The SOHS Library is OPEN to the public at 106 N. Central Avenue in Medford, with FREE access to the SOHS Archives, from 12:00 - 4:00 pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Appointments are not necessary. Please contact library@sohs.org, or call 541-622-2025 ex 200 to ask questions or request research.

 

Ashland Masons Replace Burned Lodge with Concrete and Brick Building

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Ashland wisely turned to brick construction after a fire started on March 11, 1879, in a blacksmith shop, consuming the Plaza’s wooden buildings, including the Masonic Lodge.
Within months, the Masons broke ground on a new concrete and brick building at No. 25 Main Street, including a cornerstone with a time-capsule cache of contemporary items, among them a membership list and an Ashland state senator’s jar of jelly. The 137-year-old Masonic Lodge No. 23 stands today as Jackson County’s second oldest remaining Masonic structure after the one built in 1877 in Jacksonville. 
A lodge member, prominent businessman W.H. Atkinson, designed the building, and Lodge members bought $100 bonds to raise $20,400 for its construction. The Ashland Post office occupied much of the ground floor from 1890 to 1954.  Other businesses included a real estate office, a drug store and the Ashland Woolen Mill office, occupied by the Gold & Gems jewelry store today.
Architect Frank C. Clark designed a second floor for the Lodge Hall in 1909 to accommodate increasing lodge membership during a period of Ashland growth and prosperity.  A third-floor kitchen was added in 1928.
The National Register of Historic Places recognized the building in 1992.
Sources: O'Harra, Marjorie. Ashland: The First 100 Years. First ed. Ashland, Ore.: Northwest Passages Publishing, Inc., 1981. Print; "Ashland Masonic Lodge Building." National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service, 4 June 1992. Web. 15 Mar. 2016. http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/92000663.pdf>.

Episode
2918
Date
Author
Jeffrey Levin