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The 100-foot-long train mural on the side of The Caboose Market & Cafe was created by Richmond muralist Ed Trask to honor the memory of Art McKinney. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Harry Kollatz Jr. with artist Robert Bricker’s memorial statue of Jay Pace, the longtime editor of the Hanover Herald-Progress newspaper, which ceased publication in 2018 (Photo by Jay Paul)
On a humid summer afternoon I found myself in the memorial garden of the Richard S. Gillis Jr. Ashland Branch Library, separated from my parked vehicle by a long, rumbling freight train of orange boxcars.
The library is named for the town’s white-hatted, cigar-chomping mayor (1977-89), who christened Ashland “The Center of the Universe.”
And thus, it remains.
I’d come across the tracks after seeing a memorial bench and statue honoring newspaper man J. “Jay” Malcolm Pace III, a bronze bust of Judge Nina K. Peace and a model of the earth with Ashland marked by a prominent star.
Pace and Peace symbolize the personal significance of place and civic responsibility. Pace helmed the Hanover Herald-Progress, a powerhouse of local news, and served as music director for the biannual Ashland Musical Variety Show. Peace, who at age 25 became the first woman elected to the Hanover Board of Supervisors, represented Ashland from 1976 to 1990 and also served as a judge for the Hanover Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. Their sudden deaths in 2004 came within months of each other, Peace in February, Pace in April. Their memorials by Charlottesville sculptor Robert Bricker were installed in 2007.
The Ashland Theatre has been restored as a venue for first-run films and live music. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Along Center Street, by the tracks where some 60 trains a day run, are the blossoming umbrellas of outdoor restaurant seating. Ian Kirkland opened The Caboose eatery five years ago as an addition to the wine and cheese shop he started in 1997. Nearby is Origin Beer Lab, the test kitchen for Center of the Universe Brewing Co., and across the way, Ashland Coffee and Tea, where I once watched the late Piedmont blues musician John Cephas alight from the train and walk in to take his place on the stage.
The once-dormant Deco-style Ashland Theatre stands as an example of the community effort that led to its restoration as a venue for first-run family films and live music booked by Richmond’s The Broadberry. Around the corner, the small but dynamic Ashland Museum reveals the town’s struggles and achievements. Up the street, Randolph-Macon College, established in 1830, continues to bolster the community with its array of concerts, art exhibitions, speakers and events.
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Michelle Hollender and her boys (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Trains are synonymous with Ashland, which was founded as a railroad resort town in the 1830s when the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac railroad began selling residential lots. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Coming Home
Michelle Hollender keeps watch over her boys at Pufferbelly Park. She grew up in Ashland, and her parents attended Patrick Henry High School, but she recalls how her Thai mother talked about being the first Asian her classmates had ever seen. “It was the ’70s,” Hollender points out. “I had a much better experience than she did. Ashland’s always felt like home to me.”
She studied graphic and commercial arts at East Carolina University and, after moving to Naples, Florida, reconnected with former Ashlander Tyler Hollender. They married and moved to Doswell, just outside Ashland. After nine years they relocated into town, and Tyler is a food service director with Discovery Village in Richmond.
“It’s really fine for raising kids,” she says, after stopping one of the boys from climbing up the sliding board. This is a small town — with a population of about 7,000 people in 7.2 square miles — and that means seeing familiar faces almost everywhere all the time. On a Friday night along Center Street’s restaurant row, “It’s like ‘Cheers,’” she says.
Changes such as the theater’s revival and more entertainment options appeal to Hollender, but she’d like to see another downtown grocery store aside from the Food Lion.
Housing is also an issue in Ashland. “Most of the houses that change hands here are sold by word of mouth,” she says, pointing to a place nearby. “That one sold over the Facebook Marketplace.” Hanover Habitat for Humanity is building six new houses on 4 acres near Ashland named Hanover Cove.
