The story below is from our March/April 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photo above: Ana Morales / Archival image courtesy of the Virginia Room, Roanoke Public Libraries
Follow Roanoke’s legal journey from Rorer Hall in 1878 to the present Oliver W. Hill Justice Center, capturing key architectural shifts and historical landmarks.
Roanoke’s court system has a long history.
The city’s first court proceedings were held in Rorer Hall, a two-story wooden building at Campbell Avenue and Third Street in downtown Roanoke. It opened in 1878, and was known as the Opera House. It also was home to government offices and some civic activities, according to historic accounts.
By 1888, the city had a new dedicated courthouse building — a red brick Victorian style structure on Campbell Avenue, as seen in this photo.
More than 20 years later, space constraints forced the city to raze the courthouse and build a new one at Campbell Avenue and Second Street. The new courthouse, made of white brick and limestone, opened in 1916. It was the city’s primary justice seat until 1980. That’s when the present day $10 million courthouse on Church Avenue was built.
The Church Avenue courthouse is the first to house all three courts in the city — circuit, general district and juvenile and domestic relations. In 2019, the city renamed the courthouse the Oliver W. Hill Justice Center. Hill was a Roanoke native and historic civil rights lawyer.
Meanwhile, the former Campbell Avenue courthouse, now the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building, still has a commanding presence downtown, with its white columns and long front steps. The prominent structure, considered a state and local landmark, houses Roanoke’s government offices.
The story above is from our March/April 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
