Bigham Knoll, a hilltop campus that saw its first building erected during the gold-boom era, represents Jacksonville’s past. But it also represents its future.
This month, the site plays host to a new bonanza: wine. The 9th Annual Southern Oregon World of Wine Festival begins and ends here.
From Aug. 24 to 26, an opening reception, wine sensory classes and a gala dinner will take place inside renovated school buildings. On Aug. 27, the Grand Tasting finale will gather 700 people under a big tent on the lawn to sample more than 150 wines made from Southern Oregon grapes.
But those wine-centric experiences represent just a small part of the activities held at this newly restored school and events center.
Throughout the year, business, educational and trade conferences are conducted in the ballroom-like assembly room. Every week, exercising seniors and merit badge-seeking scouts meet in the many classrooms. Daily, the Frau Kemmling Schoolhaus Brewhaus serves up German food, brew and music where the cafeteria once stood.
Bigham Knoll’s owners, Brooke and Mel Ashland, see the entire seven-acre property as a community treasure. And they willingly share it.
On this sunny day in June, Brooke Ashland is walking around the campus and talking about the restoration of the 1908 brick-and-concrete schoolhouse, the first building that didn’t burn down on the site.
The bell tower is back. The fir floors re-stained. The wainscot and other wall treatments repainted to match colors long buried under layers of paint.
Not visible are the new safety features and upgrades – the intense retrofitting, the high-tech infrastructure – or signs of painstakingly removing decayed decorative features, labeling each piece, restoring it and returning it to the exact spot.
“We wanted to keep as much of the materials from the past,” Brooke says, “to create a marriage between the old and new.”
Many of the added building materials were salvaged after the demolition of the Jackson and Roosevelt schools, which were constructed a few years after Bigham Knoll.
Bricks made a century ago in Jacksonville are pillars in a passageway between the Brewhaus restaurant and bar. Diners now gather around tables that once were used in woodshop classes; dents and marks made by wayward hammers and chisels are still visible. Vintage school desks, textbooks and musical instruments saved from scrap dealers are held in the music room for safekeeping.
It’s almost exhausting to hear about the level of work needed to recover the entry, lobby, even the principal’s office. But Ashland is smiling.
The greatest compliment she has received was when a longtime resident toured the historic schoolhouse and didn’t notice anything different from when he was enrolled. “What did you do?” he asked her quizzically, as if time had stood still.
She didn’t tell him that after moving to the Rogue Valley in 1984, she saw the buildings grow to look more and more forlorn. Owls nested in an attic. Water leaks eroded the structures.
Previous tenants had good intentions, but not the money to restore the character of the buildings. The Ashlands bought the property in 2007.
Two years later, they moved their two companies’ headquarters here. Cutler Investment Group is an investment strategy firm and Ashland Partners and Co. audits investment managers. From the Knoll, employees connect to clients and colleagues all over the world.
Since moving in, the Ashlands have hosted May Day, Oktoberfest and other celebrations and fundraisers, and added a prep kitchen, without every neighbor’s approval. Granted, extra noise and foot traffic occur when the public is invited to attend events.
It seems fitting, however, that in July, the Jacksonville High School reunion took place here. After all, students have been coming to this site since the 1860s, a decade after gold was discovered.
Beyond cracking open schoolbooks, this campus overlooking Jacksonville was the place that the community gathered for graduations, to ring the bell when World War I ended and to plan for the future.
Today, there is a preschool on the property. Thirty-four children are enrolled; four of them are the Ashlands’ grandchildren. In addition to preparing the preschoolers to read, they are also learning to speak other languages, Brooke says, to achieve success in the new global economy.
Having a real school on the property is important to her. It is a way to honor the past while preparing for the future.
Janet Eastman covers food, wine and travel for national publications and websites. Her work can be seen at www.janeteastman.com
The WOW experience is now four days long:
Aug. 24: Welcome Cocktail Reception ($25)
Aug. 25-26: Wine education classes by Dwayne Bershaw of the Southern Oregon Wine Institute ($30)
Aug. 26: Gala Dinner ($125)
Aug. 27: Grand Tasting ($75)
Information at www.worldofwinefestival.com