Ashland will turn 150 this year
Events will honor town's past, sense of community
February 18, 2008
By MELODIE N. MARTIN (Richmond Times Dispatch)
As the town of Ashland turns 150 this year, residents will celebrate how much has not changed since the turn of the last century.
Victorian homes and main street businesses frame railroad tracks that run through the 7-square-mile college town. It is home to more than 7,000 people, many of whom turn out in force for the town's Christmas and Fourth of July parades and biennial musical variety show.
But the town's oldest resident, 102-year-old Virginia Henry Shelton, has noticed a few changes. She lives in a Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog home on Berkley Street that she bought in the 1930s with $400 down and monthly payments of $6 a month.
"It has grown tremendously since I first moved here," Shelton said, noting that a dirt road and a streetcar were the ways to get to Richmond before the interstate.
The town's actual 150th anniversary is tomorrow -- the date in 1858 that the Virginia General Assembly adopted legislation that incorporated the town in central Hanover County.
The main birthday event is slated for Oct. 18 on the Randolph-Macon College campus. Specifics about the event are still in the works.
Like his father, Rob Stiles grew up in Ashland and lives there with his wife and two sons, ages 6 and 10.
"It's neat to be able to have the boys say, 'Hey, I'm running over to the neighbor's house,' and we don't worry about them," Stiles said.
They also enjoy the town's diversity and sense of community.
"It's just an eclectic group of people, and they all love the town and they all contribute to the uniqueness of the town," Stiles said. "People outside the town will say we're a little crazy about the way we feel about it."
Stiles is president of Team 150, made up of several committees planning the anniversary celebration. The committees are open to everyone, he said, and welcome input from residents.
"The goal is to bring the whole community -- not just pockets of the community -- together to celebrate what we have," Stiles said.
A 150th anniversary yearbook will include contributions, including family histories, photographs and memories, from anyone or any group calling Ashland home, Stiles said. Inclusion in the book is free, but submissions must be made by April 1.
Other plans include guest speakers, exhibits, a hall of fame, a choir festival and an oral-history video project. An Arbor Day event in April will kick off the planting of 150 trees throughout the year, including one for use as the town Christmas tree.
Funds are being raised for a train clock that will be presented as a birthday gift to the town. An observation platform also is envisioned for railroad enthusiasts.
A new time capsule will replace one buried at a past anniversary celebration but misplaced, and a capsule buried during the 1976 United States bicentennial will be opened. Stiles said the committee has been unsuccessful in locating the missing time capsule and is beginning to wonder if it is a myth.
"We have pictures of the event and of the capsule. We just don't know where it is," Stiles said. Contact Melodie N. Martin at (804) 649-6290 or mmartin@timesdispatch.com.