Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Festivalgoers dance to the Cubic Shuffle at the Henry Street Festival in Roanoke on Saturday.

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• Hear music, see photos from the Elmwood Park scene

The Henry Street Festival took on a new meaning Saturday as a vestige of Roanoke's black history soon may be redefined.

Next month, the Roanoke City Council will consider changing the name of First Street Northwest back to Henry Street.

Henry Street was the original name of this block-long road where the Henry Street Festival began 18 years ago.

This event featuring music, food and crafts was held there for four years before construction and tight space on Henry Street forced it to move to downtown's Elmwood Park, where it took place Saturday.

For years Henry Street was a thriving mecca for the black community, housing black businesses and entertainment.

But more than a century ago, its name was changed to First Street officially, though many people still call it Henry Street.

Eventually, the businesses closed there, and the vacant, dilapidated buildings remained.

In the past several years, however, plans have emerged to make this area viable again. A new Culinary Arts Institute is set to hold classes next month in several restored buildings on First Street.

Also, the former Dumas Hotel across from the Institute now houses the Downtown Music Lab, the Dumas Drama Guild and Opera Roanoke's offices.

The city council will vote on the name change at its meeting on Oct. 18, said Brian Townsend, assistant city manager for community development.

Councilman Sherman Lea suggested the change, after a request from Total Action Against Poverty, he said. This nonprofit organization restored the Dumas Hotel.

The renovation and renaming of the First Street Bridge to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge is another change that redefines this district. The bridge, which connects Salem Avenue and First Street, once separated the black and white communities during the Jim Crow era.

"That's going to be a real special place for the heritage of the city," Lea said of changing the name of First Street and the bridge.

Some people who gathered at the Henry Street Festival on Saturday said the potential renaming of First Street would be meaningful.

"I'd love to see that," said Ann Morgan, who sat at a picnic table with her husband, Alfred. "That was a place where African-Americans could go to be accepted."

A Roanoke native, Morgan recalled her grandparents heading to Henry Street for business and for dining and entertainment.

Renaming the street creates wider recognition, said Glenn James. He shopped with his wife at one of the festival tents that sold bracelets and other jewelry.

"A lot of people don't know what First Street is," James said.

But even if the road is renamed Henry Street, the annual festival won't move back there, said festival organizer Rochelle Loritts.

"Henry Street is not a long street, and it wasn't logistically set up for a festival," she said.

The festival, which raises funds for the Harrison Museum of African American Culture, drew more food vendors this year than in previous years, Loritts said.

About 15 tents lined Bullitt Avenue near Elmwood Park, the smells of barbecue, Cajun shrimp and chicken kabobs and jerked chicken filling the air. Other years, there have been seven or eight food vendors, she said.

Sounds of drums beating and jazz music boomed from the event's main stage. Scheduled musical performances stretched throughout this daylong festival, featuring Emily King, Rob Base, Victor Fields and young dancers from Westside Elementary School.

Henry Street's legacy is reflected at this event, with the gathering of young and old, friends and family, Morgan said.

That's why it's important to preserve the original street's identity.

"This is why they call this the Henry Street Festival," Morgan said. "They give honor to what was."