Listed below are some upcoming events, activities, and tours that may be of interest..  Check back often as this page is updated as events, activities and/or tours are planned.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025 @ 6:30 PM (6:00 pm Social Hour)
Three Eras of Henry Street

This presentation aims to outline some of the businesses and locations in and around Henry Street from approximately 1900-1963. We will also examine events that occurred during this period, which shifted the overarching historical narrative of Henry Street. Presentation by Sullivan Knight, Junior year student at Cave Spring High School, President of the History Club, Volunteers for the Harrison Museum, Smithsonian, and SERV, among others; Member of the OAH, VMHC, and HSWV. 

RSVP to [email protected] by 2/4/2025.

 

Thursday, February 13, 2025 @ 7PM
Victory Stadium:  How a Lawyer, a Minister and Twenty Football Players Helped End Segregation in Virginia and Professional Sports with Alex Long

In August 1961, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Colts were scheduled to play a pre-season football game at Victory Stadium in Roanoke, Virginia. However, a Virginia statute required that seating for the contest be segregated. In response to the decision by local organizers and officials to sell tickets to the game on a segregated basis, a local civil rights lawyer and a local minister worked together to bring national attention to the injustice of the law by organizing the first successful civil rights boycott of a professional sporting event.

Based on his article in the next Journal of the Historical Society of Western Virginia, Professor Alex Long of the of the University of Tennessee College of Law will deliver the talk on February 13, 2025 at 7pm in the Logan Gallery on the campus of Roanoke College. The talk is free and open to the public.

Parking for this event is available in the following Roanoke College parking lots: P10, P11, P14 and P28.

This event is a joint presentation of the Historical Society of Western Virginia, Roanoke College Anthropology Concentration, Roanoke College Center for Studying Structures of Race, Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, and Salem Museum and Historical Society.

 

February 20, 2025 @ 6PM
Uncovering & Honoring Hollins Community History

Join researcher and Hollins alumina Brittany Flowers and learn about the Hollins Community Memory Project, a research initiative dedicated to preserving and honoring the history of families from the Hollins Community — a community whose ancestors were enslaved by Hollins University’s founder and those closely associated with the institution. Through their resilience and labor, these individuals helped build and shape the university while creating a rich, historic community of their own.

Attendees will gain insight into the project’s collaborative and respectful approach to ethical storytelling practices, emphasizing accountability, transparency, restorative research.

This event is a joint presentation between the Christiansburg Institute, Inc. and Roanoke Public Libraries.

February 27, 2025 @ 6PM
Virginia Untold

Join Library of Virginia librarian, Peter North, and the Gainsboro Branch Library to celebrate Black History Month with a lecture on Reconstruction in Virginia after the Civil War and and exploration into Virginia Untold, the Library of Virginia’s African American narrative. This event is a joint presentation between the Roanoke Public Libraries, Library of Virginia, and Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative.

Please join us for a journey through time as we explore these pivotal moments in our history with our esteemed speakers. Each lecture promises to provide fascinating insights and open up discussions about their relevance today.

We can’t wait to see you there

 

Ongoing Activities:

Historic Downtown Roanoke Walking Tours

Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation recently released a new and revised version of our popular Downtown Roanoke Walking Tour in both published and digital formats that are available at most local downtown museums as well as at the Hotel Roanoke and Virginia’s Blue Ridge Visitor Information Center (O. Winston Link Museum). Digital tours can be accessed via scanning a QR Code on postcards also available at these same locations.

Published Tours

The published Historic Downtown Roanoke Walking Tours is comprised of three (3) areas of interest – the Commerce Walk, the Community Walk, and the N&W Railway Walk – that combined together provide you with an overall view of our city’s history.  

The published walking tour opens up into a full-size 18″ x 24″ fold-out brochure that combines the three (3) areas of interest and also includes several historic photos and a brief history of Roanoke’s growth. 

 

Digital Tours

The published Historic Downtown Roanoke Walking Tours (pdf) has been broken down into the same three areas of interest, but separately, with each tour  providing its own distinctive view of our city: The Roanoke Commerce Walk, The Roanoke Community Walk, and the N&W Railway Walk.  Once you scan one of the Tour postcard’s QR codes, a map of downtown Roanoke automatically appears with a short walking route highlighted on your mobile device with informational markers along the way showcasing the points of interest you are looking at. By walking on these brief tours, you will learn about our city’s history which in turn will help you understand who Roanoke is today.

• The Roanoke Commerce Walk begins with the bustling City Market Building and continues along some of downtown’s most important and scenic commercial streets.
• The Roanoke Community Walk takes participants past buildings and landmarks central to the daily lives of Roanoke’s citizens.
• The N&W Railway Walk allows participants to get in touch with our city’s railroad heritage and rich history of Roanoke’s Black community.

In addition, the Historic Gainsboro History Walk shows participants one of Roanoke City’s first neighborhoods in the mid-1800s that later served as the center of commercial, religious, and social life for Roanoke’s African-American community during the first half of the 20th century.

  • Historic Walking Tour of Salem, Virginia

The charming community of Salem, VA offers the quaint hospitality, culture, and history that helps make Virginia’s Blue Ridge such a unique destination.

