A railroad town:
Ashland's rich history began, and remains forged, by
the tracks
Tuesday, Mar 20, 2007 - BY CLARKE BUSTARD
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
CONTINUED...
What's special about Ashland?
Trains (1): About 40 of them roll through the center of town every day. Seven Amtrak passenger trains stop there daily, so many Ashland residents are steps away from making connections to New York or Miami.
Nostalgia: "You can easily imagine Ward and June Cleaver living on Duncan Street, and Beaver and Wally walking to Henry Clay Elementary School," says Town Manager Charles W. Hartgrove.
Neighbors: Not only do Ashlanders have them, they actually know them. The houses have porches; people sit on them and greet passers- by. The streets are full of after-dinner strollers, residents walking their dogs, groups of kids riding their bikes. People go shopping on foot.
Trains (2): Ashland, longtime train riders say, is the first attractive scene you'll see out the window south of Boston. The town's grandest antebellum and Victorian homes, known as "the painted ladies," line both sides of the tracks. Residents of these houses spend much of their time straightening pictures on the walls after freight trains rumble along outside their front parlors.
Not suburban: Never, ever, tell Ashlanders they live in a suburb. It is the only incorporated town in the Richmond area. It has its own government and municipal amenities - sidewalks, street lights, parks, town library, swimming pool, street maintenance, trash pickup - and a separate set of taxes to support them.
Not urban, either: Where else in the area can you parallel-park on a street and walk along a sidewalk to a retailer - Ashland Feed Store - to buy feed for your llama or the material you'd need to set up a habitat for deer in the woods behind your home? In some parts of town, cocks crow at dawn and dogs answer enthusiastically, making alarm clocks unnecessary.
Trains (3): Want to get up close and personal with a locomotive or boxcar? Stop by the Ashland-Hanover Visitors Center, the town's old train station, in the center of town. You can stand safely about 6 feet off a long stretch of straight track, along which trains roll at 35 mph.
The college: Randolph-Macon College, which relocated from Southside Virginia to Ashland shortly after the Civil War, occupies much of the center of town. On and off campus, life revolves around football and basketball games, homecoming and commencement weekends, fraternity and sorority parties and other activities.
Love a parade: Ashland sure does. It boasts two big ones, at Christmastime and on the Fourth of July. The Strawberry Faire and other outdoor gatherings dot the town's calendar of events.
Home cookin': Ashland may be the only place in greater Richmond where you can choose among Virginia, North Carolina and Texas styles of barbecue under one roof - that of Virginia Barbeque. A couple of blocks away, The Smokey Pig offers different styles of Virginia barbecue (pork and beef).