The Roanoke Times

File This advertisement for Blue Ridge Springs resort in Botetourt County emphasized its Blue Ridge Dyspepsia Water. The resort opened soon after the Civil War. The original hotel burned in the 1880s. This hotel and the St. James Cottage were destroyed in a fire in 1936. At one time the resort was owned by Robert H. Angell of Roanoke and by Shenandoah Life Insurance Company.

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1998 (10 years ago)

n "Nearly one-fourth of Roanoke County's 17 elementary school principals will retire June 30."

n "The Senior Athletes of Montgomery County won so many medals at the Virginia Senior Games one might think they had no competition. ... They brought home 81 medals in events such as bowling, riflery, sprinting and long jump."

n "The balance of power in the Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame men's field is no longer exclusive property of the city slickers. In fact, a bunch of good ol' boys from the northern hills have taken over as the powerbrokers of Roanoke's most prestigious golf event. Botetourt Country Club, somewhat of a blue-collar crowd compared to the suit-and-tie guys of, say, Roanoke Country Club, will try to haul the HOF men's team trophy back to the hills of Daleville for a third straight year this weekend."

n "When visitors to downtown Roanoke ask for directions from the new City Guides this summer, they might just get a little more than they asked for. Like a magic trick. Or a balancing act. Ginny Weckstein and Matt Taylor, the first two City Guides to be hired by Downtown Roanoke Inc., were chosen in part for their talents: Weckstein is an actor who does balancing stunts. Taylor is a magician."

n "Debbie Reynolds is still trying to collect money owed to her by her ex-husband, Roanoke developer Richard Hamlett. In a lawsuit similar to one she filed last year, the actress-hotelier asked a federal judge in Roanoke this week to help her find Hamlett's assets."

n "Southwood of South Roanoke has been more than a decade coming, partly because of efforts to gain access to it off a main city street and partly because of terrain that required extensive grading. ... The project will be the Roanoke Valley's first 'gated' community. It gives area residents access to what 8 million people nationally already have: homes behind barriers that prevent entrance to anyone but residents and their guests."

n "A Washington, D.C., rocket doctor made a house call to Wasena Park Saturday morning to give the famed Wasena rocket its first checkup in 33 years. ... The doctor, Bayne Rector, is actually a chemist for the Smithsonian Institution. In recent years, he helped refurbish the Saturn V rocket now on display at the Kennedy Space Center."

1983 (25 years ago)

n "A Roanoke County product has given new hope for the rare African rhinoceros. Night-vision devices made by the International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. are helping curtail the illegal slaughter of rhinos for their horns and elephants for their tusks. ITT donated the devices to African authorities."

n "It was a special school for special students and Wednesday they had a special ceremony at a special place. The school was The City School, the students were 53 academically gifted and motivated Roanoke City high school seniors from Patrick Henry and William Fleming."

n "Would you believe Laban and Larry on The Coast? Believe it, because it's true. 'Cookin' Cheap,' starring Roanoke's own Laban Johnson and Larry Bly, has been picked up for a five-week summer run on KCET-TV, the public television station in Los Angeles."

n "If you weren't at the George Jones concert Saturday night, you were in the wrong place."

n "If and when David Tolley wants to turn pro -- and his decision now appears imminent -- he'll hear few arguments from this rivals in the Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame Tournament."

1958 (50 years ago)

n "A picnic on Mill Mountain for Roanoke's oldsters will be sponsored Thursday afternoon by the Department of Parks and Recreation."

n " 'Russian So to Speak' will open on WDBJ-TV July 5 at 6 p.m. It is to be a series of half-hour classes in the basic Russian language, taught by a Moscow native [George Solonevich] now residing in Roanoke County."

n "Three Roanoke golf leagues will get under way in the next two weeks. The leagues will play over the par-71 Mountain View layout weekly."

n "Unless unusually heavy voting develops before polls close at 7:30 tonight, Roanokers can chalk up a feeble effort in the City Council election."

n "Eduardo Perez, an infielder from Matanzas, Cuba, was signed to a contract yesterday by the Pittsburgh Pirates and assigned immediately to the Salem Rebels. He became the seventh Cuban assigned to the Pirate farm club."

n "A detailed study of business activity in the United Sates, covering all parts of the country, stamps Roanoke as a solid, sturdy market, with family earnings and expenditures during the past year above average."

n "A gleaming new section of Williamson road will be open to traffic by July 1. ... The strip extends south from Orange avenue (U.S. 460) to Second street, NE."

n "Music by a former Roanoker will be played on radio station WDBJ Saturday at 5:15 p.m. Three modern piano compositions, taken from a new album by Margaret Neas, will be played."

n "A proposed layout for the $600,000 Jackson Junior High School addition drew a burst of applause and enthusiastic approval from the City School Board last night."

1933 (75 years ago)

n "Several of the local aspirants for political posts to be filled this year have announced who they will have associated with them as first deputies."

n "While Roanoke primarily is a railroad center and is noted also as the home of the largest rayon manufacturing plant in the world, announcements of officials of smaller manufacturing concerns that production will be increased and forces added are looked upon with confidence as one of the most important reflections of the new deal in the Roanoke region."

n "Leniency was far removed from Police Court this morning as heavy fines and stiff jail sentences were imposed ... in a variety of cases."

n "Roanoke today literally 'baked,' with the thermometer reaching the highest point for the year. At noon the mercury had reached 98, with promise of going higher."

n "Fear was being manifested over the probability of another drouth [sic]. Wells in this region are low and in some instances have gone dry. Roanoke River is at the lowest it has been this year and some streams that feed it have suspended operations for the present."

n "Motorists who have been accustomed to tramping down on the accelerator a little too hard while traversing Roanoke streets may take a word of warning from the list of speeders paying fines in Traffic Court today."

n "Fifteen hundred fans applauded mildly through the rounds as returns from the Baer-Schmeling fight were announced from the Times-World Building last night, but excited cheers came from the lawn of the Municipal Building when the climax came, and Baer received a thunderous applause. It was the sole convincing clue of the huge crowd's attitude."

n "With a parade through the business section scheduled to precede the opening game, the newly organized Salem City Baseball League will start off its first season."

n "Hoping to stimulate interest in gasoline station beautification, the Mountain View Garden club will award a prize of fifty dollars in cash to the station in Roanoke showing the greatest improvement in appearance by next June."

n "The American Theatre has installed wide range sound, the latest and most lifelike reproduction apparatus produced by Western Electric Company."

n "The Salem theater, erected and opened to the public about three and a half years ago, was closed indefinitely Saturday night."

n "Unless it rains steadily and the weather otherwise is propitious, Roanokers will pay high prices for a scant local tomato crop."

n "Blankets returned to favor last night as the weather about-faced and the temperature dropped to 44 degrees. ... Persons who have been sitting on front porches in the evenings were sent indoors."

n "Purchase of the Blue Ridge Springs Hotel by Major Robert Kent, of Beacon, N.Y., dissolved the Blue Ridge Springs Hotel Co., Inc. ... and placed the resort under new management."

1908 (100 years ago)

n "A wholesale raid of alleged disorderly houses was made by the police Saturday night, and a number of arrests were effected."

n "The largest crowds that ever attended the commencement exercises of Roanoke College in all the history of the institution, is in attendance at the present commencement."

n "There are some people in Roanoke who believe all the talk about mad dogs is foolishness. They laugh at the idea of there being any danger. ... Mayor Cutchin yesterday had a narrow escape from being attacked by a dog on Jefferson street."

n "Seven to three was the result of yesterday's game between Danville and Roanoke, and the seven belonged to the Tobacconists. It was a sad tale that came over the wires. How the fans lived through the agony of it, no one can tell."

n "The State Democratic Convention will be called to order at 12 o'clock today in the Academy of Music."

n "About four miles from Roanoke yesterday morning between the city and Coyner's Springs, stark and cold in the embrace of death, and weltering in life's crimson blood, lay the bodies of two men. ... They had fought a duel over the hand of a woman."

n "Walter Brodie. who filled center field yesterday for Portsmouth. is the great Brodie of the Highlanders of 1907, who led the team in batting, averaging .311 for the season. He was with the famous Baltimore Orioles when they played championship ball for three years."

n "Yesterday's game between Roanoke and Portsmouth resulted in a score of 7 to 2 in favor of the [Portsmouth] visitors. From the very start, the exhibition of ball playing was characterized by an absence of enthusiasm on the part of both players and fans."

n "Gus Vurnakes & Company will formally open their large new ice cream parlors at No. 19 Campbell avenue tomorrow and music by an imported Italian string band will be furnished throughout the day."

n "Roanoke has certainly established beyond the shadow of a doubt its ability to take care of a big political convention, and there is no reason why in years to come the city should not have its fair share of such meetings."

n "The animals in Mountain Park zoo held a convention yesterday, adopted a platform of principles, named delegates at large to the grand pow wow at Hollow Tree and submitted the matter of nature-faking to the central committee with instructions for an investigation and report at the general confab to be held when Mud Turtle learns to sing and the Ninth Virginia district goes Democratic."