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Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Local Issues Obituaries Weather Archive Revels Etcetera Backpage Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Galleries Video Readers Polls O-Zone Online Games Movie Preview Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad May 10, 2006 In remodeling the structure, Megan Mitchell and Steve Strickland sought to create their own fantasy of a home that acts as a gateway to a magical world. Photos by Orville Hector | Daily Tidings B Street house raises eyebrows, art By Alan Panebaker Ashland Daily Tidings Megan Mitchell, left, and Steve Strickland live in one of the most unique homes in Ashland. A Queen Anne-style house on Pioneer and B Street has been raising eyebrows since Steve Strickland and Megan Mitchell began renovating it almost three years ago. The Vining-Ganiard house, originally built in 1884, saw drastic additions and remodeling starting in 2003. “We wanted something that we saw as artistic, and that was magical,” Strickland said. With its carved griffins, a teak front porch and replica standing stone sculptures, the unique house has become a local tourist attraction. Strickland and Mitchell said it is not uncommon to find people peering into their living room on any given day, and they don’t mind most of the attention. In remodeling the structure, the two sought to create their own fantasy of a home that acts as a gateway to a magical world. Strickland and Mitchell have yet to find this other place quite yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t looking. Charles Tan, a Malaysian businessman who lives in Indonesia, took the couple’s requests and found craftsmen overseas to do the intricate woodwork they wanted. Then contractor Clay Colley and his crew installed hundreds of intricately carved griffins, fairies and tarot cards and 68 fairies all about the interior of the house. Above the entryway hangs a light fixture sculpted in the image of a fairy. The couple say that many of the varied carvings that line the inside of their house could only be hand carved in Indonesia. Colley said the work was exceptionally intricate: “The hand-carved pieces were really a challenge for my finish carpenters.” The exterior features a turret and a copper griffin statue on the roof. On the lawn are the rugged stone sculptures that some passersby have mistaken for Hindu fertility symbols. In fact, they are smaller copies of the Menantol statues in Cornwall, England. The stone figures, one of which is circular, add to the other-worldly quality. “I admit I slithered through it once,” Mitchell said. She added that her fairy-tale vision of the house was partly inspired by the book “Little Big,” by John Crowley. This mirror has small detail carvings on the glass and wood. Some not pleased Throughout the construction process and afterward, the changes to the historic house have been controversial. Some neighbors love it. Others loathe it. Mitchell, Strickland and Colley managed to steer their project through the Ashland Historic Commission. But the finished product clashes with some people’s notion of correct style for the historic Railroad District. But Colley contends critics of the house are overlooking its unique aspects and careful detailing. In recent months, vandals knocked over the Menantol statues. The owners now have reinforced them with concrete blocks, to keep it from happening again. It was the kindness of a passing city crew, which stopped to help right one of the toppled sculptures, that inspired the couple to make a donation to the City of Ashland. Their gift: Two brand-new heads for the vandalized Abraham Lincoln statue in Lithia Park. But more controversy arose when word got out that the heads would be outsourced to China through Tan. “We’re not really outsourcing because we couldn’t have insourced,” Strickland said. The couple maintains that many of the hand carvings that line the inside of their house, and the Lincoln heads, could only be hand carved in Indonesia. Strickland said if the heads were made in the United States, they would probably be manufactured through a mold rather than hand carving. The reactions to the renovation on B Street and Pioneer have been as varied as the houses in the neighborhood. Lynne Gallagher, a retired attorney who lives in the historic Railroad District, said she sees the house as a labor of love with eccentricities. “I love it,” Gallagher said. “I absolutely love it.” She said the house might not be exactly what she would go for in her own home, but she said she thinks it is equally great. ‘I think it’s fun and whimsical,” Gallagher said. George Kramer, a preservation consultant and former chair of the Ashland Historic Commission, said the changes Strickland and Mitchell have made to their home may not appeal to some people’s tastes, but they did follow city rules. Strickland and Mitchell stand on the front porch of their home at Pioneer and B Street. “That house, in the condition in which they purchased it, was an asset to the historic district,” Kramer said. “We try to maintain the historical value as tastes change, but there is a distinction between historical compatibility and what people find attractive.” Standing beside one of the many unique structures and monuments that exist in and around their home Strickland and Mitchell respond to questions regarding the impact their home has had in the surrounding community. Despite the criticism that has come their way, the couple say they are happy to be living in Ashland. Kramer pointed out that taste is subjective. He added that although the Railroad District was historically a working-class area, Mitchell and Strickland were well within the law to make the changes they did. Dale Shostrom, chair of the Ashland Historic Commission, echoed Kramer’s statements that the renovation did not violate city rules but said its new style may not necessarily reflect the historic era. “We just don’t feel like it’s reflective of the history,” Shostrom said. The commission chair said he felt that the house as it is now does not reflect the simple vernacular that the working-class railroad district neighborhood should possess. Some neighbors in the historic district, like psychotherapist Philip Lang, are more outspoken. Lang said he dislikes the renovation because it took a plain house and made it gaudy. Nor was he impressed with the offer to donate two new Lincoln heads, because it involves foreign labor instead of a local artisan. “It’s an example of the pious, phony white liberal hypocrisy of this town,” Lang said. Despite the criticism that has come their way, Strickland and Mitchell said they are happy to be living in Ashland and the gift of Lincoln heads will go forward as planned. The house will stay as is on B Street. People who love it will love it, and those who do not will have to live with it. Staff writer Alan Panebaker can be reached at 482-3456 x 227 or [email protected]. . Leave a Comment: --> Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.