Hotel Roanoke

About this property

The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center is a historic hotel in the Gainsboro neighborhood of Roanoke, Virginia. Originally built in 1882, the hotel has been rebuilt and expanded many times. The central wing dates from 1938. The hotel is owned by Virginia Tech and operated under the "Curio Collection by Hilton" brand. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. The original structure of the Hotel Roanoke was built in 1882 by the Norfolk and Western Railway (now part of the Norfolk Southern Railway), which had recently constructed its administrative offices in the city, bringing in over a thousand railroad workers. The hotel was designed by Philadelphia architect George T. Pearson in the Tudor Revival style and officially opened on Christmas Day, 1882. A new main wing was added on the western side in 1890, replacing the central portion of the 1882 structure. In July, 1898, a fire started in the kitchen which burned down the second and third stories of the 1890 main wing and shut down the hotel for several months. The hotel was restored and reopened in January, 1899. In 1916, the last remaining portion of the 1882 structure was moved to the rear of the hotel so a new wing could be added in its place, on the eastern side of the hotel, designed by the Roanoke firm of Frye and Chesterman. In 1931, the surviving original 1882 wing was demolished and replaced. The small 1931 wing, at the rear of the present hotel, is the oldest surviving portion of the structure. The hotel was completely transformed in 1938, when the 1890/1898 main wing was demolished and replaced with the central wing that stands today, with its tower and the hotel's lobby and public rooms. The new main wing was designed by Knut W. Lind, of the New York firm of George B. Post and Sons, renowned for their hotel designs across the country. In 1946, the 1916 east wing was demolished and replaced with a larger wing designed by Small, Smith and Reeb, of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1954, the same firm designed a small addition at the rear of the 1938 main wing, giving the hotel its present form. In 1983, employees of Hotel Roanoke went on strike for 6 months after union negotiations broke down. After the strike was concluded, the hotel refused to recall 36 of the striking workers but was ordered to reinstate them when the National Labor Relations Board found that their dismissal violated labor law. In 1989, Norfolk Southern deeded the Hotel Roanoke to the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) for $65,000 (USD). After the flag lowering ceremony on November 30, the hotel was closed. Sale of the contents began and continued for 17 days.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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