“GRAND OLD LADY” I have never worked up a plan whereby I might have reason to spend a night or two at Hotel Roanoke in the Virginia with that name.
The fine old railroad inn was one of the first “big” hotels I remember seeing a kid. In the 1920's it was a long barn-like structure atop a good sized,grassy knoll overlooking the N&W Railway tracks. I suppose the hill itself must have eroded away a bit over the years and the track area became a RR Yard a large station building was inserted and the edge of the city it served pushed in next to it all.
The city had been called “Big Lick for many years because it was the site of natural salty deposits the deer and other forest critters plus the early settler's cattle ,sheep ,goats and horses needed. The site was selected by an enterprising railroad magnate of that day named Frederick J. Kimble to become a major railroad juncture. It was common in those days for railroad firms to build hotels at such locations to provide travelers with a restful haven after a trying trip on the railroad trains which laid no special claim to being a comfort provider. You can still see a smaller version of that sort of business at Pulaski, Virginia with the restful name of “The Maple Shade Inn.”
Hotel Roanoke was never “small”. When the first part was built in 1882 there was “a rambling frame structure” reports indicate with,let's say, about thirty rooms or so. As the town grew the hotel did, as well. New additions were appended and in 1931 – even in “Depression Years” - the place prospered and a 75-room L-wing off to the west side and a 60-car garage. The new rooms also had circulating iced water, telephone which could be moved about and electric fans. It was in 1937-38, however, that the hotel was given the distinctive ”Queen Anne” appearance.
Around 1989, the Norfolk Southern Corporation, descendant of Frederick Kimball's Norfolk and Western Railway decided that being in the transportation business did not include ownership and management of hotels. So - they closed the Hotel and after 107 years of operation – and gave it to the Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation. The Hotel was closed for about four years, then in 1993, a multi-million dollar restoration project funded by public and private financing in conjunction with the City of Roanoke and Virginia Tech.
Hotel Roanoke – known by some as “the Grand Old Lady” - lives on.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 8-9-06 [c445wds]
