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Ashland, Virginia
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Ashland, Virginia
Ashland is a town in Hanover County, Virginia, United States, located 16 miles (26 km) north of Richmond along Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 7,565, up from 7,225 at the 2010 census.
Ashland is named after the Lexington, Kentucky estate of Hanover County native and statesman Henry Clay. It is the only incorporated town in Hanover County. Although comprising only one square mile when originally incorporated in 1858, today Ashland has grown through several annexations to a size of 7.16 square miles (18.5 km2).
The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad initially developed the town in the 1840s as a mineral springs resort with a racetrack. The town was named "Ashland" after native son Henry Clay's estate in Kentucky and was officially incorporated on February 19, 1858. The area had been known as "The Slashes", sometimes translated as "swamp", but which also reflected the small ravines that formed in the sandy clay soil after hard rains.
In 1861, early in the American Civil War, Ashland hosted Confederate troops at what was called "Camp Ashland" where they trained at an abandoned racetrack. During the war, John Henry Timberlake, a Virginian whose home was at Atlee, Virginia, not far from Ashland, served in Co. G, 4th Virginia Cavalry and rose to the rank of lieutenant. He supplied a map and acted as a guide to Gen. Stonewall Jackson for his trek in June 1862 through Ashland during the war to Cold Harbor. That same month, Gen. Jackson is said to have stayed at the MacMurdo House, 713 South Center Street, right on the tracks of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. The following year, Union skirmishes occurred in the town and the Ashland Baptist Church (still standing today as the Hanover Arts and Activities Center) acted as a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers.
The war and its aftermath devastated Ashland. However, Randolph–Macon College (founded 1830) moved to Ashland in 1868 and began using buildings of a hotel as well as building additional structures. Their involvement in the town changed the course of Ashland's success.
The college was also a hub for war-related activities after the Civil War. The R-MC students participated in the Student Army Training Corps. during World War I. The town also held events, such as the Liberty Day Parade in 1918, to raise money to buy war bonds to support the war effort. During World War II, J. Enos Ray, mayor of Ashland, became Virginia's first mayor to volunteer to join the United States Army in preparation for war before the 1940 draft was instituted. Randolph-Macon College continued to support the citizens of Ashland, and the United States at large, with its involvement in hosting military training programs. The United States Navy made use of the institution as a preflight training center and a place to train hundreds of soldiers in engineering.
In addition to the college, the railroad and other transportation services were instrumental in helping the town survive. One service was supplied by tycoon Jay Gould when he chartered the Richmond & Chesapeake Bay Railway Co. in 1905 and later established an electrified interurban line between Ashland and Richmond in 1907. However, the line maintained by Richmond & Chesapeake Bay Railway Co. did not survive and was sold at auction to Oliver Jackson Sands Jr. and Jonathan Bryan. They established the Richmond-Ashland Railway Company in 1919 which operated until 1938. A former car barn in Richmond is one of the few remaining vestiges of the line. The short-lived railcar line failed in part due to the growing use of personal vehicles and buses. In fact, in 1928, the Suburban Motor Coach Company was formed by RF&P to provide passenger service via bus between Ashland and Richmond. The county of Hanover and the Town of Ashland has since maintained the trolley line, known as the Ashland Trolley Line Trail, as a walking trail for public use and historic preservation.
As the town grew, the wider national economy grew as well. This growth sparked controversy in 2000 when a proposal to rezone an area east of Ashland to allow Walmart to build and open a store. The details of the controversy were featured in a PBS documentary entitled Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town released in 2001. At its opening in 2003, the opposition was so strong, it was reported some demonstrators attempted to prevent shoppers from patronizing the store.
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Ashland, Virginia
Ashland is a town in Hanover County, Virginia, United States, located 16 miles (26 km) north of Richmond along Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 7,565, up from 7,225 at the 2010 census.
Ashland is named after the Lexington, Kentucky estate of Hanover County native and statesman Henry Clay. It is the only incorporated town in Hanover County. Although comprising only one square mile when originally incorporated in 1858, today Ashland has grown through several annexations to a size of 7.16 square miles (18.5 km2).
The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad initially developed the town in the 1840s as a mineral springs resort with a racetrack. The town was named "Ashland" after native son Henry Clay's estate in Kentucky and was officially incorporated on February 19, 1858. The area had been known as "The Slashes", sometimes translated as "swamp", but which also reflected the small ravines that formed in the sandy clay soil after hard rains.
In 1861, early in the American Civil War, Ashland hosted Confederate troops at what was called "Camp Ashland" where they trained at an abandoned racetrack. During the war, John Henry Timberlake, a Virginian whose home was at Atlee, Virginia, not far from Ashland, served in Co. G, 4th Virginia Cavalry and rose to the rank of lieutenant. He supplied a map and acted as a guide to Gen. Stonewall Jackson for his trek in June 1862 through Ashland during the war to Cold Harbor. That same month, Gen. Jackson is said to have stayed at the MacMurdo House, 713 South Center Street, right on the tracks of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. The following year, Union skirmishes occurred in the town and the Ashland Baptist Church (still standing today as the Hanover Arts and Activities Center) acted as a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers.
The war and its aftermath devastated Ashland. However, Randolph–Macon College (founded 1830) moved to Ashland in 1868 and began using buildings of a hotel as well as building additional structures. Their involvement in the town changed the course of Ashland's success.
The college was also a hub for war-related activities after the Civil War. The R-MC students participated in the Student Army Training Corps. during World War I. The town also held events, such as the Liberty Day Parade in 1918, to raise money to buy war bonds to support the war effort. During World War II, J. Enos Ray, mayor of Ashland, became Virginia's first mayor to volunteer to join the United States Army in preparation for war before the 1940 draft was instituted. Randolph-Macon College continued to support the citizens of Ashland, and the United States at large, with its involvement in hosting military training programs. The United States Navy made use of the institution as a preflight training center and a place to train hundreds of soldiers in engineering.
In addition to the college, the railroad and other transportation services were instrumental in helping the town survive. One service was supplied by tycoon Jay Gould when he chartered the Richmond & Chesapeake Bay Railway Co. in 1905 and later established an electrified interurban line between Ashland and Richmond in 1907. However, the line maintained by Richmond & Chesapeake Bay Railway Co. did not survive and was sold at auction to Oliver Jackson Sands Jr. and Jonathan Bryan. They established the Richmond-Ashland Railway Company in 1919 which operated until 1938. A former car barn in Richmond is one of the few remaining vestiges of the line. The short-lived railcar line failed in part due to the growing use of personal vehicles and buses. In fact, in 1928, the Suburban Motor Coach Company was formed by RF&P to provide passenger service via bus between Ashland and Richmond. The county of Hanover and the Town of Ashland has since maintained the trolley line, known as the Ashland Trolley Line Trail, as a walking trail for public use and historic preservation.
As the town grew, the wider national economy grew as well. This growth sparked controversy in 2000 when a proposal to rezone an area east of Ashland to allow Walmart to build and open a store. The details of the controversy were featured in a PBS documentary entitled Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town released in 2001. At its opening in 2003, the opposition was so strong, it was reported some demonstrators attempted to prevent shoppers from patronizing the store.
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