Mickey Mouse. Mosaic rock designs. “Science is Real” signs.
I found Mickey on Old Willow Lane
Here’s Mickey, next to the sidewalk on Old Willow Lane. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
This lawn art was a fun surprise on my short walk. I almost walked right by it, because I wasn’t looking down at the grass. I have learned: When I am “walking Ashland,” look everywhere! You never know what you will find.
What I did not find was an “old willow.” If I missed it, someone please tell me where it is.
First impressions
To find Old Willow Lane, take East Main Street to Fordyce Street. Heading north on Fordyce, Old Willow Lane will be the fifth street on your left. Here’s what it looks like from Fordyce Street. I was happy to find it filled with interesting sights in its one block length. At the end of the street is a large open field. I expect Old Willow Lane will be much longer someday when that field is developed for housing.
Old Willow Lane ends in this large field. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Big truck on small street
Here is the roof truss delivery truck that caught my eye. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
As I walked the street in October 2020, the first thing that caught my eye was a truck filled with prefab roof trusses. The truck was delivering to a house under construction near the end of the street.
On the right is the house being constructed, waiting for a roof. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
As you can see from the photos, Old Willow Lane is lined with street trees. The truck driver faced a challenge – how to lift the trusses to the house construction site without damaging any street trees. Before I finished walking the street, he had figured it out. His first roof truss lift is shown in the photo below.
An impressive lift, on a smoky day. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)A week later, the roof trusses are on the house – and the sky is blue. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Signs of the times
I keep my eye out for yard signs as I walk Ashland’s neighborhoods. Many are copies of the same popular signs. Sometimes I find a sign that is home made and unique. This house has a combination of both kinds of “Science is Real” signs.
“Science is Real.” (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)Purchased sign and home made sign make the same point. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Yard art variety
Ashland is full of creative people. Some show and share their creativity in front yard art. This is a good reason to have a camera at the ready on your walks. Old Willow Lane is especially rich in yard art for being only one block long.
Overview of the rock art mosaics. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
You won’t miss this one if you are walking on the sidewalk. It is mosaic art, all done with colored pebbles. Each of the three designs is subtle, balanced and beautiful. Below are close-up photos of the three designs.
I did a double-take as I approached 1269 Old Willow Lane. I have seen many Canada geese flying over town and I was momentarily fooled.
Are Canada geese visiting this neighborhood? (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I love this metal art and stone front yard at the end of the street.
Yard art on Old Willow Lane. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Gate and tree
I found one unique and interesting gate on Old Willow Lane. I haven’t noticed a metal gate like this before.
Unique gate on Old Willow Lane. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
One massive tree caught my eye and seemed worth sharing with you.
This is a beautifully proportioned tree. (photo by Peter Finkle)
End of street
There is a large field at the end of Old Willow Lane. All I see there is an unusual small barn (pictured). It will be interesting to see what kind of housing develops here in the future.
This is the barn visible at the end of Old Willow Lane. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I noticed a short path at the end of the street, so of course I followed it to see where it leads. It is a pedestrian shortcut to Village Park Drive and another neighborhood.
Path between Old Willow Lane and Village Park Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Photographic highlight
Walking the short path, one sight caught my eye. Rough, wavy, golden wood grain, black knothole, delicate pink flower on a slender stem, all adds up to a photographer’s dream. Here it is for you.
My artistic photo for the day. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Old Willow Lane is one of many short, quiet streets off Fordyce Street. I will have an exciting article about Fordyce Street for you soon.
Dramatic trumpet vine at 66 Alida Writer of Westerns at 81 Alida The scissors that moved by themselves at 92 Alida Beautiful mural at 107 Alida “Lord of the Rings” connection at 180 Alida Plus 40 photos
Surprising stories
I thought to myself, “It’s only two blocks long. This will be a quick, easy article to write.” Boy was I wrong. I was surprised by the stories I discovered and which I can now share with you.
Alida Street is situated between Siskiyou Boulevard and East Main Street in one of the older parts of Ashland, within the boundaries of the Siskiyou-Hargadine historic district. Residents of Alida Street have a neighborhood coffee shop, with the Rogue Valley Roasting Company around the corner on East Main Street.
Let’s begin our two-block stroll
46 Alida Street, built in 1933 (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Let’s begin our two-block stroll with a small 1933 cottage style house at 46 Alida Street, near East Main Street. According to the National Register of Historic Places, this house is “an example of the small rental volumes that typify much of the infill development in the district prior to World War II.” It looks beautifully renovated at some point in recent years.
Woodland Park Estates apartments on Alida Street (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Across the street is the Woodland Park Estates apartments. This large apartment complex provides much needed housing for single people and couples.
Southern Pacific Railroad engineer
60 Alida Street (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
60 Alida Street was built about 1902 for Judd V. Miller, an engineer with the Southern Pacific Railroad. The original architecture was an L-shaped farmhouse style, but large additions through the years have changed the historic character of this house as well. I do like the attractive new front entry, though it’s not quite large enough to be a comfortable front porch with two or three chairs.
Hipped-roof cottage
63 Alida Street, built in 1908 (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The 1908 Henry Boyd House at 63 Alida Street retains its simple, historic hipped-roof cottage architectural style. Henry Boyd was a local photographer. He and his wife Nettie lived here until 1923.
Trumpet vine
66 Alida Street, home of an old trumpet vine (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
A dramatic trumpet vine caught my eye at 66 Alida Street. The house was built in 1941 in the Cape Cod, Colonial Revival style. As I walked and took photos in July 2020, the trumpet vine was in glorious full bloom, covered with large bright red flowers.
Trumpet vine flowers at 66 Alida Street (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Trumpet vines (also called trumpet creeper) have high points and drawbacks. Among the high points, the large bright flowers continue to bloom all summer and they are a magnet for hummingbirds.
Trumpet vine trunks have their own harsh beauty. The trumpet vine at 66 Alida shows how beautiful the gnarled trunk of the vine gets as it ages. This one even provides a level spot for displaying Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu deity of beginnings, also known as the remover of obstacles.
Resting place for Ganesha on the trumpet vine trunk (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
As one website put it, trumpet vine is “A high-climbing, aggressively colonizing woody vine to 35 ft., climbing or scrambling over everything in its path by aerial rootlets.” Depending on its location, this can be a big drawback. Some varieties send out below-ground runners and self-seed nearby, so they can take a lot of care to keep in check. The beautiful, gnarled trunk can also be a drawback as the plant gets older and larger. Moral of the story: be careful where you plant a trumpet vine and keep it under control, so that you can enjoy it. This old trumpet vine is an example of one that has been pruned regularly and kept under control.
This is what an old, gnarled trumpet vine trunk looks like (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
George Anderson houses
Ad for Warner Mercantile Company, where George Anderson worked. This ad was in the Ashland Tidings of November 23, 1916.
George Anderson was a clerk with the Warner Mercantile Company. I found a Warner Mercantile ad in the 1916 Ashland Tidings, but it doesn’t give much insight into what the company sold or where it was located. Anderson had two houses built on Alida Street, both in 1910.
76 Alida Street, built in 1910. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Anderson lived at 76 Alida in a simple hipped-roof cottage. The large rear addition and plate glass windows in front have changed the house considerably, but one can still see the basic character of the 1910 house in the small front section.
75 Alida Street, also built in 1910. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Anderson bought property across the street and had 75 Alida built as a rental house. The National Register document calls it “a fine single-story gabled bungalow with a projecting gable porch.” I keep an eye out for Little Free Libraries around town. You’ll find an attractive one in the planting strip at 75 Alida Street.
Little Free Library at 75 Alida Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Writer of Western stories and novels lived here
81 Alida Street was the home of William Verne Athanas and his family. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
William Verne Athanas, who lived at 81 Alida Street, was known as a writer of cowboy fiction, but he came from a rich Greek heritage. He was the son of Panagiotis “Peter” Konstantinos Athanassopoulos, who had been born in Greece in 1890. The family moved to Ashland when Verne was a child. In 1936, he graduated from Ashland High School and married his childhood sweetheart Alice Spencer – a big year!
Marrying Alice Spencer made him the uncle of Julia Woosnam, who grew up across the street at 92 Alida Street and told me his story. Between high school and becoming a full-time writer ten years later, “he slopped hogs, dug postholes, drove trucks, was a railroad brakeman, a gandy dancer, a service station attendant, a stationery salesman and more.” [Archives West]
Verne Athanas had an article in the November 1951 issue of New Western Magazine under his pen-name Bill Colson. (photo from “The Western & Frontier Fiction Magazine Index”)
Once he began writing, he specialized in cowboy fiction, and he was prolific. Athanas has 28 short stories listed in the “Western and Frontier Fiction Magazine Index.” He also wrote for mainstream magazines like the Saturday Evening Post and Esquire. He published three novels, including The Proud Ones that was made into a movie released in 1956. He also wrote scripts for TV westerns in the 1950s and 1960s. Because he wrote under four pseudonyms in addition to his own name, I haven’t been able to track down exactly what and how much he wrote.
The oldest house on Alida Street
84 Alida Street, built in 1890 or 1891. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Built in 1890 or 1891, 84 Alida is the oldest house on the street. It is described as “a fine multiple gable volume set upon a high concrete foundation. The porch at the NW corner is notable for its early-appearing chinoiserie balustrade.”
