Page 77 - A Narrative of the History of Roanoke Virginia

Roanoke's second major railroad (The Virginian Railroad) arrived with some civic assistance in
1907. Financier Henry H. Rogers owned a small railway in southern West Virginia which served
coal mines and delivered loaded cars to the N. & W. and Chesapeake and Ohio. He quarreled
with the larger carriers and decided to build his own road to the sea. It was incorporated in 1904
as the Tidewater Railroad. After considerable trouble with rights-of-way, his surveyors reached
Roanoke where they saw no alternative but to run the line north of town. However, with
assurance by local businessmen that the cost of land within the city limits would not be over
$50,000, the road was built along the Roanoke River through town from one end to the other.

All during 1907 the bare hill in Highland P ark was covered with board and tar paper camp
buildings which housed the workers, most of whom were Hungarians. The road's name was
changed to the Virginian Railway the year it reached Roanoke. The Virginian Railway was
formally opened between Deepwater Bridge, West Virginia, and Norfolk on July 1, 1909. It was
one of the nation's most efficient coal carriers.

Passenger traffic, which at one time included through sleepers from Charleston to Norfolk, was
discontinued m a sad ceremony on January 29, 1956. As the N . & W.'s Annual Report put it,
there was "severe national financial and industrial revulsion " toward the end of 1907. The road
cut its dividends and laid off workers. Empty coal cars lined the belt line from Franklin Road to
the West End all that winter and spring. Council tightened the city's belt and the Chamber of
Commerce began to seek out smaller industries for Roanoke. But again Roanoke weathered
the depression better than most localities (the story of the resurgence of the N&W Shops and
the city in general is covered in an earlier installment of my posts).

The ' Woman 's Civic Betterment Club was organized m 1906, and later incorporated as the
Woman’s Club of Roanoke in 1923. This club, with a constant membership of several hundred
was responsible for making the city a better place in which to live. They were the major
influence in such projects as the acquisition of Elmwood Park, The organization of the PTA, the
Public Library, the Greenvale Nursery, the Juvenile Court, the local unit of the American Cancer
Society and countless other projects.

Nickelodeon parlors appeared on Jefferson Street, where patrons could see pictures in motion
for five cents. Several automobile agencies opened gaudy salesrooms. Roanokers began
complaining about the traffic problem, as there were 300 cars registered in the city.

And on June 22, 1908, a flying machine came to town. It was a cigar-shaped gas bag
suspending a basket containing a motor-driven propeller. Then on November 12, 1909, a real
wonder was unveiled - the incline railway up the side of Mill Mountain.

In 1900 there had been 21,495 people in Roanoke. The 1910 census showed a growth of 80%
to 38,875. The suburban population of Crystal Spring, Ghent, Virginia Heights, Norwich and
Vinton gave it a much larger figure.

Prohibition had prevailed in 1915. After a final wild requiem, Salem Avenue became almost
deserted as the vacant fronts of more than thirty former saloons gathered dust. But Roanoke's