Roanoke, Virginia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Roanoke, Virginia
Independent city
Downtown Roanoke
Seal Logo
Nickname(s):  The Star City of The South, Magic City, Star City
Roanoke, Virginia Location in Shenandoah Valley Show map of Shenandoah Valley Roanoke, Virginia Location in Virginia Show map of Virginia Roanoke, Virginia Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	Virginia
County	None (Independent city)
Named for	Roanoke River
Government
• Type	Council-Manager see Roanoke City Council
Area
• Independent city	42.85 sq mi (110.99 km2)
• Land	42.52 sq mi (110.13 km2)
• Water	0.33 sq mi (0.86 km2)
Elevation	883–1,740 ft (269–530 m)
Population  (2020)
• Independent city	100,011
• Rank	326th in the United States 8th in Virginia
• Density	2,333.98/sq mi (901.08/km2)
• Urban	210,111 (US: 173rd)
• Metro	315,251 (US: 163rd)
Demonym(s)	Roanoker
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP Codes	24001–24020, 24022–24038, 24040, 24042–24045, 24048, 24050, 24155, 24157, 24012
Area code(s)	540
FIPS code	51-77000
GNIS feature ID	1499971
Primary Airport	Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport
Website	www.roanokeva.gov

Roanoke ( roh-Ə-nohk) is an independent city in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia.

Roanoke is the largest municipality in Southwest Virginia, and is the principal municipality of the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had a 2020 population of 315,251. It is composed of the independent cities of Roanoke and Salem, and Botetourt, Craig, Franklin, and Roanoke counties. Bisected by the Roanoke River, Roanoke is the commercial and cultural hub of much of Southwest Virginia and portions of Southern West Virginia.

History

Incorporation

The town first called Big Lick was established in 1852 and chartered in 1874. It was named for a large outcropping of salt which drew the wildlife to the site near the Roanoke River. In 1882 it became the town of Roanoke, and in 1884 it was chartered as the independent city of Roanoke. The name Roanoke is said to have originated from an Algonquian word for shell "money". The name for the river was that used by the Algonquian speakers who lived 300 miles away where the river emptied into the sea near Roanoke Island. The native people who lived near where the city was founded did not speak Algonquian. They spoke Siouan languages, Tutelo and Catawban. There were also Cherokee speakers in that general area who fought with the Catawba people. The city grew frequently through annexation through the middle of the twentieth century. The last annexation was in 1976. The state legislature has since prohibited cities from annexing land from adjacent counties. Roanoke's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains, in the middle of the Roanoke Valley between Maryland and Tennessee, made it the transportation hub of western Virginia and contributed to its rapid growth.

Colonial influence

During colonial times the site of Roanoke was an important hub of trails and roads. The Great Wagon Road, one of the most heavily travelled roads of eighteenth century America, ran from Philadelphia through the Shenandoah Valley to the future site of the City of Roanoke, where the Roanoke River passed through the Blue Ridge. The Roanoke Gap proved a useful route for immigrants to settle the Carolina Piedmont region. At Roanoke Gap, another branch of the Great Wagon Road, the Wilderness Road, continued southwest to Tennessee.

Railroads and coal

In the 1850s, Big Lick became a stop on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad (V&T) which linked Lynchburg with Bristol on the Virginia-Tennessee border.

After the American Civil War (1861–1865), William Mahone, a civil engineer and hero of the Battle of the Crater, was the driving force in the linkage of 3 railroads, including the V&T, across the southern tier of Virginia to form the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad (AM&O), a new line extending from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia in 1870. However, the Financial Panic of 1873 wrecked the AM&O's finances. After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's role as a railroad builder ended in 1881 when northern financial interests took control. At the foreclosure auction, the AM&O was purchased by E.W. Clark & Co., a private banking firm in Philadelphia which controlled the Shenandoah Valley Railroad then under construction up the valley from Hagerstown, Maryland. The AM&O was renamed Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W).

Frederick J. Kimball, a civil engineer and partner in the Clark firm, headed the new line and the new Shenandoah Valley Railroad. For the junction for the Shenandoah Valley and the Norfolk and Western roads, Kimball and his board of directors selected the small Virginia village called Big Lick, on the Roanoke River. Although the grateful citizens offered to rename their town "Kimball", at his suggestion, they agreed to name it Roanoke after the river. As the N&W brought people and jobs, the Town of Roanoke quickly became an independent city in 1884. In fact, Roanoke became a city so quickly that it earned the nickname "Magic City".

Kimball's interest in geology was instrumental in the development of the Pocahontas coalfields in western Virginia and West Virginia. He pushed N&W lines through the wilds of West Virginia, north to Columbus, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio, and south to Durham, North Carolina and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This gave the railroad the route structure it was to use for more than 60 years.