Early Ashlanders, ghost tales and more
92 Alida Street, built in 1920. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The 1920 single story bungalow at 92 Alida Street still has much of its original detailing. Julia Woosnam, who grew up in this house in the 1950s and 1960s, told me stories and shared photos with me. She comes from an old Ashland family. Her grandfather Don Spencer was Ashland’s first postal mail carrier, starting in about 1910. Before that, everyone had to pick up their mail at the post office on the Plaza.
Altadena (Dena) and Lawrence Powell pose for a wedding picture in 1929. (photo courtesy of Julia Woosnam)
Julia’s father Lawrence Powell and mother Altadena Spencer married in 1929. The couple raised a family and lived at 92 Alida Street for more than 40 years.
“Julia’s tree”
Two months before Julia was born in 1954, her father planted a maple tree for her in front of their house at 92 Alida Street. Here is the tiny stick that was to become a tree. (photo courtesy of Julia Woosnam)
Her father took this photo of Julia with “her tree” when she was almost two years old. The maple tree “stick” is a little taller. (photo courtesy of Julia Woosnam)
Here is “Julia’s tree” in front of 92 Alida Street in 2020. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Ghostly personal experiences
“Growing up there, you would just have a sense of somebody else hanging out” in the house, Julia told me. The front bedroom, with a window overlooking the porch as seen in the photo below, was hers growing up.
Julia’s bedroom window looked out to the porch. Julia’s father Lawrence Powell made the wood house number sign that still hangs in the porch area. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
“The front bedroom was my room, and things would slide around in that room. I had a couple of friends in high school, laughing and giggling in there with me when we were best buddies, and a pair of scissors slid across the bureau. One of those friends said, ‘I am not staying in your room again.'”
Intrigued because scissors seem rather large to move on their own, I asked Julia about them. She replied, “I have them upstairs. They were my mother’s really nice dress-making shears.” Of course I said, “May I take a photo of them?” So Julia went and got what she laughingly called “the now famous flying scissors,” and here they are. I held them, and I can tell you they are heavy.
These heavy dress-making scissors scared three teenage girls who were talking in Julia Woosnam’s bedroom at 92 Alida Street. Read the text to find out why. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Then there was the moving toilet paper. “The toilet paper roll would just spontaneously, slowly start to unroll, then it would go faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster until it pretty much emptied the roll. That was seen by several friends.”
“It got to be really mean,” Julia added, laughing. “Someone would go in the bathroom and we would all wait, just to see if it would happen. I had my best friend, who lived in the oldest house [on Alida Street] across the driveway from us, and she went into the bathroom — and I remember my mom and I tippy-toeing down the hallway, waiting — and pretty soon she screams, and she comes running out of the bathroom, just sobbing — and it was the toilet paper had started to unroll before she could even get near it to use it. These things just happened — for whatever reasons, they do happen.”
Another occurrence experienced by many people through the years was a loud thump, with no discernible cause, as if a large ball was being thrown against the wall. “My good friend Ann called it ‘the boulder.’ So we always referred to that sound as being ‘the boulder.’ It was definitely like someone had taken a soccer ball and thrown it hard against the outside of the house.”
100 Alida Street
100 Alida Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The house next door at 100 Alida Street was built in 1939 with an English Cottage style architecture unusual in Ashland. “A one and one-half story period revival structure, the Ruger House is a gable volume with a projecting gable entry element.”
The creative gate combines wood, metal and vines for an attractive entry to the yard.
Creative gate at 100 Alida Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Art for the neighborhood to enjoy
107 Alida Street…can you see the mural? (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The house at 107 Alida was built in 1925 for local banker Gerald Wenner and his wife Grace. The couple lived here for nearly 50 years, until they died in the early 1970s. A simple bungalow style, it still has many of the original 1925 features.
Before and After at 107 Alida Street
Wall at 107 Alida Street before mural was painted. (photo courtesy of Katherine Holden)Beautiful mural at 107 Alida Street, painted in June of 2020. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The bright mural on the side of this house is quite new. Katherine emailed me that the mural at her house was painted by two friends, Amy and Glenn, who visited her from the San Francisco Bay Area in June. Her friend Amy added, “Visiting in a pandemic, we wanted a safe way to socialize and create something beautiful for our friend Katherine. We hope that more public art soothes the soul during these transformative times.” Seeing this mural certainly lifted my spirits, and I recommend that you see it when you are in the neighborhood.
The mural creation at 107 Alida Street
I wondered how this unusual group of flowers was designed. It turned out to be a simple but surprising reason. See the photo and caption below.
The design of the mural was inspired by this piece of fabric Amy and Glenn found in Katherine’s sewing box. (photo courtesy of Katherine Holden)This photo shows Glenn painting the mural in June 2020. (photo courtesy of Katherine Holden)
I will add that Amy Pete is a somatic bodyworker and Glenn Case is a muralist and sign maker, both living in the Bay Area.
Another SP worker, and unusual yard art
140 Alida Street, built about 1924. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Southern Pacific Railroad worker Henry Mayberry and his wife Myrtle had 140 Alida Street built for them about 1924. The house retains much of its historic look. The artistic garden fence and yard art are both very modern. For example, having a Buddha-like statue and a gnome sharing the yard is very 21st century.
This is one of my favorite yard art combinations in town. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)I wonder if the deer appreciate the hearts when they see that they can’t enter this lush vegetable garden. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Ashland High School 2020 graduate
145 Alida Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Ashland High School’s class of 2020 was not able to have an in-person graduation ceremony due to the coronavirus. On May 26, I noticed a forest of signs placed along Siskiyou Boulevard in front of the high school. I was moved as I saw this creative way of recognizing each 2020 graduate individually.
Ashland High School, posters for the class of 2020. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Since then, I have seen “2020 GRAD” signs in front of several houses around Ashland. 145 Alida Street is one of them. This post-World War II era cottage, built in 1945, is “a fine example of its type.” The National Register describes it as “a series of connected hip roof volumes with wide board siding and numerous windows. A large brick chimney dominates the streetscape and a matching hipped-roof garage is located at the rear of the lot.”
Apartments at 160-162 Alida Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Another, smaller apartment complex is at 160-162 Alida Street. Built in 1966, I think it is called the Collins Court apartments.
A “fine Queen Anne ell”
172 Alida Street, built about 1900. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
172 Alida Street was built as a rental house by Jacob Thompson around 1900. Architecturally, it is a “fine Queen Anne ell with canted corner on each of two projecting gables, framed below a pent roof line and a shingle-decorated gable end.”
Thompson owned much of the land in this part of Miner’s addition. An interesting aside is that in 1910, he transferred this property to a company co-owned by Thompson and his partner Gwin Butler. You may recognize the name Butler from the Butler-Perozzi Fountain or the Butler bandshell in Lithia Park. Gwin Butler’s contributions to Ashland deserve a full article.
Creative hobbit lovers
Creative mailbox at 180 Alida Street, with yard sale going on that day. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
180 Alida Street is a 1926 single story bungalow style house. This house could get an award for creative use of a tree stump. What got me excited, however, was spotting the sign on their gate that says, “Say Friend and Enter” in both English and Elvish. If you have read Lord of the Rings or seen the movies several times, you might recognize that saying as the inscription that puzzled Gandalf at the gate of Moria.
Saying on the entrance to Moria, and on the entrance to 180 Alida Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I have been a fan of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien since I was a teenager – which was many years ago! Early this year, I just finished reading the 1,086 page book (1,190 with appendices) for about the tenth time, and I loved it just as much as I did the first time.
The 1901 Frank Nelson house
188 Alida Street, built in 1901. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
188 Alida Street was built for Frank Nelson in 1901, and he lived there until 1919. The style is a simple one and one-half story hipped-roof cottage. Nelson was a partner in the longtime Ashland grocery business Loomis and Nelson, which served the Railroad District at the corner of 4th Street and B Street.
We have now reached Siskiyou Boulevard, so this wraps up our walk along Alida Street.
Note that two people who built houses on Alida Street worked for Southern Pacific Railroad. See below for a link to my article about the impact of the railroad on Ashland.
* 23 Homes more than 100 years old! * Oregon history comes alive at 531 Scenic Drive. * 30 Photos. * Garden of the Month, April 2020. * Tree of the Year 2004. * Modern architecture, and more.
I started my Scenic Drive walk here. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I walked Scenic Drive wearing a mask in April of 2020, when the people of Ashland and the entire State of Oregon were being asked to “Stay Home, Save Lives” in order to slow the spread of the pandemic coronavirus. Going for walks was acceptable, as long as we didn’t gather in groups of people.
I began at the “beginning” of Scenic Drive, where it meets Strawberry Lane, and where the first house number is 5 Scenic Drive.
I was drawn to Scenic Drive this month for two reasons. My first motivation was the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for April, located at 467 Scenic Drive. In addition, I counted 23 homes on Scenic Drive more than 100 years old, built between 1880 and 1915. I know WalkAshland readers love the local history I learn and share here, so be prepared for plenty of history, gardens and architecture in this article.
