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Before the Roanoke Star, there was another lighted structure that captured Roanoke’s attention and imagination.
Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Roanoke Public Libraries
The second observation tower on Mill Mountain stood from 1914 until 1936.
Before the Roanoke Star on Mill Mountain was illuminated in 1949, previous generations had enjoyed another signature structure in the exact same location – a lighted observation tower.
In April 1891, J. C. Rawn, president of the Roanoke Gas & Water Company, announced that a carriage road would be built to the summit of Mill Mountain and a hotel and observation tower erected. The gas company had contracted with F. D. Booth to build both Rockledge Hotel and the observation tower.
Rockledge Hotel opened on May 3, 1892. The inaugural event for the opening of Rockledge was a dinner for officials of the Norfolk & Western Railway, led by its president Frederick Kimball.
The observation tower opened a few days after Rockledge Hotel. The timber frame tower was 120 feet high and 20 feet square with two balconies, one half-way up and the other on the top. From the top platform, one could see the Peaks of Otter and past Salem. An eight by 26-foot American flag adorned the 30-foot flag pole secured at the tower’s apex. The Rockledge Hotel did not operate past a couple of years before being closed and boarded up, but the tower proved a draw to visitors and locals.
The observatory’s popularity was enhanced when a beacon was placed in the tower’s top tier. The search light was tested on July 29, 1910, for the first time and attracted significant attention. The Roanoke Times, in a front-page story the next day, reported on the event.
“People were astonished and bewildered last night. A large majority of the present residents of the city never have seen a light on Mill Mountain. In all the years they have been here they have been accustomed to see that elevation looming black and somber against the horizon; for it has been seventeen years since the lights were put out in the hotel at the crest apparently for the last time and then Roanoke had some 7,000 people, while now she has her 34,000. Probably a considerable proportion of the population hardly knows there is a hotel or any other building beside the observatory which is such a prominent object in local scenery.
Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Roanoke Public Libraries
This 1920s image shows Mill Mountain with the observation tower on its summit.
As Tom O’Shanter stopped dumbfounded whence he saw the long deserted Kirk Alleyway all ablaze, so the forgetful of Roanoke gasped last night when they saw a long and dazzling shaft of light, evidently from the top of the observatory on the mountain, darting and turning capriciously, something that looked through the darkness like a small and exclusive sun newly risen in an unusual place. It was the electric search light, which will be a feature and excitement of summer nights in Roanoke hereafter, undergoing its first test.”
The beacon cast light to a distance of 40 miles and could be seen from as far away as Buchanan. The lamp had been made in Cleveland, Ohio, and the lens, 32 inches in diameter, had been ground in England. The light revolved and could be titled to any angle desired. Day and night field glasses were available to view the beacon and tower, offered by K. W. Green, a local jeweler and optician.
The search light began nightly operation in early August, illuminating the night sky. Officials quickly realized the tower needed better security, however, as a late night prankster that same month turned the light on and began having fun shining it into neighborhoods causing some Roanokers to mistake the light coming through their windows as a burglar, while others had babies and livestock awakened.
The tower’s beacon was put to a more practical use on election night in November 1910. The Roanoke Times used the light to signal election returns. Readers were provided detailed instructions as to how the signals could be interpreted. If the light moved across the valley on a horizontal plane, that signaled a general victory for Democrats in the US congressional elections. If the beam moved in a vertical manner then a Republican victory was declared. The Times even had specific flashes for US senate races and local congressional districts, all being done in a Morse code type manner.
On March 1, 1914, a severe storm swept across the Roanoke Valley and toppled the observation tower. A wind storm the previous year had moved the tower a few inches, but its frame made of 24-inch square timbers with an interior spiral staircase had withstood the elements for 23 years. By mid May, work had commenced to rebuild the Mill Mountain observatory, underwritten by the building supply firm of Adams, Payne and Gleaves, the Roanoke Water Company and the Mill Mountain Incline Company, owner of the tower. The Roanoke Railway and Electric Company had agreed to pay for replacing the searchlight at a cost of several thousand dollars. The new tower was constructed much the same as the previous one with a few exceptions. The floor would be higher and the wood frame more substantial. One added element was outlining the tower in electric lights to make even more of a luminous impression.
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The story above is a preview from our May/June 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!