Hotel Roanoke

The Hotel Roanoke is as old as the city of Roanoke itself. It opened in 1882, when the city became the headquarters for the Norfolk & Western Railway, and signaled the city's progress. It has since survived a devastating fire, the Depression and closure a
Includes recipe for the hotel's pea soup and spoonbread.
Donlan Piedmont was Norfolk Southern Corporation's public relations director and a native Virginian. Nelson Harris is a former mayor of the city of Roanoke and the author of a dozen books on the history of the Roanoke Valley; he is also a past president of the Historical Society of Western Virginia. Lisa Fenderson is an executive producer at Blue Ridge PBS; she was the producer and writer of the BRPBS documentary Hotel Roanoke: The Grand Lady on the Hill. Anne Piedmont is the daughter of Donlan Piedmont and helped coordinate the closing of Hotel Roanoke in 1989. Professionally, she is involved in economic development, marketing and public relations in the Roanoke region.