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Brett Winter Lemon
The Braby Bunch loves their “real neighborhood” where Chad heads the Raleigh Court Civic League.
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Brett Winter Lemon
Cindy Shrader’s Gidget, 13, still loves a walk.
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Brett Winter Lemon
Wes, Elizabeth and Ashley Wilmer like serenity.
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Barry Brooks
Patrick Clinton likes Southeast’s Jackson Park.
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Brett Winter Lemon
The Braby Bunch loves their “real neighborhood” where Chad heads the Raleigh Court Civic League.
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Barry Brooks
The Blankenships (Tyler, Bo,Libby, Lucas) are all near work and school.
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Brett Winter Lemon
Arthur and Sarah Grubb love Salem’s Karen Hills.
If there’s one thing all Roanokers can agree on, it’s that the valley is great place to live. Here are six families that remind us why:
Cindy Shrader: North County Convenience
Cindy Shrader likes history, mountain views and a friendly neighborhood and says she found them all 15 years ago in a North Roanoke County community near Hollins University. Spacious ranch homes on generous lots provide a rural feeling, “but not too rural,” she says.
From her home on Hunters Trail, she enjoys a view of Read Mountain, convenient travel routes to everywhere in the Roanoke Valley and neighbors who like to walk their dogs as much as she likes to give Gidget an outing.
Gidget came to her 13 years ago, first so that she could socialize the pup, found in a Dumpster, and for the League for Animal Protection where she then volunteered. The pup won her heart and stayed.
“I’ve always liked this part of Roanoke County. It has beautiful scenery, little congestion and in a matter of minutes I can get anywhere,” she says.
The ease of travel is important to Shrader, who since retiring two years ago as a sales and marketing officer with BB&T bank, has taken on two part-time jobs and many more activities. She works at Gold’s Gym where she is also a backup instructor for its Silver Sneaker program, and she has a part-time job with Total Peace of Mind, a company that assists with estate settlement.
Shrader works out at Green Ridge Recreation Center, the county’s new facility that opened in 2010 near the Roanoke Regional Airport. She attends Elderscholar Programs at Roanoke College, often driving the scenic Loch Haven Drive, which parallels I-81, to get to Salem.
“But I do use I-81; I am only 10 minutes from it,” she says.
Convenience to recreation, restaurants and even Northside High School are important for her. She dines out at Coach & Four, Lew’s Restaurant, Hollywood’s Restaurant and Bakery on Williamson Road, at Cracker Barrel at Troutville, and at El Rodeo on Plantation Road. Traveling to events at Northside, where her niece is in the band, is easy. Her church, Melrose Baptist Church on Peters Creek Road, is also convenient.
Recycle bins are nearby.
Throw in a bit of history, and Shrader considers her home spot ideal.
“There is so much history here, such as Black Horse Tavern, what’s left of it.” The tavern, built in 1782 on what was the old Carolina Road and now Old Mountain Road, is being restored by private owners.
A Civil War Cemetery is on private property, just off Hunter’s Trail, and before the Bellevue Gardens subdivision was fully developed, a man on a horse who appeared to be looking for someone was spied by residents, Shrader says.
“I guess he got crowded out.”
Wes and Elizabeth Wilmer: Botetourt’s Best of Both Worlds
Wes and Elizabeth Wilmer were living in Roanoke’s Raleigh Court with an infant daughter when Wes was smitten by a photo of a 100-year-old house in Botetourt County.
“We liked where we lived. The city was extremely convenient,” recalls Wes, an agent with Century 21 – Gold Key Realtors in Roanoke. Elizabeth is dean of the Liberal Arts and Social Studies division at Virginia Western Community College.
They had talked about moving eventually to get more room, but were “just looking” when he found “what our dream house would be.”
“I fell in love with it, too,” Elizabeth says.
The house on Trinity Road near Fincastle is a classic with a wraparound porch and outbuildings that include a large barn, a chicken coop and a garden shed. Wood from the property was used to build the house. On a clear day, the Peaks of Otter can be seen.
Once a much larger property, the bulk of its acreage was sold for part of the Ashley Plantation golf community in the county.
The house was for sale with seven acres, however.
“It was almost a carbon copy of my great-grandparents’ house in Canton, Mississippi,” Elizabeth recalls. She has incorporated many of the furnishings from her great-grandparents’ residence into her home.
Elizabeth was drawn to rural life because of her experiences growing up in Mississippi where her main sport was horseback riding.
