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The Roanoke Times | File

A photo dating to the 1930s shows the Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works at Walnut Avenue and Bridge Street. It was founded in 1915 and went bankrupt in the mid-1980s.

2000 (10 years ago)

"Salem will either renovate Andrew Lewis Middle School or build a new middle school. That much is clear. But try to figure out which option the city will pursue, and you'll encounter a dizzying array of complications, concerns, arguments and counter arguments."

"Roanoke-based Advance Auto Parts ... has joined forces with CSK Auto and the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital to form a new online company, PartsAmerica.com."

"At the midway point of the East Coast Hockey League season, Roanoke is being treated to its best ice show since the WHA-fueled Rebels of a quarter-century ago. The Express (23-9-4) leads its division and has won nine of its last 10 games."

"Downtown Roanoke's only liquor store will close at the end of the month, leaving bums, businessmen and other imbibers without a place to buy a bottle of distilled spirits in the heart of the city for the first time since the Depression."

1985 (25 years ago)

"Thirty-nine women have been accepted on the 'early decision' plan to be among the first female undergraduates at Washington and Lee University this fall."

"A Salem archaeologist testified Thursday he has evidence of two human graves at the foot of Fort Lewis Mountain in west Roanoke County where two or three slave cemeteries are believed to be located."

"City Manager Bern Ewert says the state should help build a 10-mile scenic parkway along the Roanoke River from Wiley Drive at Victory Stadium in Roanoke to the headwaters of Smith Mountain Lake."

1960 (50 years ago)

"Boys are invading Jefferson High School's home economics department."

"Roanoke, says the people who should know, will top that so-called 'magic' figure of 100,000 in this year's census."

"Nine works of 19th century American artist Thomas Eakins have come to light after more than 40 years of gathering dust in private homes and attics."

"Love and marriage are still riding high in Roanoke County but so is the divorce villain."

"The nuclear age may soon become a concrete reality in Roanoke. Federal government officials are planning to build a nuclear war fallout shelter here."

"Roanoke's Woodrum Airport will get a ground radar beacon system to cost $106,400, the Federal Aviation Agency announced today."

"Roanoke's juveniles, who are said to be responsible for nearly 50 per cent of the city's crime, appear to be getting in deeper each year."

"The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has contracted with Roanoke Iron and Bridge Works for the construction of 12 model space capsules."

"The Rhythm Queens, a quartet of four Roanoke area girls, will leave next month for Canada and Europe on a three-month tour with a show troupe sponsored by Jim Reeves of Nashville."

1935 (75 years ago)

"Roanoke College sharpshooters baptized their new uniforms -- white satin with maroon and grey trimmings -- with defeat last night when they went down before the Christians of Elon College."

"A series of Sunday moving pictures will begin at the Virginian theatre Sunday afternoon at 8 o'clock, under the sponsorship of Dunbar Post No. 1444, Veterans of Foreign Wars. The proceeds will be used for maintaining the post's employment bureau."

"Roanoke had 110 conventions, sales meetings and similar gatherings last year with an approximate attendance of 12,597."

"Two leagues of four teams each have been organized for the first soccer competition in Roanoke on a schedule basis."

"Roanokers who have been enjoying their smokes on the street cars and buses the last few years have noticed in the past week new signs, requesting that they refrain from smoking."

"Railroad men, and non-railroad men for that matter, could spend an interesting hour in the recreation room of the Norfolk and Western general office building poring over old records. ... The collection is described as a beginning of a railroad museum."

"Sixteen members of the William Fleming high school football team of last fall have been awarded letters, the first to be given in the history of the Roanoke county school."

1910 (100 years ago)

"Evincing a considerable degree of magnanimity, common council last night voted to increase the salary of a number of the city officials and employes."

"Major Phil F. Brown, for more than thirty years manager and proprietor of Blue Ridge Springs, has leased the property from Mr. Robert H. Angell, the new owner, for a period of three years."

"Large and expensive improvements at Hotel Roanoke have been made preparatory to the building of an addition of seventy-five rooms with baths."

"The new passenger station of the Virginian railway, on the line of the railway just east of Jefferson street, is rapidly nearing completion."

"Although the two great marble columns for the entrance to the new First National Bank building were placed in position without great difficulty, the time of a force of careful workmen required almost an entire day in setting each of them."

"The Anchor Company, Incorporated, of this city, has selected the design of Mr. H. M. Miller for a new store and office building to be built on the lot at the southwest corner of Henry street and Kirk avenue, diagonally across from the Watt, Rettew & Clay office building."

"A request has been made of the police department by the city coroner, Dr. R. Gordon Simmons, that bodies of persons found dead under suspicious circumstances be left undisturbed."

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