The history of the Roanoke Valley during the 1940s has largely been unexplored until now. This significant decade bore witness to the birth of the local civil rights movement, the impact of World War II and the postwar boom in public projects and private development. The J-Class locomotives, Carver School, Woodrum Field, Victory Stadium, Carvins Cove, the Roanoke Star, the end of streetcars, and the advent of drive-in theaters all marked the decade. Crowds thronged to see the biggest names in radio, film and music at the American Legion Auditorium, the Academy of Music and the Roanoke Theatre, while Major League baseball and professional football brought exhibition games to Maher Field and Victory Stadium. Local historian Nelson Harris provides a detailed account of this dynamic decade along with 300 archival photographs.
Nestled in the shadows of the Blue Ridge, the Roanoke Valley has developed as the capital region for western Virginia. After a century of growth fueled by transportation, education, and healthcare, the region has undergone significant visible change. While some of the valleys landmarks remain, many have been replaced or dramatically altered.
Nestled in the shadows of the Blue Ridge, the Roanoke Valley has developed as the capital region for western Virginia. After a century of growth fueled by transportation, education, and healthcare, the region has undergone significant visible change. While some of the valley's landmarks remain, many have been replaced or dramatically altered.
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.
Provision of library service to blind and physically handicapped individuals is an ever-developing art/science requiring a knowledge of individual needs, a mastery of information science processes and techniques, and an awareness of the plethora of available print and nonprint resources. This book is intended to bring together a composite overview of the needs of individials unable to use print resources and to describe current and historic practices designed to meet those needs. - Preface.
Queer history is a living practice. Talk to any group of LGBTQ people today, and they will not agree on what story should be told. Many people desire to celebrate the past by erecting plaques and painting rainbow crosswalks, but queer and trans people in the twenty-first century need more than just symbols—they need access to power, justice for marginalized people, spaces of belonging. Approaching the past through a lens of queer and trans survival and world-building transforms history itself into a tool for imagining and realizing a better future. Living Queer History tells the story of an LGBTQ community in Roanoke, Virginia, a small city on the edge of Appalachia. Interweaving &8239;historical analysis, theory, and memoir, Gregory Samantha Rosenthal tells the story of their own journey—coming out and transitioning as a transgender woman—in the midst of working on a community-based history project that documented a multigenerational southern LGBTQ community. Based on over forty interviews with LGBTQ elders, Living Queer History explores how queer people today think about the past and how history lives on in the present.
With easy access to the Roanoke and James Rivers, Carvins Cove Reservoir and Smith Mountain Lake, and the many other streams and lakes in Bedford, Botetourt, Franklin, Henry, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Roanoke, and Rockbridge Counties, anglers in the Roanoke Valley are blessed with some of the finest lake and river fishing on the East Coast. In Fishing the Roanoke Valley, M. W. Smith, a professional outdoor guide and author of Fishing the New River Valley, discusses the fish species common to the streams of the Roanoke Valley, from tiny native trout to monster-sized striped bass, and discusses the many stocked trout streams in the region, county by county, as listed by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. He also offers invaluable tips on fishing Smith Mountain Lake for striped, smallmouth, and largemouth bass and gives sage advice on working the very popular and productive water at Carvins Cove Reservoir. Fishing the Roanoke Valley covers how to target certain species throughout the year, including useful information on winter fishing (such as vertical jigging), catching and using live shad, and tackle and lure choices. The James River is well known for its excellent smallmouth fishing, and Smith shares his experience to help anglers find success in targeting this and other game fish species such as muskie and catfish. Detailed information on a number of great float trips down the Upper James from Eagle Rock to Snowden (through Balcony Falls)--including entry and exit points for floats--and useful tips about how to negotiate rapids provide enormous help for recreational paddlers and anglers. Fishing the Roanoke Valley also features a comprehensive map of Roanoke Valley streams as well as notes on specific fishing locations keyed to maps in DeLorme's Virginia Atlas and Gazetteer and an appendix that lists local guide services, tackle shops, rod and reel repair shops, boat dealers, and more. Whether new to the Roanoke Valley or a longtime resident, novice or pro, the angler will find Fishing the Roanoke Valley: An Angler's Guide fully stocked with the information needed to best utilize the area's abundant waters.
The author of The Big Book of Virginia Ghost Stories focuses on the “Scare City”: “If you believe in ghosts, this is the book for you” (The Roanoke Times). Roanoke, in the heart of southwestern Virginia, is one of the most haunted cities in the commonwealth. The Star City is brimming with eerie and unexplainable stories, such as the legendary “Woman in Black,” who appeared several times in 1902, but only to married men on their way home at night. There are also macabre stories in many of Roanoke’s famous landmarks, such as the majestic Grandin Theatre, where a homeless family is said to have lived—and the cries of their deceased children can still be heard. Travel beyond the realm of reality with author L.B. Taylor Jr. as he traces the history of Roanoke’s most unique and chilling tales. Includes photos! “I like the ghost story books of L.B. Taylor, Jr., a Virginia author, because he blends history and true ghost stories so wonderfully. He doesn’t make judgments about each ghost story, but presents the facts and lets you decide for yourself. . . . So if you’re in a ghostly mood this October—or if you’re just a history lover—Taylor’s books are well worth your time.” —Eagle-Eyed Editor