“Taking care of a horse taught me life lessons and responsibilities that have served me well, and I wanted Ashley to have those experiences,” Elizabeth says. “She has turned into a little farm girl.”
Wes, more of a city dweller, loves the location, too. He is president of the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club and can hop on his bike for short rides from the road in front of the house, which connects U.S. 220 (Roanoke Road) with U.S. 11 at Troutville.
They purchased the house in the summer of 2007. Two dozen chickens now contribute a dozen eggs a day. A border collie and two cats roam the grounds. The family expects pygmy goats to soon join the family. Elizabeth rides at a stable on Brugh’s Mill Road, five minutes from her house.
“I like the serenity of the country; it has the best of both worlds,” she says. “I also love gardening, and living here is an ideal opportunity to play with that . . . and it’s all play.
Keith & Karena Clinton: Southeast is “15 Minutes From Everything”
A plaque hanging in Keith and Karena Clinton’s living room in Southeast Roanoke has the words: “Home is where your story begins” superimposed over “Roanoke.” For these natives of Queens, N.Y., it says everything.
While still dating, they relocated to Roanoke to be near his parents, who had moved to the Moneta area of Smith Mountain Lake. Keith, a professional chef, took a position with a local hotel; Karena worked in banking. They lived in an apartment complex in Southwest Roanoke County while looking for a house and getting married.
Southeast Roanoke city had the most appeal of the areas that best suited their budget, especially after they saw the two-story brick house on Pechin Avenue. On the day they first visited, houses on the street appeared well cared for and the atmosphere was quiet, except when a few dogs bayed at a siren sounding in the distance as an ambulance made its way to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital only a few blocks away.
“Just that little bit of noise was nice,” Karena says.
The view from the front porch shows a mountain in the distance on the left and an in-your-face view of Mill Mountain to the right. The back yard looks into Jackson Park. Elementary and middle schools are within an easy walk, and the Clintons were pleased with the schools’ test scores when they checked them out before buying. A branch library is a short walk.
Their neighborhood is a lot like the blue-collar neighborhood where they used to live, Keith says. Even better, there is just enough noise to satisfy his interest in transportation. Norfolk Southern tracks are just over the hill and one of the flight paths to the Roanoke Regional Airport goes right by Mill Mountain.
Now, just over five years after buying the house with one of the city’s special purchase plans, the family has expanded to include Patrick, 3, and Abigail, 1, and Karena’s mother, Mary Cushion. A Yorkie, a Shih Tzu and a Basset hound complete the picture.
“We’re 15 minutes from everything,” Keith says.
Pechin connects to 9th Street Southeast, which makes it convenient traveling to both of their jobs and to visit family at Smith Mountain Lake.
Keith works in the meat and seafood department at Fresh Market at Towers Shopping Center, easily reached via (Riverland Road) through the Mill Mountain and South Roanoke communities. Visiting Keith’s parents in Moneta means hopping on Virginia 116 in the opposite direction, toward Mount Pleasant. Karena often commutes to her job with Woodforest National Bank at Wal-Mart on U.S. 220 via the Fishburn Parkway and Blue Ridge Parkway. They can walk to downtown Roanoke, and also have quick access to shops and markets in Vinton in Roanoke County.
And, always they can see the Mill Mountain star; “That star is magic,” says Keith.
“I like the open environment,” says Karena, who has planted grapevines and joins Keith in growing a garden each year.
Chad and Shelley Braby: Grandin Village is Raleigh Court’s Anchor
Isabel and Eliza Braby, ages 6 and 4, often ride their bikes on the sidewalk in front of their southwest Roanoke City home as the parents watch from the porch. “The kids can ride four or five houses down,” says Chad. “We also walk in the neighborhood a lot.”
On a recent Friday night, Chad and his oldest daughter walked to a football game at nearby Patrick Henry High School. The neighborhood has a great sense of family, Chad says.
He and Shelley had their own places on Woods and Walnut avenues in Old Southwest in 1997 and 1998, and then moved as a couple to Greensboro, N.C. When they returned in 2004, they had ideas about what they expected in a neighborhood.
“We knew we wanted a real neighborhood feel with sidewalks and where neighbors all get together. We wanted a front porch where we could see people walking by,” says Shelley. They looked in the Wasena and Old Southwest neighborhoods in the city, both of which appealed to them, before settling on a 90-year-old traditional foursquare house on Laburnum.
The foursquare is typical of houses in this part of the city.
