History
Completed in 1950, the complex was conceived and constructed to house the families of working class World War II veterans. Upon its completion, this became the largest apartment complex within the city of Roanoke. The overall layout of the complex reflects the principles of the Garden City Movement with the complex being set back from the main streets and the extensive landscaping and use of existing vegetation throughout the complex.
The buildings themselves exhibit streamline moderne architectural style in their form and details. These elements include horizontal banding of the brickwork, glass block panels and flat concrete canopies at the entrance areas.
Originally providing residence to Roanoke's working class, today the complex is noted for the diversity of its residents. In 1975, Southeast Asian refugees were housed at the apartments beginning a trend of the facility to serve as residences for refugees displaced to Roanoke. Today the complex is home to both working-class blacks and whites in addition to refugees from Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Albania, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Cuba, Sudan, Haiti and Iraq.
After being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, the local non-profit Total Action Against Poverty announced plans to fully renovate and modernize the facility while keeping its historic appearance intact. Costing an estimated $27 million to complete, with nearly $9 million coming from historic and low-income housing tax credits made available from its inclusion in the register, the first refurbished building was complete in September 2007. Upon its completion in 2009, the overall units will be reduced from 250 units to 201 units.
Read more about this topic: Roanoke Apartments
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—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
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