The Virginian Railway (VGN), an engineering marvel of its day, was conceived and built by William Nelson Page and Henry Huttleston Rogers. Following the Roanoke River, the VGN was built through the City of Roanoke early in the twentieth century. It merged with the N&W in 1959.

The opening of the coalfields made N&W prosperous and Pocahontas bituminous coal world-famous. Transported by the N&W and neighboring Virginian Railway (VGN), local coal fueled half the world's navies. Today it stokes steel mills and power plants all over the globe.

The Norfolk & Western was famous for manufacturing steam locomotives in-house. It was N&W's Roanoke Shops that made the company known industry-wide for its excellence in steam power. The Roanoke Shops, with its workforce of thousands, is where the famed classes A, J, and Y6 locomotives were designed, built, and maintained. New steam locomotives were built there until 1953, long after diesel-electric had emerged as the motive power of choice for most North American railroads. About 1960, N&W was the last major railroad in the United States to convert from steam to diesel power.

The presence of the railroad also made Roanoke attractive to manufacturers. American Viscose opened a large rayon plant in Southeast Roanoke in October 1917. This plant closed in 1958, leaving 5,000 workers unemployed. When N&W converted to diesel, 2,000 railroad workers were laid off.

Geography

Roanoke is the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond and the largest located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a range which is part of the greater Appalachian Mountains. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 42.9 square miles (111.1 km²), of which 42.5 square miles (110.1 km²) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km²) (0.8%) is water. It is located in the center of the greater Roanoke Valley and is bisected by the Roanoke River flowing west-to-east through the city. Within the city limits is Mill Mountain, a 1,700-foot-tall (520 m) mountain and 500-acre municipal park which stands detached from the surrounding ranges.

Roanoke's location in the Blue Ridge Mountains makes it proximate to hundreds of species of plants and wildlife. The area is home to at least 43 species of salamander, and the Poor Mountain Natural Area Preserve in neighboring Roanoke County protects the world's largest collection of piratebush, an exceedingly rare parasitic plant endemic to the Appalachians.

Roanoke is the largest city along both the Appalachian Trail, which runs through Roanoke County just north of the city, and the Blue Ridge Parkway, which runs just south of the city. Carvins Cove, the third-largest municipal park in America at 12,700-acre (51 km²), lies in northeast Roanoke County and southwest Botetourt County. Smith Mountain Lake is several miles southeast of the city, and the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests are nearby. The area offers ample opportunities for hiking, mountain biking, cross-country running, canoeing, kayaking, fly fishing, disc golf, and other outdoor pursuits.

Neighborhoods

Within its boundaries, Roanoke is divided into 49 individually defined neighborhoods. The city has incorporated into its comprehensive plan the goal of developing these neighborhoods into "villages", each with their own village center, and with the Downtown neighborhood acting as the village center for the city as a whole. The Raleigh Court neighborhood has been cited as a model for such development, consisting of a variety of residential settings located around Grandin Village, an active commercial hub anchored by the Grandin Theatre, the city's only surviving historic theatre. That commercial district is one of the city's eight neighborhoods or portions thereof that have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Climate

Though located along the Blue Ridge Mountains at elevations exceeding 900 ft (270 m), Roanoke lies in the humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen Cfa), with four distinct, but generally mild, seasons, and it is located in USDA hardiness zone 7b, with the suburbs falling in zone 7a. Extremes in temperature have ranged from 105 °F (41 °C) as recently as August 21, 1983, down to −12 °F (−24 °C) on December 30, 1917, though neither 100 °F (38 °C) nor 0 °F (−18 °C) is reached in most years; the most recent occurrence of each is July 20, 2020 and February 20, 2015, respectively. More typically, the area records an average of 6.1 days where the temperature stays at or below freezing and 30.5 days with 90 °F (32 °C)+ highs annually. The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from 37.9 °F (3.3 °C) in January to 77.8 °F (25.4 °C) in July.

Based on the 1991−2020 period, the city averages 14.8 inches (38 cm) of snow per winter. Roanoke experienced something of a snow drought in the 2000s until December 2009 when 17 inches (43 cm) of snow fell on Roanoke in a single storm. Winter snowfall has ranged from trace amounts in 1918–19 and 1919–20 to 62.7 inches (159 cm) in 1959–60; unofficially, the largest single storm dumped approximately three feet (0.9 m) from December 16−18, 1890.

Historically, flooding has been one of the main weather-related hazards faced by Roanoke. Heavy rains, most frequently from the remnants of a hurricane, drain from surrounding areas to the narrow Roanoke Valley. The most recent significant flood was in the fall of 2018 when the remains of Hurricane Michael dumped over five inches of rain on the area in the span of only a few hours. The most severe flooding in the city's history occurred on November 4, 1985, when heavy storms from Hurricane Juan stalled over the area. Ten people drowned in the Roanoke Valley and others were saved by rescue personnel. That incident prompted a major flood reduction effort completed in 2012 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has limited the damage caused by subsequent storms.

