Ashland's history seen through its architecture
Thursday, May 29, 2008 - Bill Doran, Herald Progress
As part of the Ashland Branch of the Pamunky Regional Library's continuing series on Ashland's 150th anniversary, Rosanne Shalf, author and historian, presented the Town's history as seen through its architecture. "This past February, Ashland turned 150 years old," said Shalf. "This is a wonderful year to celebrate Ashland's history.
One way to learn about any town's history is to look at the architecture in the different neighborhoods. "You can see how and when the community developed. Houses also tell you a lot about the kinds of people living in them. Their condition tells you whether the community takes pride in what it has," Shalf said. "Ashland is fortunate to have retained so many fine examples of American architecture from the decades just prior to the Civil War to styles popular after the turn of the century to the 1920s.
When other towns shunned the railroad tracks as the ugly industrial part of town, Ashland embraced them as the center of its residential and commercial life. Some of the most valuable and desirable residential real estate is along the tracks." Shalf went into details of all the different types of architecture starting with the very beginning, when Ashland was a mineral springs resort and home to a race course, and brought the listeners through the first residential neighborhoods that included free or discounted fairs on the train with each deed purchased.
"By 1855, a village had grown up around the resort and it was renamed Ashland, after Henry Clay's Kentucky home," said Shalf. "Both the village and the resort were incorporated by the state in 1858, and the resort was renamed the Ashland Hotel and Mineral Well Company. "During the War Between the States, there were skirmishes in and near Ashland and several of the homes and churches in the town served as hospitals.
The race course served as a training ground for part of the Confederate cavalry." Shalf shared many examples of architecture including Randolph-Macon College President Robert Lindgren's House at 305 Caroline Street. This home was known as Rhodene. It was built in the Georgian Revival style that was popular in the 1920s when Williamsburg was being re-built and renovated.
"The symmetrical layout, the colonial style brickwork, and the broken pediment over the doorway are hallmarks of this style," said Shalf. "The little cottage behind Rhodene wears board and batten siding, as the original house probably did. In fact there is evidence it may have been attached to the house at one time."
"Most antebellum or pre-Civil War houses in Ashland were what architectural historians would call simple Greek Revival or Classical Revival or Neoclassical-historians do not all agree on the term," continued Shalf. "What they do agree on is the simple, orderly symmetrical style of a house with squared columns, small window panes six-over-six. The window surrounds were plain." An example of this style can be found at 134 Hanover Avenue, known as the Thompson House. "After the war, the town and the South were pretty much bankrupt. It would take a miracle to resurrect Ashland, and a miracle happened," said Shalf. "Struggling Randolph-Macon College, founded by Methodists in Boydton, Virginia in 1830, was looking for a place closer to a railroad line to relocate.
The town and the RF&P welcomed them with open arms and the college opened for classes in Ashland in 1868. "The college professors and students used the existing buildings of the resort until they could raise enough funds to build a proper campus over on the race course property southwest of town.
Well, the students jumped the gun, and under leadership of student Jordan Wheat Lambert, they raised the money and hired an architect to build Washington and Franklin Literary Societies Hall. "Built in 1872, in the very fashionable Italianate style with a French Second Empire bonnet gable, it cost a whopping $13,000. The architect was Benjamin F. Price. Abandoned in 1952 as unsafe and nearly demolished in 1974, it was saved and renovated in 1985-86 through a grant from the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, headed by Jordan Wheat Lambert's granddaughter, Mrs. Rachel Lambert Mellon." Soon to follow were the Italianate style of Pace Lecture Hall in 1876, and the Victorian gothic Duncan Memorial Chapel in 1879. Both were designed by Albert Lawrence West of Richmond.
By 1880 the campus was transformed into a proper Victorian college campus. "The Italianate style was popular for homes as well as the college buildings," explained Shalf. "Italianate details include bracketed bay windows and porch trim and simple three-part windows.
Many antebellum houses in Ashland were updated after the war. "There was a massive fire in 1893 in the downtown, and that commercial area was rebuilt from the 1890s through 1913 and looked then much as it does today with vernacular Italianate commercial buildings. "Just before and after the turn of the century, people began to tire of the gingerbread.
The fussy High Victorian fell in fashion in favor of a later version of Classical Revival, which one historian told me was a revival of a revival. "By the 1940s and '50s, styles had changed and colonial was the in style. In 1945, the owners removed the cupola and Italianate hooded moldings and added shutters."
Shalf concluded her talk by saying, "I have only touched on the 200 different buildings in our historic district. I encourage you to walk through Ashland and take along the Ashland Self-guided Walking Tour and a reference book like What Style Is it? (Poppeliers) or A Field Guide to American Houses (McAlester). "You can date a lot of houses just by looking at the style - unless you get tricked by a makeover, like the ones on Virginia Street and the Mary Bierne house on Railroad Avenue.
Some year, we might even have a book about the Ashland houses out so you can take that along as well. "Now you can see why we in Ashland are so proud of our beautiful ladies along the tracks."