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Brothers Chris (left) and Phil Ray opened Center of the Universe Brewing after years of home brewing. Origin, their tasting room in downtown Ashland, is so popular they’ve had to expand the size of their Mug Club three times since opening in 2017. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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One of the distinctive homes on College Avenue, dating to 1912 or 1913, has an unusual Ionic-columned, two-story front porch. (Photo by Jay Paul)
Origin Story
Chris Ray was a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners. He and his engineer brother, Phil, have hit a home run with Center of the Universe Brewing Co. and its test kitchen, Origin. The tasting room opened in November 2017, and its following grew. Today the walls of the pub are filled with beer mugs, each bearing the name of a proud member of the “Mug Club.”
Ray’s wife, Alice, is from Hanover, and when he tired of the travel and pain in the arm that made up his baseball career, they settled outside of Ashland, then two years ago moved into town. Ray and Phil started as home brewers before turning pro with Center of the Universe in 2011.
Chris is on the board of the Ashland Theatre, which opened in December 2018, and is pleased to see the neon tower lit again. He says, too, that it’s proving good for nearby businesses. The theater shows first-run films with the condition they are shown for three weeks uninterrupted. “We also want to program more music, speakers, comedy,” he says.
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Antjuan Fisher, executive chef for Feed More, also owns the Ashland Catering Co., where he functions as greeter, cook and server. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Longtime resident Ken Hale rides through town daily. (Photo courtesy Downtown Ashland Association)
Pleasing to Serve
Raised on his grandfather’s Beaverdam hog farm, Antjuan Fisher trained at the Johnson & Wales Culinary Institute in Providence, Rhode Island. He never wanted to run a restaurant, or considered working in one, but his kitchen skills allowed him to travel the world, working aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines. Then, family, and a desire for home, brought him back to Virginia.
Fisher, the executive chef at Feed More since 2012, directs the preparation of 5,000 daily meals that are distributed throughout Central Virginia by Meals on Wheels.
He is also the proprietor of Ashland Catering Co. in the Ashland Junction Shopping Center. “I am the greeter, the cook and the server,” he explains. The small but warm-hued space jangles with Fisher’s energy.
Eventually, he’d like to employ others, “once I can establish a nest egg,” he explains. He also aspires to offer cooking classes and provide training for those who’ve been incarcerated or are otherwise seeking a skill. “This isn’t a hobby,” he says. “It’s what I want to do with my life.”
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Town Manager Joshua Farrar (Photo by Jay Paul)
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The Richard S. Gillis Jr. Ashland Branch Library is named for the town’s longtime mayor, who dubbed the town “The Center of the Universe.” (Photo courtesy Downtown Ashland Association)
The Future Is Now
Ashland’s town hall is coming down — with every system near failure in the circa 1950s building, and property set aside since 2007, the time’s come to build anew. This is but one of the aspects of a new Ashland that’s come before Town Manager Joshua Farrar.
Farrar once thought he wanted to head to D.C. “to make a difference,” he says, mock-serious, and laughs. His older brother Marc talked sense into him. “He told me, ‘You’re an idiot.’ Small-town government is where the difference gets made — not D.C.”
He’d never heard of Ashland before coming here almost 14 years ago to serve as deputy town manager and finance director. Longtime manager Charles Hartgrove left in 2017, and, after a national search, the council unanimously elected Farrar.
Ashland occupies a different municipal niche. While it is an incorporated town, Hanover county provides road maintenance, public schools and services.
The upcoming development of the dormant 276-acre Holland Tract will bring big change to Ashland, “all contiguous and one owner.” Farrar spreads his fingers across the property on a map in his office to demonstrate. “In terms of economic development, this is like finding a unicorn.” The property has been zoned for commercial efforts.
Another improvement is the half-mile linear Trolley Line Trail, a hiking path between Gwathmey Church Road and Walder Lane, that meshes into the East Coast Greenway and is a link in a cycling/hiking trail envisioned by Sports Backers/Bike Walk RVA between Ashland and Petersburg.
One challenge ahead is that Ashland is almost built out, leading to consideration of proactive rehabilitation of older properties. This means anything from sidewalk repairs to incentivizing improvements for property owners and code enforcement. Farrar doesn’t want to turn the entire town into a collection of boutiques, but to create a livable and comfortable place.
“We need to take care of what we have here,” Farrar says. “It’s not always easy.”
