Ashland Sites

The National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form for the former Big Elk Guard Station (now a camping residence for seasonal rent) tells the history of the garage/storage shed located nearby: "A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)-built Garage/Storage Shed, erected ca. 1938, lies about 50' east of the cabin. This rectangular, single-story building measures approximately 18' x 16' feet in plan and approximately 8' 6" feet from the top of the corner boards at the eaves to the ground. The building has a medium-pitch gable roof with wood shingles and exposed rafter ends. The exterior walls are composed of horizontal "double-run molding"...

In the spring of 1940, Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees from CCC Camp Applegate planted 1200 ponderosa pines in an acre of land south of Ashland's Lithia Park on behalf of a local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The DAR's leadership chose participation in the "Penny Pine" program as one of the organization's Golden Jubilee National Projects and encouraged such groves across the country. With the help of the CCC, the National Forest Service had started growing pines in nurseries for replanting as a means of revitalizing the nation's forests. Selling them to organizations for a penny a...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made extensive improvements to Lithia Park, a 100-acre park at the heart of Ashland OR, from 1935 to 1938. Lithia Park was established in the early 20th century along Ashland Creek above the main town plaza, next to a small Chautauqua Park (added to Lithia Park in 1917).  A duck pond with waterfall was built on the site of an old flour mill in 1910 and then John McLaren, the designer of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, was invited to landscape the park in 1914-15.  McLaren transformed the little valley around the creek into a romantic...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the original theater used to launch the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland OR in 1935, as part of general improvements the WPA was making to Lithia Park at the time. Over the years, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has became a major cultural draw on the West Coast, with several theaters in Ashland and Portland.  It all started in 1935 under drama teacher Angus Bowman of Southern Oregon (Teachers) College in Ashland, who asked the city to let him and his students perform Shakespeare as part of the annual July 4th festival.  Bowman designed a rough copy...