Richard S.Gillis And Jr.Ashland Branch Library

201 South Railroad Avenue
Ashland VA 23005

Phone: 804-798-4072
Fax: 804-798-6276

---

Description:
The Ashland Branch Library began life in 1974 as a project of the Ashland Junior Women's Club and became a part of the Pamunkey Regional Library in 1975. The original book collection came from donated volumes. By the fall of 1984, the Library had outgrown the four small rooms it occupied in a pre-Civil War building on the railroad tracks.

Space was rented in a storefront at 102 S. Railroad Avenue. Bands of volunteers and vans ferried the collection to its new quarters in October 1984. A couple of years later, having outgrown the new space, the building next to the library was also made a part of the branch. The Ashland Branch occupied that space for thirteen years and again became seriously overcrowded.

In 1994, a bond referendum was approved by the county voters to erect a new library building in Ashland. In mid-November 1997, the Richard S. Gillis, Jr. Library opened its doors. The collection of 30,000 volumes was moved into the new facility by a community-wide "book brigade," which crossed the street and the railroad tracks. As one of the oldest branches in the Pamunkey system, the Ashland Branch is looking forward to a long life in the new facility.