304 College Ave
Alpheus F. and Mary J. Sitman, brother and sister, built 304 College Avenue in 1912 or 1913. Alpheus was a farmer of some wealth in Hanover County and his sister lived with him. By 1912, the unmarried brother and sister were getting on in age and too old to farm, so they moved into Ashland with their beloved cook Eva Woolfolk Winston.
The Sitmans hired architects E.A. and H.C. Smith to design a house in a newly developed neighborhood on College Avenue. William Perrin was the builder. The house has a symmetrical layout, with Ionic columns, Palladian windows, dentil molding along the roofline, and triangular pediments over the center bay of the two-story porch.
In 1936, Mr. Edwin Newman, who lived at 302 College Avenue, purchased the house and divided it into two apartments. He removed the grand central staircase and created a side entrance and stair for the second floor apartment. Later, when his daughter Linda married Jack Ludwig and began a family, her father gave the house to her. The Ludwigs added a master bedroom addition to the first floor apartment and raised their three children. Later Linda’s daughter Linda “Dickie” Ludwig Magovern and her husband Malcolm moved to the same apartment and raised their son Malcolm.
In 2006, Ted and Sue Peyron purchased the house and began a two-year renovation, restoring it to a single family dwelling. The whole neighborhood watched as the new three-story central staircase was installed. The Peyrons sold the house in 2011 to Tom and Stacey Rowe.