By Kevin Kittredge

Archives Reprint

    More than 1,000 people braved frigid temperatures Saturday for the opening of Roanoke's newest museum, devoted to the works of legendary steam train photographer O. Winston Link.

    The crowd jammed the lobby of the newly renovated Norfolk and Western Railway station at midmorning to hear speakers hail the Link museum as a milestone for the valley - then lined up for a peek at the place they had heard and read about for months.

    The museum starts at the left side of the lobby and continues downstairs.

    "Isn't this a great day for the Roanoke Valley?" asked Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, before Norfolk Southern Corp. Chairman David Goode officially opened the museum door. The railroad has been the biggest contributor to the museum, with individual and corporate donations of more than $700,000.

    The opening brought together Link enthusiasts, rail buffs, government officials, Miss Virginia Nancy Redd and the just-curious in an early crush that threatened to overwhelm the modestly sized museum.

    The building's air handling units proved unequal to the task of keeping the packed environs cool, while Kent Chrisman, executive director of the History Museum of Western Virginia, fretted that the building was over its legal occupancy limit. The history museum runs the Link museum.

    As the day wore on, the crowd thinned, though there was always a steady stream of new visitors.

    Museum officials, who hope to pay operating costs through earned revenue, were soon ecstatic about the first day's take - more than $1,600 in admissions by 3 p.m., with another $3,000 in gift shop sales.

    Visitors marveled at the largest exhibition of Link photographs in the world: 270 prints, as well as interactive exhibits, railroad artifacts and Link's personal effects. "I really like the ones with people in them," said Mary Gregory of Salem, impressed by the assortment of faces in Link's photographs. "These guys could be in a movie." Gregory's grandfather and great-grandfather worked for the railroad.

    "You have a real cultural gem here, and I hope the rest of Roanoke knows it," said Howard Pincus, chairman of the Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston, Conn.

    "I'm not that interested in trains," said Catherine Crean, his wife. "But I could come back three or four times. For me, this really puts Roanoke on the map."

    It was standing room only for lectures - including one titled "The Trouble With Conchita," about Link's legal battles with his ex-wife.

    Former Link attorney Edward Meyer described visiting Link's home on a tip from a gallery owner in 1992 and finding the elderly and arthritic photographer in his sparsely furnished basement. The spiral staircase leading out was tied up with chains.

    Most of Link's prints and personal belongings were gone, stolen by Conchita, Meyer alleged - though Link had managed to conceal his precious N&W negatives.

    Conchita Link was convicted in 1996 of stealing $2 million worth of his prints and served several years in prison.

    She was arrested again in 2003 on charges of trying to sell some of the stolen prints. She is awaiting trial.

    A thousand or more Link prints may still be missing, said Ken Citarella of the Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney's office, who successfully prosecuted the first case against Conchita Link.

    It was a sad story on a happy day. It was hard to find anyone not smiling.

    "It's grand. I just am amazed at what they did," said Nilda Ramella of St. Albans, W.Va. - one of the teenage bathers in Link's famous photograph "Swimming Pool, Welch, West Va." Ramella and Anne Barns Williams, also in the photograph, both attended the opening, as did many others who appeared in Link's 1950s photos.

    Link assistant Tom Garver described the rocky road to the museum's opening. Link continually heaped new demands on the project before his fatal heart attack in 2001 - stipulating at one point that a massive N&W-made steam locomotive, the A-series 1218, be mounted near the museum on a turntable under glass. The plan was impractical, museum officials say - though Link did help spur Norfolk Southern to donate the locomotive to Roanoke. It is now at the Virginia Museum of Transportation, several blocks west of the Link museum.

    The museum cost $2.8 million, with $2.1 million raised so far, said history museum president John Bradshaw. Center in the Square's renovation of the passenger station cost about $6.8 million, with $6 million raised, he said.

The O. Winston Link Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Adult admission is $5, with discounts for children and seniors. The museum's phone number is 982-LINK.

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