Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in Virginia, United States. It lies in Southwest Virginia along the Roanoke River, within the Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanoke is about north of the Virginia–North Carolina border and southwest of Washington, D.C., along Interstate 81. At the 2020 census, Roanoke's population was 100,011, making it the most populous city in Virginia west of the state capital, Richmond. It is the primary population center of the Roanoke metropolitan area, which had a population of 315,251 in 2020.
The Roanoke Valley was home to members of the Siouan-speaking Tutelo tribe when European settlers arrived. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Scotch-Irish and later German American farmers gradually drove those Native Americans out of the area as the American frontier pressed westward. In 1882, the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) chose the small town of Big Lick as the site of its corporate headquarters and railroad shops. Within two years, the town had become the City of Roanoke. In the 1880s, the population grew by 22 times and the young city experienced the advantages and disadvantages of its boomtown status. During the 20th century, Roanoke's boundaries expanded through annexations of surrounding Roanoke County, and it became Southwest Virginia's economic and cultural hub. The 1982 decision by N&W to move its headquarters out of the city, along with other manufacturing closures, led Roanoke to a primarily service economy. In the 21st century, a robust healthcare industry and the development and increased marketing of the city's outdoor amenities have helped reverse population decline.
Roanoke is known for the Roanoke Star, an illuminated star that sits atop a mountain within the city's limits and is the origin of its nickname, "The Star City of the South". Other points of interest include the Hotel Roanoke, a 330-room Tudor Revival structure built by N&W in 1882, the Taubman Museum of Art, designed by architect Randall Stout, and the city's farmer's market, the oldest continuously operating open-air market in the state. The Roanoke Valley features of greenways with bicycle and pedestrian trails, and the city's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains provides access to numerous outdoor recreation opportunities.
History
Early history and incorporation
The current site of Roanoke lies near the intersection of the Great Wagon Road and the Carolina Road, two branches of a network of early colonial roads that developed from Native American trails in the Appalachian region. While the name Roanoke is said to have originated from a Native American word for shell beads used as currency, that word was first used away, where the Roanoke River empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Roanoke Island. When Europeans arrived, the Roanoke Valley itself was home to members of the Tutelo tribe, a Siouan-speaking people who were gradually pushed out of the area by advancing European settlers. They were followed by significant numbers of Germans from Pennsylvania via the Great Wagon Road. and the area's first railroad, the Virginia and Tennessee, arrived in 1852.
The railroad built its new depot just south of a small town named Gainesborough, but named the depot after Big Lick, another small community located just to the east, which itself was named after the salt deposits that had drawn game to the area for years. Gainesborough increasingly became referred to as Big Lick (and later as Old Lick) once development drifted farther south towards the depot. Growth in the area was stalled by the Civil War; Roanoke County voted 850–0 in favor of secession and lost many of its men in the subsequent fighting. The burgeoning tobacco trade helped the region's recovery during Reconstruction. Within a decade of the war's end, there were no fewer than six tobacco factories near the Big Lick Depot.
In 1874, the community surrounding the depot applied for and received a town charter, and the Town of Big Lick was formally established. Eight years later, efforts by town boosters succeeded in securing Big Lick as the junction of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad and the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). The two companies also relocated their respective headquarters to the town (the two lines would officially merge in 1890). Big Lick's relatively small size compared to the nearby county seat, Salem, worked in its favor as a draw for the companies. Big Lick's ample farmland and nearby water sources were well suited to the railroads' goal of building much of the town from scratch, including railroad shops, offices, a hotel, and suitable housing for their many employees.
left|thumb|251x251px|[[Hotel Roanoke as it appeared in 1910. N&W ordered an expansion to the hotel before the original structure was completed.]]
In the early 1880s, Big Lick's residents voted to rename the town "Kimball" after Frederick J. Kimball, an executive for the two railroad companies who played a significant role in their new location. Kimball turned down the honor, saying, "On the Roanoke River in Roanoke County – name it Roanoke." The town obliged, officially becoming the Town of Roanoke on February 3, 1882. The new charter also annexed nearly of additional land, including the Town of Gainesborough (later shortened to Gainsboro), which by that point had already become the center of the area's African American community. Kimball chose a wheat field north of the railroad tracks and east of Gainsboro for the N&W's new hotel, and the 69-room Hotel Roanoke – designed originally in the Queen Anne style before numerous rebuilds and expansions gave it its current Tudor Revival appearance – opened its doors in 1882.
