Nelson Harris
Heads turned in August 1918 when Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone arrived unexpectedly for lunch at Hotel Roanoke.
In the early 1930s, a military academy for boys in South Roanoke attracted students from across the United States.
In 1961, an NFL exhibition game in Roanoke changed the city and professional football.
In 1960, Mark was a first-grader at Crystal Spring Elementary School. In 1980, he became an assassin.
At only 9 years old, Julian Stanley Wise watched two men drown in the Roanoke River, a scene he never forgot.
In the 1950s and ‘60s, stock car engines roared at Starkey Speedway.
In the 1920s and ’30s, a female dormitory at Viscose was the center of life for hundreds of workers.
For six decades, the Catawba Sanatorium treated patients ravaged by tuberculosis.
Dr. E. G. Gill was a tireless humanitarian who put Roanoke at the epicenter of sight preservation.
In 1895, America’s sacred relic went on a national tour to reconcile the nation.