Old Ashland maps show part of Scenic Drive was originally called Woolen Street, named for Mr. Woolen, who subdivided his farm acreage here to create land for houses.
Modern Architecture
5 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Before we explore historic houses, let’s start with the modern houses at this end of Scenic Drive. The first house that caught my eye was also the first house number. I spoke with a neighbor, who told me two architects live in and designed this house.
39 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I spoke with Greg at 39 Scenic Drive. He built much of this attractive 1988 house himself. What really makes the house stand out is the moose antlers mounted on an outside wall. How often do you see moose antlers on the outside of a house? As for me, never before this. Greg told me he purchased the antlers in Alaska from someone who makes spending money by finding places where moose shed their antlers in the winter. I learned something new that day.
Here they are, the moose antlers at 39 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)Log house at 35 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I also met the owner of the log cabin at 35 Scenic Drive. I think I got lucky meeting Scenic Drive neighbors out in their front yards because the day I walked was the warmest, sunniest day of the week. You can see from the house photo that it is made of round logs. This is different log-house construction than one I saw – and learned about – on Westwood Drive. You can read about the Westwood Drive log house made with tongue-in-groove D-logs at https://walkashland.com/2019/07/19/westwood-street-log-house-and-eco-house/
45 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
This is a lovely, modern Swedish-chalet style house. A neighbor told me it was made using straw bale construction for the exterior walls.
Historic houses
Now let’s continue down Scenic Drive, looking mostly at a variety of historic houses. I won’t describe and show photos of every one of the 23 houses more than 100 years old along Scenic Drive. I will show houses that either caught my eye or have unusual stories to go with them, then I will list the other historic houses at the end of the article. I will also point out a few modern houses that struck me.
79 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The Craftsman style house set above the street at 79 Scenic Drive was built in 1910 by R.L. Coombe. Born in the Australian island state of Tasmania in 1874, somehow he found his way to Ashland in 1910. That same year, he and his wife Florence built this new home.
Coombe was one of the leading plasterers in the Rogue Valley, specializing in interior plaster and exterior stucco work. Among the local buildings he worked on were the 1910 Emil and Alice Applegate Peil House and the 1912 Ashland Carnegie Library. You can see in the photo that 79 Scenic Drive has a stucco exterior.
The National Register description of the house says, “As might be expected the exterior of the house was clad in delicately colored stucco with highly detailed quoins and other details, a veritable tour de force of a master craftsman. Sadly, upon leaving Coombe family ownership this original material was painted, forever hiding the original design intent.”
95 Scenic Drive — Do you miss the orange aluminum siding? (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
95 Scenic Drive was built about 1915. I talked with current owner, who was working in her beautiful large garden. She told me the house was originally one story with a basement. In the 1970s, downstairs was made into a separate entry apartment. Orange aluminum siding was added to the exterior! Orange? Aluminum? To a historic house?
In 1997, the current owners did a renovation to remove the orange aluminum siding (yay!) and restore the upper story gable. Let me say now that there was one benefit of the aluminum siding. When it was removed, the original Victorian-style fish scale decorative shingles were in good condition on the gable. These shingles indicate that this 1915 house was a transitional architectural style between Victorian style and the new Craftsman style.
This house detail at 95 Scenic Drive shows the Victorian-style fish scale decorative shingles on the gable. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)Here is one example why the street name was changed from Woolen Street to Scenic Drive. This photo was taken on Scenic Drive at the top of Church Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
240 Scenic Drive was built in 1977, so it’s not a historic house; but in a sense it is historic. It is noteworthy because it was long the home of Lenn and Dixie Hannon. Lenn was a long-time Oregon State Senator, and Southern Oregon University’s Hannon Library is named after him.
345 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
One of the oldest houses on Scenic Drive, the simple Vernacular style house at 345 Scenic Drive was built about 1886 by Lysander Sackett. The most notable owner of the house after that was H.C. Mecham. According to the Ashland Tidings of March 21, 1910, Mr. Mecham “recently invested in a home on Woolen Street” (the original name of Scenic) and also recently “purchased the planing mill from Carson-Fowler Lumber Company.” A planing mill took lumber that had been initially cut to size in a sawmill and finished it to meet the needs of different types of construction or furniture building.
365 Scenic Drive
365 Scenic Drive, porch detail
365 Scenic Drive. (photos by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The simple, attractive house at 365 Scenic Drive was built in 1885 and has a prime spot at the corner of Wimer Street. I’m not sure if the porch detail is original, but if not I expect it has been there a long time.
View from 365 Scenic Drive, down Wimer Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
407 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
This beautifully renovated 1889 house at 407 Scenic Drive is independently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of the best examples in Ashland of the Queen Anne/Eastlake architectural style. It was built in 1889 by S. Pedigrift, a mason and plasterer who seems to have lived in Ashland only three or four years.
Notice especially the matching Queen Anne style bay windows. George Kramer wrote in the National Register nomination form that the bay windows are so typical of “Eastlake fancy work” style that Pedigrift may have purchased them from a catalog and incorporated them into the house design.
Through the mid-20th century, the owners of the house also cultivated orchards up the hillside behind the house. Robert Dooms, who owned the house and lived there from the mid-1950s to 1988, told George Kramer that when he was a child in Ashland, the previous owner Robert Johnson “paid him $1 a pound for picking cherries, apricots, and peaches behind the house.”
Ashland Tree of the Year 2004, a Monterey Cypress at 407 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The architecture is not the only impressive sight at this address. The 2004 Ashland Tree of the Year lives here. It is a massive Monterey Cypress, possibly planted in 1889 when the house was built.
Ashland Tree of the Year 2004, a Monterey Cypress at 407 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Ashland Garden of the Month for April 2020
Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for April 2020, at 467 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
467 Scenic Drive was chosen as the Garden of the Month by the Ashland Garden Club. Ruth Sloan of the Garden Club wrote: “The lovely garden at 467 Scenic Drive is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for April. It is a work-in-progress by homeowners Elaine Yates and Michael Costello who have had this property for 3.5 years. Although the yard had good bones, with handsome hardscape and fruit trees, the garden had been greatly neglected in recent years.”
467 Scenic Drive. (photo by Larry Rosengren)467 Scenic Drive. (photo by Larry Rosengren)
Describing the garden, Sloan wrote: “Heathers, grape hyacinths, forsythia, azaleas (in the deer-proof back yard), and rosemary are the stars right now but soon the rhododendrons will burst forth so Elaine encourages readers to delay until late in the month or early next month visiting to admire the garden from the street.”
467 Scenic Drive, house built in 1903. (photo by Larry Rosengren)
Before we move on along to the highlight of my Scenic Drive walk, I must mention that 467 Scenic Drive was built about 1903 in the Vernacular style of the early 1900s.
531 Scenic Drive, the oldest house on the street
531 Scenic Drive as it looks today. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
When I got to this house, the oldest one on Scenic Drive, I felt like I stepped into a time machine. Come with me, and let’s journey together.
John L. Carter was a sign painter. When he moved to Ashland, he expanded his business to house painting as well. He and his wife Fannie were married in 1845, probably in the northeast where they were both born. I don’t know what year they arrived in Ashland, but the couple built this house around 1880. It was the first house on Woolen Street (now Scenic Drive), very near Orlando Coolidge’s nursery.
531 Scenic Drive, photo taken in 1993 when Casey Bright was repairing the foundation. You can see just a little of the original vertical 1 1/4 inch thick barnboard walls below the gray asphalt shingles that had been applied over the barnboards at a later date. (photo provided by Casey Bright)
It was a simple house, built in the vernacular architectural style. The original 1880 house was a small two-story rectangular box — the gray building in the photo above — with 1 ¼” thick barnboard walls and layers of newspaper glued to the walls for insulation. Sadly, John Carter died only two years after they moved in, but his widow Fannie continued to live in the house until her death in 1905.
In this 1995 photo, Casey and Jennifer Bright are on their newly constructed front porch with their daughters Jesse and Lily. (photo provided by Casey Bright)
Casey Bright was working in the front yard when I walked up and started to take photos of the house. He told me that when he and his wife Jennifer decided to move to Ashland in 1992 with their two young girls, this was one of the properties they looked at. The house and yard were a wreck. The house had been abandoned and was falling apart. There were rusty old appliances scattered around the yard. The healthiest part of the scene was a thriving patch of blackberry vines, about 20’ wide and 50’ long and 10’ high. That’s not normally the kind of thriving one looks for in a property!
Casey laughed as he told me his wife was the visionary in the family. Back in 1992, as the two of them were standing looking at the wreck-of-a-yard, his wife turned to him and said, “This would be a great place for the girls to play.” Casey decided to trust his wife’s vision. He also was and is a contractor, so he agreed that the two of them would buy the house and take it on as a project.
One reason Casey trusts his wife’s vision when it comes to houses is because she is an interior designer. I found out that Jennifer’s business, Twist Design Studio, can be found online at http://www.twistdesignstudio.com.
This photo was taken mid-renovation in 1995. (photo provided by Casey Bright)
The Bright’s could not find any early photos of the house, so they looked at other vernacular architectural-style houses built in the same period and incorporated those elements as they renovated their house. They were honored by the Ashland Historic Commission for their attention to detail with a Historic Preservation Award in 1997.
