Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation
Roanoke, Va – A Crossroads of History
The Roanoke Valley has been a crossroads for thousands of years. The Totera people used trails that converged near a big saline marsh that attracted plentiful game. As Europeans migrated into the Valley, these trails became turnpikes, stagecoach routes, railroad tracks, and highways.
In 1671, Virginia’s colonial governor sent Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam to search for westward flowing rivers. As they crossed the mountains and arrived in our valley, they reported finding a Totera village on the banks of the Saponi River (Roanoke River). In the next century German and Scotch Irish pioneers migrated from the north down the Shenandoah Valley and began settling here. By the time of the Revolutionary War in 1776, about 30 families lived in the area.
Big Lick, the first settlement at the crossroads, drew its name from the saline marshes (northeast of what are now the Norfolk Southern Roanoke Shops) where deer, elk, and other wild animals were attracted by the salt deposits.
The first official use of the Big Lick name was a post office operated in Spotts Tavern in 1798 on what is now Orange Ave. Some thought this moniker undignified, but despite efforts to change it, the name stood for over 80 years. Southwest of Big Lick, the early town of Gainesborough was subdivided in 1834.
For much of its early history, the Roanoke Valley was almost entirely agricultural, with a few large plantations and many small holdings where free and enslaved laborers raised livestock and cultivated crops. The arrival of the first train in 1852 marked the beginning of industrial progress and shifted development south through Gainsborough to what would be come the heart of the city. Thirty years later, the new Norfolk & Western Railway established headquarters in Big Lick, which was renamed Roanoke in 1882. This was a turning point for the community of spectacular consequence. With the coming of the railroad, Big Lick, with a population of about 500, became bustling Roanoke, boasting some 5,000 citizens and nicknamed the “Magic City” because of its rapid growth.
Railroad and industrial jobs attracted Blacks and immigrants who settled in the area now known as Gainsboro which became a diverse and thriving community by the early twentieth century. Henry Street was a lively commercial center with many famous Black artists and entertainers working or performing here. This vibrant neighborhood and most of the historic buildings fell victim to urban renewal in the mid-twentieth century.