Page 18 - A Narrative of the History of Roanoke Virginia

New information about the history of Roanoke
Big Lick to Roanoke from 1874-part Five

By Richard Mundy

Sources:refer to New Research Sources-previously posted

The infrastructure problems, the diseases and the increasing distrust between Clark
and company and their hidden agenda as well as the dissension between the locals
and new arrivals began to tear at the fabric of the town and threaten to turn the boom
town into a ghost town.

Although the RL&IC funded sanitary improvements for its development, it was almost
like throwing $100 at a $1,000 problem. The problem was two-fold. Number 1 - there
was never enough tax money generated to take on the myriad of problems extant in
the valley. And number 2 - a parochial viewpoint of city council seemed to perfect
their impression of the ostrich stance of sticking their heads in the sand which made
the problem disappear.

Eventually the emerging sectionalism between natives and newcomers bled
into municipal concerns. Roanoke’s population continued to increase every day but
conditions in the locally managed part of town remained abysmal. Long Lick marsh
began near Commerce Street and paralleled Salem Avenue into the bottom area,
and there were various other bogs scattered about. After a storm, one resident
recalled, “Commerce street was a mud wallow” and the other avenues “were like
walking in a plowed field after a heavy rain.”

Moreover, Lick Run and other creeks flowing through the western part of town served
as open sewers. In the fall of 1882, the RL&IC hired Randolph Herring, a sanitary
engineer from New York City, to survey the entire town and draw plans to fix the
problems. Herring concluded that the marshes and creeks posed a serious health
threat and recommended filling the bogs with six to eight feet of rock as well as
channeling and covering Lick Run. He and several RL&IC officials met with the town
council to go over the plan but received few assurances that Roanoke would
implement any part of it. The reception clearly upset the Improvement Company’s
chief engineer, and immediately afterwards he resigned his voluntary position as
Roanoke’s “Town Engineer.”

In the months that followed, the RL&IC carried out all the recommendations on its
property, spending close to $3,000 on terra cotta piping, draining and filling three
acres of Long Lick, and clearing a channel for Lick Run.

The town’s council may have resented advice from outside experts or been hesitant
to consider such “extravagant” improvements, but in the end, Roanoke was simply
unable to afford Herring’s costly recommendations. Although in June 1882 the town
had approved $2,500 worth of bonds to better support the municipality, council would
not have access to the funds until July 1883.