With the rapid influx of railroad employees and others in associated industries, Roanoke's population soared and, by the end of 1883, had passed 5,000. That milestone made the town eligible for a city charter, and on January 31, 1884, the town became the City of Roanoke.
With a population that ballooned from under 700 residents in 1880 to over 16,000 in 1890 and earning itself the nickname "The Magic City" in the process Roanoke suffered many of the same difficulties that affected other 19th century boomtowns. Its infrastructure was essentially nonexistent, and a lack of sewers combined with the area's marshy terrain contributed to regular outbreaks of diphtheria and cholera. Bond initiatives designed to alleviate these and other issues highlighted racial tensions in the city, as the African American community – roughly 30 percent of Roanoke's population in 1891 – opposed the measures because the money would only be used to improve white neighborhoods. Black neighborhoods in Roanoke typically received public amenities such as running water and paved roads only after their white counterparts, and Roanoke was among the first to adopt the Jim Crow laws that were becoming increasingly popular in the South. The local press, for its part, stoked the white population's fears and anxiety with near-constant reports of African American "savagery".
In September 1893, tensions boiled over when a white woman was allegedly robbed and beaten by an African-American man, Thomas Smith, near the city's market. Smith was held in the city jail; a mob of hundreds surrounded the building and demanded "lynch justice". A shootout between the mob and an undermanned militia ensued, leaving eight dead and thirty-one more injured. Included among the wounded was the city's mayor, the previously widely admired Henry S. Trout, who had vowed protection of the prisoner. The rioting mob was eventually successful in gaining control of Smith. They proceeded to hang him and mutilate his body, which was eventually burned when the mob was deterred from its initial plan to bury it in Mayor Trout's front yard. The mayor himself was forced to flee the city out of fear for his life and only returned a week later after the national press condemned the riot and praised Trout's courage during the event.
20th century present
Despite these and other setbacks, the city grew through the early 20th century, both in area and population. In addition to the land gained in its 1882 town charter, relatively unopposed annexations occurred five more times by 1926, though Roanoke County would become less agreeable to later attempts. Mill Mountain became a popular entertainment locale for early residents; an observation tower and the Rockledge Inn each opened atop the mountain in 1892. Mountain Park, an early amusement center complete with a casino and roller coaster, opened at the foot of the mountain in 1903, and beginning in 1910 visitors could pay a quarter to ride an incline railway to the top of Mill Mountain and back.
Another mainstay at the base of the mountain was Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Completed in 1900 as Roanoke Hospital, the building has undergone many expansions and today is the flagship of the Carilion Clinic healthcare group. The hospital joined some manufacturing operations that were established along the banks of the Roanoke River in the early 20th century, including the American Viscose Corporation. That company built a plant in 1917 that by a decade later employed 5,000 and was reportedly the largest rayon producing mill in the world.
The city leased land for an airfield beginning in 1929. Still, its development into the region's primary airport did not begin until its designation as a defense project provided federal funding in 1940. That same year, N&W donated the fairground, Maher Field, to the city to build a stadium and armory. Victory Stadium optimistically named upon its completion in 1942 played host to the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between Virginia Tech and Virginia Military Institute for years afterward.
By the mid-20th century, Roanoke was increasingly losing population and businesses to a Roanoke County that had become less rural and more suburban in nature and consequently more resistant to annexation attempts by the city. The city was nevertheless successful in annexing additional land in 1943, 1949, three small acquisitions in 1965, 1967, and 1968, and once more in 1976. The county won immunity from further annexations in 1980, but by then, the city had grown from its original size of to .
right|thumb|The [[Roanoke Star is the origin of the city's nickname Star City of the South.|205x205px]]In 1949, the local merchants association erected an illuminated star at the top of Mill Mountain in celebration of the upcoming Christmas shopping season. The star was an immediate hit among the city's population, leading to its illumination year-round and earning the city its nickname of "Star City of the South". Despite the popularity boost for the merchants association, shopping habits in Roanoke were becoming more fractured as suburban shopping centers drew patrons away from an increasingly vacant downtown. Crossroads Mall, the first enclosed shopping center in Virginia, and Towers Mall, at the time one of the largest shopping centers in the state, were each completed in 1961. and Valley View Mall (1985) contributed to Roanoke's status as the region's retail hub.
