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The Inn and the InnkeepersA Boarding House Becomes Historic
Anne Hathaway's B&B and Garden Suites are actually two separate properties caddy-corner across the street from each other. Together, they offer two options for visitors to Ashland – one is a traditional B&B with seven rooms, each with a private bath, where a generous gourmet breakfast is served in the garden if it's summer, around the expandable family dining room table otherwise. The Garden Suites offer the privacy of rooms and suites with separate entrances, kitchenettes, jetted tubs, decks or porches. For Garden Suite guests, a fulsome continental breakfast is available in the adjoining Club House, or guests can join B&B guests at the sit-down breakfast. Our time as owners of Anne Hathaway's began with the B&B, which J.T. Currie built in 1908 as a boarding house for loggers, railroaders, teachers, nurses and city clerks. Around 30 years ago, it morphed into a B&B and we're its fourth owners. The house appears on the Southern Oregon Historic Society's list of historic Ashland properties. Over the years many upgrades and one major addition have been undertaken, bringing it to its current state with central air-conditioning and heating, modern plumbing and electricity. Its cozy, elegant décor provides downstairs, upstairs and outdoor garden reading and chatting areas. The front porch provides bird's eye views of Grizzly Peak and what's going on in the neighborhood, while the Siskiyou mountain range and an endless supply of local birds are the backdrop for the rear gardens.
The innkeepers moved to Ashland in 2002 after leaving the East Coast and our first careers in journalism, government and nonprofit management. We quickly adapted to our new roles as host and hostesses to a parade of fascinating guests such as you. Many have asked why we chose to move so far, but anyone who has been to Ashland already knows the answer. Apart from the stellar productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, there are countless natural wonders to explore. Go hiking in Ashland's spectacular Lithia Park, around the nation's deepest lake, Crater Lake, explore the wildnerness or other lakes and mountains. Go rafting or fishing on the Rogue River. Drive to Mt. Shasta or the Pacific Coast. Go wine tasting in an area rapidly becoming well-known as "Napa North." Perhaps the most important reason for our move is that two of our three children and now a grandchild are only a half-day's drive away and we get to see them much more frequently than before. As for the career change, we both enjoy cooking for company and interacting with the wide variety of interesting people who visit Ashland for a night for a fortnight. It's been fun to find new uses for old family linens, china and silver, not to mention antiqueing to find furniture for the rooms, art for the walls, books for the shelves and other special items for special places. One Southern Oregon find was an 1850s painted pine bedroom set, originally owned by a Pennsylvania family whose descendants we actually know. Many have asked us why we would choose to do something that requires so much work and we found the answer from Shakespeare himself. A scholar pointed out that every one of his plays features a servant, a character who embodies many of the traits we value most, such as unwavering loyalty, unimpeachable character and unconditional love. When we read that, we knew why being servants is for us a most stimulating and inspiring profession. Indeed, we aspire to be good servants who will make your stay with us just as perfect as possible. Over the past eight years, we've made a number of changes in the operation of Anne Hathaway's, primarily in the direction of becoming a green as we can be. We've been encouraged by guests and by our daughter Sara, an organic farmer who recently received her Master's degree in sustainability, and our son Marshall, whom the Oregonian in Portland recently called an energy efficiency expert. For example, we've installed on demand hot water heaters that provide all the hot water needed when we have a full house in the summer months, but don't spend energy keeping hot a tank full of water in those winter months when business is slow. We installed new windows in the Garden Suites. And we use only green products for cleaning. The sheets you sleep on are all dried outside. You'll find the tastiest environmentally-friendly change we've made on your plate for breakfast and afternoon tea. We buy nearly all of our summer and fall fruit at the local farmers' and growers' markets. Our strawberry man has fresh berries from June to October, smaller than some, but much, much tastier than the berries at the supermarket. The cardboard containers they come to us in are returned for re-use. We have a share in a CSA or Community-Supported Agriculture farm that delivers fresh vegetables once a week. Fresh chard often shows up the next day in a quiche, new potatoes in a frittata, cucumbers in afternoon sandwiches, where a bowl of cherry tomatoes awaits you. Most of our eggs come from a local woman who keeps some chickens to supplement her income as a bank teller. The hard-cooked eggs in the Club House thus are multi-colored and the yokes of all of them are a stronger yellow than grocery store eggs. Going local and organic may add to our shopping bills, but we think it's the right way to go and that you deserve to have the freshest, most healthful food available. And speaking of sustainability, we're trying to make ourselves more sustainable by scheduling more free time. Last fall we experimented with each one of us being off for 48 straight hours each week – an afternoon, the next day and the following morning. We'll continue to work on this so that we can continue to provide our guests with the highest-quality service and at the same time keep ourselves fresh. Adapting to our new community hasn't been difficult, as we both started out in small towns. Deedie is an active Rotary Club member, due to be president in 2010-11; writes for the AARP Bulletin; sings with the Peace Choir and belongs to both a book reading club and a book writing group. David is a member of the city's Conservation Commission dedicated to a sustainable lifestyle, is this year's president of Ashland's Bed and Breakfast Network, a past board member of the statewide guild and is on the marketing committee of the Southern Oregon Visitors Association. His spare time is taken up with his men's book club and duplicate bridge games. All that said, we hope you'll consider a visit to Ashland, and remember that fine lodging and memorable moments begin at Anne Hathaway's. It's reported that Anne Hathaway never left Stratford to see one of Will Shakespeare's plays. When you come here, you'll find that his presence is strongly felt and that every meal here is enlivened by conversation about last night's plays. We'd love to have you visit.
Deedie and David Runkel |
After owning the B&B for a few years, we found ourselves sending many
prospective guests across the street to cottages where travelers' accommodations
were available. We decided to add them to the Anne Hathaway's collection.
The nine Garden Suite rooms are in three buildings, two of them built in
the 19th century and one built last year. These beautifully decorated rooms
and their porches offer reading and dining areas overlooking extensive gardens
and the mountains, with regular serenades provided by local birdlife, not
to mention regular visits from pansy-eating deer. The 2009 building has two
three-room suites, each with a gas fireplace and television in the living
area. Most of these rooms are available for travelers accompanied by their
dogs.