When the Brights renovated the house, they found original newspaper insulation glued to the barnboard walls. They left it in place, and built this “picture frame” in the new wall to showcase a small part of the newspaper insulation. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Once we started talking about the history of the house, Casey invited me in (keeping physical distance) and showed me a wall where newspaper had been used for insulation. To memorialize that history, Casey and Jennifer created a frame for a small section of one wall to show the newspaper, as you can see in the photo.
Original newspaper insulation at 531 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
When I looked closely (see photo above), I saw page 1 of a newspaper called The New Northwest from Portland, Oregon, an issue dated September 29, 1871. After I got home, I looked up the name of the newspaper and began another journey.
Abigail Scott Duniway
The New Northwest is important in Oregon history. The newspaper was founded by pioneer Abigail Scott Duniway on May 5, 1871 to press for women’s right to vote (women’s suffrage). Northwest historian G. Thomas Edwards considered the founding of Duniway’s newspaper to be a key event launching the women’s rights movement in Oregon.
Duniway was also a rare voice standing up for the rights of all people in Oregon, including Native Americans and Chinese immigrants. She published the newspaper until 1887.
Women’s right to vote
Oregon voters (all male) defeated women’s right to vote measures in 1884, 1900, 1906, 1908 and 1910. When a women’s suffrage referendum finally passed in 1912, Oregon Governor Oswald West asked an elderly Abigail Duniway (seated in the photo) to sign the official Oregon Proclamation of Women’s Suffrage. She was also honored for her decades-long struggle by being the first woman registered to vote in Multnomah County.
Abilgail Scott Duniway (seated) is signing Oregon’s Equal Suffrage Proclamation with Governor Oswald West. (photo from the Library of Congress, accessed at the Oregon Encyclopedia)
For more of my time machine journey meeting women who led the women’s rights and women’s right to vote movement of the late 1800s (including the female 1884 Presidential candidate my grandmother was named after), see my in-depth article: History Converges at a House on Scenic Drive.
531 Scenic Drive, original fir wood floor is still in the house. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Now back to the house. In addition to some original walls and newspaper insulation, the fir wood floor in the living room is also from the 1880 house. Reviewing his long journey with this house, Casey told me with a smile, “28 years later, I’m still working on the house, now with the help of my teenage son.”
Unofficial Little Free Library on Scenic Drive, near Maple Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
As I reached the end of Scenic Drive, I saw a family outside in their front yard at 546 Scenic working on their garden and building a new fence. I was happily surprised to see an unofficial Little Free Library artistically built in to the fence. You’ll notice that they have a section for children’s books on the lower level.
I will close with a quote from Abigail Scott Duniway that is as important today as it was more than 100 years ago.
“The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times by spreading the light of freedom and truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future.”
Abigail Scott Duniway
I would like to recognize the Scenic Drive houses more than 100 years old that I did not describe in the article:
* 67 Scenic Drive, built 1909, Craftsman style * 71 Scenic Drive, built c1910, Bungalow style * 101 Scenic Drive, built 1910, Bungalow style, 1990s remodel changed it so much that it’s no longer considered historic * 160 Scenic Drive, built 1910, Bungalow style, 1990s remodel changed it so much that it’s no longer considered historic * 125 Scenic Drive, built 1905, Craftsman style architecture, enlarged and modified in 1990s, but still has most of its historic characteristics * 275 Scenic Drive, built 1888, Vernacular style * 283 Scenic Drive, built 1884, added to in 1888, Rural vernacular style * 299 Scenic Drive, built c1886, Rural vernacular style, 1990s remodel changed it so much that it’s no longer considered historic * 309 Scenic Drive, built 1910, Bungalow style, according to the National Register, a 1890 house here was razed, then this house was built in 1910. * 319 Scenic Drive, built c1900, Craftsman style * 337 Scenic Drive, built c1905, Vernacular style, on a heavily landscaped lot * 338 Scenic Drive, built 1888, Vernacular style, this is one of the few 19th century houses on the downhill side of Scenic Drive. It has been beautifully restored, but the 1990s remodel changed it so much that it’s no longer considered historic. * 355 Scenic Drive, built 1911, Craftsman style * 361 Scenic Drive, built 1905, Craftsman style, the projecting bay windows are not compatible with the historic architecture * 447 Scenic Drive, built c1915, Bungalow style, but much altered and extended through the decades * 487 Scenic Drive, built c1910, Craftsman style, by Henry Leavitt who had orchards in the area. * 532 Scenic Drive, built c1890, Vernacular style
References:
Bright, Casey, author interview, April 11, 2020.
Chambers, Jennifer. Abigail Scott Duniway and Susan B. Anthony in Oregon: Hesitate No Longer, The History Press, 2018.
Duniway, Abigail Scott. Speech given at National Woman Suffrage Association Convention, Washington, D.C. March 4, 1884 [Abigail Scott Duniway Papers*]
Duniway, Abigail Scott. “Ballots and Bullets,” speech given at National Woman Suffrage Association Convention, Washington, D.C., circa January 21-23, 1889 [Sunday Oregonian 9 Sept. 1906]
Edwards, G. Thomas. Sowing Good Seeds:The Northwest Suffrage Campaigns of Susan B. Anthony. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990; pg. 16, as noted in Wikipedia, April 14, 2020.
Kramer, George. National Register Nomination Form for 407 Scenic Drive.
Kramer, George and Atwood, Kay. National Register of Historic Places, Skidmore Academy Historic District, August 14, 2001.
Sloan, Ruth. “467 Scenic Drive, Garden of the Month, April 2020,” Ashland Garden Club.
Stone, Jason. Portland New Northwest 1871-1887, at Historic Oregon Newspapers, University of Oregon, accessed April 14, 2020. https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/history/newnw/
Ward, Jean M. “Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915),” Oregon Encyclopedia, accessed April 15, 2020.
For people who love gardens and gardening. Many photos of flowers and native plants.
For people who love gardens and gardening. Photos of trees, flowers and gates.
720 Forest Street. (photo by Larry Rosengren, 2020)
I began my Forest Street walk at the intersection with Liberty Street, one block uphill from Ashland Street.
One end of Forest Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Deodar Cedar tree
A Deodar cedar tree on the uphill side provided my first uplifting moment and photo opportunity (photos on the left and top right, below). This is a young Deodar cedar. If you want to see an elder, go to the Safeway supermarket on Siskiyou Boulevard. There you will find Ashland’s 2002 Tree of the Year, a pair of majestic Deodar cedar trees (photo on bottom right, below).
This “gate with a heart” at 796 Forest Street next caught my eye. It doesn’t take much to transform a simple gate into something special.
A gate with a heart. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The Japanese maples and rhododendrons at 776 Forest Street provide contrasting shapes and colors.
Japanese maple trees and rhododendron. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Ashland Garden Club “Garden of the Month” for May 2020
These dazzling yellow flowers in the side yard are Rhododendron luteum, commonly known as Yellow azalea or Pontic azalea. (photo by Larry Rosengren, 2020)
The highlight of my walk along Forest Street was the May 2020 Garden of the Month. Each month, the Ashland Garden Club chooses one garden in Ashland to feature. This is how Ruth Sloan of the Garden Club introduced the garden:
“The wonderful garden at 720 Forest St. is a labor of love for homeowners Vicky Sturtevant and Alan Armstrong and is the Ashland Garden Club’s Garden of the Month for May. They have deftly combined edibles with ornamentals in this space they have gardened since 1983. It is a heavily shaded lot, particularly the upper, forested quarter-acre parcel that they purchased separately. In all, they have a half-acre that they manage beautifully. The hardscape was designed by Covey-Pardee Landscape Architects in 2009. Eric Cislo welded the gates and Ted Loftus constructed the stone walls.”
Viewing the garden from the street, you can only see a small part of what makes this labor of love special. So I will take you behind the scenes for highlights of the garden, some history of the garden, and share several of Vicky and Alan’s delightful family stories.
Garden in 1983 and 2020
The house was built in 1951. Alan and Vicky purchased it in 1983. When they bought the house, the yard consisted of lots of lawn, lots of concrete and not much else. In a story many of us can relate to, Vicky explained to me it was their choice. When they were looking for a home to buy, the couple had small children who were always outside riding tricycles, bicycles and other wheeled vehicles. “When we bought the house,” Vicky told me, “our real estate agent asked what we wanted, and I said ‘a lot of concrete.’” She got what she wanted…but…Vicky went on, “We spent the next 30 years getting rid of concrete!”
Here’s a visual for you. The first photo shows the house and front yard in 1983, when it had lots of lawn and lots of concrete.
720 Forest Street, front yard in 1983. (photo by Alan Armstrong or Vicky Sturtevant, 1983)
The second photo shows the complete transformation. Taken in early May 2020, the front yard is now lush with blooming flowers and trees, a grape arbor, and a dozen varieties of vegetables not visible in this photo.
720 Forest Street, front yard in 2020. (photo by Larry Rosengren, 2020)
The white flowering tree on the right is a dogwood. The small plant to the left of the path with intense magenta blooms is a native penstemon. This beautiful slate pathway extends around to the back of the house.