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.		%±
1880	669		—
1890	16,159		2,315.4%
1900	21,495		33.0%
1910	34,874		62.2%
1920	50,842		45.8%
1930	69,206		36.1%
1940	69,287		0.1%
1950	91,921		32.7%
1960	97,110		5.6%
1970	92,115		−5.1%
1980	100,220		8.8%
1990	96,397		−3.8%
2000	94,911		−1.5%
2010	97,032		2.2%
2020	100,011		3.1%
Sources: 1880–1950 1960–1980 1990-2000 2010 2020

2020 census

At the 2020 census, there were 100,011 people residing in 44,411 households in the city, 21,199 of which housed families. The population density was 2,352.0 inhabitants per square mile (908.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 55.94% White, 27.07% African American, 0.21% Native American, 2.46% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.52% from other races, and 5.26% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.48% of the population.

Among the number of households, 25.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.4% were married couples living together, 37.4% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present, and 42.3% were non-families. 38.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

24.0% of the population were under the age of 20, and 17.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.1 years.

The median household income was $45,664, and the median family income was $55,345. The per capita income was $29,585. About 20.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.2% of those under age 18 and 12.3% of those age 65 or over.

Roanoke city, Virginia - Demographic Profile
(NH = Non-Hispanic)

Race / Ethnicity	Pop 2010	Pop 2020	% 2010	% 2020
White alone (NH)	60,042	55,951	61.88%	55.94%
Black or African American alone (NH)	27,256	27,077	28.09%	27.07%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)	198	211	0.20%	0.21%
Asian alone (NH)	1,676	2,462	1.73%	2.46%
Pacific Islander alone (NH)	36	42	0.04%	0.04%
Some Other Race alone (NH)	199	523	0.21%	0.52%
Mixed Race/Multi-Racial (NH)	2,280	5,261	2.35%	5.26%
Hispanic or Latino (any race)	5,345	8,484	5.51%	8.48%
Total	97,032	100,011	100.00%	100.00%

Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.

Economy

Roanoke's economy initially developed due to and in support of its status as the headquarters for the Norfolk and Western Railway. As time progressed, manufacturing and mining businesses contributed to the region's growth. After the N&W's merger with the Southern Railway created the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982, Norfolk Southern continued to operate maintenance facilities and a rail yard in Roanoke but moved its headquarters to Norfolk, Virginia, and in 2015 moved out of its Downtown Roanoke office building. On May 18, 2020, after 139 years of production, Norfolk Southern shut down its locomotive shops and moved all operations to the Juniata Locomotive Shops in Altoona, Pennsylvania. With Norfolk Southern's departure, Roanoke's economy has since the mid-1990s shifted to become dominated by the healthcare industry.

As of 2023^[update] the city's top employer – and the largest private employer west of Richmond – is Carilion Clinic, which developed from the 1987 merger of two of the area's largest hospitals. The non-profit group employs over 13,000 people. It operates nine hospitals in Western Virginia, along with public-private partnerships with Virginia Tech (Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute) and Radford University (Radford University Carilion). The clinic's expansions have spurred considerable development in the former brownfields located south of Roanoke's downtown, turning the once abandoned industrial sites into what's been termed the city's "innovation corridor".

Another driving factor in the region's economy has been the push during the 21st century to market the area's outdoor recreation potential. The Roanoke Regional Partnership, an economic development group representing the area's municipalities, has created a division called the Roanoke Outside Foundation that seeks to recruit businesses and talent based on the strength of the region's natural amenities. The organization also puts on annual events such as the Blue Ridge Marathon and the GO Outside Festival which themselves generate millions of dollars in economic impact in the region.

Other areas of strength in the region's economy include manufacturing and retail, each comprising over ten percent of the valley's industry. Transportation manufacturers such as Yokohama Tire, Volvo, Mack Trucks, Metalsa and Altec contribute to the thousands of people employed in that field regionally. Night-vision device makers Elbit Systems and the fiber optics company Luna Innovations are just two of the hundreds of other advanced manufacturers in the area.

Top employers

According to Roanoke's 2022 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital	1,000+
2	Roanoke City Public Schools	1,000+
3	Carilion Services	1,000+
4	United Parcel Service	1,000+
5	City of Roanoke	500 to 999
6	Walmart	500 to 999
7	United States Postal Service	500 to 999
8	Virginia Western Community College	500 to 999
9	Anthem, member of Blue Cross Blue Shield Association	500 to 999
10	Steel Dynamics Roanoke Bar Division	500 to 999

Arts and culture

Frequently described as the "arts and cultural hub of Southwest Virginia," Roanoke is home to several museums and cultural institutions in addition to being the host of several festivals, many centering around Elmwood Park in Downtown Roanoke.

