses.

More of Madeline Hill’s life story.

Streets included: Mountain Meadows Drive, Boulder Creek Lane, South Alley, Cobblestone Court and Stony Point.

35 photos.

Published November 2025.

This photo essay will feature photos from Boulder Creek Lane, South Alley, Cobblestone Court, Stony Point and a section of Mountain Meadows Drive on the east side of North Mountain Avenue. These streets were developed from 1996 to 1997, and were known as the Hillside condominiums and houses. 

This is the second neighborhood (Phase 2), which was built in Mountain Meadows to the north of the original four streets (Phase 1). Two branches of Kitchen Creek flow between Phases 1 and 2. Open space for a large park was set aside along Kitchen Creek. I will describe the park and creek in a future photo essay. 

Skylark Assisted Living Facility was also built at this time. Because it was divided from Mountain Meadows early on, I will cover Skylark separately.

Groundbreaking for Mountain Meadows Phase 2

Ashland Mayor Cathy Golden spoke on behalf of the city at the August 1996 groundbreaking. She “noted it was ‘unusual’ for Ashland for there to be no resistance to the project from the community.” 

Mountain Meadows Drive

Mountain Meadows Drive is the “main street” through the development. It also provides a dramatically beautiful entrance to Mountain Meadows in April, when thousands of daffodil plants are blooming. Local resident Lee Bowman remembers that the late Eva Fugitt initiated planting of the first 500 daffodil bulbs in front of the Clubhouse in 2016, The next year, 800 more were planted. As more residents got involved, the numbers have continued to increase. I heard that another 8,000 to 10,000 daffodils and other bulbs were planted in late 2025!

As you can see from the map above, Mountain Meadows Drive traverses several neighborhoods within the community. Enjoy these three very different photos below that show different aspects and details along the street. I will share more photos and stories of Mountain Meadows Drive in other photo essays in this series.

Boulder Creek Lane and South Alley

Boulder Creek Lane is a U-shaped street off of Mountain Meadows Drive. The street layout and architecture of the homes adapt to its somewhat steep hillside slope. Walking a neighborhood is always the best way to get the “feel” for the unique sights of each site. I hope reading WalkAshland photo essays inspires you to explore a variety of neighborhoods in Ashland, including Mountain Meadows. In this one, I will share some of the charming details and highlights I noticed.

Several photos focus on what I learned from my guides (in three different walks) Madeline Hill, Lee Bowman and Michael Kotowski. For example, in one photo I point out that the lower floor (817 Boulder Creek Lane) is a one-story house at street level on the downhill (south) side of the U-shaped street, and the upper floor is a one-story house at street level facing Boulder Creek Lane on the uphill (north) side.

In another photo, I show the skylight Madeline Hill pointed out to me as we walked on the uphill section of Boulder Creek Lane. This large skylight looks odd, until you learn that it brings light into the kitchen of the house on the downhill side of Boulder Creek Lane.

Cobblestone Court

Cobblestone Court is a short one-block street, between Mountain Meadows Drive and North Mountain Avenue.

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Stony Point

Notice on the Mountain Meadows map that Stony Point is a T-shaped street at the north end of Phase 2 houses and condos.

More of Madeline Hill’s life story

“My high school social studies teacher changed my life.”

Madeline Hill

I introduced aspects of Madeline’s life story in the first two photo essays about Mountain Meadows. Now I would like to share more of her life experiences that eventually led to the founding of Mountain Meadows. 

Madeline’s told me that her life was changed by her high school social studies teacher Leo Ryan, whom she considers a mentor. “He was the one who saw that I had some potential. Nobody in my family had ever dreamed of going to college. He talked my parents into having me apply for college, and he helped me get a full scholarship to Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. So I got a four-year, tuition, room and board scholarship. I never would have done anything more than just be a waitress or something if not for Leo Ryan encouraging me and helping my parents understand the kinds of classes I should take in high school – college prep courses, not just getting ready to have children.”

A tragic side-note comes from Leo Ryan’s later life. He became the U.S. Representative from the 11^th District in California in 1972. Tragically, he was killed while investigating the Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple cult in Guyana, where 909 people died after drinking a cyanide-laced beverage in a mass murder-suicide.

After college, Madeline was a caseworker in social services while her husband got a Ph.D. in psychology. He found a job teaching at a university in Denmark for nine months. Living in Denmark was a turning point in her life, as she compared the social service system there to what she had seen in California, especially as it related to the elderly. She had been working with handicapped children, but decided she would shift to working with seniors – and apply in the U.S. what she had learned in Denmark.