“One nice thing about the neighborhood is that Grandin Village acts as an anchor,” Chad says. They walk to the community market in summer and year round to the Grandin Theatre. Pops Ice Cream and Soda Bar in the village is a favorite family stop.
Grandin Village has boomed with restaurants in recent years and is home to the valley’s only food co-op, the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op. It boasts a used bookstore and an upscale furniture store and is centrally located for access to other city neighborhoods.
Chad and Shelley like biking, too, and are frequent users of the city’s greenways. Chad taught Isabel to ride in Smith Park along the Roanoke River.
A civil engineer, Chad is regional manager for a general contractor and also serves as president of the Greater Raleigh Court Civic League.
Living where they do is a trade-off, Chad says. They could probably have a larger yard in southwest Roanoke County, for example.
Both Chad and Shelley are keen on environmental concerns and are active in the Cool Cities Coalition where Chad is a member of the board of directors.
Bo & Libby Blankenship: Sports in Southwest Roanoke County
Family involvement, sports and the outdoors are important to the family of Bo and Libby Blankenship, and they found that their Southwest Roanoke County home delivers it all.
“We feel like we could not have chosen a better place,” says Bo of their Wexford subdivision, one of several new communities developed in the county in the past decade. The area, just off U.S. 221, has good views and is within five minutes of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Bo, managing director of Greystone Financial Group, grew up in southeast Roanoke where his mother still lives. He went to city schools, making a name for himself in football at Patrick Henry High School and winning a football scholarship to Virginia Tech. He met Libby, who is from New Jersey, at Tech. After their marriage, they settled in Raleigh Court in southwest Roanoke city.
Raleigh Court was a good location, they say. Libby and the children enjoyed going to the Food Court in the downtown Market Building. “Lucas [now 14] loved trains, and we would watch them from the Hotel Roanoke walkway and go to the Transportation Museum,” she says.
They still go downtown for dinner and to events in Elmwood Park, but they were attracted to southwest County partly because of the enthusiasm of the parents who support school events and the sports opportunities for their sons. Tyler, 17, is a junior at Hidden Valley High School where Lucas is a freshman.
They also wanted to be near where both of them worked. Libby has been a part-time instructor at the Roanoke Athletic Club since 1989. They relocated when their oldest son was in kindergarten.
“The homes here were beautiful with space between them. It was not far from schools, and we already knew some neighbors,” says Libby. “It was just right. We had privacy in a cozy neighborhood with cul-de-sacs; it was safe for kids to go from one house to another.”
Their two-story home with a walk-out basement offers a great view to downtown.
“I like how much parents are involved in the area,” says Bo, who coached both of his sons in basketball, soccer and baseball in Little League.
Both boys play soccer with the Valley AFC Express travel program. Tyler also plays tuba in the school’s marching band, and Lucas is trying out for junior varsity basketball. Bo is an avid golfer and all of the family enjoys hiking.
Libby owns Xterra Fit, which does group outdoor training for women. Her group exercises outside three days a week all year long, using local parks and mountain trails. “We mix up locations,” she says. “There are lots of trails with the mountains. Mount Chestnut and Sugarloaf Mountain, both nearby, are ‘great hills.’
Sarah & Arthur Grubb: Salem Keeps Calling
Sarah Grubb just cannot stay out of Salem.
“It’s where all of my memories are,” she says. “I am a born and bred Salemite. Daddy built our home in Salem in 1948.” Sarah’s mother’s side of the family, the Mowles family, has its name on the city’s Mowles Spring Park.
Sarah and her husband Arthur had their first apartment and their first house in Salem.
They then moved to southwest Roanoke County’s Cave Spring area. Arthur is from the county, and they liked their time there too, Sarah says. Within five years, however, the family, then including two sons, was back in Salem so the oldest son could begin school in the system his mother grew up in.
Years later, as empty nesters, Sarah and Arthur returned to Roanoke County where they bought a patio home in the Garst Mill Park area. They also loved that location. Sarah’s commute to Virginia Western Community College where she is an administrative assistant was only 10 minutes. Arthur works for the Virginia Lottery.
But Salem kept calling, especially when the couple decided they had been premature to leave their home city and a traditional neighborhood.
Two years ago, Sarah and Arthur decided to return to Salem. They wanted a medium-priced home with a yard sufficient for Arthur to do landscaping. They ended up in Karen Hills, an established community developed in the 1970s, and only two blocks from where they used to live.
Their oldest son and his family, including a granddaughter, also now live in Salem.