Museums

Center in the Square, an arts and culture organization located near downtown's historic market building and farmers' market, was developed alongside the city's "Design '79" downtown revitalization effort and opened in 1983. The center, located in a converted warehouse, originally housed the city's arts council and museum, history and science museums, and the Mill Mountain Theatre. It has since expanded to five buildings providing rent-free space to twelve institutions, including the Science Museum of Western Virginia and Hopkins Planetarium, the Harrison Museum of African American Culture, and the Roanoke Pinball Museum.

One of the original tenants of Center in the Square, the Art Museum of Western Virginia, moved to a downtown Salem Avenue facility in 2008. The move was made with the help of a $15.2 million donation from Nicholas and Jenny Taubman, whose family had established Advance Auto Parts in Roanoke in the 1930s. As a result, the museum was renamed the Taubman Museum of Art. The art museum features 19th and 20th century American art, contemporary and modern art, decorative arts, and works on paper, and presents exhibitions of both regional and national significance. The 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m²) facility was designed by Los Angeles-based architect Randall Stout, who earlier in his career worked under Frank Gehry. Though the building's avant-garde design was controversial, it has since won international praise for its architecture.

Also located downtown is the Virginia Museum of Transportation, which houses many locomotives that were built in Roanoke by the Norfolk & Western Railway, including the 1218 and 611 steam engines, the latter being a J-class steam engine considered the pinnacle of steam locomotive technology. A 2013 fundraising campaign led to the engine's refurbishment, and it now does tourist excursion runs when not home at the museum. In addition to its rail exhibits, the museum also displays a US Army Jupiter rocket and houses exhibits covering aviation as well as automobiles. The museum itself is located in the former Norfolk and Western freight depot which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The former Norfolk and Western Passenger Station hosts two museums: the O. Winston Link Museum, dedicated to the late steam-era railroad photography of O. Winston Link, and the History Museum of Western Virginia. Originally built in 1905, the station underwent a 1949 renovation in the Moderne style by designer Raymond Loewy, and is one of four contributing structures to the Norfolk and Western Railway Company Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Arts

The Berglund Performing Arts Theatre is a 2,150-seat venue within the larger Berglund Center complex. It regularly hosts concerts, touring Broadway theatre performances, stand-up comedy shows, and the Miss Virginia pageant. The city's first permanent artwork funded by the Percent for Art ordinance – a law stating that the city must set aside 1% of its capital improvements budget for the purchasing of public art – stands before the theater. Dedicated in 2008 to celebrate the city's 150th anniversary, the 30-foot (9.1 m) stainless steel sculpture, "In My Hands", is one of over 160 works in the city's public art catalog.

The Jefferson Center is a former city high school that saw extensive renovation during the 1990s, turning it into a mixed-use building including office space for non-profits and city departments, event space for meetings and receptions, and the Shaftman Performance Hall, a 925-seat theatre created from the original high school's auditorium.

In 2006, the former Dumas Hotel was reopened as the Dumas Center for Artistic and Cultural Development. The center is located on Henry Street, which served as the commercial and cultural center of Roanoke's African-American community before a mid-20th century urban renewal project that saw much of the historic Gainsboro neighborhood razed or relocated. The Dumas Hotel hosted such guests as Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Nat King Cole when they performed in Roanoke. The renovated Dumas Center features an auditorium with more than 200 seats, and the building is a contributing structure to the Henry Street Historic District, listed in 2004 to the National Register of Historic Places.

Since 1964, the Roanoke Valley has enjoyed performances by the Mill Mountain Theatre, a regional theatre that has been located in Center in the Square since its original home atop Mill Mountain burned down in 1976. The theatre has both a main stage for mainstream performances and a smaller black box theatre called Waldron Stage, which hosts both newer and more experimental plays along with other live events.

Roanoke has been home to the Showtimers Community Theatre since 1951, and since 2008, the Virginia Children's Theatre has presented shows aimed at a younger audience, often based on children's literature. Originally formed as Roanoke Children's Theatre and housed in the Taubman Museum at that building's opening, the theatre expanded into the Dumas Center in 2013, and in 2016 moved to its current home in the Jefferson Center.

Opera Roanoke is Southwest Virginia's only professional opera company, established in 1976 as the Southwest Virginia Opera Society. It has performed under its current name since 1991, and its official orchestra since 2004 has been the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra (RSO). That group was established in 1953, and has been led since 1996 by music director and conductor David Wiley, under whose leadership the orchestra has grown to be the largest in Virginia west of Richmond. The orchestra performs out of the Berglund Performing Arts Theatre, Salem Civic Center, and Shaftman Performance Hall at Jefferson Center.

