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Courtesy of Robert Chocklett Sr.

This undated photo shows Hilary Chocklett on Bullitt Avenue, behind the No. 6 fire station, which opened in 1911.

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• History index

1998 (10 years ago)

n "As cracks in the floors and walls of the Conference Center of Roanoke grow wider, so does a legal dispute about whether they were caused by construction and design flaws. For the third time this year, a lawsuit was filed Monday by the Hotel Roanoke Conference Center Commission, a state board that owns the conference center next to the remodeled Hotel Roanoke."

n "Enrollment is up at Ferrum College after several years of a decline in the number of new and returning students."

n "Natalie Bushkar, a 16-year-old junior at Cave Spring High School, is the newest winner of Teen magazine's 'So You Want To Be A Model' contest, sponsored by Sears. That call from Teen announcing her good fortune has set off a whirlwind of exciting experiences for Bushkar, including a New York fashion shoot for the magazine's December holiday issue. She'll splash across a two-page spread."

n "The fences of Old Southwest weren't mere decoration in the last century. They kept the cows off the front porch. ... Going house by house and digging into city records and microfilmed newspapers, longtime neighborhood activist Joel Richert is compiling histories of each of the 800 homes in the downtown neighborhood."

n "Always the optimist looking for a way to seal a deal, City Councilman Jim Trout says he has a nifty idea to help sell his proposed $4.8 million 'Shenandoah Avenue Business District.' ... He wants the city to develop a recreational greenway that would run from the Hotel Roanoke along Shenandoah Avenue, turn onto the new Peters Creek Road extension and swing back toward the middle of the city."

n "Early reported estimates for a new, super-renovated, knock-your-socks-off, best-in-the-west auditorium at the Jefferson Center were in the $5.2 to $5.5 million range. When the plans were actually drawn up, however, the bottom line turned out to be a little bit more than that. In fact, it was $6.2 million."

1983 (25 years ago)

n "The Roanoke County Board of Supervisors Tuesday night quietly dropped its plan for an industrial park just off Ruritan Road, ending the latest round of protest by residents in the area."

n "A program aimed at getting impaired drivers off the highway started in the Roanoke Valley Tuesday."

n "It didn't take long for the informal Franklin County farmer's lobby to change the minds of all but one of the four Franklin County supervisors who voted against asking for crop disaster aid Monday night. ... [On Wednesday] With little discussion, the supervisors voted 6-1 to request federal low-interest loans that, as of now, do not exist."

n "Opening day in Salem's six schools, separate from Roanoke County for the first time ever, was routine, smooth and quiet Wednesday."

n "Most of Botetourt County was isolated from the rest of the world Wednesday as a result of a breakdown in the Roanoke and Botetourt Telephone System."

n "It was fan appreciation night at Municipal Field, and the Salem Redbirds rewarded those who attended the final home game with an interesting evening of baseball. The Redbirds socked three homers and stole six bases Wednesday night, and lefthander Jim Harkins went the distance to polish off Hagerstown 10-3."

n "A Richmond postal worker who thrives on giving away money has sent $1,000 to two Roanoke girls who rescued an abused kitten last week."

n "Roanoke Valley officials wearing boots and jumpsuits poured concrete Thursday for an $18.5-million Marriott Hotel to be built at the northwest intersection of Hershberger Road and Interstate 581. The most expensive hotel or motel built in Western Virginia, the Marriott will have 256 rooms."

1958 (50 years ago)

n "A taxi ride yesterday led to the arrest of a man charged with driving the car in which a hitch-hiking Wytheville sailor was fatally injured in a crash near Cloverdale late Friday night."

n "The music is up-tempo, the atmosphere is that of a home party -- that's the Top Ten Dance Party on WSLS-TV. Premiering six months ago, Dance Party has grown in popularity with its one-hour show on Saturdays."

n "Van Cliburn will play a piano recital in Roanoke early next spring. Before he skyrocketed to fame last April in Moscow, the Thursday Morning Music Club already had a recital by Mr. Cliburn under consideration."

n "Mrs. Loree S. Dawson, a nurse at the Roanoke Veterans Administration Hospital, has received an award of $250 for suggesting that plastic mattress covers and pillow cases be used in the hospital."

n "PAL fighters, undefeated in team bouts over a three-year period, put their winning streak on the line twice this week at Maher Field."

n "Air Force M. Sgt. Willie DuPree of Roanoke sang 'They Call It Ireland' on the Ed Sullivan Show on CBS Television last night."

n "Vincent S. Wheeler yesterday was elected president of City Council with the title of ex-officio mayor."

n "Completion of a 14.5-mile section of road early in 1960 will bring the Blue Ridge Parkway to within 2.5 miles of Roanoke at its southern city limits."

n "At least three members of City Council will stay away from a Council meeting for annexation discussion tonight unless the session is open to the public."

n "Roanoke Fair went into its second day yesterday with a huge crowd splitting its time between contented livestock and a midway of elimination dancers, multi-headed pigs and sideburned rock-n-roll singers."

n "Ground was broken today for construction of the New River Valley Airport."

n "Western Virginia's city and town councils aren't turning to the sack dress, but they are taking on a new look. It's reorganization time for the councils, some of which are getting new mayors."

n "Gil Thorp, a new daily cartoon strip, will begin next Monday on the sports pages of The Roanoke Times."

n "Old Kate went to her reward yesterday -- a spot in the No. 10 firehouse. Roanoke's oldest hook and ladder truck, Old Kate deserved a 40-year service pin, but all she got was a ride from No. 1 firehouse downtown to her new home in the Williamson road section."