My wife and I visited Vicky and Alan’s garden later in the month of May, so we saw different plants in bloom than Ruth and Larry saw during their early May visit for the Ashland Garden Club article.
More Larry Rosengren photos for the Ashland Garden Club
Larry took a photo of the Redbud tree at peak bloom in early May. By the time I toured the garden in late May, the tree was filled with green leaves rather than magenta blossoms.
720 Forest Street, Redbud tree in side yard. (photo by Larry Rosengren, 2020)
In this back yard photo, Larry caught three species of rhododendron blooming at the same time, right next to each other. The rainbow of lavender, magenta and white flowers side by side is a treat.
720 Forest Street, Rhododendron flowering in back yard. (photo by Larry Rosengren, 2020)
Native plants
Vicky and Alan love to discover and nurture plants native to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. I took photos of seven native plants. The first one is special. I’ll tell you why.
Alice’s Fleabane
Alice’s fleabane wildflower. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
You might be wondering, as I did, why this wildflower is called “Alice’s fleabane.” I have two explanations for you, so you can take your pick.
Number 1: When Vicky and Alan’s five year old granddaughter was introduced to this wildflower during a walk around the garden, she said, “This is my plant.” Now eight years old, every time she comes to visit her grandparents, she looks for Alice’s fleabane and loves to claim it: “This is my plant.” Why would she say this? I expect you already figured it out — her name is Alice.
Number 2: Born in 1859, Alice Eastwood was a pioneering botanist, a passion that began when she was very young. Here are the two books she received as high school graduation gifts: Porter and Coulter’s Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado (1874) and Gray’s Manual of the botany of the northern United States (1878).
After graduation, she lived in Colorado for 14 years, where she taught high school for income and spent every spare hour collecting plant specimens in the mountains. Her scholarly articles brought her attention, and she was asked to become the Curator of Botany for the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She held this position from 1893 until 1949, a total of 57 years! “By the end of her tenure, she had added a total of 340,000 specimens to its collection and had built up a fine botanical library with her own funds.” [Mathrani]
Alice Eastwood c1910 (photo from wikimedia commons)
A number of plants were named after Eastwood, including Alice’s fleabane (botanical name Erigeron aliceae), which is a wildflower native to the meadows and woodlands of the Pacific Northwest. If you walk the slopes of Mt. Ashland, you might see this wildflower.
Shrub tan oak
Shrub tan oak. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Shrub tan oak is native to the Oregon coast. It has abundant small acorns that are food for birds, squirrels, chipmunks, deer and other animals. The tan oak in this garden is a dwarf variety.
Oso berry
Oso berry. If you look closely, you may see one small berry on the plant. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Now we go from small acorns to small berries. According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, “Birds and a variety of animals (e.g., squirrels, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, skunk, deer) love the fruit. Bears also eat the fruit as suggested by the common name of oso berry (oso from Spanish means bear).”
Western azalea
Western azalea. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The large white fragrant flowers make the Western azalea (botanical name Rhododendron occidentale) a pleasure to have in the garden. This azalea is native to Oregon and the Pacific coast.
High bush cranberry
High bush cranberry. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I visited the garden when white flowers were blooming on the High bush cranberry. Don’t confuse this plant with juice and cranberry sauce cranberries grown in bogs in the Northeastern U.S. and along the Oregon coast. High bush cranberries tend to be so bitter that even birds don’t readily eat them until winter, when they freeze and thaw several times and become a little sweeter.
Salal
Salal. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Native to the Oregon coast, Salal is widely used to add greenery in floral arrangements. You can see how bright and shiny the leaves are.
Azure penstemon
Azure penstemon wildflower. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Here is another wildflower that grows on the slopes of Mt. Ashland.
Wintergreen (not native)
Wintergreen. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Wintergreen is not an Oregon native, but is native to woodlands of Eastern North America. I love wintergreen scent and flavor, so when Vicky told me to crush a leaf and smell it, I went right for it. Ah, it was wonderful.
The lovely pond
Alan and Vicky’s pond. (photo by Larry Rosengren, 2020)
The creation of the pond is another family story, starring their 11 year old twins. “Our kids dug the pond in 1993,” began Alan. “It started as a little hole to fill with water to put their frogs and salamanders in.”
My first observation – the “little hole” turned into a big project! My second observation – the parents must have done a lot of the digging.
Creating the back yard pond was a family project. After 20 years, the pond was leaking too much water, so they had the pond liner, pump system and waterfall professionally replaced in 2013. Bright yellow iris were blooming at the edge of the pond the day my wife and I visited.
Yellow iris on right edge of pond. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The pond became a family project in another way. During the 1990s, as they made trips to the coast, the family would stop along the Smith River to collect round river rocks. You can see these around the bench, a relaxing place from which to enjoy the pond, koi and yard.
River rocks behind the bench. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I asked Alan if they had problems with bears visiting the pond. He surprised me by replying that local bears were much more interested in their large compost pile up the hill than in the pond.
The forested “up the hill” yard
Forested lot in 1986. (photo by Alan Armstrong or Vicky Sturtevant, 1986)
In 1986, Vicky and Alan were able to purchase the forested lot next door, up the hill from their house and yard. As you can see in the 1986 photo, the lot was thick with trees and brush. Vicky told me, “The back yard (cement and lawn) was dark and dank until we thinned the trees,” which they did gradually through the years. She explained, “Most of the manzanita, mountain mahogany, oaks and mountain laurel are gone – partly because of the shade but also the understory serves as ladder fuels.” As you can see from my 2020 photos, the forested slope is quite open now.
Forested lot in 2020. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Berries, berries and berries
We had one more stop on our garden tour – the berry patch. They are not ready to eat in May, but here’s the order in which Vicky and Alan will be harvesting them.
Strawberries, planted along the driveway, come first. Rhubarb is growing behind the strawberries.
Strawberries and rhubarb. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Blueberries are next, followed by marionberries. Note that these two varieties are under a netting to protect them from the birds.
Blueberries in front, marionberries trellised behind. Both are under netting. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The raspberries ripen later in the summer. Alan prunes them vigorously during the winter to slow their maturation, so they don’t have quite so many berries ripening and needing to be processed simultaneously.
Raspberries are on a tall trellis. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Purple
Purple! (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
My final photo in Vicky and Alan’s beautiful garden was a quirky one. I spotted a dramatic, deep purple bearded iris near the berry patch. Then I saw the purple garden hose on the ground behind it. I couldn’t resist the color combination. So this photo is offered for people who love purple.
The rest of Forest Street
Moving on along the street, I spotted an unusual garden gate at 682 Forest Street.
Gate at 682 Forest Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Then Forest Street ends at a fence in front of a large open field. Or does it? A sign by a narrow pedestrian opening in the fence says it’s private property, but walking through is okay.
From the opening, the path takes off in two directions. I can see that one way leads to Ashland Street. I follow the other path, and come to a street with three houses. But there is no street sign. I follow the street around a bend, up a steep hill, to the intersection with another street. Still no street sign. Frustrated with my inability to find the street name the old-fashioned, “shoe-leather” way, I go high tech.
Using my camera/phone/calendar/map, I zero in to my exact location on earth and learn that I am at the other end of Forest Street! I can imagine confused delivery drivers and guests trying to find these three Forest Street houses separated from the rest of the street by a large field.
Here is a view down the “west” section of Forest Street, taken at the intersection with Weller Lane.
Forest Street from Weller Lane. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Here, Forest Street looks more like “forest” Street than on the “east” section of the street.
Along the “west” section of Forest Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Of the three newer houses in this section, this Japanese maple tree and the nearby front door stopped me with their beauty. Japanese maple trees are often lovely, but the leaves are usually either all green or all red. I tried to capture the variety of colors in this Japanese maple, but my camera was not able to do it justice.
Forest Street Japanese maple. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Ashland oddity
The three house numbers on this isolated block of Forest Street are 615, 611 and 607 Forest Street. Right next door, I came to a house with big numbers 610 on the gate.
Forest Street or … ? (photo by Peter Finkle)
This must be 610 Forest Street, right? No, wrong. This is 610 Ashland Street, built on a flag lot three houses away from Ashland Street. I almost feel like I stepped into Ashland’s version of the Oregon Vortex.
Here is the path back to the east section of Forest Street and regular life.
Forest Street path. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
If you liked this article, you might enjoy my article about the Garden of the Month on Ohio Street.
Mathrani, Varsha. “Alice Eastwood: Pioneering botanist, explorer & naturalist, lifelong lover of flowers & plants, California Academy of Sciences Curator of Botany,” Living and Working with Nature website. (accessed 5/27/2020)
When I walked Scenic Drive recently, I was interested in the oldest house on the street. 531 Scenic Drive was built in 1880. Little did I know the learning adventure on which this house would take me. Come join me on a trip through time, space and Oregon history.
531 Scenic Drive, Ashland, Oregon. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
The original 1880 house was a small two-story rectangular box with 1 ¼” thick barnboard walls and layers of newspaper glued to the walls for insulation. When Casey and Jennifer Bright bought the house in 1992, it was abandoned and falling apart. They lovingly restored it and received a Historic Preservation Award in 1997 from the Ashland Historic Commission.
