Ashland, Virginia Ashland, Virginia Ashland Town Hall Ashland Town Hall Location in Hanover County and the state of Virginia.

Location in Hanover County and the state of Virginia.

Ashland is a town positioned 15 miles north of Richmond along Interstate-95 and historic Route 1 (and its bicycle version) in Hanover County, Virginia, United States.

Ashland is titled after the Lexington, Kentucky estate of Hanover County indigenous 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 a several annexations to a size of 7.12 square miles, one of Virginia's larger suburbs in terms of territory area.

The town was titled "Ashland" after indigenous son Henry Clay's estate in Kentucky and officially incorporated on February 19, 1858.

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 extra structures, so it became a small college town.

Even before the war, the barns began offering monthly passes to Richmond to citizens buying lots and building homes in Ashland.

When tycoon Jay Gould established a streetcar line between Ashland and Richmond in 1908, it became an early streetcar suburb of Richmond.

One of Virginia's earliest churches is just outside Ashland: Slash Church, assembled as the Upper Church of St.

Paul's Parish in 1729 remains a home of worship, though now used by the Disciples of Christ. Ashland itself originally had a Free Church, shared by various Protestant denominations.

The town's current Episcopal Church is St.

James the Less, on the other side of the stockyards 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.

Historic churches still inside 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).

Bloomberg Business in 2009 titled Ashland "Best Place to Raise your Kids" in Virginia.

Www.movoto.com in 2014, titled Ashland one of America's 10 best small towns.

Ironically, the barns that made the town may now be one of its biggest threats, as many inhabitants oppose assembly of a high-speed rail line on the narrow right of way through the elongated historic town.

According to the United States Enumeration Bureau, the town has a total region of 7.2 square miles (18.7 km ), of which 7.2 square miles (18.6 km ) is territory and 0.04 square mile (0.1 km ) (0.55%) is water.

Hanover County handles Stormwater Pollutant Removal and Filtration The town's library is now part of the multi-county Pamunkey Regional Library System, although extra libraries are at the courthouse and Randolph Macon College. For almost 35 years, Ashland's chief festival has been the Strawberry Faire in June. Vendors from all around the state sell a range of different items (with a strawberry theme).

According to the Koppen Climate Classification system, Ashland has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps. Air pollution levels see. Town of Ashland.

"Ashland Strawberry Faire".

Ashland Strawberry Faire.

"Ashland, Virginia Koppen Climate Classification(Weatherbase)".

Ashland Weather and Air Quality/Pollution Municipalities and communities of Hanover County, Virginia, United States Virginia Towns in Virginia

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Towns in Hanover County, Virginia - 1858 establishments in Virginia - Populated places established in 1858 - Towns in Virginia