The story below is from our September/October 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
In the 1920s and ’30s, a female dormitory at Viscose was the center of life for hundreds of workers.
Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Roanoke Public Libraries
Hill Crest Hall opened in 1922 and housed up to 250 females who worked at the Viscose plant in Southeast Roanoke.
When American Viscose opened its plant for operations in Southeast Roanoke in 1917, it quickly became one of the largest employers in the Roanoke Valley, second only to the Norfolk & Western Railway. A large percentage of its workforce were single women.
Initially, plant managers helped to find housing for the young ladies by advertising for nearby residents to take them in as boarders. Roanokers could walk or take a streetcar to Viscose, but for those coming in from outlying areas, lodging was a necessity. In 1920, Viscose addressed the need by starting construction of Hill Crest Hall, a female dormitory, atop a knoll along 9th Street directly north of the Viscose campus in what was Morningside Heights.
Courtesy of Nelson Harris
Vesta Sutphin poses on the front steps of Hill Crest Hall in this 1930s image.
On November 1, 1922, Hill Crest held a formal opening with public tours that drew some 5,000 persons. Visitors were welcomed by the female residents along with music by the Viscose Band, who played on the sprawling front porch. Refreshments were served throughout the evening culminating with a dance in the dormitory gymnasium. A jazz orchestra kept the dance floor full.
The Roanoke World-News described the building’s interior for the occasion. “The lobby on the first floor was decorated in gold and black crepe tissue paper and the floors were bedecked with magnificent carpets.” Hill Crest contained “a large writing room with seven writing tables and an assortment of stationery. In the middle of the room is a large table which is used as a reading table.” The upper floors of the four-story structure held bedrooms, an infirmary, kitchen and a “sun parlor.” The ground level provided a gymnasium, bakery, cafeteria, laundry and storerooms. The dormitory provided for the many needs of its young female constituency, all under the watchful eye of the Hill Crest matron Mrs. Laura Bell. Bell had been a house matron for other company dorms, including the one at Tubize Artificial Silk Company in Hopewell. Hill Crest accommodated nearly 250 females, almost one quarter of the female workforce at Viscose at the time.
The bakery served the Viscose plant, producing 500 loaves of bread and 150 pies daily, which were provided to the Viscose’s cafeteria for its workers. Hill Crest offered the young women fitness classes, sewing instruction and cooking lessons. The women formed a basketball team that played other clubs in the area. Lodging was six dollars per week for a double room or for fifty cents more a single room. Each bedroom was furnished with oak dressers, cupboards, rockers and straight chairs.
The women of Hill Crest had a set schedule, which if not followed resulted in their dismissal from the dorm. Mornings began at six, though on Sundays they were “allowed to lie abed until 7:15.” Dorm lights flickered at 10:30 in the evening, prompting the women to be in their rooms. For those that had been permitted to leave the dorm for the evening, the matron did a room check at midnight. The rules had been determined by a popular vote of the lodgers, not by Viscose.
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Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Roanoke public Libraries
This 1924 aerial view shows the American Viscose plant in SE Roanoke. Hill Crest Hall can be seen in the upper left corner of the image.
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Courtesy of Nelson Harris
Dee Gish and an unidentified male on the front lawn of Hill Crest, ca. 1930s.
On Saturday evenings there were invitation-only events, which might include a dance, card games or recitals. Whatever occurred “provided abundant entertainment” for the women according to Viscose. Hill Crest truly became home to its residents, as the address was often referenced in newspaper social columns of the day. Among numerous examples was the 1931 engagement of “Hazel Slusser of Hill Crest Hall” to Moorman Hogan, the notice appearing in the Bedford Bulletin under the heading “Cupid Invades Silk Mill.” Some notices were not joyous. Gensey Hash of Marion had an appendectomy in January 1930 and several days later returned to her dorm room at Hill Crest. She fell ill and was taken to the dormitory’s infirmary. A local physician was summoned, but before he could arrive Hash died. A 26-year-old finisher at the mill, she suffered a coronary embolism. Standing vigil at her bedside throughout had been a Viscose nurse and Hill Crest’s matron Laura Bell. Bell and the young women organized a funeral service for Hash held the next evening at Oakey’s in Roanoke and then her body was sent to Marion.
Courtesy of Nelson Harris
Nina Smith is seen standing along the front walk of Hill Crest Hall in this 1930s image.
Hill Crest was designed by the firm of Bellinger and Perrot of Philadelphia and cost $500,000 ($9.5 million today). The local contractor was David J. Phipps, a well-known builder in Roanoke, who constructed the American Theater, First National Exchange Bank and the First Presbyterian Church in South Roanoke. Phipps oversaw every detail of the two-year construction process for the dormitory, from initial excavation to the arrival of furnishings.
The 1920s brought meteoric growth at Viscose as its artificial silk was used in tires, textiles, hosiery, upholstery and clothing. In 1923, a second production facility was opened at the plant, bringing its total employment at that time to 3,800 workers. Almost two-thirds of the new employees were women, which produced a waiting list for rooms at Hill Crest Hall. In 1928, a third manufacturing plant was opened on the Viscose campus swelling employment to 5,500, making Roanoke’s Viscose plant reportedly the largest rayon manufacturing facility in the world. The Depression of the 1930s, however, reduced Viscose’s workforce by 75%. Life at Hill Crest changed, as female workers were disproportionately impacted.
With World War II Viscose rebounded, flush with military contracts for parachutes, paratrooper suits and machinery. Returning female employees did not find the Hill Crest lifestyle necessary or as enticing, as many boarded with friends, had married or were simply more comfortable with “city life.” No longer needed, Hill Crest Hall was razed. Eventually the Viscose plant closed in 1958, unable to compete with nylon.
Today, a portion of Morningside Park occupies the former site of Hill Crest, but sections of the original concrete steps remain that led from the sidewalk along 9th Street up to the expansive front veranda of the dormitory, a small reminder of the bygone days of Hill Crest Hall.
The story above is from our September/October 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!