How old is Lithia Park in Ashland? Someone told me it was 100 years old this year but that seems a little old to me. I mean, wouldn't that make it as old as the hills?
— J.B., Ashland
The hills are a bit older, but the 100-acre park is indeed a century old, J.B.
Its roots go back even deeper than its 1908 creation, according to a chronicle by Ashland historian Marjorie O'Harra.
The picturesque park began to take shape in 1892 when Grants Pass minister J.B. Smith sought a site to host Chautauqua, a nationwide series of summer lectures and entertainment, she wrote. He formed the Southern Oregon Chautauqua Association, which purchased 8 acres — now the site of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival — and built a domed wooden building large enough to hold 1,000 people.
The Chautauqua series attracted such celebrities as William Jennings Bryan, Booker T. Washington and John Philip Sousa. The area became a gathering site for picnics, Fourth of July festivities and other public celebrations.
Local folks, concerned about expansion and maintenance of the grounds, formed the Women's Civic Improvement Club and asked the Ashland City Council to create a city-owned park. The city made it park land in 1908 after residents voted to create a park commission and to tax themselves for its improvements and maintenance. All city-owned property from the plaza to the "forest reserve" was dedicated forever for park purposes.
The park was formally dedicated July 4, 1916, during a three-day gala that attracted more than 50,000 people. In ensuing years, the park was the site of an auto campground, where thousands could park and stay for free.
By 1925, care of the park was turned over to the Ashland Parks Commission. In 1935, college professor Angus Bowmer added three days of Shakespearean plays to the annual Fourth of July celebration, drawing park visitors to the small beginning of Ashland's now-famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
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