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Roanoke, Virginia

1852 establishments in VirginiaCities in VirginiaPages with non-numeric formatnum argumentsPopulated places established in 1852Populated places on the Roanoke River
Roanoke, VirginiaSouthwest VirginiaUse mdy dates from January 2019Virginia cultureWestern Virginia
Roanoke City (Virginia) from Mill Mountain Star at Dusk
Roanoke City (Virginia) from Mill Mountain Star at Dusk

Roanoke ( ROH-ə-nohk) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is located in Southwest Virginia along the Roanoke River, in the Blue Ridge range of the greater Appalachian Mountains. Roanoke is approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of the Virginia–North Carolina border and 250 miles (400 km) southwest of Washington, D.C., along Interstate 81. At the 2020 census, Roanoke's population was 100,011, making it the largest 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 originally home to members of the Siouan-speaking Tutelo tribe. However, in the 17th and early-to-mid 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. With a 2,300% population growth rate in the decade from 1880 to 1890, the young city experienced the advantages and disadvantages of its boomtown status. During the 20th century, Roanoke's boundaries expanded through multiple annexations from the surrounding Roanoke County, and it became Southwest Virginia's economic and cultural hub. The 1982 decision by N&W to relocate their headquarters out of the city, combined with other manufacturing closures, led Roanoke to pivot to a primarily service economy. In the 21st century, a robust healthcare industry and the development and increased marketing of its outdoor amenities have helped reverse prior declining population trends. Roanoke is known for the Roanoke Star, an 88.5-foot-tall (27.0 m) 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 26 miles of greenways with bicycle and pedestrian trails, and the city's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains provides access to numerous outdoor recreation opportunities.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Roanoke, Virginia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Roanoke, Virginia
Elm Avenue Southeast, Roanoke Morningside

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Wikipedia: Roanoke, VirginiaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.270555555556 ° E -79.9425 °
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Elm Avenue Southeast 598
24013 Roanoke, Morningside
Virginia, United States
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Roanoke City (Virginia) from Mill Mountain Star at Dusk
Roanoke City (Virginia) from Mill Mountain Star at Dusk
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Boxley Building
Boxley Building

The Boxley Building is a historic commercial building located in Roanoke, Virginia. It was built in 1922, during a wave of post-World War I construction in the city. The building is eight stories, and follows a pattern set by other skyscrapers of the time in consisting of three sections similar to a classical column. The bottom section, or pedestal, is one story fronted with granite; the middle section, or shaft, consists of the next six stories built with beige enameled brick; the top section, or capital, is the eighth story fronted with richly decorated terra cotta panels topped with a finely detailed copper cornice.The building was commissioned by William Wise Boxley, a local builder and developer who was Roanoke's mayor at the time of construction. Boxley was an influential figure in the city, having played a significant role in the founding of the Shenandoah Life Insurance Company and Colonial American Bank as well as sitting on the boards of both Roanoke College and Virginia Military Institute. Boxley was elected to the Roanoke City Council in 1918, and the following year was appointed the city's first mayor under its new council-manager form of government.: 552  The building's architect was Edward G. Frye, whose firm had previously erected the Roanoke Times building, the city's municipal building, and would complete Roanoke's new market building in the same year as the Boxley.: 500, 504, 586 Boxley's building materials company was one of the original tenants of the building, and remained headquartered there until vacating in 2005. The building was empty from the late-2000s until being purchased by a local developer in 2016. The building's offices were converted into residential space, with the bottom four floors used as dormitory housing for international students of two Roanoke-area parochial schools, and the top four floors converted into luxury apartments.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, and it is a contributing structure to the Roanoke Downtown Historic District.