Casey invited me in (keeping physical distance) and showed me a wall where newspaper had been used for insulation. To memorialize that history, Casey and Jennifer created a frame in a small section of the wall to show the newspaper, as you can see in the photo.
Original newspaper wall insulation, framed during renovation. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
When I looked closely, I saw the masthead of a newspaper called The New Northwest from Portland, Oregon, an issue dated September 29, 1871. After I got home, I looked up the newspaper, stepped into the time machine, and began my history journey, which I will share with you.
“The New Northwest” newspaper masthead, part of the insulation at 531 Scenic Drive. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Abigail Scott Duniway
Abigail Scott Duniway portrait, between 1870 and 1890, with her signature and her motto “Yours for Liberty.” (photo from Library of Congress)
The New Northwest is important in Oregon history. The newspaper was founded by pioneer Abigail Scott Duniway on May 5, 1871 to press for women’s rights, especially women’s right to vote (known as women’s suffrage). Northwest historian G. Thomas Edwards considered the founding of Duniway’s newspaper to be a key event launching the women’s rights movement in Oregon.
Abigail Scott Duniway was born into a farm family in Illinois in 1834. Though she had only about one year of formal schooling, she learned to read and write. More important – she loved to read and write. When her parents and their nine children took the long Applegate Trail to Oregon in 1852, 17-year-old Abigail was given the responsibility of writing a daily journal of their trip. Their wagon train was led by Jesse Applegate, part of the family that blazed the Applegate trail.
In Oregon, Duniway married, farmed, taught school and owned a millinery (hat) shop. When she founded a weekly newspaper in 1871 at the age of 36, she broke with the past and made writing her career.
Her newspaper was based in Portland, but she had large aspirations, as evidenced by the paper’s name: The New Northwest. The paper’s motto was “Free Speech, Free Press, Free People.” Here’s how she described her newspaper in an 1884 speech:
“No sooner had we begun to agitate the question of equal rights than men responded to our plea; and the result was, first, the establishing in 1871, and its maintenance ever since, of a weekly journal, the New Northwest, devoted to the promulgation of equal political and financial rights between the sexes; and secondly, to the respectful bombardment of biennial legislatures with the pleas, plans and purposes of women, who made the paper their standard-bearer, and who had learned to recognize the ballot as the basis of all rights under any government claiming to be ‘of the people and by the people.’”
Duniway was also a rare voice standing up for the rights of all people in Oregon, including Native Americans and Chinese immigrants. She published the newspaper until 1887.
Though lacking formal schooling, she sounded like a politician and psychologist. In an 1889 speech, she referred to 15 years of travel throughout the Oregon Territory (later the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho) speaking on behalf of women’s right to vote:
“The Declaration of Independence and the Preamble and constitution of the United States formed the basis of my many sermons through all those weary years. … we can only secure our right to vote by and through the consent of voters; and we have only gone ahead in the prosecution of our case when we have succeeded in gaining men’s consent. Whenever our demand for our right to vote is based upon an alleged purpose to take away from men any degree of what they deem their liberties, or own right of choice, we simply throw boomerangs that recoil upon our own heads.”
As noted in her speech excerpt above, Duniway recognized the uncomfortable fact that in Oregon only men voted (white males, actually). In order to pass women’s right to vote, women had to convince male voters they would gain more than they would lose by allowing women to vote. How to accomplish this led to large conflicts within the Oregon women’s suffrage movement, often pitting Duniway against the majority of women activists.
In 1871, Duniway had invited national women’s suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony to do a speaking tour in the Northwest. They traveled around Oregon for six weeks, then went north to the territory of Washington. Being seen with Anthony gave Duniway’s fame in Oregon a huge boost.
Susan B. Anthony portrait photo by Mathew Brady, about 1870, the year before she toured Oregon. (photo from Library of Congress)
Oregon women first got women’s suffrage on the state ballot for the 1884 election. In this first opportunity to decide whether women should have the right to vote, only 28% of male voters (11,223 men) said yes.
Was the low “yes” vote the fault of the anti-liquor Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, or was it the fault of Duniway’s unwillingness to collaborate with others who did not share her approach?
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and Oregon
The nationwide movement that became the WCTU began on December 22, 1873 in Hillsboro, Ohio. Inspired by an evening talk, 50 women began the very next day to ask every druggist, grocer, physician, innkeeper and saloon owner in town to sign a pledge that they would no longer sell alcohol. The thirteen businesses that did not sign found groups of women praying and singing in their establishments. This shook up the patrons and owners so much that within a few weeks, nine of the thirteen non-cooperating establishments were out of business.
The news from Hillsboro, Ohio swept across the country. In August of 1874, the formal Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed in Lake Chautauqua, New York. The primary goal of the organization was prohibition of alcohol, in order to protect women and children, and to improve men.
Like today, domestic violence was often fueled by drunkenness. Unlike today, wives had no legal recourse and little or no community support. Women of the 1870s had few legal or property rights. In most states, the home, the land, the family possessions, even the wife’s earnings if she made money, all belonged to the man.
These simple, stark facts explain two important points. One, women of all social classes had friends whose lives were devastated by the effects of alcohol, so the WCTU message touched a nerve – and a real need – and swept like wildfire throughout the country. Second, despite what most of us learned in history class, the WCTU was not solely an anti-alcohol crusade. It was actually one of the strongest forces for women’s rights in the late 1800s.
According to Sarah Gelser: “While suffragettes appealed mainly to middle- and upper-class white women, the WCTU also served and attracted working class women and women of color. The participation of working class women was demonstrated by the organization’s support of the noon rest hour, employment agencies, labor unions, and vocational training. The participation of women of color was just as striking, with large numbers of African American and Native American women officers and members.”
Thinking about this in hindsight, it seems as though Duniway would have benefited greatly by building bridges with the Oregon WCTU and expanding her base of support for women’s suffrage in the 1884 election and beyond. Instead, she was angry that WCTU didn’t support her tactics of quietly lobbying men’s groups behind the scenes in order to convince men to vote for women’s suffrage.
Granted, the WCTU could be “in your face” when it came to their tactics. On top of that, in 1883 the Oregon chapter invited national WCTU President Frances Willard for a large convention. Because of Willard’s presence and inspiration, the Oregon WCTU was very active in the years 1883 and 1884.
Duniway believed, and some historians have written, that the WCTU scared the liquor industry (nationally and in Oregon), and also scared many traditional beer and whiskey drinking males in the state of Oregon.
One could make a case that increased WCTU activity made the liquor industry (with lots of money to spend) more active campaigning against women’s suffrage. The industry and many male voters may have believed that allowing women to vote would lead to a law banning the sale of alcoholic beverages.
Illustration by LM Glackens making fun of the WCTU on the cover of Puck magazine, January 15, 1908. One lady carries a banner that says: “The lips that touch corn likker shall never touch ourn.” (from Library of Congress)
Whatever the reasons, Oregon’s male voters defeated women’s right to vote measures on the ballot four more times – in 1900, 1906, 1908 and 1910. Oregon women’s suffrage finally passed at the ballot in 1912.
In light of the discussion in the last few paragraphs, it is interesting to note that in 1914, the first election after women got the right to vote, statewide prohibition passed by a vote of 136,842 to 100,362. As of “January first, 1916, the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors within the State of Oregon, except upon prescription of a physician or for scientific, sacramental or mechanical purposes” was prohibited.
When the women’s suffrage referendum passed on the sixth try in 1912, an elderly Abigail Duniway (seated in the photo) was asked by Governor Oswald West to sign the official Oregon Proclamation of Women’s Suffrage. Though it was the sixth try here, Oregon still gave women the right to vote eight years before women achieved that right nationally. Duniway was also honored for her decades-long struggle by being the first woman registered to vote in Multnomah County.
Abigail Scott Duniway (seated) signs the Oregon Proclamation of Women’s Suffrage in 1912, with Governor Oswald West on the right. Also standing is Dr. Viola M. Coe, the acting President of the National Women’s Party. (photo from Library of Congress)
A quote for all young women
Here is an important quote from Abigail Scott Duniway that is just as applicable today as when she said it more than 100 years ago.
“The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times by spreading the light of freedom and truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future.”
Marietta Stow
Marietta Stow. (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Our journey next leads us to the connection between fellow-suffragist Marietta Stow of California and Abigail Scott Duniway of Oregon. In San Francisco, Marietta Stow had also founded a newspaper (Women’s Herald of Industry) that featured women’s issues. The paper only lasted from 1881 until 1885, but it gave her a strong platform.
Both the Republican and Democrat parties of the time ignored women’s rights. Some leading suffragists, such as Susan B. Anthony, believed their best hope for success was to work with one of the major political parties, despite being ignored. Others, like Stow, thought women needed to take the lead and form their own political party. In July 1884, Stow took the big step of forming the Equal Rights Party.
Because she knew and respected Duniway, Stow nominated Abigail Duniway as the Equal Rights Party candidate for President. Surprisingly, she did this in a newspaper article without consulting with Duniway first!
Duniway responded in her own newspaper, The New Northwest, saying she would not accept the nomination. She believed women running for office in 1884 would distract from and weaken the movement for women’s right to vote. Duniway wrote that “a disenfranchised candidate of a disenfranchised people will make a sorry run for any office.”