Points of interest

Roanoke is the largest metropolitan area on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 469-mile-long scenic road that is the most-visited element of the National Park System. The Mill Mountain Parkway exit off of the Blue Ridge Parkway leads to the Roanoke Star, an 88.5-foot-tall (27.0 m) illuminated star sitting atop a mountain inside the city's limits and affording panoramic views of the valley. Also on the mountain's summit is Mill Mountain Zoo, a Zoological Association of America-accredited facility housing over 170 animals.

St. Andrew's Catholic Church rests on a hill overlooking downtown and has been called "one of Virginia’s foremost examples of the High Victorian Gothic". The church dates to 1900, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Just below the church lies the Hotel Roanoke, a historic 330-room Tudor Revival hotel originally built by the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1882 and rebuilt and expanded many times since. Nicknamed the "Grand Old Lady", the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

A pedestrian bridge leads from the Hotel Roanoke to the city's historic market building and farmers' market, the latter of which dates to 1882 and is the oldest continuously operating open-air market in Virginia. Near the terminus of the market is Fire Station No. 1, which for a time was the oldest continuously operating station in the state. The Georgian Revival structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and currently houses a local furniture showroom, restaurant, and boutique hotel. Two blocks west on the same street is Texas Tavern, an "iconic" ten-seat greasy spoon restaurant that the same family has operated since its establishment in 1930.

Festivals

Roanoke features several annual festivals and events of various types. A parade for St. Patrick's Day occurs every March, and Pride in the Park is an LGBTQ+ community celebration that draws thousands of visitors every April. Several events occur in May, including the Local Colors festival celebrating the cultures of the area's diverse ethnicities, the city's Strawberry Festival, the Down by Downtown music festival which coincides with the Blue Ridge Marathon, and Memorial Day weekend's Festival in the Park, which brings music and vendors to downtown Elmwood Park.

Later in the year, Elmwood Park hosts the Henry Street Heritage Festival, the primary fundraiser for the Harrison Museum of African American Culture. The event's popularity necessitated the move from its eponymous location. The Go Outside Festival, also known as GO Fest, is a free three-day event every October that celebrates the region's outdoor recreation opportunities, and the city holds the multi-week Dickens of a Christmas each December. This Victorian era-themed event includes a Christmas tree lighting, parade, and horse-drawn carriage rides through downtown.

Sports

The 1971–1972 Virginia Squires of the ABA were the only major league sports team to play home games in Roanoke regularly. During that season, the Squires split home games between Richmond, Norfolk, Hampton Roads and Roanoke. Julius Erving played his professional rookie season with the Squires that year before being sent to the New York Nets.

Minor league baseball has had a long history in the Roanoke Valley. In the 1940s and early 1950s, Roanoke was home to a class B farm team of the Boston Red Sox. Since 1955, neighboring Salem has hosted the local minor league baseball team, which as of 2023^[update] is the Salem Red Sox of the Low-A Carolina League. The team had previously been affiliated with the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies and known as the Avalanche until becoming an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox, whose ownership group purchased the Avalanche after the 2007 season.

The history of minor league hockey in the Roanoke Valley goes back to 1967. The Roanoke Express of the ECHL built a loyal following in the mid-1990s, but a combination of financial turmoil due to mismanagement and declining attendance from a lack of post-season success led to the ECHL ending their franchise in 2004. An attempt at a revival in 2005–06 by the UHL's Roanoke Valley Vipers failed after one season. In 2016, professional ice hockey returned to Roanoke after ten years when the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs of the SPHL began to play, and the team won its first-ever President's Cup title in 2023.

While the Roanoke area is not home to any NCAA Division I schools, its proximity to Virginia Tech has led it to host some collegiate athletic events. Beginning in 1977, Roanoke, along with Richmond, was one of the primary neutral sites for the annual basketball game between Virginia Tech and the Virginia Cavaliers. In 2000 the schools started holding these games in campus facilities.

From 1913, Roanoke played host to an annual football game between Virginia Tech and the Virginia Military Institute, first at Maher Field and then in the newly constructed Victory Stadium starting in 1942. The game was moved to Thanksgiving Day beginning in the early 1920s and was a holiday mainstay in the city until 1971.

Roanoke's location among the Blue Ridge Mountains makes it a destination for other sporting events. Every year since 2010 (barring 2020, when it was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the Roanoke Outside Foundation has put on the Blue Ridge Marathon, which has been referred to as the country's toughest road marathon due to its considerable elevation changes. The USA Cycling Amateur Road National Championships were held in the city and surrounding areas in 2022 and 2023, and an Ironman 70.3 triathlon event brought competitors to the region from 2021–2023.

Parks and recreation

There are 60 parks within Roanoke's city limits, and its parks and recreation department is responsible for nearly 14,000 acres of public land. Highland Park in the historic Old Southwest neighborhood is the city's oldest, having been purchased in 1902 when the former farm was still distant from the settled part of the city. Elmwood Park in Downtown Roanoke became the city's second in 1911. It features a Japanese magnolia tree that was acquired by Commodore Matthew Perry during an expedition to Japan and donated in 1857 to the former owner of the park. As of 2023^[update] Elmwood holds the city's main library branch as well as an art walk and a 4,000-seat amphitheater.

