Anniversaries
Throughout 2008, there are many other Ashland anniversaries to celebrate:
The First Baptist Church of Ashland is celebrating their 150th anniversary. First Baptist Church of Ashland owes its beginning to a group of 15 pioneers and early settlers of Ashland who established the Ashland Baptist Church in August 1858. Though they were small in number, they were large in faith. Less than one year after its beginnings, the young church purchased land and built a house of worship at what is now the Hanover Arts & Activities Center building. During the Civil War, the church building was used as hospital for the sick and wounded soldiers. In the early 1960s, the church needed to expand and bought land on Route 54,and the first building was occupied in 1967. Since that time the church has expanded its facilities and just completed its most recent renovation - a new sanctuary in 2006.
Shiloh
Baptist Church is celebrating their 141st (plus?) anniversary.
At the end of slavery, the newly freed men and
women in Ashland who founded Shiloh Baptist Church, known alternately as
Shiloh Freedman’s Church and Shiloh Church, sought the opportunity to
worship God in a way that acknowledged their cultural and spiritual values.
While the exact date of the founding is not known, we know that a school was
opened in Ashland under the patronage of the American Baptist Home Society
and housed at Shiloh Freedmen’s Church in October 1866, and by December the
school boasted 102 students. The Rev. Burwell Toler, the first pastor of
Shiloh, united Philip Eddleton and Peggy Ann Burwell in Holy Matrimony on
December 17, 1866.
In 1877, the Trustees, with the backing of the church body, purchased the current site from Mr. & Mrs. M.E. Cox, and Shiloh became a vital part of the Ashland and Hanover communities. The church was the site of fundraisers that helped keep the schools for black children open, and it was used for baccalaureate and graduation exercises for the Hanover County Training School. As the largest black-owned facility in the area, Shiloh was quite often the site of fraternal society conventions and special programs such as Tuberculosis Clinics and National Negro Health Week activities. Shiloh Baptist Church has a strong history of service to the Lord, Ashland, and Hanover and continues to be light in the community welcoming all who enter.
The Hanover Arts & Activities Center is celebrating their 40th
anniversary. The Hanover Arts and
Activities Center is currently a nonprofit community center serving
residents of Ashland, Hanover and surrounding counties, but the building
began its life as the Ashland Baptist Church, built in 1859. Shortly after
opening, the congregation moved elsewhere and offered their building for
three years to serve as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the Civil
War. After the war, the congregation returned, and the building was in
continuous operation until 1967, when the Baptist congregation outgrew their
home and moved to Rt 54. Soon after, a dedicated group of local
citizens purchased the building to serve as a community cultural center –
Hanover Arts and Activities Center (HAAC). The mission of the Hanover Arts
and Activities Center is to promote arts, education and community values.
For 40 years, the Center has housed and supported everything from the first
branch of the Pamunkey Regional Library, to children’s and adult theater, to
adult literacy tutoring to studios for artists and musicians, to retreat and
meeting space for local government and nonprofit organizations.
pencil drawing by Edith Schermerhorn, 1973