Roanoke Valley In The 1940s The

"A collection of little known historical stories in Roanoke, VA"--

Drag racing at Starkey, the debut of television, mass polio vaccinations, college football games at Victory Stadium, Roanoke's Diamond Jubilee, Salem's Sesquicentennial, and Vinton's Dogwood Festival American Viscose closed, the N&W Railway switched to diesel and the General Electric plant opened. The Roanoke Valley welcomed the Children's Zoo on Mill Mountain and the Miss Virginia Pageant to Hotel Roanoke. From a new terminal at Woodrum Field to the erection of Cave Spring High School, municipal projects reflected the economic boom times. Sears Town, Miller & Rhoads, the viaduct, and a new main library altered downtown Roanoke. WDBJ and WSLS television stations went on the air, premiering local programs such as Saturday Session, Top O' the Mornin', and Uncle Looney. The nation's top entertainers performed at the American Theatre, Lakeside, and the American Legion Auditorium. The valley's arts scene produced the Roanoke Fine Arts Center, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and Showtimers. Minor league baseball teams played to large crowds in the stands at Maher Field, Municipal Field and Springwood Park. Black leaders campaigned for equal pay, desegregation, and neighborhood equity. By searching every edition of the Roanoke Times and the Roanoke Tribune from January 1950 through December 1959, local historian Nelson Harris documents the decade's local events in sports, business, crime, arts, entertainment, religion, civil rights, politics, individual achievements, and healthcare.

The Williamson Road area, which was annexed by the city of Roanoke in 1949, was originally a part of Botetourt County and thereafter of the northern part of Roanoke County. "A Place Apart" traces the history, places, and families of the Williamson Road. The book begins with various sketches of Roanoke Valley pioneers and early land owners. The second part of the volume continues with sketches of families that arrived during the late 18th or early 19th century, including Barren, Bushong, Campbell, Cannaday, Fellers, Garst, Harshbarger, Huntingdon, Nelms, Nininger, Oliver, Petty, Read, Rudd, Stokes, Watts, and Williamson. Community leaders associated with the Roanoke Valley's recent history are treated elsewhere in the book.

Author Nelson Harris delves into the annals of history to uncover these marvelous and mostly unknown stories of the Star City of the South. How did a Roanoke neighbor's secret upend North Carolina politics and why did a weeding scandal in Big Lick make front-page headlines in New York? These questions and many more are answered in this exciting volume of hidden stories and forgotten tales from the Star City. Discover why a Roanoker was found frozen in the North Atlantic and what Mother's Day crime and trial shocked the city in 1949. Meet the Black Cardinals, a semi-pro African American baseball team that played in the 1930s and '40s, and find out how a fistfight at Shenandoah Life helped save the company.

The following compilation of Most Endangered Historic Sites listings is composed of the first two years of the program (2000 and 2002) when it was administered (bi-annually) by the Preservation Alliance of Virginia, and following the merger of that organization with Preservation Virginia in 2004, annual lists from 2005 to the present. The following updates and status reports for each listing are believed to be current as of the posting of this document in August 2014. Where available, pertinent links to news stories and reports are included to help contextualize listings but are in no way exhaustive. Each listing has also been “graded” into four categories as a quick way to reference its current status. While the particulars of each site or issue are unique and nuanced, the following four categorizations can be used to approximately characterize each listing: SAVED: The immediate threat to a resource has been overcome and is not likely to reappear in the foreseeable future LOST: The resource has been demolished or its integrity altered enough to jeopardize its register eligibility STILL ENDANGERED: The threat present at the time of listing is still active, unresolved, and/or could likely reappear in the foreseeable future WATCH LIST: The resource is not currently, actively endangered but may still face threats and should continue to be monitored