1933 (75 years ago)

n "Two hundred C.C.C. youths and their commanding officers reveled today in the knowledge that their camp, Triangle, situated at the base of Catawba mountain 14 miles northwest of Roanoke, had been judged the 'best forest camp in the third corps area.' "

n "Tie a little string around your finger, knot your tie or scribble it on your shirt cuff, but don't overlook making your cheese and rye bread purchases tomorrow or Saturday, or you'll face the bleak prospect of Monday with Labor Day vacation, stores closed, and the inauguration of legal 3.2 beer."

n "Half a dozen eager, inquisitive, and at times not too well informed football fans, 'ganged' Warren Z. 'Tex' Tilson, Washington and Lee's new football coach, here today as preparations were in full swing for the opening of Southern Conference gridiron practice next Monday."

n "Heavy fines for the wrecking of houses through the chopping up of walls for firewood were imposed on three persons in Police Court today."

n "Is a good team of married men as good as a good team of single men, at playground baseball?"

n "A parade through the city of the Norfolk and Western band; a band concert; music in the store by Ken Winn and his orchestra, and distribution of souvenirs marked the formal opening of the new quarters of L. Cohn and Son, clothing concern, at 208 S. Jefferson street and Salem avenue."

n "Coming in the midst of repeal and on the eve of beer legalization, there ought to be some significance in this: They finished today tearing down, on Duck Alley in Salem, a building erected in the 1893 boom days that housed three rip-roaring saloons."

n "Fourteen persons were injured, four seriously, in a series of accidents ranging from auto collisions to near-drownings, fights and falls Saturday and Sunday."

n "The first fair in Roanoke since 1930 will begin at Maher Field September 18 and will continue through September 23."

n "Nine Roanoke shops employees of the Norfolk and Western Railway went to work today secure in the knowledge of their supremacy over the Pennsylvania Railroad in the highly technical sport of wheel-rolling. They twirl 800-pound car-wheels around."

n "With Congressman Clifton A. Woodrum as the principal speaker, citizens of the Williamson road community dedicated the William Fleming high school, recently completed as a unit in the Roanoke county $250,000 school building program, to the cause of public education last night."

n "Mayor S. P. Siefert pulled the rope that unleashed the first NRA [National Recovery Administration] banner to fly in the breeze over Roanoke."

1908 (100 years ago)

n "If Frank Helvestine, the 11-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Helvestine ... does not grow up to be an admiral in Uncle Sam's navy it will not be because his mind does not run in sea-fighting channels. Neither will it be because he doesn't know how to build fighting machines."

n "In a game replete with exciting moments, the Highlanders won the last game of the series with Danville. It was a ten inning affair, Our Boys winning by the score of 3 to 2."

n "The first solid carload of enamelware sold by the Roanoke Stamping and Enameling Company has just been purchased by the Roanoke Hardware Company, exclusive agents for the ware in Southwest Virginia."

n "Hercules Atlas Sampson Sandow, the strongest man in the world, has surrendered to illness and yesterday was forced to cancel his engagement to give free exhibitions of his great strength this week at Mountain Park."

n "The presence at Hotel Roanoke of Mrs. William Mahone, widow of the late General William Mahone, is peculiarly interesting, owing to the fact that General Mahone was for years a prominent figure in matters concerning what is now the great Norfolk and Western Railway system."

n "The Wayne Company is by far the largest aggregation that has appeared here [Mountain Park Casino] during the summer. ... Yesterday everybody who witnessed the show the night before was singing its praises. The girls are young, pretty and springy. The costumes are new, handsome and are made to fit the wearers."

n "The tax payers of Kimball ward will hold a mass meeting tomorrow night for the purpose of considering and discussing the proposition for the establishment in that ward by Mr. F. Brown of an abattoir."

n "The Acme Match Company, Roanoke's latest enterprise, has just awarded to the Roanoke Iron Machine Company a contract for the building of six of the big match machines."

n "Those Roanoke hunters, who at this season of the year, are shooting what is known as the bull bat, may not know that this bird is protected by the laws of the State."

n "A regular boom has struck Norwich, and it promises to make that section a big hustling community."

n "Monday, September 7th, Labor Day, promises to be an event of great interest in Roanoke. ... The circus will be here, two games of baseball will be played. ... and there will be a picnic at Mountain Park."

n "While the members of the choir of the First Baptist church were practicing their Sunday music in the church on Roanoke street last night, a large opossum entered at the main door and proceeded leisurely down one of the aisles toward the pulpit."