Monday, October 27, 2008
Looking Back: week of Oct. 27
Have a historic photo you want to share? Your community, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, VA 24010 or e-mail yourcommunity@roanoke.com. Please put Looking Back in the subject line.
Official photograph U. S. Navy 1958
"The USS Roanoke, the third ship in U.S. naval history to bear the name Roanoke, is ending its sea-going career and being put into mothballs." The ship was placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet on Oct. 31, 1958.
Click the button above to see all of our community coverage, or go straight to your community's homepage with the menu below.
More history stories
- Looking back: Nov. 23
- Looking back: Nov. 16
- Looking Back
- Looking back: Nov. 2, 2009
- Looking Back: Oct. 26, 2009
Archive
1998 (10 years ago)
"The Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority has received a $375,000 federal grant to fight crime in public housing developments."
"A venture capital firm started by Northern Virginia businessman Mark Warner to help the Western Virginia economy plans to invest in a fledgling Roanoke supplier of voice-recognition software for doctors. The $6 million fund, Southwest One, is close to signing a deal to make ProVox Technologies its first investment, Warner said Thursday. A formal announcement is expected soon."
"The City Action Team is living up to its middle name -- "action" -- by trying to tackle neighborhood problems before they become severe, according to city officials, residents and business owners."
1983 (25 years ago)
"Members of Roanoke's Shenandoah Club have rejected a change in the rules for electing members that was intended to make it easier for Jews and blacks to join."
"Roanoke area families of U.S. Marines who were in Beirut during Sunday's terrorist attack are coping with tension, lack of sleep and a paralyzing uncertainty as news of the Marines slowly trickles in."
"State Sen. Ray Garland and challenger Granger Macfarlane traded charges of lies, distortions and smear tactics Thursday night in a biting, aggressive, televised debate."
"Dig out the long johns and toss an extra quilt on the bed -- it's expected to go below freezing tonight."
"One of Botetourt County's finest old homes is back in the hands of the family that built it almost two centuries ago. Lauderdale, a white, brick colonial mansion on a hilltop along U.S. 11 north of Troutville, is owned by Lauderdales for the first time since 1796."
"The Lane Stadium scoreboard didn't explode Saturday afternoon, but Virginia Tech's offense blew up the myth that Bill Dooley's football team is one-dimensional."
"Roanoke Mayor Noel C. Taylor is one of the nations' 244 black mayors who will be honored at a dinner Nov. 10 in Washington."
1958 (50 years ago)
"He became aggravated. That was the explanation 45-year-old Floyd E. Welch gave for the damage police said he did to plumbing in a detention cell at Roanoke City jail."
"The father of two persons working in Roanoke was killed yesterday in the mine explosion at Bishop." The explosion killed 22 men.
"Garden City's Civic League, in cooperation with the Roanoke Valley Citizens Traffic Safety Council, will sponsor Roanoke's first neighborhood safety parade and conference tomorrow . . ."
"A famous swimming star arrived in Roanoke this morning without a single bathing suit in her luggage." Esther Williams was in Roanoke "on a publicity jaunt for her outdoor pools."
"An outdoor telephone booth in miniature, a 'boothette,' was placed in service in Roanoke today by the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co."
"More than 200 regular and special police officers will patrol Roanoke tomorrow night to help crack down on Halloween vandalism."
"The University of Virginia has purchased four paintings by Peter Wreden, Roanoke artist."
"Roanoke's first Harvest Bowl football game drew a total attendance of 24,386 and gross receipts of $76,772."
"A special page for teen-agers will be published in The World-News each week beginning Saturday -- a product of one of the several Junior Achievement companies in operation this year."
1933 (75 years ago)
"The Blue Eagle restaurant, specializing in Italian dinners -- ravioli, antipasto hors d'ouevres, spaghetti with Roman cheese and the rest of the fixin's that make bambino a big man -- has opened for business... [it is] the first business here named after the NRA emblem."
"The Maroonlets of Roanoke College went on the credit side of the ledger as they swamped the School Boys' Athletic Club of Cape Charles at Salem yesterday afternoon, 46-0. The little Maroons . . . counted four touchdowns through the air and three more on straight football."
"Actual construction is expected to get under way before the end of the year on the neuro-psychiatric hospital for veterans at Roanoke, Va., for which the federal public works administration today allotted $1,300,000."
"An interesting chapter of Montgomery County history will be closed here when the Montgomery Female College building is torn down to make way for a modern high school."
"Spooks and goblins may promenade all they want to tomorrow night - Halloween - so long as they do not conceal their faces with masks."
"Radio equipment of the Roanoke Life Saving and First Aid Crew was put to the test today through the facilities of WDBJ, the Times and World-News station."
1908 (100 years ago)
"In the police court yesterday morning, Judge Bryan presiding, seventeen sinners poured out their woes as the bracing winds sang a solo through the 'creeper' and the ivy."
"It now looks as if the Roanoke Red Sulphur Springs will be selected by the State of Virginia for the establishment of a sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis."
"The owners of the glass factory at Salem have awarded a contract for the completion of the Catawba Valley railroad, which runs from the factory to the mines in the mountains from which the supply of raw material is secured."
"One unfortunate had been drunk; he was very sorry; he had lived in a dry town; it had been some time since he had an opportunity to embrace a bottle, so dear to his heart so when he met the joy of his heart and his stomach, the temptation was too great; he fell by the wayside and paid $2.50 for his trouble."
"In the Police Court yesterday, as the cool breezes from the snow-capped mountains of the Southwest sang a solo through the twining creeper, three artists of the bottle appeared with their cheeks bathed in tears of repentance and the exterior and interior of their anatomies saturated with the crimson fluid, mixed a setting of red onions. The odor at police headquarters is not at any time of the tube-rose order, but this latter combination is the worst ever."
