HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
Ashland's 1910 hotel above the Enders Building, reopened 2024, where a magazine reports footsteps in the halls
262 E Main St, Ashland, OR 97520
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Standard boutique-hotel room rates; rates vary by room and season, see the official site for current pricing
Access
Limited Access
The hotel occupies the second floor of a downtown commercial building; guest access is up a stairway from street level, above ground-floor retail
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1910 · National Register of Historic Places — Enders Building, #86002902 · Contributing property, Ashland Downtown Historic District · Ashland's first concrete commercial structure · Designed by architect Frank Chamberlain Clark
Henry Enders Sr. moved his family and business to Ashland in 1907 and financed construction of the Enders Building, a roughly $35,000 project that the Ashland Tidings described on its December 12, 1910 opening as the largest structure of its kind in Southern Oregon. Architect Frank Chamberlain Clark designed the building, which was Ashland's first concrete commercial structure. The ground floor housed the Enders Mercantile Co., an early department-store-format retailer, while the second floor opened as the Columbia Hotel.
The Enders Building is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, reference number 86002902, listed October 23, 1986. Its Commercial-style architecture includes Chicago School windows and Classical-vein detailing such as belt cornices and stepped parapets. The building is also a contributing property within the Ashland Downtown Historic District, a 55-building district in Ashland's core.
Mrs. Knoblarch served as the hotel's first proprietress, followed by Mrs. E.G. Hadley by 1912. Russell D. Riley, a longtime tenant since 1914, acquired operation of the hotel in 1916. The Columbia Hotel went on to operate continuously for 111 years, one of the longest runs of any hotel in Oregon, until it closed permanently on November 1, 2021.
The building sat vacant for roughly two and a half years before reopening in May 2024, with a grand reopening event held April 5, 2024, under new owner Jay Bowen, a hotel and travel-marketing professional who had previously worked in Portland after being raised in South Africa. The renovation redesigned the interior and added guest-room murals by local artists, and the hotel now markets itself with a focus on sustainability and outdoor recreation, including Pacific Crest Trail hikers passing through the Rogue Valley.
Sources
1859 Oregon's Magazine, in a Sept/Oct 2025 feature by James Sinks titled "Fall for Ashland," describes paranormal color around town and states that one presence "stomps the hallways at the Columbia Hotel downtown." A separate passage later in the same piece, in a roundup of places to stay, describes the hotel as having "maybe a spirit or two." Neither line names a witness, a room, or a dated incident.
No second independent source for the claim has been found. Searches for the specific phrasing and for the hotel's name alongside ghost or haunted terms return only this magazine piece and the hotel's own reproduction of it. The Columbia Hotel's official News & Press page reprints the excerpt from the 1859 Oregon's Magazine feature alongside other press coverage of the property.
The same magazine article quotes Peter Finkle, the Ashland historian who leads the Haunted Ashland walking tours, commenting generally on the town's ghost lore: "Based on the stories I've heard, the spirits here are more mischievous than murderous." That quote describes Ashland's broader reputation and is not a specific account tied to the Columbia Hotel.
Media Appearances
Stay overnight on the second floor of the 1910 Enders Building in downtown Ashland. Guest rooms feature murals by local artists commissioned during the 2023-24 renovation, and the hotel keeps a rotating art gallery on-site. The property markets itself to travelers on the Pacific Crest Trail as well as downtown visitors.
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