Editing Ashland, Virginia (section)

==History==
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 [[Ashland (Henry Clay estate)|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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Ashland |url=http://www.town.ashland.va.us/index.aspx?NID=177 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120724024510/http://www.town.ashland.va.us/index.aspx?NID=177 |archive-date=July 24, 2012 |access-date=November 13, 2015 |website=Town of Ashland}}</ref>

[[Confederate States Army|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.

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 an electrified [[interurban]] line between Ashland and Richmond in 1907, the town became an early [[streetcar suburb]] of Richmond. The Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway, as it came to be called, was abandoned in 1938. A former [[car barn]] in Ashland is one of the few remaining vestiges of the line.<ref>{{cite web|title=Richmond and Chesapeake Bay Railway Car Barn|url=https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/127-6171/|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=May 14, 2021}}</ref>

Construction of [[U.S. Route 1 in Virginia|U.S. Route 1]] on the former Washington (or Richmond) Road, and later [[Interstate 95 in Virginia|I-95]], further shaped the town character and development.[[File:Ashland, Virginia.png|thumb|left|[[Ashland station (Virginia)|Ashland station]]]]

One of Virginia's oldest churches is {{convert|5|mi|0}} southeast of 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]].<ref>Don W. and Sue Massey, ''Colonial Churches of Virginia'' (Charlottesville, Howell Press, 2003) at pp. 54-55</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slashcc.org/|title=Slash Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)|access-date=November 13, 2015}}</ref> Ashland itself originally had a Free Church, shared by various [[Protestant]] denominations. Several denominations built churches shortly after the Civil War, but many have been torn down. The town's current [[Episcopal Church (United States)|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.<ref>{{cite web|author=R Stuart Grizzard|year=1941|url=https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1283&context=honors-theses|title=A history of Gwathmey Baptist Church|publisher=[[University of Richmond]]|access-date=May 29, 2016}}</ref> The town now also has an Eastern Orthodox congregation, St. Andrew's (2001), and a messianic Jewish congregation (Beth Shalom Ministries, 2004).
 
On October 19, 2002, Ashland made national news as the site of one of the [[D.C. sniper attacks]]. 37-year-old Jeffrey Hopper was shot at 8:00 pm in the parking lot of a [[Ponderosa Steakhouse]] as he and his wife left the restaurant. A ransom demand note the snipers left nearby was instrumental in identifying them.<ref>{{cite news|first1=Serge F.|last1=Kovaleski|first2=Sari|last2=Horwitz|title=Letter offers hint at motive|newspaper=[[Raleigh News & Observer]]|page=14|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/658595172|date=October 26, 2002}}</ref>

The local newspaper, ''The Herald-Progress'', published its final edition on March 29, 2018.<ref>{{cite news |title=News, Newspaper, Sports, Business, Entertainment, Engagement, Obituaries, Births, Government, Football, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer, Advertising in Bowling Green, Va |url=http://www.herald-progress.com/closing.html |access-date=August 26, 2021 |work=The Herald-Progress |date=March 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728041355/http://www.herald-progress.com/closing.html |archive-date=July 28, 2018}}</ref>