STREETS OF ROANOKE Near the Patrick Henry Hotel (left) The structures were razed in 2009. Cars line Jefferson Street in this ca. 1928 photo looking north. GEORGE DAVIS PHOTO COURTSEY ROANOKE CITY LIBRARY VIRGINIA ROOM Roanoke City Mills, ca. 1940 GEORGE DAVIS PHOTO COURTSEY ROANOKE CITY LIBRARY VIRGINIA ROOM ic District. It also is the dividing line between east and west Roanoke and crosses the railroad tracks to further split the city into north and south, giving rise to its geographical and social quadrants. HISTORY Jefferson Street was not the center of Roanoke's downtown universe when it was first settled as Big Lick in the mid-1800s. Then the central business district and seat of government were located in the area around today's Campbell Avenue between Second and Third streets, southwest from the current Virginia Museum of TransTHEROANOKER.COM portation to the Poff Federal Building. That changed in 1881 when the Shenandoah Valley Railroad (later renamed Norfolk & Western Railroad) announced it was coming to town to hook up with the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad. With the location of the new railroad headquarters, a new passenger station and the grand Hotel Roanoke on Jefferson Street north of the tracks, the center of business shifted east to Jefferson. Along the way, Big Lick became Roanoke and Roanoke became a city in 1884. Times were booming. Population grew from 669 in 1880 Big Lick to 16,159 in 1890 Roanoke when More SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 | 15http://www.THEROANOKER.COM