Mid-century change to the city came in the form of a massive "urban renewal" effort that saw the construction of both the Roanoke Civic Center (now Berglund Center) as well as an interstate spur into downtown Roanoke. City officials gained the land through eminent domain and proceeded to clear over 1,000 buildings, often through widescale burning.
The second half of the 20th century ushered in a change of identity for Roanoke. In 1982, the N&W completed a merger with the Southern Railway to form the Norfolk Southern Railway, which then relocated their headquarters from Roanoke to Norfolk, Virginia. The company closed their regional headquarters in Roanoke in 2015, and in 2020 shuttered the locomotive shops. The railroad's departure and a string of manufacturing plant closures left a hole in the city's economic base. and in 2020 Roanoke's population passed 100,000 for the first time since 1980.
Geography
alt=A photo of the Blue Ridge Mountains taken from an overlook|left|thumb|The [[Blue Ridge Mountains get their distinctive color from isoprene produced by the trees.]]
Roanoke is the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond and is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a range which is part of the greater Appalachian Mountains. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.8%) is water. It is located in the center of the greater Roanoke Valley and is bisected by the Roanoke River, which flows west-to-east through the city. Within the city limits is Mill Mountain, a mountain and 500-acre municipal park which stands detached from the surrounding ranges.
Roanoke's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains makes it proximate to hundreds of species of plants and wildlife. The area is home to at least 43 species of salamander, and the Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve in neighboring Roanoke County protects the world's largest collection of piratebush, an exceedingly rare parasitic plant endemic to the Appalachians.
alt=A panorama of Roanoke from the Mill Mountain Star overlook with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.|middle|thumb|A panorama of Roanoke from the Mill Mountain Star overlook with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.
Roanoke is the largest city along both the Appalachian Trail, which runs through Roanoke County just north of the city, and the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs just south of the city. Carvins Cove, the third-largest municipal park in America at , lies in northeast Roanoke County and southwest Botetourt County. Smith Mountain Lake is several miles southeast of the city, and the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests are nearby. Outdoor pursuits in the region include hiking, mountain biking, cross-country running, canoeing, kayaking, fly fishing, and disc golf.
Neighborhoods
alt=A nighttime photo of the exterior of the Grandin Theatre|thumb|The Grandin Theatre located in [[Grandin Road Commercial Historic District|Grandin Village]]
Roanoke is divided into 49 separate neighborhoods. The city has incorporated into its comprehensive plan the goal of developing these neighborhoods into "villages", each with their own village center, and with the downtown neighborhood acting as the village center for the city as a whole. The Raleigh Court neighborhood has been cited as a model for such development, consisting of a variety of residential settings located around Grandin Village, an active commercial hub anchored by the Grandin Theatre, the city's only surviving historic theater. That commercial district is one of the city's nine neighborhoods (or portions thereof) that have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Climate
Though located along the Blue Ridge Mountains at elevations exceeding , Roanoke lies in the humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen Cfa), with four distinct, but generally mild, seasons. It is located in USDA hardiness zone 7b, with the suburbs falling in zone 7a. Extremes in temperature have ranged from (as recently as August 21, 1983) down to on December 30, 1917. However, neither nor are reached in most years; the most recent occurrence of each is July 20, 2020, and February 20, 2015, respectively. More typically, the area records an average of 6.1 days where the temperature stays at or below freezing and 30.5 days with + highs annually. Winter snowfall has ranged from trace amounts in 1918–19 and 1919–20 to in 1959–60;
Historically, flooding has been the primary weather-related hazard faced by Roanoke. Heavy rains, most frequently from the remnants of a hurricane, drain from surrounding areas to the narrow Roanoke Valley. The most recent significant flood was in the fall of 2018, when the remains of Hurricane Michael dumped over five inches of rain on the area in the span of only a few hours. The most severe flooding in the city's history occurred on November 4, 1985, when heavy storms from Hurricane Juan stalled over the area. Ten people drowned in the Roanoke Valley and others were saved by rescue personnel. That incident prompted a major flood reduction effort completed in 2012 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has limited the damage caused by subsequent storms.