Ashland, Virginia
| Ashland, Virginia | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
Ashland Town Hall
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| Nickname(s): The Center of the Universe | |
 Location in Hanover County and the state of Virginia. |
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| Coordinates: 37°45′34″N 77°28′38″W / 37.75944°N 77.47722°WCoordinates: 37°45′34″N 77°28′38″W / 37.75944°N 77.47722°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Virginia |
| County | Hanover |
| Founded | 1858 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Council-Manager |
| • Mayor | James R. Foley |
| • Town Manager | Joshua Farrar |
| Area | |
| • Total | 7.2 sq mi (18.7 km2) |
| • Land | 7.16 sq mi (18.6 km2) |
| • Water | 0.04 sq mi (0.1 km2) |
| Elevation | 213 ft (65 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 7,503 |
| • Density | 1,042.083/sq mi (402.350/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 23005 |
| Area code(s) | 804 |
| FIPS code | 51-03368 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1492492 |
| Website | www.ashlandva.gov |
Ashland is a town located 15 miles north of Richmond along Interstate-95 and historic Route 1 (and its bicycle version) in Hanover County, Virginia, United States. 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 chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Although comprising only one square mile when originally incorporated in 1858, today Ashland has grown through several annexations to a size of 7.12 square miles, one of Virginia's larger towns in terms of land area.
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 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.
Confederate troops trained on the former racetrack early in the American Civil War, but the war and its aftermath devastated Ashland. Randolph-Macon College (founded 1830) moved to Ashland in 1868, and began using buildings of the bankrupt hotel as well as building additional structures, so it became a small college town.
The railroad lines rebuilt and the town continued to expand. Even before the war, the railroad began offering monthly passes to Richmond to people buying lots and building houses in Ashland. When tycoon Jay Gould established a streetcar line between Ashland and Richmond in 1908, it became an early streetcar suburb of Richmond. Construction of U.S. Route 1 on the former Washington (or Richmond) Road, and later I-95, further shaped the town character and development.
One of Virginia's oldest churches is just outside Ashland: Slash Church, built as the Upper Church of St. Paul's Parish in 1729 remains a house of worship, though now used by the Disciples of Christ. Ashland itself originally had a Free Church, shared by various Protestant denominations. Several denominations built churches shortly after the Civil War, but many were torn down in modern times. The town's current Episcopal Church is St. James the Less, on the other side of the railway line from Slash Church and whose congregation received monthly clergy visitations in the 1850s, and which in 1958 sold its 1866-consecrated and once-moved building as well as the old rectory (which still remains today, in private ownership) in order to build a larger one on the town's outskirts. The Disciples of Christ also had a historic church on Center Street (built 1900) that was replaced in 1985. Historic churches still within the town's (and historic district's) boundaries include: Ashland Baptist Church (1860, now the Hanover Arts and Activities Center); Shiloh Baptist Church (1866, originally Freedmens Baptist Church), Duncan Memorial Chapel (Methodist, 1879), St. Ann's Catholic Church (built 1892, remodeled 1925) and Ashland Presbyterian Church (1875-1881). Gwathmey Baptist Church (1892) is a mile nearer Richmond and (like the former St. James the Less Church), within 50 feet of the railroad tracks. The town now also has an Eastern Orthodox congregation, St. Andrew's (2001), and a messianic Jewish congregation (Beth Shalom Ministries, 2004).
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