The story below is from our January/February 2021 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
From the outdoors and neighborhoods to family and friends, it’s easy to see why so many people love Roanoke and are eager to call it home.
Aaron Spicer
In the Fall of 2020, The Roanoker issued a challenge to a variety of local creatives, photographers, influencers and community builders: snap a single photo that captures “Home” for you in the Roanoke Valley.
By mid-October, results came pouring in. What follows is a selection of some of our favorites … and a few special stories of how they came to be.
1. The Great Outdoors … Right Outside Our Backdoor
One thing is for sure: Roanokers love to get outside. Photo after photo featured sorbet-colored sunsets at Carvin’s Cove, heart-stopping mountaintop vistas and meadows bronzed by autumn light.
Native ‘Nokers have long loved the area for its greenways, its active paddling and trail-running communities and its spots for hiking, mountain biking and bouldering. But perhaps it takes a newcomer to see it best. This is what Ahoo Salem, executive director of Blue Ridge Literacy, has to say about her photo, snapped from an overlook at Flat Top:
“Growing up in Tehran, Iran’s capital, and an elevated city surrounded by mountains, I spent many weekends hiking,” she says. “My first memories of hiking include family hikes with my Dad, my brother and my mom and how we would always climb up ‘our rock’ or sit under ‘our tree.’”
Ahoo remembers spending Fridays–the official “weekend” in Iran–hiking with school friends. Later, she criss-crossed the country on an eco-tour guiding certificate class.
“No matter how diverse these experiences are, they all share a common point for me: the moment one reaches the top and is greeted by that beautiful and yet expected view,” she says.
Ahoo moved to Roanoke in 2018. Here, the mountains look different than the peaks of her homeland. Still, they beckoned, and when shutdowns occurred in response to COVID-19, Ahoo began hiking regularly.
“I took this picture on one of the last hikes of this summer on Flat Top Mountain at Peaks of Otter,” she explains. “Similar to our previous hikes, this scenery was beautiful, and it was a great day for being outdoors. There was, however, something different about this hike. Reaching the top of the mountain, I did not just see a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I saw the beautiful and expected view of the mountains that I hike and know. This time, I already knew the joy that awaited me upon reaching the top. To me, this feels like home.”
2. Family & Friends
Sometimes, though, what keeps a person in the Star City is the people they love.
Take Justin Yun. When the creative and entrepreneur heard about the Roanoker’s photo challenge, it didn’t take him long to figure out his photograph.
“When it came down to everything, it was really easy–it was my mom,” Justin says. “She’s been there for me for all my other crazier ideas … all these different ventures that I tried to start.”
Justin–who previously launched a downtown restaurant and a dance studio–comes by his entrepreneurial urges honestly. For decades, his mother has been running Sunshine Cleaners, a mainstay for downtown dry-cleaning and alterations. His uncles founded a small restaurant, Bob and Cheryl’s, on Shenandoah, and his aunt started a sushi business, which Justin still helps operate.
“You want to talk about work ethic?” Justin says. “My family, they work hard.”
But like many entrepreneurs, Justin has seen his share of false starts … and surprise opportunities to pivot.
Take his MiBr project. The sober bar was slated to open on Church Avenue in the summer of 2020. Justin hoped it would offer Roanokers a comfortable spot to connect, alcohol-free. But when the pandemic hit, he saw the project sidelined.
So he decided to throw his creative energies into learning portrait photography.
“I got hooked,” says Justin, who spent his quarantine months mastering new equipment and learning to edit. “I went straight down into that rabbit hole.”
To his mother’s pride, he had a book of business by summer’s end. Maybe that’s why his portrait of her is such a fitting tribute.
“Roanoke sees my mom as the sweet Korean little lady who does the alterations downtown,” says Justin. “What they don’t know is how hard she works … how much she does for my sister and me … She’s very strong.”
Justin hopes his ventures will one day allow her to relax, retire and perhaps visit her native homeland.
“Roanoke has always been my home because it’s where my family is,” says Justin. “Wherever my mom and my family are … it’s home.”
3. Communities that Care & Neighborhoods with History
You’ve probably heard Roanoke called a “city of neighborhoods”–a town of close-knit communities, from quaint Grandin Village with its tree-lined streets to the Williamson Road corridor, boasting an eclectic mashup of flea markets, food trucks and old-fashioned diners. Maybe that’s why many submitted photos capture portraits of communities that care, like the I Heart SE trash pickup group.
But one Star City neighbor is working hard to tell the story of Roanoke’s oldest community–a place that’s perhaps received less attention than it deserves. That Roanoker is Jordan Bell, and his neighborhood is historic Gainsboro.
Jordan is an educator, activist and community storyteller who grew up listening to his aunt and grandmother tell stories of a vibrant life in the neighborhood. “And I was like, well, where’s all of this now?” he says.
Following his nose for history, Jordan discovered that Gainsboro had once been a thriving seedbed of business, art and accomplishment, particularly for people of color. Nearing the mid-20th century, however, economic pressures and urban renewal efforts slowly degraded the fabric of the community, dividing or demolishing large swaths of area homes.
Jordan was riveted by what he learned … but it took the reactions of friends and acquaintances to galvanize his commitment to telling Gainsboro’s story. Announcing his plans to put down roots in the neighborhood, Jordan was met with skepticism: “Why would you want to live there?” people asked him.“It just blew me away,” says Jordan. “I was like, you know what? I want to show as many people as I can this beautiful neighborhood … I need to show people what used to be here.”
Jordan began by giving a presentation at the Gainsboro branch library, which turned into another presentation, then another. Soon he was leading walking tours of the community.
And in 2020, he finally got the chance to put down long-term roots, purchasing a 120-year-old home on Gilmer Avenue that had been abandoned for about a decade. “I want it to be my family home,” says Jordan, who’s slowly begun renovations, “not just for me, but to motivate people of my age to do the same thing in this neighborhood.”
When it came time to select a photo for the Roanoker’s challenge, the choice was easy. A photographer friend snapped Jordan in front of his favorite neighboring home, which sits diagonally across Gilmer from his own.
“That home was the former home of Dr. James Roberts, and he’s one of the founding members of Burrell Memorial Hospital, which is the first Black hospital in southwest Virginia,” Jordan says. “Dr. Roberts’ next-door neighbor was Edward Dudley, and Edward Dudley was the first Black ambassador of the country. And then Edward Dudley’s next-door neighbor was Oliver Hill, and Oliver Hill was a civil rights attorney. So, those three homes represent what Gainsboro produced.”
He can’t help but admire Dr. Roberts’ special homeplace–and to recognize what it truly symbolizes.
“It’s a two-story home with a wraparound porch, a beautiful front yard, and I think it just shows what Gainsboro represents,” he says; “elegance and beauty and structure and strength and tenacity.”
It’s the picture of a neighborhood he’s proud to call Home.
For more reasons on why we love our region, and to see the amazing(!) photos from those we interviewed, get the print issue or view our digital edition at the links below!
The story above is from our January/February 2021 issue. For more stories, subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition. Thank you for supporting local journalism!