Ashland is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 23,823 at the 2020 census. Ashland is located in the historic Eden Township between the city of San Leandro to the north, the unincorporated community of Cherryland to the south, the unincorporated community of Castro Valley to the east, and the unincorporated community of San Lorenzo to the southwest.
Ashland shares a ZIP code with the neighboring unincorporated community of San Lorenzo to the southwest, as well as they nearby cities of Hayward to the south and San Leandro to the north.
Ashland has been informally, albeit incorrectly, known as "unincorporated San Leandro" or "unincorporated Hayward" Because Ashland does not have its own ZIP code designation.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all of it land, and sits at an elevation of above sea level.
thumb|Popular skatepark and playground on a sunny day in Ashland
History
Construction of the Oakland, San Leandro and Haywards Electric Railway began in 1891. By 1892, of track ran along what was then known as County Road, today's East 14th Street/Mission Boulevard between Hayward and Oakland. Electric train cars ran every half hour from 5 a.m. until midnight daily. Side feeder lines ran from Ashland Junction (near 150th St. and East 14th St.) along Telegraph, what today is known as Hesperian Boulevard, and along Ashland Avenue to Lewelling Boulevard. Over time, the value of agricultural products, for which the area was famous, declined, and the value of real estate rose. Ashland's urban/suburban character developed when farmlands and orchards were subdivided into town lots of about one acre each. New communities and subdivisions sprang up along the rail line including Ashland and Hayward's Park Homestead (between Foothill Boulevard and Mission Boulevard, bordered by Mattox Road and Grove Way).
San Lorenzo Grove, an eight-acre natural park located on today's Tracy Street, became a popular recreation destination for the region's community. The park was owned by the Oakland-San Leandro-Hayward Electric Railway and included a dance pavilion, picnic grounds, playing fields, concession area, and an outdoor bandstand. The park operated until 1917, when it was converted to apricot orchards then, into single-family residential subdivisions.
World War II brought a large number of new people to unincorporated Alameda County, and after the war, large-scale "cookie-cutter" housing subdivisions replaced most of the remaining agriculture, nurseries, and greenhouses. Ashland's primary residential development took place during the post-war period, and after the closing of the Oakland-San Leandro-Hayward Electric Railway, Ashland remains mostly car-dependent.
The Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880), along with Interstate 238, opened in the late 1950s, thus bisecting Ashland at Mission Boulevard, continuing to Hesperian Boulevard. The creation of Interstate 238 has had the greatest effect on Ashland.
Ashland developed as a residential suburb in the 1940s.
Ashland is named after the Oregon ash tree, which grew in abundance along the San Lorenzo Creek and throughout the community. and boasts the oldest bay tree in the world.