The Roanoke Times l File 1898

The Hotel Roanoke burned on July 1, 1898. The hotel was repaired and reopened the next year. This photo was taken from Barnes' Drug Store on Norfolk Avenue.

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1998 (10 years)

"A fierce sense of loyalty to their company, Aerospace Testing Corp., and its late president, Rebecca Rose, drove six employees to buy the company ... The employees have 93 years of combined experience at Aerospace, an independent laboratory specializing in simulated environments for industries such as aviation, military, marine, automotive and space."

"The Roanoke All-Stars Football Clinic has more than top-notch instruction and devotion. It has hometown heroes. Tiki and Ronde Barber sound like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, but to the hundreds of kids this week who have literally and figuratively looked up to them, they seem like the Pied Piper."

"A fire at a Southwest Roanoke boarding house that killed six people was set in retaliation for the shooting death of a 26-year-old man earlier that morning, investigators said Wednesday. For the first time since the May 18 fire, Roanoke police officially connected the two incidents, saying the blaze was intentionally set. Labeling it an arson more than doubled the number of homicides in the city this year, increasing the number to 11 and leaving police with six unsolved slayings."

1983 (25 years)

"Howard S. Statum, a South Carolina native who successfully operated the first black auto dealership in the Roanoke Valley, is coming back after a year's rest to open a Lincoln-Mercury business in Salem."

"The Styx concert at the Roanoke Civic Center coliseum Wednesday was a bright package with almost nothing inside. Many in the crowd of 9,157 would disagree. It's hard to disappoint some rock fans, even when they pay $13.50 for their seats. But Styx wasn't worth the money Wednesday."

"Fifteen members of the Roanoke Valley chapter of the National Organization for Women marched through downtown Roanoke Thursday afternoon to raise money and to show their support for the Equal Rights Amendment."

"It stopped raining and 20,000 people cheered. For the fifth year, it drizzled, sprinkled and even poured for awhile, delaying the start of the Roanoke Times & World News' Music for Americans-V concert."

1958 (50 years)

"Roanoke will lose its long-standing rank as Virginia's third largest city in population on July 1. Taking over this spot on that date will be Newport News (combined with Warwick) with an estimated population of 120,000 in 74 square miles."

"State Sen. S. Floyd Landreth of Galax and Dr. L.C. Downing, Roanoke Negro surgeon, have been appointed to the Virginia Advisory Committee of President Eisenhower's Civil Rights Commission."

"The traffic picture in the business block of Grandin road, SW, has been given a new look. Angle parking has given way to parallel parking and 18 meters have been installed on the east side of the street in the 1300 block."

1933 (75 years)

"Dr. Philip C. Scherer, Jr., associate professor of physical chemistry at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, with George A. Richter of the Brown company, Berlin, N.H., has been granted a patent for processing rayon."

"Twenty-six firms have already indicated that they will enter floats in the 'Home Coming Trade Week' parade, to be staged here July 4, by the colored citizens of the city."

"Primo Carnera, the Italian man mountain, who last night straddled into the heavyweight championship, appeared in Roanoke on June 20, 1931, during an exhibition tour."

"News boys might get some pointers from Ziegfield, three-ton elephant, who is booked to sell copies of The Roanoke World-News in front of the American theatre Tuesday afternoon, about 4 o'clock."

"Hot weather stock went tumbling as the weather man got bearish and bore the mercury as low as 66 this morning."

"Police Court today had all the appearance of a Monday morning round of routine drunk and prohibition cases, indicating the holiday on the Fourth of July was celebrated by some residents in a riotous manner."

1908 (100 years)

"Yesterday morning, people of Roanoke noticed that the sun began to give out a strange light . . . Finally, however, it dawned upon them that the eclipse, which had been announced in The Evening News, had arrived on schedule time."

"The people of Fourth avenue are very thankful to see the men working on the streets putting down the drainage sewers."

"The machinery for the steam laundry here is arriving and being installed as rapidly as possible and it will only be a few days till Salem will operate a steam laundry, giving a number of people employment, as well as saving many the inconvenience of sending their laundry to other cities."