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Historic cabin give-away Jim Craven photo Inn in Ashland will be turned into retail space By Wendy Siporen ASHLAND � There�s no room left for the inn. Owners Leo And Regina Jansen hope to find a new home for the Hillside Inn�s main residence and three other kitchenette buildings before they begin to transform the corner of Siskiyou Blvd. and Walker Ave. into 10,000 square feet of retail space in the fall. "Our choice could be to destroy them, but if somebody can use them, fine," said Leo Jansen about the motel he�s owned since 1974. "Just knocking them over, all you have is a pile of junk." His wife Regina is a bit more sentimental about the place she called home for 19 years before retiring in 1993. "I feel very sad because it�s such a beautiful place," said Regina Jansen. "I always call it an oasis for the weary traveler. But it will stop being that." The Jansens say there�s been a lot of response to their modest classified ad titled, "Free Buildings in Ashland." "I don�t think we�ll have any trouble (removing the buildings)," said Leo. One thing is sure; moving the buildings probably won�t generate the same fury as the Jansen�s decision to remove several significant trees on the site. That battle went to the state Land Use Board of Appeals before Jansen was given permission to cut down the trees last year. "We had people chained to our trees," said site manager Susan Fessenden-Anderson, who has lived in the main house for the last year and feels a strong attachment to it. "There�s a part of me that�s coming down with it." While the buildings may fare better than their arboreal neighbors, the change will mark the end of a piece of Ashland history. The Jansens believe the main house is more than 100 years old. Someone once told them the house was itself moved onto the property. It once housed a grocery store, said Regina Jansen. She�s also been told there used to be a little museum on the property that featured exotic bones found while previous owners were digging for a water line. The site�s post-war history is a little easier to confirm as the inn benefited from the late 1940s auto boom. The 1948 Ashland directory advertises the White Cabin Auto Court on Hwy. 99, built in part with reclaimed cabins from Camp White. By 1957, the accommodation was renamed the White Cabins Motel and then the White Motel in 1964. The Jansens gave the motel its present name in 1986 after remodeling the old cabins and building 24 studio units behind the main house. The Jansens say increasing competition and the high overhead of their remodeling costs prompted their decision to build the retail space and convert some of the rooms to studio apartments. "All our guests are saying the same thing," said Regina. "We are sad to see it go." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA