The Roanoke Times

File 1918 This is the first aerial ladder truck in Roanoke. It was purchased in 1918. The truck is at the Norfolk and Western general office building at Jefferson Street and Shenandoah Avenue.

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• Looking back, Sept. 22, 2008
• Looking back: Sept. 15, 2008
• Looking back: Sept. 8, 2008

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1998 (10 years ago)

n "After guiding the Roanoke Express for five seasons, coach Frank Anzalone is moving on. Anzalone will be introduced today as coach of the Lowell (Mass.) Lock Monsters, an expansion American Hockey League franchise. ... In five years, Anzalone's teams never missed the East Coast Hockey League playoffs and posted a 193-121-32 record."

n "Organizers unveiled plans Tuesday for a new auditorium that they boldly claim will be the finest in Virginia. The concert hall will be in the old Jefferson High School auditorium at Roanoke's Jefferson Center. Construction is expected to begin in the fall."

n "Six long-time employees of Aerospace Testing Corp. have bought the company from the estate of its former owner, Rebecca Rose, who died in November. The privately held Roanoke County company is an independent laboratory specializing in simulated environments for industries such as aviation, military, marine, automotive and space. Its employees have tested parts for many planes, including the B-2 bomber."

1983 (25 years ago)

n "After 23 years of operation, the Ride-Park-Shop token program of Downtown Roanoke Inc. will end in July."

n "This is Mill Mountain Playhouse's last season at the Grandin Theater [sic] before moving into Center in the Square, the downtown cultural center now under construction. If Wednesday's opener is any indication, it will be a first-class bon voyage."

n "The Roanoke Bar Association directors suggested putting a Norfolk and Western locomotive in the three-story atrium in the new Roanoke City courthouse. ... But the Art in the Atrium Committee has plans to put a work of art there."

1958 (50 years ago)

n "Roanoke's Booster Club makes its annual trip to White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., Wednesday for a day of fun at the mountain resort and a forward look at the Roanoke Valley 22 years from now."

n "The son of the doorman at the White House, a son of a Pittsburgh Pirates scout, a slugger who hit .588 in American Legion junior baseball and a 6-6 basketball star from Western Kentucky; these boys are among the talent [Salem Rebel's coach] Larry Dorton began screening during the past week."

n "City Council yesterday passed an ordinance prohibiting the sale of uninspected fresh meat products in the city and adopted a companion measure providing free meat inspection service for farmer-producers."

n "Christiansburg High School's Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) chapter has been honored as the most outstanding in the country."

n "A Greensboro, N.C., contractor will start work Monday on the $2.5 million International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. plant in northern Roanoke County."

n "William Fleming High School actors have a $100 award, a citation, a cup and the plaudits of critics at Purdue University."

n "Members of the Armed Forces will add color and excitement to the Roanoke Soap Box Derby July 16. Three branches of the service will compete in the special Oil Can Trophy race while the fourth branch will serve as race officials."

1933 (75 years ago)

n "Yesterday brought oddities: tennis players playing hard in three sweaters; umpires in over-coats; and young women in winter coats at a dance in an open-air pavilion."

n "Roanoke will have a holiday air tomorrow night when National Guard units will march in honor of the Gold Star mothers in the city and of the presence of 500 delegates to the 11th annual encampment of the Veterans of Foreign Wars."

n "After blazing a trail of tragedy across the eastern edge of Floyd county and the western edge of Roanoke county last night, Roy Ferguson, alias Roy Huff, 20, is being held in the Roanoke jail today on a charge of murder."

n "Many poor children here will now be assured of a weekly bath. Presumably without soap, and not necessarily on Saturday night. The bath (you might call it a shower, or gambol in cooling spray) will be donated by the Roanoke Water Works Company; administered by members of the Fire Department, and sponsored by the Roanoke Woman's Club."

n "An exhibition of aerial fireworks, one of the first of its kind ever seen here, was given over the city early last night and for a time, many of those in the downtown section believed they were witnessing a meteoric display."

n "Fallon Playground, Roanoke's new playground open for the first time this season under the direction of 'Hank' Trimmer, has been popular with the residents of that section."

n "There stands today in the exact center of Roanoke county, a free public library -- a monument to the idealism and hard work of the Junior Woman's club of Roanoke county."

n "Wanted as a member of the kidnap gang in connection with the abduction on May 27 of Miss Mary McElroy, daughter of City Manager M.P. McElroy, of Kansas City, Mo., George McGee, 22, for whom a nation-wide search has been in progress, was arrested in Roanoke Saturday night on a drunk charge and is being held in the city jail pending the arrival of Kansas City authorities."

n "A call is being issued for the roundup of all negro baseball players of yesteryear at the Royal Casino Tuesday at 8 p.m. At this time plans will be made for an 'Old Timers' game for the benefit of the Y.W.C.A-Y.M.C.A and the Boy Scouts."

n "The Columbia Broadcasting System will honor the ninth anniversary of WDBJ [radio] tomorrow evening by dedicating the Nino Martini and Columbia Symphony Orchestra program to the station."

n "A quarter century of continuous service with the Roanoke fire department, during which he has witnessed its growth from two stations and a mere handful of men and horse-drawn equipment to nine stations, 99 men and the latest motorized equipment, will be rounded out today by James W. Nichols, assistant chief and captain of No. 1 ladder company."

n "Hereafter, when you read about a well known institution at Blacksburg, it will be Virginia Tech. V.P.I. and Poly have been tossed into the limbo of forgotten men and names."

1908 (100 years ago)

n "Sunday morning at St. Andrew's the services were of more than ordinary impressiveness, the occasion being the celebration of his first mass of Rev. Father Frank Gallagher, of Roanoke."

n "Roanoke has been playing great ball since their return home, and there is every reason to believe that the good work will continue."

n "For a baseball game the weather of yesterday was simply perfect. From the west the sunlight fell upon the diamond in exquisite radiance, and in the air there was a spice of coolness that made life worth living."

n "In the midst of beauty, music, flowers and in the presence of the largest audience that ever attended the school exercises, seventeenth annual commencement of St. Andrew's school took place at the Academy of Music last night."

n "A Writerpress, a machine that prints fac-simile typewritten letters at the rate of 2,000 per hour, was installed yesterday by the Roanoke Typewriter Exchange. ... The machine is the only one of its kind seen here."

n "Roanoke took Norfolk's scalp yesterday afternoon by the tune of two to nothing in as pretty an exhibition of baseball as any fan might wish to see. A leaky pair of hands belonging to Smith and timely slab work account for the result."

n "Much complaint had been made on the part of residents in the outskirts of the city of certain herders allowing cows to depredate on their property."

n "The police court yesterday had the appearance of a banquet hall deserted. There were only three unfortunates to answer to their names for violating the law."

n "The county poor farm was sold at public auction on yesterday and was purchased by Mr. W.B. Tinsley at the price of $11,500."

n "In the police court yesterday morning, one unfortunate appeared. ... He had suffered, it is supposed, from an attack of neuralgia, had bathed in 'coffin varnish' and swallowed too much corn."