Medford, B&B on
the cover of Sunset

excerpts
from the Mail Tribune article
"The West's best Inns"
by Bill Varble
January 20, 2000
 

That sun-dappled farmhouse on the cover of Sunset
magazine is Medford's Under the Greenwood Tree. A
blurb next to Renate Ellam's cozy bed and breakfast
inn heralds "The West's Best Inns, 24 Great B&Bs for
Warmth, Comfort, and Romance."

Sunset senior editor Jeff Phillips says the story was no
quick roundup of the usual suspects. The selection
process started more than a year ago and involved
writers, editors and experts narrowing down a list of
top B&Bs in the West to about 300. A second round of
cuts narrowed the list to 50 finalists. "Both exhaustive
and exhausting" is how Phillips describes the search.

Renate Ellam started the Greenwood Tree a dozen years ago in
a 19th century farmhouse shaded by oaks and black
walnuts on the far West side of Medford. There are 11
buildings. Three of the 10 acres are landscaped.
Five flower-bedecked rooms are available, two with
 attached sitting rooms.

Phillips cited comfort as a key criterion in Sunset's
choices.  "I've stayed at too many B&Bs with great
antiques where you can't read in bed," he says.

Ellam says the secret to that comfy feeling is lots of hard
work, done slowly, yielding what she calls an illusion of
ordered tranquility.