This historic walking tour of Salem takes you to some of the iconic places of interest that have helped shape the story of this city over the years.  The historic sites are numbered in order of tour though visitors may tour in any sequence. 

While in Salem, visit the Salem History Museum located at 801 East Main Street housed in the historic Williams-Brown House originally built in 1840s as a tavern and residence on the Great Wagon Road.

The Williams-Brown House-Store is one of the most important commercial buildings remaining of its kind in Southwest Virginia, and today, you can meet some of the families who breathed life into the house and whose stories were lived out within these walls.

Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge website for additional information and tour guide.

Historic Walking Tours of Historic Fincastle, Virginia

Self-guided walking tours are available through use of a tour guide brochure. Brochures may be obtained online or from the Botetourt County Parks and Recreation Office or Botetourt County Chamber of Commerce.

Historic District Guided Tours
Tours are scheduled by appointment: Monday – Sunday. Preferred start times are 10 am and 1 pm. Visit the Historic Fincastle, Inc. website to complete a request form.
Email completed request from to [email protected] or mail to HFI  P. O. Box 19, Fincastle,  VA  24090

In addition to seeing 18th and 19th Century buildings, a few other interesting historic benchmarks to look for on the tour include:Court

Virtual Tour of Historic Fincastle, Virginia

 

Do you want to take a virtual tour of Fincastle?  Are you an armchair traveler? Check out this interactive map to access imagery and historical snippets about the structures and landmarks in town.  If you have a mobile device, scan the QR code with your code reader to open a link to the tour in a separate window.  

For additioanl information on Historic Fincastle, VA, visit their website at www.hisfin.org

Bicycle Ride Tours

Past Tweed Bicycle Ride Tours:

Historic Bicycle Tours:

Other Bicycle Tour Opportunities:

For other amazing bicycle tour opportunities, check out one or more of the rides offered by RIDE Solutions, a nonprofit organization that provides alternative transportation options – ridesharing (carpooling and vanpooling), biking, public transit, walking, and guaranteed ride home services – to residents living within the greater New River Valley, Roanoke Valley, and others located nearby in southwest Virginia.

Other tours of interest…….

Snow Steam Pump at Crystal Spring, 2012 S. Jefferson St SW, Roanoke, VA

Long before the arrival of the first westward explorers in what is now Roanoke, the waters of Crystal Spring contributed to the area’s water supply and industry. It began when Scots-Irish immigrants settled in the region in the mid-1700s, and the Evans family harnessed the waters to power a grist mill. Located at the intersection of Jefferson Street SW and McClannahan Avenue SW, Crystal Spring has played an important part in Roanoke’s history ever since.

In 1889 the Roanoke Water Company, which then owned the Crystal Spring, merged with the Roanoke Gas Company – a public utility that had gas and water mains that reached every business and residence in town. By this time, the spring was pumping out 5 million gallons of water a day.

In 1905, Roanoke Gas and Water purchased a new pump from the Snow Steam Pump Works in Buffalo, NY. The pump was a mechanical marvel of the day, operated by steam powered by coal-fired boilers. You can watch a video of the process used then in the pump house, restored in the 1970s by the Roanoke Valley Bicentennial Commission and the Historical Society of Western Virginia.

Free tours of the Snow Steam Pump are offered by the History Museum of Western Virginia June-August on Saturdays (12-4) and Sundays (1-4).

Groups wishing to see the facility at other times may contact the Western Virginia Water Authority at [email protected]. Download the brochure to learn move about the 1905 Snow Steam Pump.

Groups wishing to see the facility at other times may contact the Western Virginia Water Authority at [email protected]. Download the brochure to learn move about the 1905 Snow Steam Pump.

Historic Fishburn Mansion, 714 13th Street SW, Roanoke, VA

The Historic Fishburn Mansion, currently owned by the City of Roanoke, VA, is one of the most unique recreation centers you will find. Formerly known as the Mountain View Recreation Center, the Fishburn Mansion is a 42-room Georgian-revival mansion that was built in 1907 by Junius B. Fishburn.

Mr. Fishburn was a prominent publisher, banker and philanthropist in Roanoke for the first half of the 20th century. In 1955, he donated his home to the city, with the stipulation that it would be solely used for public recreation purposes. The rest of Fishburn’s beautiful estate includes beautiful grounds, a garden, a carriage house with an attached greenhouse, Bea’s Cottage where the family’s cook and chauffeur resided, and a small brick chicken coop.

Public Hours:
The Fishburn Mansion is open to the public on Monday through Thursday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM and on Fridays from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The grounds are open to the public every day from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM. However, please note that during private rentals, the building and grounds will be closed to the public. So if you’re planning a visit, please call ahead (540-853-2679) to check if there are any reservations that might restrict access. In addition, guided tours of the mansion are also held regularly, so call 540-853-2679 for the next availability. 

Support the Historic Fishburn Mansion:
The Friends of Mountain View, Inc. is a nonprofit tax-exempt charitable foundation with the purpose of securing funding for the restoration and maintenance of Mountain View through sponsored fundraising activities; to promote awareness and advocacy of Mountain View; to provide visionary leadership in the overall coordination of restoration and preservation of Mountain View; and to preserve the legacy and heritage of the Junius B. Fishburn family.

 

Future events………

Check back often as we update this page with future events and activities being planned.