Roanoke features an extensive network of paved greenways for walkers, runners, and cyclists. Though the idea for a publicly owned greenway system can be traced back to a 1907 comprehensive plan for the city, it was not until 1995 that an intergovernmental committee was formed to plan and develop the project. Since that time, 26 miles of greenways have been built across the Roanoke Valley, including what is as of 2023^[update] a twelve-mile continuous stretch along the Roanoke River from Salem through Roanoke City to Vinton. Roanoke County is also in the planning stages of extending that same stretch westward into Montgomery County. As of 2023^[update], Roanoke contained over 100 miles (160 km) of trails and greenways.

Government

United States presidential election results for Roanoke, Virginia

Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	15,607	36.02%	26,773	61.80%	943	2.18%
2016	14,789	37.47%	22,286	56.47%	2,391	6.06%
2012	14,991	37.33%	24,134	60.10%	1,030	2.57%
2008	15,394	37.76%	24,934	61.15%	444	1.09%
2004	16,661	46.28%	18,862	52.39%	477	1.33%
2000	14,630	43.75%	17,920	53.59%	892	2.67%
1996	12,283	38.37%	17,282	53.98%	2,451	7.66%
1992	13,443	38.21%	17,724	50.38%	4,014	11.41%
1988	15,389	46.90%	17,185	52.37%	239	0.73%
1984	19,008	52.09%	17,300	47.41%	184	0.50%
1980	15,164	43.39%	18,139	51.91%	1,643	4.70%
1976	14,738	41.00%	20,696	57.57%	515	1.43%
1972	18,541	64.67%	9,498	33.13%	632	2.20%
1968	15,368	51.21%	9,281	30.93%	5,359	17.86%
1964	13,164	46.20%	15,314	53.74%	18	0.06%
1960	15,229	62.28%	9,175	37.52%	49	0.20%
1956	16,708	69.38%	6,751	28.03%	623	2.59%
1952	15,673	66.00%	8,042	33.87%	32	0.13%
1948	6,542	49.56%	5,343	40.48%	1,315	9.96%
1944	5,095	40.92%	7,322	58.81%	34	0.27%
1940	3,553	33.70%	6,942	65.85%	47	0.45%
1936	3,363	32.02%	7,087	67.47%	54	0.51%
1932	3,195	33.49%	6,215	65.15%	130	1.36%

Like most cities in Virginia, Roanoke has a council-manager form of government. The city manager is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the city's government and has the authority to hire and fire city employees. The mayor has little executive authority and is essentially the "first among equals" on the Roanoke City Council, though the position wields influence through public appearances and annual State of the City addresses. The city council has six members, not counting the mayor, all of whom are elected on an at-large basis. A proposal for a ward-based council was rejected by Roanoke voters in 1997, but ward system advocates still contend that the at-large system results in a disproportionate number of council members coming from affluent neighborhoods and that electing some or all council members on a ward basis would result in a more equal representation of all areas of the city. The four-year terms of city council members are staggered, with three members elected every two years. The candidate who receives the most votes is designated the vice mayor for the following two years.

On June 27, 2016, Sherman P. Lea Sr. took the office of mayor, and he was re-elected to the same position in 2020. The current city manager, Bob Cowell, has been in that position since 2017. Joseph L. Cobb is serving his second term as the city's vice mayor.

The city has adopted a budget for the 2024 fiscal year that includes revenues and expenditures totaling $355.4 million, representing a 9.4% increase over the previous year. Local taxes, including real estate, personal property, and sales taxes, are the government's largest source of revenue at over 70% of its intake.

Roanoke is represented by two members of the Virginia House of Delegates, Sam Rasoul (D-11th) and Chris Head (R-17th), and one member of the Virginia Senate, John Edwards (D-21st). In February 2023, Edwards announced his intention to retire after 28 years in the state senate. The city lies within Virginia's 6th congressional district, which also includes Lynchburg and much of the Shenandoah Valley. Since 2019 the district has been represented by Republican Ben Cline.

Roanoke is one of the few Democratic pockets in the otherwise heavily Republican Southwest Virginia. It has supported the Democratic Party nominee in every election since 1988 and in all but one election since 1976.

Education

Two four-year private institutions are situated in neighboring localities – Roanoke College in the city of Salem, and Hollins University in Roanoke County. Virginia Tech and Radford University's main campuses are located in the nearby New River Valley, and both of those schools have partnered with Carilion Clinic, the regional nonprofit health care organization based in Roanoke, to create medical colleges in the city. Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute was founded in 2007, and Radford University Carilion was established in 2019. The Roanoke Higher Education Center opened in 2000 in the former Norfolk and Western General Office Building–North, and provides over 150 programs ranging from high school equivalent degrees to doctorates. Virginia Western Community College is located in the city and provides associate degrees as well as facilitated transfers to many four-year colleges in the area. ECPI University, a private for-profit institution, also has a campus located in Roanoke.