After the couple moved to Ashland in 1972, Madeline did social work at the V.A. domiciliary in White City. She applied some of the principles she had learned in Southern California and Denmark. She began to move some of the men who were institutionalized at the V.A. out into the community. Her boss, who got his bonuses from keeping the V.A. beds full, wasn’t happy. As she put it, “he invited me to leave, so I thought that was a good time to leave.”

She was bothered by people being institutionalized, and 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.

She did find her way to fulfilling that dream, but it was a long and winding road, as the song goes. Becoming aware of women’s rights issues was a big step in her life. The doer part of Madeline helped found the first chapter of the National Organization for Women in the Rogue Valley. 

“I probably wouldn’t have started Mountain Meadows if I hadn’t run for Mayor.”

Madeline Hill

The doer part of Madeline ran for Mayor of Ashland in 1980, the first time a woman had run for the job. She came in second in a field of seven candidates, and helped pave the way for Cathy Golden (now Cathy Shaw) to be elected Mayor in 1988. Madeline told me: “Getting ready to run for Mayor taught me to ask people for money, taught me how to speak and debate, gave me courage and helped me get organized. I probably wouldn’t have started Mountain Meadows if I hadn’t run for Mayor.” 

“Running for Mayor in 1980 gave me the skills and the courage to create Mountain Meadows.” 

Madeline Hill

Mountain Meadows from dream to creation

In her professional life, Madeline worked on senior programs at the county and state levels. She is proud of her ground-breaking work, especially training people how to divert seniors out of nursing homes and into alternatives like assisted living. 

As Madeline the dreamer 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?” Not satisfied by what she saw around her, she finally concluded: “Why not me?”

She got into her “doer” mode and dove into researching at the Ashland Library (in the days before the internet). She described a breakthrough when she spotted “a 22-acre piece of property, inside the city limits of Ashland. But it had no zoning, it had no sewer, it had no paved road; but I knew it was within the city limits, and I knew that was important.” 

Here’s a real-life example that shows how “impossible” things do happen – in this case, through a combination of hard preparatory work, having courage and belief, and a bit of good fortune mixed in. 

Madeline described to me how she purchased the property that eventually became Mountain Meadows. “I read in a book at the library — how can you be a developer when you don’t have any money? Because the only money we had [Madeline and her husband Hunter] was money we earned from our jobs. The book said, ‘You can ask the seller to wait for their money.’ So I told my realtor the offer should say that I want her [the seller] to wait six years for her money. My realtor laughed and said, ‘I can’t present that. Nobody would wait six years for their money.’ I replied, ‘Well, it said in this book that you have to present all the offers, and I want you to present that offer.’ And, by golly, the seller accepted that offer! So I had six years until I had to pay her. And I did.” 

As described in the previous photo essay, Madeline had months of dialog with the city Planning Department. In 1995, the city applied a “Health Care Services” zone to the property, which gave the large development flexibility it would not have had with residential zoning.

Madeline summarized: “That allowed us to do a mixture of homes, duplexes, condominiums, and an assisted living facility – all with different densities – on one 22-acre piece of property.” Mountain Meadows was built in stages, one house or building at a time. They would build one house, sell the house, pay off the bank loan. Then do the same with the next house or building, and so on. 

2025 description of Mountain Meadows at the Chamber of Commerce website

“Mountain Meadows is located about 1.5 miles from the center of Ashland on a 27-acre site with 226 residential units consisting of 65 single-family homes and 161 condominium units. Our resident count is about 270. The Mountain Meadows Owners’ Association (MMOA) is the overall governing organization of our community. Debt-free and with a healthy reserve fund, MMOA owns and maintains the community common areas including the Clubhouse and Meadowlark Dining Room, fitness center, library, community garden, community parks and landscaped areas that conserve water with drought-resistant plants. MMOA is dedicated to providing an environment that will continue to attract, retain and nurture active, independent retirees and soon-to-be retirees, while maintaining property values and controlling cost growth. Our Board of Directors is elected by the owners and oversees a professional management company that provides day-to-day onsite management.”

References:

Anon. Medford Mail Tribune, March 29, 1998, photo by Bob Pennell.

Cook, LuAnne, who compiled the “History of Mountain Meadows,” May 2000.

Hill, Madeline. Multiple interviews in 1995.

Moeschl, Richard. “Mountain Meadows breaks ground,” Ashland Daily Tidings, August 7, 1996.