Previously known as "Unionville", Ashland was incorporated in 1846, bearing the name of statesman Henry Clay's Kentucky estate.

Along with the Sudbury River, the railroad helped to attract numerous mills to develop a bustling boot and shoe industry.

[4] Around the same time that the local rail lines were in decline, the inventor Henry E. Warren developed the Warren Synchronizing Timer in 1916, which made synchronous electric clocks possible by keeping alternating current flowing from power plants at a consistent sixty cycles per second.

[6] A Warren Synchronizing Timer is on display at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History in Washington D.C.,[7] and the high school sports teams are called "The Clockers".

During that period, Ashland grew from a far-removed rural town 22 miles (35 km) west of Boston to a primarily residential suburb by the 1980s.

Over time, many farms and open spaces have given way to housing, although some untouched land still remains, including the Ashland Town Forest, Ashland State Park, Warren Woods, and land comprising the beach and dam portions of Hopkinton State Park.

A part of the draw of Ashland, and one that has been publicized in recent years, is its "ideal" location[1] about halfway between the cities of Boston and Worcester.

Ashland is considered part of MetroWest, which also consists of the towns of Framingham, Holliston, and Hopkinton.

Even though Ashland has left its humble roots as a rural area, it still retains the look and feel of a typical residential Boston-area New England town.

Traditions like Ashland Day and small-town favorites like the ice cream shop Murphy's and breakfast joint Sunnyside Cafe maintain the feeling of a close-knit community.

This allowed students to make a connection between the material they were learning in the classroom and the knowledge of the arts and culture.

Around two dozen vendors sell fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread, deserts, local wines, and crafts along with ready to eat food and coffee.

The festivities occur near the center of town at Stone Park from morning until late afternoon, and include a number of booths and various carnival-like rides.

For the first time in several years, fireworks were launched from atop the dam at Hopkinton State Park.

[26] It is said that Stone and three friends with whom he had been playing swore to keep the event secret and buried the salesman's body in the Inn's basement.

[27] It is rumored that a ten-year-old girl, Mary J. Smith, was struck by a train while playing on the railroad tracks just outside the inn, on June 11, 1862.

During renovations, a hidden chamber was discovered in the basement, and it is speculated that this was used to house runaway slaves who made their way to freedom in the North along the Underground Railroad.

[29] One notable guest of the hotel, Daniel Webster, gave a speech from the balcony on the day the first train arrived in 1834.

As traditional marathon distances grew, the start line needed to be pushed back to Hopkinton in 1924.

There is a small park on Pleasant Street in Ashland to remember this history, featuring a sign that reads "It all started here".

The latter two elements are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Ashland Dam and Spillway.

Ashland Town Forest is 550 acres (220 ha) with hiking trails around rock outcroppings, small caves, and the rumored ending of some women who escaped the Salem witch trials.

In 1998, Trustees settled NRD claims with the responsible parties at the Nyanza Chemical Waste Dump Superfund Site for $3 million.

In 2006, the Massachusetts State Department of Public Health released a study that found that people who grew up in Ashland between the late 1960s and early 1980s and swam in the waters near Nyanza had a 200-300% higher incidence of cancer than those who were not exposed to the chemicals.

The Nyanza case had previously been at the NRD program of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.

First housed in a Knights of Columbus Hall in Melrose in 1978 and later in the Needham Village Club, the congregation purchased about 12 acres (49,000 m2) of land from Ashland in 1981.

The station is accessible from either Pleasant Street or Memorial Drive (which runs behind Ashland Middle School).