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The Roanoke Times

File 1960 Williamson Road and Orange Avenue was classified as "the most dangerous intersection in the city" of Roanoke. People believed new traffic lights would make left turns safer.

2000 (10 years ago)

n "Echols-Sparger Architects and Spectrum Engineers have merged to form Spectrum Design."

n "Herta Freitag -- the Hollins College professor who loved mathematics but hated the word "math" because the nasty little word degraded her beloved and beautiful discipline -- died Tuesday. She was 91."

n "A Boston operator of strip shopping centers took over management of Tanglewood Mall Wednesday, promising to bring in new stores and to spiff up the mall." The company was Heritage Realty Management Inc.

1985 (25 years ago)

n "The executive committee of the Roanoke Valley Science Museum voted Thursday to sell the museum's $67,500 laser light show system."

n "No. 978 was buried shortly before 9:30 Friday morning. Three people ... attended her burial." Madeline Adams Tate froze to death in her rented home.

n "When William Fleming failed to open in its customary full-court press Friday night, Salem should have know its good fortune wouldn't last. After spotting Salem a five-point lead ... [Fleming] pulled away from the visiting Spartans 64-52."

n "Another Roanoke native has joined Durell Coleman as a winner on the syndicated television series 'Star Search.' Aspiring actor Greg Stewart won the 'leading man' segment of the show broadcast Saturday."

1960 (50 years ago)

n "Roanoke's newest community center -- in Preston Park -- got its cornerstone in brief, windy ceremonies yesterday."

n "Construction has begun on another modern bowling alley for Roanoke. The new recreation center, Viking Lanes, will be located on Franklin road."

n "A new ruling requiring all high school boys to wear neckties at school went into effect at Roanoke Catholic High School today."

n "The Roanoke County Planning Commission has taken steps apparently designed to limit the number of service stations along the so called 'motorists paradise' in the North 11 area."

n "City Council yesterday approved a Civil Defense plan to build a test nuclear fallout shelter in Roanoke."

n "A systematic savings plan developed in Roanoke last year is attracting nationwide interest in the banking industry. It is the 'Thousandaire Club.' ... The objective is to get people to save money, especially those who have not saved their first $1,000."

n "Paper bags, tubs, cooking utensils and boxes are not to be used as garbage containers, Edwin Ellis, Health Dept. inspector, warned today. And to prove his point, 18 persons were summoned into Municipal Court for violating the city's garbage container ordinance."

n "Fifteen pretty Virginia high school seniors will compete at Hotel Roanoke Saturday night for the title of state Junior Miss. ... The Roanoke Jaycettes, in cooperation with the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. and Bobbie Brooks Fashions of Cleveland, Ohio, are sponsoring the Virginia contest, the state's first."

1935 (75 years ago)

n "The Roanoke public library has undertaken the task of keeping a file of the Floyd Press, weekly paper published at Floyd Courthouse."

n Two buildings in the group of a dozen forming the Roanoke veterans hospital plant -- a maze in which an unfamiliar person could spend minutes finding exits -- are complete."

n "Flood lighting equipment, including a portable generating plant, has been added this week to the equipment of the Roanoke fire department and firemen yesterday were engaged in attaching the equipment to No. 1 ladder truck."

n "A warning to automobile drivers to observe the speed limit on Wasena bridge -- or else -- was issued today by Judge Harris Birchfield of Traffic and Police Court.

n "A new low temperature record for the winter was set here this morning as the mercury dropped to six degrees above zero."

n "Enon Baptist church, one of the oldest Baptist churches in this section and mother of the First Baptist church of Roanoke, yesterday celebrated its 80th birthday."

n "Allen Palmer, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Palmer ... drew the illustrations for Norman Archibald's 'Heaven High, Hell Deep,' a war novel just published by Albert and Charles Boni, Inc."

n "As a general rule, the theft of eight chickens constitutes petit larceny here, but when the chickens are trim game hens and cocks it's grand larceny and calls for grand jury investigation."

1910 (100 years ago)

n "Jim Thomas, a familiar figure to the thirsty, as well as a frequent guest of the city jail, is in the mire again."

n "The Amuzu is visited every day by the clergy of the city, and also the most refined ladies and gentlemen of Roanoke, and not one word of complaint has ever been made as to the character of the pictures."

n "There was entered for record yesterday in the office of the clerk of corporation court a deed for the transfer to a Roanoke company of the well-known and beautifully located Howbert farm, a two-hundred-acre tract lying southwest of Roanoke directly across the river from Highland Park."

n "The scarlet fever scare at Hollins Institute has begun to subside."

n "Distinct in the western sky and extending from the horizon almost to the zenith, the much-talked-of comet made its appearance to some Roanokers Tuesday."

n "The new stone quarry recently leased by the city of Roanoke for municipal purposes, located near the Eagle dairy, north of Lynchburg avenue, is being opened for use."

n "Z. F. Taylor, a teacher in the colored public schools, is maturing his plans for the establishment of a night school for colored girls and boys."

n "Admitting that she had to have money with which to purchase food for her fatherless children, a woman went into a Roanoke store yesterday and sold the hair from her head for something like four dollars."