The local public school division is Roanoke City Public Schools. The two general enrollment public high schools in the city are Patrick Henry High School, located in the Raleigh Court area, and William Fleming High School, located in Northwest Roanoke.

A prominent parochial school in the city is Roanoke Catholic, which dates to 1889 and shares its campus with St. Andrews Catholic Church. Private non-parochial schools in Roanoke include Community High School of Arts and Academics, which began its life housed in the Jefferson Center before moving to its current location in Downtown Roanoke in 2011.

Media

The city's daily newspaper, The Roanoke Times, has been published since 1886. As of 2023^[update], weekday and Sunday circulation average just under and just over 25,000, respectively. In 2013 the paper was sold to Berkshire Hathaway, which in turn sold its BH Media holdings – The Roanoke Times included – to Lee Enterprises in 2020. The weekly Roanoke Tribune covers the city's African-American community. The publication was founded in 1939 by the Rev. Fleming Alexander and since 1971 has been owned and edited by his daughter. The Roanoker is the area's bi-monthly lifestyle magazine and has been published since 1972 by Leisure Publishing, which also puts out the bi-monthly Blue Ridge Country magazine.

The Roanoke Star and Cardinal News are independent digital newspapers that have sought to fill the local news coverage gap resulting from the purchase of The Roanoke Times by an out-of-state publisher and its subsequent reduction in staff.

Roanoke and Lynchburg are grouped in the same television market, which as of 2022^[update] ranks #71 in the United States with 456,390 households. The city has affiliates for all major networks including NBC affiliate WSLS 10, CBS affiliate WDBJ 7, Fox affiliate WFXR Fox, PBS affiliate WBRA-TV, and ION Television affiliate WPXR-TV. The Roanoke-Lynchburg radio market has a population of 451,600 and is ranked number 122 in the United States as of 2022^[update]. iHeartMedia owns many stations in the area, including WROV, WJJS, WYYD, and WSTV.

The reality television show Salvage Dawgs was based out of Roanoke. The show, which ran for 11 seasons on the DIY Network, followed the owners and employees of the architectural salvage company Black Dog Salvage as they located and acquired pieces for their store. Some of the company's projects in Roanoke itself were highlighted on the show, including their part in the renovation of the historic Fire Station No. 1.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Interstate 581, the primary north–south roadway in the city, connects Roanoke to Interstate 81 to the north. Interstate 581 is a concurrency with U.S. Route 220, which continues as the Roy L. Webber Expressway from downtown Roanoke, where the I-581 designation ends, south to State Route 419. Route 220 continues south to connect Roanoke to Martinsville, Virginia and Greensboro, North Carolina; a proposed extension of Interstate 73 into Roanoke from North Carolina, running partially concurrent with and parallel to US 220, has long been stalled due to funding issues.

The primary east–west roadway through the city is U.S. Route 460, named Melrose Avenue and Orange Avenue. Route 460 connects Roanoke to Lynchburg to the east and Christiansburg to the west. U.S. Route 11 passes through the city, primarily as Brandon Avenue and Williamson Road, which was a center of automotive-based commercial development after World War II. Other major roads include U.S. Route 221, State Route 117 (known as Peters Creek Road) and State Route 101 (known as Hershberger Road). The Blue Ridge Parkway also briefly runs adjacent to the city border.

Roanoke is divided into four quadrants: Northwest (NW), Northeast (NE), Southwest (SW) and Southeast (SE). The mailing address for locations in Roanoke includes the two-letter quadrant abbreviation after the street name. For example, the Center in the Square complex in downtown Roanoke has the address "1 Market Square SE".

The Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport is located in the northern part of the city. It is the primary passenger and cargo airport for Southwest Virginia. The airport is served by American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta, and Allegiant Air. Due to the facility's size, location in the mountains, and proximity to Andrews Air Force Base, it is often used as a pilot training destination for the Special Air Mission fleet that serves as Air Force One and Two when the nation's leaders are aboard.

While Roanoke is known for its rail history, low ridership numbers led Amtrak to discontinue passenger rail service to the city in 1979. Beginning in 2011, Roanoke funded a bus service, the Smart Way Connector, to connect riders to the Amtrak station in Lynchburg as well as to show Amtrak that there was once again a demand for the service in Roanoke. In August 2013, it was announced that Amtrak's Northeast Regional service would be extended from Lynchburg by 2017. On October 31, 2017, after 38 years without passenger rail service, Amtrak resumed service to Roanoke. The service has been successful enough that a second daily train to Roanoke was added in 2022.

