Ashland’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Ashland. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Clay County was formed by an act of the Alabama General Assembly on December 7, 1866. Less than a year later, Ashland was established as the county seat on land donated by Hollingsworth Watts for the construction of a courthouse. In 1871 Ashland was incorporated and named for 19th century statesman Henry Clay's Kentucky estate home.
During the early years, the town grew very rapidly. The town continued to grow with the opening of Alabama's first graphite mine in 1899. When World War I ended, the market for graphite dropped drastically, thus ending the town's growth phase.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Ashland’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ashland’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewBayview trailer park06, 1953: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Ashland
See all 5 →
Ashland, decade by decade
1990s
CommonsAshlandTownSquare42004
CommonsAshlandTownSquare32004
CommonsAshlandTownSquare22004
CommonsAshlandTownSquare2004
CommonsAshland Court House 22000
CommonsAshland Alabama downtown 082000
CommonsAshland Alabama downtown 072000
CommonsAshland Alabama downtown 062000
CommonsAshland Alabama downtown 052000
CommonsAshland Alabama downtown 022000
CommonsAshland Alabama downtown 0120002 historic places in Ashland
2 places in Ashland are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Bayview trailer park06 (1953) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (12). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.