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The Roanoke Times

File 1909 The building on the left is the Catawba Sanitorium administration building. Patients typically stayed in the wooden pavilion and slept on the porch, though some patients stayed in tents.

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• History index

1999 (10 years ago)

• "Roanoke's Advance Auto Parts chain will put TVs in all of its 1,700 stores by April. The company is building a private, in-store satellite TV network to entertain customers and train employees after hours."

• "Mandatory water restrictions were imposed Wednesday for the first time in city history. Acting City Manager Jim Ritchie announced the restrictions at a morning news conference at City Hall."

• "Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital made the top-50 list for cardiac care and surgery when U.S. News and World Report magazine recently ranked the nation's hospitals."

1984 (25 years ago)

• "The sixth annual Music for Americans celebration at Victory stadium followed Roanoke's July Fourth tradition of music, candy apples, fireworks and rain."

• "Torrential rain, high wind and lightning uprooted trees, caused fires and left about 3,200 customers without power in may areas around the Roanoke Valley Thursday afternoon."

• "Residents in the Williamson Road neighborhood plan to start a campaign soon to try to get rid of the adult stores in their area."

• "Hazel B. Thompson, a retired teacher who led the campaign to develop a black heritage center in Roanoke's old Harrison School, has been named the city's Citizen of the Year for 1983."

1959 (50 years ago)

• "Starkey Speedway will become the scene of calculated calamity Thursday night when the Johnny Saxon girl Hell Cats take over for two hours of automotive fury and motorcycling insanity."

• "The drought lingers on and it now appears no early end is in sight."

• "Roanoke has more than 35,000 homes. About 107 of them are prepared for hydrogen bomb warfare -- but only if a bomb does not fall on Roanoke."

• "The $2,000 Roanoke Valley Open Invitational ... will be the third richest golf tournament in the state."

• "The Rebels of Salem are perched today atop the all-rookie Appalachian Baseball League."

• "Because they are convinced they make a better pizza, two Roanoke brothers and a business partner are becoming the pizza kings of the Roanoke Valley. The 'L&L' pizzas ... are being sold by some of the bigger grocery chains in western Virginia and in Raleigh, N.C."

• "Plans for a new municipal office building costing $2.5 million will go to Roanoke City Council Monday."

• "[Tropical storm] Cindy took advantage of a woman's prerogative about changing her mind and decided to pass up her scheduled visit to Roanoke last night."

1934 (75 years ago)

• "The first performance of the Historical Pageant of Southwest Virginia, presented before many thousands at Maher Field last night, unfolded a magnificent panorama of the major events in the history of the Mountain Empire."

• "Freakish weather and phenomena from the heavens conspired to add their bizarre effects to Roanoke's Fourth of July celebration."

• "A warning to Roanokers against getting too much sunburn was issued today by Dr. C.B. Ransone, city health officer."

• "The Roanoke county school board yesterday established a policy whereby it will employ in the county system no new women who are married and none of those who shall marry after their contracts were awarded for the new term."

• "Led by Captain Elwood Downing, the Olympian Tennis club, composed of Roanoke negro players, defeated Lynchburg, 7 to 4, on the Olympian courts Friday."

• "You may not know it, but there are only 10 machines licensed to weigh people in the city. They're the kind in which you put a penny, and sometimes you get your fortune told, too."

1909 (100 years ago)

• "That a patrol wagon is badly needed in Roanoke was fully demonstrated yesterday afternoon when a spectacle was witnessed by at least five hundred people, between the market Square and the station house."

• "The council voted to purchase the new stables of the Virginia Brewing Company for 'city stables' at a cost of $25,000."

• "In one of the longest and most sensational games of the season the Shoemakers defeated the Highlanders in the fourteenth inning of today's game. The contest was full of snap and ginger from the start."

• "The dog wagon is still making its rounds in the city of Roanoke and all canines found not properly tagged are taken to the pound."

• "An exciting man chase about eleven o'clock Thursday morning attracted the attention of the natives and others in the vicinity of Salem avenue and Jefferson street."