Despite Norfolk Southern's relocation of its corporate headquarters out of the city, Roanoke is still a major hub in the company's freight rail system. The railway's Pocahontas Division, consisting of over 2,500 miles of track, is headquartered just outside of Downtown Roanoke, and though the volume of coal passing through the city has declined in recent decades, 70 million tons of freight are shipped on the area's railroads annually.

The Valley Metro provides bus service to the city of Roanoke and surrounding areas. In June 2023, the service began operating out of a new facility on Third Street in Downtown Roanoke, built to replace the aging Campbell Court station. Valley Metro also offers bus service to Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Virginia Tech via its Smart Way service, as well as the Ferrum Express, a free shuttle that runs between Downtown Roanoke and Ferrum College in nearby Rocky Mount.

The 21st century has seen Roanoke put considerable resources towards improving its cycling infrastructure. In addition to its extensive paved greenway network, Roanoke has added 43 miles of marked bike lanes along its major roads. In recent years, the city has put millions of dollars towards pedestrian safety improvements, including lane reductions on busy roads, audible signals, and additional street lighting. Roanoke is served by RIDE Solutions, a regional transportation demand management agency that provides carpool matching, cycling advocacy, transit assistance and remote work assistance to businesses and citizens in the region.

Utilities

Roanoke is supplied electricity by the Appalachian Power Company, an American Electric Power division. Appalachian Power serves roughly 500,000 people in Western Virginia and another 500,000 in West Virginia and Tennessee. The area's water and wastewater operations are managed by the Western Virginia Water Authority. That organization was founded in 2004 with the consolidation of the water utilities of Roanoke City and Roanoke County, under the logic that the location of watersheds should determine the management of local resources rather than government boundaries. The Water Authority has since taken on the water-based utilities of Franklin and Botetourt Counties as well as the towns of Boones Mill and Vinton.

Healthcare

Roanoke is the primary center for healthcare in Western Virginia, serving an estimated one million people. Carilion Clinic, a non-profit healthcare group, is the region's largest provider with over 750 physicians spread across eight hospitals. The region is also served by the Lewis-Gale Medical Center, a 521-bed facility established in Roanoke in 1911 and now located in Salem, as well as a Veterans Affairs Medical Center serving over 100,000 military veterans in the region, also located in Salem.

Notable people

Born in Roanoke:

• Tony Atlas, wrestler
• Ronde Barber, NFL player
• Tiki Barber, NFL player
• Beth A. Brown, NASA astrophysicist
• George E. Bushnell, Michigan Supreme Court justice
• Tai Collins, model and actress
• Lew DeWitt, founding tenor and guitarist of the Statler Brothers
• Henry H. Fowler, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
• Dorothy Gillespie, artist, sculptor
• Antoinette Hale, painter
• Luke Hancock, basketball player
• Jim Harrell, professional wrestler
• K. J. Hippensteel, tennis player
• James Hylton, racing driver
• Louis A. Johnson, United States Secretary of Defense
• Danny Karbassiyoon, soccer player
• Henrietta Lacks, medical patient
• George Lynch, NBA player
• John C. Mather, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate
• John Alan Maxwell, artist
• Walter Muir, International Master of Correspondence Chess
• John Payne, actor
• Don Pullen, jazz pianist
• Billy Sample, MLB player
• John St. Clair, NFL player
• Curtis Staples, basketball player
• Lee Suggs, NFL player
• Nicholas F. Taubman, former United States Ambassador to Romania
• Lois Weaver, artist, activist, writer, director, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London
• Eric Weinrich, NHL player

Raised in Roanoke:

• George Canale, MLB player
• India Ferrah, drag queen
• Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association of America
• John McAfee, founder of McAfee
• Wayne Newton, singer
• J. J. Redick, NBA player
• Joshua Strachan, musician

One-time resident:

• Fleming Alexander, minister, businessman and publisher of the Roanoke Tribune
• Nelson S. Bond, author
• Sarah Johnson Cocke, writer and civic leader
• Whitney Cummings, comedian and actress
• Oliver Hill, civil rights attorney
• Kermit Hunter, playwright
• Johan Kriek, tennis player
• Samuel W. Martien, Louisiana cotton planter and politician
• Oscar Micheaux, early 20th century filmmaker
• John Forbes Nash, mathematician and Nobel laureate
• Harry Penn, dentist and civic rights activist
• John Henry Pinkard, businessman, banker and herb doctor
• G. Samantha Rosenthal, historian, author, and academic
• Curtis Turner, NASCAR driver and Hall of Famer
• Harriet French Turner, folk artist

Sister cities

Roanoke has six sister cities:

In February 2023, it was announced that the city was officially pausing its sister city affiliation with Pskov, Russia due to the continuing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

See also

In Spanish: Roanoke (Virginia) para niños

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Roanoke, Virginia
• USS Roanoke, 7 ships