Qualla: Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke, Virginia: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 3.0. On a December night in 1949, the Roanoke Merchants Association switched on an 88.5-foot illuminated star atop Mill Mountain. It was meant to advertise the Christmas shopping season. People kept the star burning past Christmas, past New Year, and never turned it off. Seventy-five years later it still glows above the city - and the city has been called the Star City of the South ever since. From a long way off, the star is the first thing you see at night. The Roanoke Valley narrows around it, the Blue Ridge cradles it from three sides, and the city below it is the largest urban place in Virginia west of Richmond.

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Roanoke, Virginia: Big Lick, Bigger Bet

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Roanoke was once a small place called Big Lick - named for the salt deposits that had drawn game to the valley for centuries. Before that, the Roanoke Valley was home to the Tutelo, a Siouan-speaking people who were gradually pushed out by Scotch-Irish and German farmers in the 1...

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Image: Public domain

Roanoke, Virginia: The Magic and the Magic City's Failures

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Between 1880 and 1890, Roanoke's population grew from under 700 to over 16,000 - twenty-two times its starting size. The Magic City, the nickname stuck. But the infrastructure was nonexistent. No sewers. Marshy ground. Repeated outbreaks of diphtheria and cholera. Bond initiative...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Roanoke, Virginia: Mountain Star and Marsh Town Gone

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kevin Boniface, CC BY-SA 4.0. Through the early 20th century, the city kept growing - from 0.5 square miles at incorporation to over 42 square miles by 1980. Mill Mountain, the 1,700-foot summit that stands detached from the surrounding ridges, became the city's recreational heart. An incline railway ran up i...

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Image: Kevin Boniface | CC BY-SA 4.0

Roanoke, Virginia: After the Railroad

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joe Ross from Lansing, Michigan, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1982, the Norfolk and Western merged with the Southern Railway to form Norfolk Southern, which immediately moved its headquarters from Roanoke to Norfolk. The corporate departure that built the city took its keys back. The railroad shops closed in stages, the last shuttering i...

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Image: Joe Ross from Lansing, Michigan | CC BY-SA 2.0