The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 14

STREETS OF ROANOKE

Salem Avenue: A Working Man's Street
The street's rugged, raucous past is finally giving way to a present and future built around
trendy lofts and apartments and equally fashionable businesses to serve their residents.

Photographer George Davis (second car, hand on windshield)
His offices and studio were upstairs at 104 W. Salem Avenue.

LOCATION
Runs east and west along the railroad tracks through Roanoke from
Williamson Road downtown to The Boulevard (24th Street) and
Shaffers Crossing in Northwest.

FEATURES
You name it and you can probably find it on Salem Avenue, whether
you want it or not. From the spaceship-like Taubman Museum, cute
little shops, restaurants and Roanoke's tallest building on the east
to old warehouses and car dealerships turned into trendy lofts and
condos, to popular gay bars, to seedy empty lots and car repair shops
and a couple of homeless shelters in the middle to light manufacturing concerns to subsidized housing at the west end, you can find it
on Salem Avenue.

SIGNIFICANCE
As old as the city itself, Salem Avenue passes through or by five
of Roanoke's 11 listed historic districts, including Downtown, City
Market, N&W Railway Company, Warehouse, and Salem Avenue/
Roanoke Automotive Commercial historic districts.

HISTORY
Salem Avenue was never a glamorous boulevard; never had much
cache like Jefferson Street or Campbell Avenue. It was built on a
14 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

marsh-not unlike most of downtown, but marshier. It was opened
as a link between the New Town of Roanoke and the Old Town of
Big Lick, which was concentrated west of Jefferson in the vicinity
of what is now Campbell Avenue and Second Street north to the
railroad tracks. Once the boom started, things moved east toward
Jefferson Street and Williamson Road. As Roanoke newspaperman
and historian Raymond Barnes described it, "This thoroughfare, lying
in marshy uneven ground, gave birth to flimsy, hastily constructed
buildings and only here and there one found a brick affair built for
permanence."
No, Salem Avenue, was more of a working man's street where working men crossed the railroad tracks to get a drink, have some fun,
lay down some hard-earned N&W cash. That appeal to the working
man's dollar is what eventually led to Salem Avenue's downfall. As
Big Lick boomed into the city of Roanoke in the 1880s and '90s, as
substantial buildings for commerce and finance rose on Jefferson and
Campbell, Salem Avenue became the watering hole for those who
labored to make it happen. By the turn of the century, Salem Avenue
was the address for some 30 of Roanoke's 40 saloons. And drinking
wasn't the only thing that took place along the muddy unpaved street.
Some saloons had clandestine gambling dens in backrooms and brothels upstairs. The city did little to curtail these latter activities, feeling
that the working stiffs needed a little fun.
The Roanoke newspaper reported that Salem Avenue at this time
was also inhabited by a number of grifters and quack medicine salesmen operating in vacant lots: "Here has congregated a collection
of traveling museums, fakers, merry-go-rounds and other schemes
to beguile the pennies from the pockets of the man who does not
know any better."
If the newspaper and church-going Roanokers thought Salem Avenue had become a cesspool of crime and corruption, they could
see that it was a literal cesspool of mud and filth and disease as well.
Rand Dotson in his book "Roanoke, Virginia 1882-1912- Magic
City of the New South" draws on newspaper accounts of the day to
describe the nasty conditions on Salem Avenue and other streets surrounding the Roanoke's City Market Building where vendors parked
their wagons. "Wherever these wagons have stood there is left piles
of garbage... festering in the sun, breeding disease."
City fathers knew the conditions were bad and that unpaved streets
such as Commerce (now Second), Railroad and Salem avenues were
muddy miasmas after a rain, but the fast-growing city simply did not
yet have funds for a permanent fix. So they got the chain gang out to
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The Roanoker - November/December 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - November/December 2016

The Roanoker - November/December 2016
Worth a Click
From the Editor
Lunch With
Streets of Roanoke
The Gist
The Calendar
2017 Dining Awards
The Family Stories Behind Two Fine Restaurants
A Foodie Blogger Shares a Few Recipes
Christmas Story at Hotel Roanoke
Kitchen With a (Lake) View
Finding the Right Medicine
Where Are They Now?
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Intro
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - The Roanoker - November/December 2016
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Cover2
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 3
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 4
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 5
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 6
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 7
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Worth a Click
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 9
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - From the Editor
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 11
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Lunch With
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 13
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Streets of Roanoke
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 15
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - The Gist
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 17
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 18
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 19
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - The Calendar
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 21
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 22
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 23
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 24
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 25
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 2017 Dining Awards
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 27
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 28
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 29
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 30
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 31
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 32
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 33
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 34
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 35
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 36
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 37
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 38
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 39
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 40
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 41
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 42
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 43
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 44
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 45
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 46
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 47
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 48
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 49
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 50
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 51
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 52
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 53
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 54
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 55
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 56
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 57
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 58
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 59
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - The Family Stories Behind Two Fine Restaurants
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 61
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 62
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 63
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 64
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 65
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 66
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 67
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - A Foodie Blogger Shares a Few Recipes
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 69
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 70
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 71
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 72
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 73
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 74
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 75
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 76
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 77
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 78
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 79
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Christmas Story at Hotel Roanoke
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 81
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Kitchen With a (Lake) View
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 83
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 84
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 85
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 86
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 87
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 88
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 89
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 90
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 91
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Finding the Right Medicine
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 93
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 94
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 95
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 96
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - 97
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Where Are They Now?
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Cover3
The Roanoker - November/December 2016 - Cover4
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