08 Dec Mountain Meadows: Cottonwood, Birch and Golden Aspen condominiums, plus the Clubhouse
Streets of Mountain Meadows, Part 3.
Phase 3: Cottonwood, Birch and Golden Aspen condominiums, plus the Clubhouse.
Mountain Meadows retirement community guiding principles.
21 photos.
Published December 2025.
Can a building also be a street? In Mountain Meadows, the answer is “Yes!” As I share photos and stories about the three large condominium buildings and the Clubhouse, you will learn more about what makes Mountain Meadows unique. This is the third neighborhood (Phase 3), which was built in Mountain Meadows from 1997 to 1999. Looking more deeply at Mountain Meadows guiding principles may help you understand the design of the condominium and Clubhouse buildings.
“Your mobility status should not determine where you live.”
Madeline Hill
Mountain Meadows retirement community guiding principles
I discussed some guiding principles in the first photo essay of this series, called “Mountain Meadows: an overview.” For example: “Mountain Meadows was designed to create a real community feeling among the residents, who could age in place with independence and dignity.”
As she developed her vision for the Mountain Meadows retirement community, founder Madeline Hill drew on decades of experience working with senior citizens, both in Southern Oregon and statewide. She then spoke with many community groups in Ashland and throughout the Rogue Valley. She visited church groups, bridge clubs, “invite your neighbors” meetings, the SOU Retirees Association, and more. Here’s what she heard.
- We don’t want to rent; we want to own our own home.
- We don’t want to pay a large non-refundable entry fee just to get in, a fee that goes to a big corporation.
- We want to be involved in making decisions that affect our lives.
- We don’t want to go into a nursing home.
Madeline also had formative experiences in her childhood that influenced the design of Mountain Meadows. Here’s what she told me about one of her early guiding principles: “Your mobility status should not determine where you live.” This belief began to form when Madeline was in high school, riding on a school bus of handicapped children that her mother drove. It became very real to her because her best friend in high school had cerebral palsy and was in a wheel chair. As she put it, “When I was 16 or 17, I got my driver’s license. We’d go into San Francisco to go to a play or the park or something teenage girls like to do. Then she couldn’t get in to the movie theater and other places, whereas I could, and that didn’t seem right to me.”
Examples of mobility-friendly design at Mountain Meadows include one-level homes, wide doorways, grab bars for safety, electric outlets that are higher above the floor than normal, and at least one bathroom in each house that has room for a wheelchair to turn around.
The hilly slopes where Mountain Meadows was built posed an extra challenge for Madeline, the architects of Mithun Partners and builder Larry Medinger. Despite the hilly terrain, they were able to build every house (and garage) at one level. As I was discussing this over lunch in the Clubhouse dining room with founder Madeline Hill and resident Tamsin Taylor, both addressed design challenges in different ways. Madeline pointed out: “Having houses all on one level took a lot of designing, because of the topography we have here. It was a lot of work to do that.” I’ll describe below more about several solutions found as I describe the condominiums. Tamsin added, “Part of what made me decide to buy here is because the design is so physically beautiful. Looking outside the window of the dining room here, it is so beautiful.”
“Mountain Meadows is a place where people come to live, not to die. When you come and you own it, you come to live.”
Tamsin Taylor
Cottonwood Condominium, and navigating the hillside
The three large condominium buildings are called Cottonwood, Birch and Golden Aspen. Cottonwood has 21 condominium homes. It is not obvious from the map, but these three side-by-side buildings step up the steep hillside. The Golden Aspen building at the top is connected with the large Clubhouse. Actually, part of the “magic” in the design is that all four of the buildings are connected.
It’s not really “magic.” Here’s how it works. Let’s say you live in Cottonwood condominium, or even across the street in one of the houses on Boulder Creek Lane. It’s time to visit the Clubhouse — a steep uphill walk — for dinner, an event, or a class. Perhaps you have difficulty navigating the steep uphill (and then downhill) sidewalk that could take you to the Clubhouse. You have an alternative.
First you take the paved path to the ground floor entrance of Cottonwood, a three-story building. Find an elevator and take it to the third floor. Walk down the hallway to a covered walkway that leads to Birch condo, the next one uphill. The walkway connects the third floor of Cottonwood with the ground floor of Birch! Very cool. Then you “repeat the pattern,” following a covered walkway from the top floor of Birch to the ground floor of Golden Aspen. From Golden Aspen, it’s a short level walk to the Clubhouse or Fitness Center. Whether you walk slowly or get around with a wheelchair, the steep hillside and multi-story buildings are not an obstacle.
Another challenge I never considered — addresses
As Madeline walked with me through the Cottonwood condominium in April 2025, she described another challenge, one I have never heard of before. She wanted the condominium units to each have their own address, different from everybody else’s. Not like an apartment building, where an address would be something like 123 ABC Street, Apartment 10, Apartment 11, Apartment 12 and so on.
She explained: “But to have individual addresses means you’ve got to have a street. So the street name is Mountain Meadows Circle, but it’s all under the building!” Yes, Mountain Meadows Circle runs through and under both Cottonwood and Birch condos, while a street called Golden Aspen Place runs through and under Golden Aspen condo. You can see both streets marked inside the red rectangle on the Mountain Meadows map. Now each residence in these three condos has its own street address.
Birch Condominium and Golden Aspen Condominium
As mentioned above, two more large condominium buildings, called Birch and Golden Aspen, are up the hill from Cottonwood. Birch has 26 condominium homes, while Golden Aspen has 41. The complex offers one, two and three bedroom residences off a central hallway. Golden Aspen is the building with direct connections to the Clubhouse.
Mountain Meadows Clubhouse – ground-breaking was July 22, 1999
The large Clubhouse was part of the plan from the time first houses were built at Mountain Meadows in 1995, but it could not be built right away. First, residents were needed who would use the Clubhouse, with its restaurant and many activity rooms. Second, Mountain Meadows was not built by a huge corporation with deep pockets and massive bank lines of credit. Sales from each stage constructed helped fund the next stage. When it came to the Clubhouse, Madeline said they took all of the profit made up to that time and put it into building the Clubhouse, a $3 million investment.
The Clubhouse – filled with activities
The Clubhouse hosts a huge variety of activities. Food is dear to our hearts, taste buds and stomachs, so food is a good place to begin. But first, as you walk upstairs from the entrance lobby to the dining room, you walk through an art gallery. This is the Mountain Meadows Staircase Gallery, which features visual art in a variety of media, nearly all created by residents.
“The Meadowlark Dining Room is the heart of the community: a gathering place for healthful, delicious meals and socializing with neighbors and friends,” per a March 2025 brochure. The dining room’s food rivals that of good local restaurants, and the setting looks out through large windows over the Siskiyou Mountains and the town of Ashland.
Residents gather on Fridays for a “happy hour” at the cozy Fireside Lounge, next to the dining room.
A large meeting room on the ground floor hosts educational and entertaining talks, piano concerts, musical groups and much more. I have been honored to speak here several times about Ashland history.
Clubhouse activities include a Library, a Game room and a well-equipped Woodworking shop. A gazebo installed by the pond in nearby Madeline Hill Park was built in the shop. Many residents make use of the Fitness Center, complete with pool, spa and exercise equipment. The Fitness Supervisor leads a variety of classes, and can also design individualized exercise programs.
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