About Ada's | AdasPlaceQuincy

About Ada’s Place (Notes from Valerie & Michael Nellor)

The first of our unique eco-friendly motel cottages was named in honor of the pioneering soul Ada Miller, who sold us the property (and yards of recyclable stuff) in 1995. After fleeing the Oklahoma dust bowl in the 1930’s, Ada relocated to Massack (where the rest stop is, coming into town from the east) and lived there in a tent home until it was destroyed by fire. Fire also destroyed her next tent home in Westwood. Yikes! She was an amazing spirit, great role model and one of the last of our local telephone operators. Can you remember those two-digit phone numbers? Ada’s Cottage was finished in July of 2002 and soon we had our first guest, and thus began the development of the tiniest of hotels in Quincy, CA.

We never thought we would have the opportunity to acquire the adjacent property … but we did! With three ramshackle “possibilities” awaiting us we started again. There was a mountain of garbage, broken windows and old timber, and the challenge was to see how much we could recycle and reuse.
A great collection of decorative old roofing tin (now the ceiling in Ada’s kitchen), some unique old cabinets, many feet of beautiful old cedar and virtually anything of value was salvaged.

Paired with great old mirrors, lots of furnishings from friends, family and other delightful sources, our little hotel came to life.
Over the next few years the three motel cottages, West Wing, Ruth’s Garden and Hop Sing’s were completed. One at a time, with great helpers, we were able to reuse an amazing amount of material.
In 2009 we had 20 solar panels installed on the house at Jackson St., and we hope to be able to put them on all of the motel cottages as well.

California Certified Small Business