My grandmother and Belva Lockwood
After Duniway’s refusal, Stow turned to Belva Lockwood as the 1884 Presidential candidate for the Equal Rights Party. Lockwood was nationally known, and her life story was quite extraordinary.
This is my paternal grandmother, Belva Hovey Finkle. (photographer unknown)
This gets us to the connection with my paternal grandmother. I feel a special affinity for women who fought for the right to vote in the late 1800s because my grandmother Belva Finkle, born in 1891, was named after Belva Lockwood. My great-grandparents must have been strong supporters of women’s right to vote.
Belva Lockwood’s life
Belva Lockwood between 1880 and 1890. (photo from Library of Congress)
Lockwood was born into a farm family in 1830. She went to college, became a seminary teacher, then at the age of 40 decided to attend law school. Every step was a battle. At this time, there were only a handful of female lawyers in the entire country, and law schools refused to admit her. She was finally admitted to the National University law school in Washington DC. When she graduated in 1873, they refused to give her a diploma! Frustrated, she sent the following letter to the ex officio president of the law school, none other than the President of the United States, Ulysses Grant.
SIR,
You are, or you are not, President of the National University Law School. If you are its President, I desire to say to you that I have passed through the curriculum of study in this school, and am entitled to, and demand, my diploma. If you are not its President, then I ask that you take your name from its papers, and not hold out to the world to be what you are not.
Very respectfully, Belva A. Lockwood
According to an article at The George Washington University (formerly National University) website, “She never received a direct reply—but a week later, her diploma arrived in the mail.”
She became a successful lawyer, but she was denied the ability to practice law in Federal courts because she was a woman. Again, she was not one to give up. “In 1879, a bill was passed through both houses of Congress and signed by President Rutherford B. Hayes which allowed Belva to become the first woman to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.” [N.Y. Library] By the way, President Hayes and his wife visited Ashland the following year, in September 1880.
Belva Lockwood’s signature from Supreme Court records (from Library of Congress)
The 1884 Presidential election
“I cannot vote, but I can be voted for.”
Belva Lockwood, 1884
When Marietta Stow asked Belva Lockwood to be the Equal Rights Party candidate for President, Lockwood said yes. Stow was her Vice-Presidential running mate. Lockwood campaigned for equal rights for all Americans in order to make the United States “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” In addition to rights for women, she believed Native Americans should become U.S. citizens. She went further than most reformers by her opposition to the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which halted most Chinese immigration for decades. She called it “anti-Christian and unconstitutional.” This was diametrically opposed to the position of Stow, who was very racist despite advocating for women’s rights.
Voting ballot for 1884 election. (from collection of the Oakland Museum of California)
Lockwood was officially on the ballot of only eight states, though that in itself was a huge accomplishment. Nevertheless, she campaigned nationwide. Lockwood and Stow received 4,194 votes in those eight states. Remember, this was a time when women could not even vote for President of the United States.
I am honored that my grandmother was named after such a trail-blazing woman, who along with many other courageous women and men contributed to the increase of liberty, freedom and mutual respect we continue to fight for today. I am glad that my visit to 531 Scenic Drive in Ashland, Oregon took me on this learning journey.
*****
My thanks to the Ashland Tidings for publishing an edited version of this article on April 30, 2020.
References:
Anon. “Women show ability,” The Sunday Oregonian, September 29, 1912, Section Five, p5, at https://thebrewstorian.tumblr.com/post/172330891121/mrs-conklin-miss-louie-church-some-things-i/embed
Anon. “State Suffragists Prepare for Fight Part 1,”Oregonian, November 1, 1912, 4.
Bozeman, Anne, “The Presidential Campaigns of Belva Lockwood” (2009). Undergraduate Research Awards. 4. Georgia State University. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/univ_lib_ura/4
Chambers, Jennifer. Abigail Scott Duniway and Susan B. Anthony in Oregon: Hesitate No Longer, The History Press, 2018.
Duniway, Abigail Scott. Speech given at National Woman Suffrage Association Convention, Washington, D.C. March 4, 1884 [Abigail Scott Duniway Papers*]
Duniway, Abigail Scott. “Ballots and Bullets,” speech given at National Woman Suffrage Association Convention, Washington, D.C., circa January 21-23, 1889 [Sunday Oregonian 9 Sept. 1906]
Edwards, G. Thomas. Sowing Good Seeds:The Northwest Suffrage Campaigns of Susan B. Anthony. Portland, OR: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990; pg. 16, as noted in Wikipedia, April 14, 2020.
Gelser, Sarah Anne Acres. “Beyond the Ballot: The Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Politics of Oregon Women, 1880-1900.” M.A. thesis for Oregon State University, December 7, 1998.
Norgren, Jill, Belva Lockwood: ‘I cannot vote, but can be voted for,’ at HistoryNet.com, accessed April 15, 2020. https://www.historynet.com/belva-lockwood.htm
Ashland High School outdoor art. Cheryl Garcia’s metal art. The Inspire House classroom.
Morse Avenue street sign on Siskiyou Boulevard. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I took photos on Morse Avenue, which runs between Siskiyou Boulevard and East Main Street, in April 2018 and again May 2020. Most of the east side of Morse is taken up by the Ashland High School track and field.
Homes and apartments fill the west side of the street. Morse Avenue is only a couple blocks long, as are many streets in Ashland, so this will article will be mostly photographs.
Garden Highlight
The garden highlight on Morse Avenue was 33 Morse. This home used to belong to Southern Oregon artist Cheryl Garcia and her husband Criss. Cheryl specializes in metal art, and you can still see her work around the garden.
Metal art by Cheryl Garcia at 33 Morse Avenue. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
Cheryl Garcia’s website is www.greatmetalwork.com. I have had the pleasure of knowing Cheryl for the past few years. She does create great metal art projects, both small and large. You may have seen her huge flowers just inside the main entrance of the Britt Music Festival, at Walker School in Ashland or the bright yellow-orange metal poppies in the vineyard as you drive into Jacksonville on South Stage Road (photo below).
Poppies by Cheryl Garcia near Jacksonville. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
When Cheryl and Criss sold the home on Morse, she told me that she hoped the new owners would honor and keep her artwork in the garden – and they have. Here are more photos of her art at 33 Morse.
Cheryl Garcia’s metal work at 33 Morse Avenue. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)Garage at 33 Morse Avenue, Cheryl Garcia metal art. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
There is an unusual tree at the corner of the garden where Morse Avenue meets East Main Street. I think it’s a weeping Blue Atlas Cedar that has been trained to grow in two directions from the sturdy trunk. It is dramatic!
Blue Atlas Cedar, corner of Morse Avenue and East Main Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)You can see how the Weeping Cedar has been trained to grow over the archway garden entrance. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Ashland High School track
During my 2018 walk, the deer of Ashland were represented on Morse. I was admiring the new AHS track recently installed after a huge community fundraising campaign. Then I noticed that three deer were also admiring the track, perhaps discussing how fast they could run a 100 yard dash.
Some “spectators” at the new Ashland High School track. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
The track was declared unfit for use in May of 2017, so a huge community fundraising campaign began. $360,000 of private funds was raised to replace the understructure of the track and lay down a state of the art surface layer. It looks great to me. I hope the high school athletes love it.
New Ashland High School track. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)This is one of a newly-planted line of Ginkgo trees along the Morse Avenue side of the Ashland High School track. Ginkgo trees put on a beautiful show of golden colored leaves in autumn. Ginkgo trees are slow growing, but they can live for longer than 1,000 years.
AHS Inspire House
The Ashland High School Inspire House on Morse Avenue serves a small number of students. I found this explanation at the school website: “The AHS INSPIRE Program serves students who have special needs, with an emphasis on hands-on activities that directly transfer into independent life skills.”
Rebecca Bjornson is the teacher for Inspire House students. I didn’t know about Inspire House when I first wrote about Morse Avenue in April 2018. Since then, I had the pleasure of leading Rebecca and the Inspire House student group on an Ashland History Walk through the Railroad District.
60 Morse Avenue is the site of the Inspire House program. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)Inspire House front door. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)This unusual bench is located in front of the student garden next to Inspire House. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
AHS Morse Avenue artwork
I enjoyed seeing this mosaic at the high school as I walked the sidewalk on Morse Avenue. If someone knows the story behind the mosaic, please share it in the comments.
Ashland High School mosaic, along Morse Avenue. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)Detail of the mosaic at Ashland High School, along Morse Avenue (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)The mosaic wall partially encloses this Ashland High School student garden. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)This Ashland High School parking lot at the corner of Morse Avenue and Siskiyou Boulevard was once the site of the “Sweet Shop.” If anyone would like to share a personal story of the Sweet Shop in the comments, I would love to read them.
The house that moved one block. How can Liberty Street start and end at Siskiyou? Two Little Free Libraries…and ending with humor.
This is a greatly expanded version of my April 2018 Liberty Street article. Liberty Street has an Ashland Tree of the Year, architecture from historic to modern, not just one but two “Little Free Libraries,” and access to Ashland’s extensive trail system.
Here’s how Liberty Street can start and end at Siskiyou — it goes from Siskiyou Boulevard to the Siskiyou Mountain Range.
