Vinton, like so many small towns in America, features that one elusive neighborhood quality we all seek: stability.
“We have heritage and lineage,” says Mountain View Real Estate owner Tim Greenway. “I have lived here all my life. This is not business, it’s personal.”
Penny Mullins could say much the same thing, but she backs it up with a history that has reached into four generations, beginning when her mother Gloria (Thompson) Gross, who lived on mountain View Road briefly as a child, took up residence in 1953 as a newlywed and whose husband built her a mid-century modern home in Bali Hai using plans from a magazine.
The home was built on Olney Road at an elevation of 1,265 feet (the highest in Vinton) and presents a panoramic view of Roanoke from the deck.
Charles and Gloria Gross raised their kids in that home and Penny brought up her two daughters (Megan, a Dogwood Festival queen, and Allison, who was on the court) there. Penny’s husband Brad Mullins is a Salem native and Vinton convert.
These days, eldest daughter Megan Sealock lives next door with her husband Daniel and three children (Charlie, 6, Marlow, 3, and Isla, 1). Allison Bono lives in Roanoke County.
The roots are deep for the family: Mullins and her daughters all attended the same schools, had some of the same teachers and even former Principal Bob Patterson of William Byrd High was there for two generations. The elementary school that three generations attended—including Charlie now—was close enough for a brisk walk. “I have wonderful memories of elementary school and I know Charlie will, too,” says Mullins.
The neighborhood provided the stability, she says. “My brother and I had a wonderful childhood in Bali Hai and my friends … and I had free reign of the neighborhood.” Cousins lived close. Trips downtown were an adventure.
When Mullins’ mother died in 1987, her father was so crushed that he sold the family home. “He just couldn’t live there any longer,” says Mullins. However, after 10 years, the family friend who bought the home offered it back to Mullins and she jumped at purchasing it.
The stability of the neighborhood is clear, says Mullins. “Friends who grew up in the neighborhood have stayed close. My cousin Chuck Hill lived two streets over until his mother passed away and he moved into the house where he grew up, just up the street. Mike Perdue lives in the house where he grew up. Andy Nicely and David Semones both live less than a quarter mile from the houses where they grew up. My lifelong friend, David Helms, is now the bus driver who gets my precious grandson home safely from school every day.”
Mullins has been involved with the Dogwood Festival for years (board of directors) and the family still attends Vinton Baptist Church, still eats at the Dogwood Restaurant and frequents Cundiff’s Drug Store.
“Sam Cundiff and the people at [the drug store] are part of what make Vinton such a great place to live,” says Mullins. “The new library is the beginning of the revitalization of downtown Vinton and it’s wonderful to see new businesses popping up.”
Greenway, whose family has also been Vintonites for four generations, says, “A lot of people grow up here and stay because they can’t think of a better place to raise their families. I see us as a community built around a town.”
Greenway points out that Vinton is mostly “built out” as a town, but communities just outside continue to pop up and older homes in the town are being renovated (he has renovated several). “It is nice to see those homes returned to productivity.”
Among the renovations are the former William Byrd High and Middle School in the center of town, which is getting an extensive conversion and Roland E. Cook School just a few blocks away, which has desirable apartments in a convenient spot.
Homes in hilltop neighborhoods like Bali Hai remain a bargain, ranging, says Greenway, between $150,000 and $250,000. They would likely cost considerably more in Southwest County, he says. Dillon Woods, Crofton, Vinton Heights and Montgomery Village in the town proper “have prices that are similar to those in Bali Hai,” he says, and they were “built in the 1960s and 1970s.”
Just outside Vinton (and part of the magisterial district) are Timberidge, Mt. Pleasant, Spring Grove, Lindenwood, Falling Creek, Wolf Creek and Edgefield. The neighborhoods just outside Vinton in Roanoke County often touch the Blue Ridge Parkway and look far more rural than one would expect in the Roanoke Valley.
The median price of a home in Vinton is $161,700.
“Vinton has always been home for me, so I sometimes need a wake-up call to be reminded how wonderful our town really is,” says Mullins.
