The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 16

STREETS OF ROANOKE

Grandin Road
The north-south boulevard in southwest Roanoke City came into being in the early 1900s as
a planned "splendid suburb." Its identity as such has only grown over the century.
LOCATION
Raleigh Court section of southwest Roanoke City.

In the heart of Raleigh Court is a vibrant
neighborhood commercial district often referred to as the Grandin Village. Numerous
restaurants, a grocery store, furniture and
antique shops, a used books store, a ballet
studio, and the historic Grandin Theatre
give the village an eclectic mix of retail, cultural, and dining experiences that draw people from around the Roanoke Valley. With
such a variety of stores, shops, churches and
a school fronting Grandin Road, the street
is alive with activity that feels both smalltown and hip.
Perhaps Grandin's signature event, the
annual Saturday-before-Thanksgiving, Children's Parade-co-sponsored by the Greater
Raleigh Court Neighborhood Association
and the Grandin Village Merchants Association-attracts Scout troops, day care centers, school bands, baton twirlers, Shrine
clowns, Santa and others to mark the beginning of the Thanksgiving and Christmas
seasons in Roanoke.

HISTORY
Perhaps a parade is what the developers of
the Virginia Heights and Raleigh Court sections had in mind a century ago when they
decided upon a broad boulevard to anchor
their subdivision. The land development
companies for those neighborhoods based
their street grid system upon the "City
Beautiful" design unveiled at the Chicago
World's Fair in 1893. The design called for
streets to be laid out in squares, with an
expansive central boulevard. The Roanoke
Times trumpeted the development with
a 1906 headline that read, "City to Have
16 | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017

GEORGE DAVIS PHOTO COURTESY ROANOKE CITY LIBRARY VIRGINIA ROOM

FEATURES

Garland's The restaurant and pharmacy sat next to FNEB in the '60s, where Nopales, the CoLab
and BNC now reside.

Splendid Suburb." Original plans for the
neighborhood had what is now Grandin
Road as being a two-lane street with a treelined median. To help market the subdivision, streets were given names reminiscent
of England-Windsor, Sherwood, Arlington, Westover, Arden, Avon, and Oxford
to name a few. So this begs the question:
Where did the name Grandin come from?
The answer may surprise you.
The late Judge James Brice, whose father Claude had Brice's Drugs and Soda
on Grandin Road (where Grace's Pizza is
today) for many years in the 1930s and 40s,
shared with this writer the story of how, as a
young boy, he hung around his dad's store,
Brice listening in on tales being swapped
between his dad and customers. One older
gentleman, Durwood Stanley, relished sharing how Grandin got its name. During the
initial stages of Virginia Heights' develop-

ment, one of the realty company partners
attended a theatrical performance at the
Academy of Music in Roanoke. So smitten was he by leading lady Ethel Grandin
that he decided to name his central boulevard after her. Grandin was a silent screen
star whose career included over 30 films
between 1910 and 1922.
While Grandin Road is noted for its
commercial village, it did not start that
way. In the three blocks heading south from
the intersection with Memorial Avenue that
comprise the business district, there originally were residences. Dr. T. Allen Kirk had
a large home and expansive rose garden
on the northwest corner of Westover and
Grandin where Nopales restaurant and the
CoLab sit today. A large wood-frame apartment building was located on the site of the
present-day Natural Foods Co-Op, and the
Grandin Theatre occupies a lot that used to
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The Roanoker - January/February 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - January/February 2017

Front Cover
Letters/Worth a Click
From the Editor
Lunch With . . .
Streets of Roanoke
The Gist
Events
25 Great Things in Roanoke, 2016
Five National Best-Selling Authors Right Here?
Making it in Roanoke
The “From-Scratch” Bullington Home
Blue Apron, La Petite Fondue: Two for Distinctive Dining
The Dish
SPECIAL SECTION: Valley Life
SPECIAL SECTION: The Menu Dining Guide
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Intro
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Cover1
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Cover2
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 3
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 4
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 5
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 6
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 7
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 8
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 9
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Letters/Worth a Click
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 11
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - From the Editor
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 13
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Lunch With . . .
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 15
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Streets of Roanoke
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 17
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - The Gist
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 19
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 20
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 21
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Events
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 23
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 24
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 25
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 26
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 25 Great Things in Roanoke, 2016
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 28
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 29
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 30
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 31
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 32
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 33
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Five National Best-Selling Authors Right Here?
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 35
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 36
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 37
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Making it in Roanoke
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 39
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 40
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 41
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 42
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 43
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - The “From-Scratch” Bullington Home
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 45
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 46
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 47
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 48
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 49
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 50
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - SPECIAL SECTION: Valley Life
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - VL2
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The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 51
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 52
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 53
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 54
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 55
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Blue Apron, La Petite Fondue: Two for Distinctive Dining
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 57
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 58
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 59
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 60
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 61
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 62
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 63
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 64
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - 65
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - The Dish
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Cover3
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - Cover4
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - SPECIAL SECTION: The Menu Dining Guide
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - M2
The Roanoker - January/February 2017 - M3
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