The Columbia Hotel is the oldest hotel in Ashland, Oregon and has been in continuous operation since its construction in 1910. The hotel occupies the second floor of the Enders Building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Designed by architect Frank Chamberlain Clark, the Enders Building was the first concrete commercial structure in Ashland. The Ashland Tidings, December 12, 1910, called it "the largest structure of its kind in Southern Oregon." Featuring characteristics of the Chicago style, it is also significant as an early example of a department store. Hotel accommodations on the second level were constructed to make it possible for shoppers from Northern California as well as from Oregon towns as far north as Grants Pass to travel to the mercantile shops in downtown Ashland by wagon, train, or car to shop and then stay the night at the hotel, and return home the next day.
Columbia Hotel in State of Jefferson[]
The Columbia Hotel was established in 1910, nine years before the State of Jefferson was established. In the 1920s, Jefferson's second governor, Charlie "Bigfoot" Lewis, a Sasquatch, stayed at the Columbia. The room he stayed in, which was altered to fit his size, came to be known as the Governor's Suite.
In the 1970s, another sasquatch governor, Bill Williamson, stayed in the room while on the campaign trail. He and his wife, Louise, stayed in the suite in 1980 when they came to see their daughter, Nicole, perform in the Ashland Shakespeare Festival.[1]
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