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The Roanoke Times

File 1960 The Roanoke Fine Arts Center was in the former South Roanoke Baptist Church at Carolina Avenue and 25th Street from 1955 until it moved to Cherry Hill in 1966.

1999 (10 years ago)

n "The former Terrace Theatre at Crossroads Mall in Roanoke will reopen later this month as the Star City Cinema Grill. It will give new meaning to the expression 'dinner and a movie' by providing customers with both at the same time."

n "It's official. Bud Foster is serious Gator bait. Virginia Tech's defensive coordinator has been offered the same job by perennial national power Florida, Hokies coach Frank Beamer confirmed Tuesday."

n "The civil rights lawsuit that prompted Virginia Military Institute to end its 157-year heritage as a male-only institution was dismissed Friday by a federal judge. In his decision, U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser ruled that VMI has fully complied with a 1996 court order that it open its ranks to women, and thus no longer requires federal oversight."

1984 (25 years ago)

n "What do you do with five transient elephants, in the mountains of Virginia, in the middle of the winter, for six days? If you're circus president George Hamid, you hope some good-hearted animal lover will offer a spare barn to shelter the beasts."

n "Roanoke Valley high school students will receive advanced math and science training in a ... regional program if state legislators go along with one of Gov. Charles Robb's education proposals."

n "Most basketball players would like to be frustrated and unhealthy enough to average 14.5 points in their freshman season. Most sophomores would like to be like Dell Curry, Blacksburg's Basketball Baryshnikov."

1959 (50 years ago)

n "Training for 50 to 60 workers for a new Negro dress manufacturing firm in Roanoke will begin around the last of January."

n "Virginia Tech end Carroll Dale was selected the recipient of the Jacobs Blocking Trophy awarded each year to a Southern Conference football player."

n "The use of Shrine Hill Park for a technical institute has been approved by a bare majority of City Council."

n "When snow falls again, Roanokers can sled on city streets legally for the first time since 1955."

n "The winter series of children's art classes will begin Saturday at the Roanoke Fine Arts Center ... Mrs. Betty Tisinger will conduct the sessions."

n "Mrs. Mary C. Pickett, a member of Roanoke City Council since 1953, is listed in the first edition of 'Who's Who of American Women.' "

n "The Roanoke Broadway Theater League was organized last night and ... signed contracts to bring four plays here from Broadway in 1959-60."

n "Big Leaguer James Robert Lemon would like to see more opportunities for youngsters to play baseball. The Washington Senators outfielder, a native of Covington who now calls Roanoke home, thinks more high schools should field baseball teams."

n "The death of Atlas, America's biggest artificial satellite, may be visible from Roanoke next week."

1934 (75 years ago)

n "Several wells in the neighborhood of Ogden school have gone dry and residents are going two miles to a spring to draw their water, one of them said early this afternoon."

n "When the piano is played as Nikolai Orloff played it last night at his concert at the Academy of Music, there is nothing for the critic to do but to cry, 'Yes, yes,' and to go home with the realization that nothing he can say will add to or take away from this glorious revelation of beauty."

n "Speeches, a band concert, drills and other fanfare will mark the dedication of William Byrd High's new gymnasium Saturday night."

n "After a chase of about seven miles, the greater part of which was made on a flat tire that was worn to shreds at the conclusion, a new Chevrolet coupe containing 100 gallons of whisky was seized...."

n "The Flying Kadets of V.M.I. tonight will oppose a strong North Carolina University quintet, which triumphed last night 31 to 14 over Virginia Tech."

n "With the streets being decorated by the city, individual merchants and business houses putting out their sidewalk flags and otherwise decorating their individual property, and with 'Golden Jubilee' printed pennants being furnished to participants by this newspaper -- Roanoke for the three days of its Fiftieth Anniversary celebration will present a spectacle that will probably outshine any former attempt at decoration."

n "The city started drilling a well today to save about $800 annually on water used at the city market for refrigeration."

n "Residents of the Bent Mountain section have been alarmed recently by the depredations of a couple of animals of the panther type and have been keeping a close guard over their homes at night."

n "Not since 1929 when a great Magicians team bowled over all State opposition and went to the national tournament at Chicago has Jefferson High had as good a chance to win a Virginia League championship as it has this season."

n "The $1,300,000 Roanoke veterans hospital project formally began today, with ground-breaking exercises in which Roanoke and Salem notables participated on the site of the proposed building for colored patients, known in the plans as Building No. 7."

1909 (100 years ago)

n "Mayor Cutchin put the lid on Roanoke Saturday midnight and sat down on the lid. Last night common council pushed the mayor off the lid and sat down on Mr. Cutchin."

n "The band stand is being moved from the courthouse lawn to the Lake Spring grounds, where it will be fitted up for a resting place at this popular resort on hot afternoons in the summer."

n "At last the cat is out of the bag. The management of the Roanoke ball club announced last night that Frank J. Shaughnessy has been secured from the Reading, Pennsylvania club ... to manage the local team the coming season."