Preserving Your Historical Homes and Businesses Miniseries

The Town of Ashland, the Ashland Museum, and the Hanover County Black Heritage Society proudly presents a series of seminars this spring for property owners in our historic districts.  The miniseries of seminars include topics such as information on economic benefits of historical repairs, architectural repairs such as: windows, roofs, porches, siding & doors, assistance with historical tax credits, and personal historical repairs and renovation testimonies.  The goal of the sessions is to educate community members about the advantages of historic tax credits.  Our hope is that others will take on the historic repairs to their homes and businesses which will not only make your structures stronger but also help preserve the home or business’ historic integrity.  We want the general public to understand the importance and benefits of preserving history.

Sessions will be held at Town Hall 

121 Thompson Street at 6 pm

• March 27th – Kickoff Session – 5:30 pm
• April 8th – Ashley Neville; Historical Tax Credit Consultant & Guest Contractor

• April 22nd – Jimmy Kastleberg; Historical home Restorer & Former Owner of Caravati’s &Nora Amos; Town of Ashland Director of Planning & community Development

• May 5th – Andi Smith, Ph.D.; Department of Historic Preservation at University of Mary Washington

• May 19th – Joanna McKnight; Department of Historical Resource & Summer Louthan; Historic Tax Credit Reviewer

• June 5th – Tom Wulf; Professional Videographer

Presentation of short how to videos for small repairs projects such as porches, windows, siding, roofs, and doors.  Personal experience stories from other homeowners and contractors.

 

Historic District Update – Overview

We have just completed an update of our historic district to include development between 1934 and 1964. This project was accomplished in coordination with the Department of Historic Resources (DHR) and Commonwealth Heritage Group, Inc. This process was made possible by the town receiving $20,000 from DHR’s Cost Share Grant program. Benefits include the following:

• Increased federal and state tax credit availability to spur investment in rehabbing historic homes and buildings (e.g. Ashland Theater).
• Improved accounting of Ashland’s post-WWII build-out, civil rights, and massive resistance era history.
• Corrected errors in the original nomination.
• Preservation and protection of Ashland’s small town character.

This update would NOT add regulations to prohibit property owners (e.g. painting their house a certain color) or install an architecture review board.

Click here Version OptionsHistoric DistrictHeadline for the package of materials that explain the update process and map of the existing district.

Final Report

After the survey, findings were packaged into a nomination form that will be submitted to the National Park Service to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The exciting information is that 111 new contributing resources, constructed between 1934 and 1964, are being recommended to be added to the register (pages 3-28). Individual findings for each property (click here Version OptionsHistoric DistrictHeadline) provide information on the assessment and whether it is recommended as a “contributing resource.” Individual surveys are indexed by DHR ID, which you can find for your property through the VCRIS Mapviewer.

New periods of significance (pages 31-41) include: Legal Disenfranchisement and Racial Segregation in Ashland (1902 to 1968), Recovering from the Great Depression (1936 to 1945), and Ashland in the “New Dominion” (1945 to 1967).