You’ll find tiny Triangle Park where Liberty meets Siskiyou Blvd.
Triangle Park when quiet. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
Triangle Park
You might have wondered why this tiny, triangular park is here. Marjorie O’Harra in her book gave credit to Ashland’s newly formed Woman’s Civic Improvement Club. Formed in April 1908, this large group was described by the Ashland Tidings at the time as promoting “civic improvement agitation.” That agitation led to the creation of Lithia Park, among other accomplishments. But that is another story.
According to O’Harra, here is the Triangle Park story: “When the Temple of Truth Society announced plans to build a structure on Siskiyou Boulevard — on a triangle lot between Beach and Liberty Streets — the ladies believed such a building would ruin the view from the homes on Iowa Street, so they bought the land for $550 and developed it into a park.”
The Temple of Truth Society ended up building its church in 1909 or 1910 on Siskiyou Boulevard, where the expanded Fire Station #1 is now located.
This historic photo shows the Temple of Truth church about 1910, at 457 Siskiyou Boulevard. This interesting structure was torn down in the 1960s. (“This image is part of the Stories of Southern Oregon Collection in the Southern Oregon University Hannon Library digital archives and made available by Southern Oregon University Hannon Library.”)
Triangle Park tends to be quiet. You might see high school students eating lunch in the charming gazebo during the school year, or young people walking slack lines attached to the posts in the park. The one day Triangle Park comes alive with a “boom” and a “bang” is the 4th of July. When Ashland’s huge Independence Day celebration rolls around, parade headquarters is at Triangle Park. It becomes a beehive of organizers, marching band members and honored guests ranging from locals, to Oregon’s U.S. Senators, to our Sister-City Queen and city council members from Guanajuato, Mexico.
Triangle Park before the 4th of July parade, when it is packed with people. This photo, taken in 2011, shows Ashland City Band members warming up their instruments. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2011)
2-story camellia and healing massage
At the corner of Alaska Street, Joseph and Janie enlisted some of their friends to turn a large lot into a beautiful cooperative vegetable and fruit garden. Let’s see how many of the fruits in their garden I can remember: cherries, blueberries, raspberries, mulberries and gooseberries. Yes, they like berries. Sorry, they are not for public consumption!
Joseph and Janie are both massage therapists with the business name Advanced Myotherapy. Janie also teaches Eden Energy Medicine all over the world, but I have benefited from her healing skills in both massage and energy medicine, without going any farther than Liberty Street.
They have the most amazing camellia bush I have seen in my life, and I have seen many. Is it still a “bush” when it’s two stories tall? The dramatic two-story camellia is hard to see from the street, so I am including photos of it here, taken in April 2018.
2-story tall Camellia bush. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
Camellia bush close-up. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
Houses historic and modern
285 Liberty Street, built in 1924, a historic “Bungalow style” architecture. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
According to the National Register description of historic properties in Ashland, “the Whitaker house [at 285 Liberty Street] is a fine example of the bungalow style, with the shallow pitched roof, broad eaves, large porch, massive posts and brackets and other elements of the style.”
Bright colors at 289 Liberty Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
Anyone who walks or drives on Liberty Street will remember this colorful house. Some people love it and some think it sticks out like a sore thumb. I’m in the “love it” camp. Traditional neighborhoods where all homes are built in the same style or similar colors can be aesthetically pleasing. But there is freshness that comes with variety, and Liberty Street has variety.
I would like to point out the beautiful, colorful tulip garden in the front yard of this colorful house, at its peak in early April. Notice the deer fence, without which the tulip garden would not exist.
Tulips at 289 Liberty Street in April 2018. (Photo by Peter Finkle)
Short Ashland deer rant
I may go on a rant about the Ashland deer from time to time as I write my Walk Ashland articles. The number of plants that Ashland deer do not eat seems to be shrinking from year to year. For example, during the first 15 years I lived in Ashland, the deer did not touch the Hypericum or Star jasmine in my front yard. Now they eat both, and I have even seen them nibble on ivy! At least rosemary, lavender, daffodils and iris seem to be safe for the present.
Little Free Library
A few steps up the street, I came to the first of two “Little Free Library” stands on Liberty Street. This book sharing movement began in 2009 when Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin placed the first Little Free Library in his front yard. There are now over 65,000 registered Little Free Libraries in over 80 countries around the world! (And many more not registered with the official group.)
Little Free Library on lower Liberty Street (photo by Peter Finkle)
The City of Ashland has a map of Little Free Libraries in town. It shows the locations of 14. I think there are many more than that. Just in April 2020, I have seen two new Little Free Libraries as I walk around town.
324 Liberty Street, built about 1910. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
Though this house is not set far back from the street, the dense vegetation gives it a secluded feel. I especially like the entry arbor and vines.
This house moved one block
391 Liberty Street. Note the front porch with columns. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
John and Artemisia Easterling moved from Kentucky to Ashland in 1903. During the next few years, he bought and sold properties and businesses around town, especially in the Railroad District. In 1909, the family bought an orchard with a home on Beach Street. They lived there until 1925, when they sold the property to the school district for construction of Lincoln Elementary School. This was to be a training school for teachers educated at nearby Southern Oregon Normal School (now Southern Oregon University), which reopened in 1926.
The Easterlings then purchased a lot one block over on Liberty Street and decided to move their Beach Street house to the new location. Easterling was known as a wheeler-and-dealer. He decided to upgrade his house when it was moved. He found a college building that was being demolished and purchased the columned porch of the building. You can still see it at the front of this Liberty Street home.
390 Liberty Street, built in 1921. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I met homeowner Bill Quassia as I was taking a photo of his historic 1921 house at 390 Liberty Street. It was in bad shape when he got the house, so he had to do major work on parts of the ceilings and floors. In the older part of the house, he was able to keep the original wood floors and original horsehair-infused plaster interior walls. Yes…horsehair. One hundred years ago, hair from the mane and tail of horses was used in making plaster for walls. These long, strong horsehair fibers provided strength and stability to the plaster.
Louise Antz, previous owner of 390 Liberty Street in yellow blouse, with Grace Pratt-Butler in this 1972 photo. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020; this 1972 photo was in a box that Bill Quassia found after he purchased the house)
A previous owner of the house, Louise Antz, moved to Ashland from New York. She had been the Chair of the Department of Education at New York University. According to Bill, she realized her dream of “living out West” when she retired from teaching. She is the one who enclosed the old porch. Doing so created a hothouse room for growing orchids and other tropical flowers.
Look closely at the 1972 photo above that I am holding in my hand. Do you see the variegated-color window shades behind the two ladies? Now look at the blinds on the current porch, just above the 1972 photo. If they look similar, that’s because they are the same blinds! As with the photo, Bill found them in the old barn/garage behind the house as he went through boxes of possessions Louise Antz had left behind.
Can you see the tree?
Notice the one foot tall tree in the park row in front of 390 Liberty Street, just behind the man with his shirt off. (this 1970 photo was in a box that Bill Quassia found after he purchased the house)
This made my jaw drop, so I want to share it with you. As we were standing out in the front yard, Bill pulled the photo above from the box of old photos Louise Antz had left in the house. He had me look at the tiny tree just behind the man with his shirt off. I thought to myself, “okay, that doesn’t look like much.”
Then Bill said, “Look at that,” as he pointed to a nearby tree. “What!,” I exclaimed as I put two and two together and realized the connection. Take a look at the photo below and see if you make the connection.
390 Liberty Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
I expect you figured it out by now. That is the same tree! It is now 50 years old, very tall and very healthy.
More dramatic trees
Liberty St is home to two other trees that caught my eye. The first, at 391 Liberty Street (the house moved from Beach Street), was Ashland’s 2001 Tree of the Year. Each year residents nominate favorite trees around town, the Tree Commission narrows the selection to a few, and then residents vote for their top choice. The 2001 choice was a majestic Blue Atlas Cedar. My photo through the electric wires doesn’t do it justice. I hope you will see it for yourself.
Sign for Tree of the Year 2001, a Blue Atlas Cedar. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
Blue Atlas Cedar, Ashland Tree of the Year 2001. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
The other tree, toward the top of Liberty, is a very unusual Ponderosa pine. Most Ponderosa pines I see are straight as an arrow, reaching for the sky. Not this one. It forks, and then forks again. With tall trees, I have read that a lightning strike can destroy the crown of the tree and lead to a forked top as the tree strives to continue growing. This tree looks like it just decided to be different.
Ponderosa pine near top of Liberty Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
More contrasting architecture
Ascending Liberty Street, I took photos of houses with contrasting architectural styles, showing the variety of houses on Liberty.
Historic house at 575 Liberty Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
If you like traditional, here is one of the original farm houses on Liberty Street, built in 1886.
Modern architecture is just up the block on Liberty Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2018)
If you prefer modern, you might like to view this one on the 600 block.
642 Liberty Street has a vibrant, unusual and enjoyable color combination. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)Here is a close-up of the porch, wisteria vine and door at 642 Liberty Street. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
This front yard at 600 Liberty Street is filled with newly planted trees. I hope I am here in 20 years to see how large they grow, and to take another photo. (photo by Peter Finkle, 2020)
