`GREEN' TO BLOOM ONCE AGAIN.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

COTTAGE GROVE - This was the place, back in the day.

The Village Green was built in 1959, when Interstate 5 first cut a four-lane swath down the West Coast. Alongside the newfangled freeway, the local Woodard family built no mere motel. The Village Green was a "luxury motor hotel," the poshest spot between Los Angeles and Seattle.

For more than a dozen years running, it received the Mobil Travel Guide's top five-star rating - an honor shared with only one other Oregon property, Salishan Lodge near Lincoln City.

Then came construction of competing luxury hotels in Eugene, the recession of the 1980s and a series of ownership changes. Moonstone Hotel Properties bought the deteriorating property in 2001 just before it was to be auctioned on the courthouse steps to avoid foreclosure.

And now, backers hope a $3 million renovation will again draw people to the Village Green.

The first refurbished wing of 16 hotel rooms is expected to open by mid-April - part of a plan to redo all 96 rooms and return the place to its heyday, complete with a series of themed gardens.

Restoration of "The Green" is a big deal in a town where many longtime residents - including Mayor Gary Williams - remember the claim to fame it once was.

"For a period of my life, I did a lot of international travel," he said. "Wherever I went from the South Pacific to the Caribbean, I'd mention Cottage Grove and people would say, `Oh - the Village Green!' '

The place was a destination resort even before it first opened, recalled Carlton "Cart" and Joy Woodard, who built the hotel after selling the lumber mill that the family had run for two generations.

As they tell it, a newlywed couple spotted the sprawling resort from the freeway one Sunday shortly before the hotel was ready for paying customers.

"We were sitting around the pool with our boys, when they came walking up and said, `We'd sure like to stay here!' ' Joy remembered. "We said we weren't quite open and didn't have a staff yet, but they said, `We don't care!' They were so cute, we got them some towels and let them have a room for the night."

Then-Gov. Mark Hatfield cut the ribbon for the gala grand opening. Vice President Richard Nixon stayed here on a 1960 Oregon campaign swing. Cart Woodard recalls the candidate and his entourage borrowing his mother's car to get to a campaign event.

"When he brought it back, he got money back from the desk clerk for the gas he put in it," Woodard said. "That was pretty low."

Now, the hotel has a chance at a second life. Moonstone has spent about $20,000 per unit to update the rooms, said general manager Robert Hunt.

Gone are the low-slung carports that were a guest's first impression of the rooms in the motor inn era. The updated rooms appear more cottagelike. Each has a fireplace and a front and back door, with the latter opening onto a sitting area within a private garden.

The California-based company began its renovation from the outside in, hiring local landscaper Cindee Eichengreen to design a variety of gardens for the 16-acre grounds. Moonstone has invested nearly $1 million to transform the resort's old nine-hole golf course and other grounds into gardens - featuring everything from roses to bumble bees - and a "collector's nursery" of garden art and rare plants.

The approach is patterned after the chain's Cambria Pines Lodge, a garden-themed resort on the central California coast.

"When I came up here the first time, I was struck by how similar the Village Green was to Cambria Pines, which was also a distressed property we brought back to a destination resort," said Hunt, who has moved his family to Cottage Grove. "The opportunity to do that again just stuck out."

Will residents of naturally lush Oregon spend money to come see greenery, the way Southern California and Bay Area residents have?

"Research shows that the Pacific Northwest is one of the biggest gardening areas in the country," Hunt said.

The next step in the renovation is remodeling of the kitchen, lounge, lobby and Cascadia dining room, as well as adding a fourth banquet room.

The challenge will be modernizing the facilities while retaining classic elements from the original design.

"The Woodards did a fantastic job," said project manager Craig Pryor. "The wood in this place is amazing - all these straight, clear timbers that are just beautiful. A lot of the unique things they did here were unbelievable for that day and era."

THEN AND NOW

1959 room rates: $10 to $36

2004 room rates: $100 to $160 (varies by season)

CAPTION(S):

A fountain is a focal point in the large garden area that is available for weddings at the soon-to-reopen facility in Cottage Grove. Kevin Clark / The Register-Guard Restoration of "The Green" includes remodeled rooms that open onto a sitting area within a private garden.