Belmont Historic District (Roanoke, Virginia)

In the early 1880s, the small town of Big Lick experienced a population boom following its selection as the headquarters of the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W).^[4]: 65 The town became the City of Roanoke in 1884.^[4]: 71 The city was in need of housing for the many N&W employees moving to the area, and in 1888, Mortimer M. Rogers, son-in-law of the early Roanoke Valley settler George Plater Tayloe, sold a portion of the family's Buena Vista estate to the Belmont Land Company.^[5]: 175 That company platted the land and laid out streets, which were often named for officers of the land company and railroad.^[3] Streetcar access was extended to the neighborhood in 1905.^[3]

The majority of the houses in the district were built within the first two decades of its existence.^[3] The earliest, generally closest to the railroad, were typically single-family homes of frame construction in the Folk Victorian style, though some higher ranked N&W employees built grander homes of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival.^[3] The 1917 opening of the American Viscose Plant on the southern end of 9th Street brought a second wave of construction to the district.^[3] These houses were often built as infill on vacant lots and were primarily of the American Foursquare and American Craftsman styles.^[3]

The Belmont neighborhood was nearly the location of the city's first public park.^[5]: 115 In the early 1880s, the Roanoke Land and Improvement Company donated a tract of land between Campbell and Tazewell Avenues and 4th and 8th Streets, with the stipulation that the city fence it in and maintain it as a park.^[3][6] The city failed to construct the fence, however, causing the 60 acres (24 ha) to revert to the land company.^{[5]: 115 [7]} The area, called Woodland Park, continued to be used for park purposes, and Roanoke Land and Improvement had a pavilion built on the site.^[7][6]: 88 It was also the location of a water holding tank intended for fire fighting at the railway shops below.^[3] Water was fed by gravity north from Crystal Spring and then pumped into the holding tank on the hill.^[4]: 68 After N&W ceased its use of the water tank in 1889, the land was sold in 1890 to developers.^[5]: 181 The city objected when building permits were filed for the tract, not having realized it no longer owned the property.^[6] Local residents were angered at the loss of the recreation space, and it was 1902 before the city officially opened its first municipal park.^{[5]: 370 [6]}

The district includes a number of churches that date to its period of historical significance, including the Belmont Methodist-Episcopal Church.^[3] This Gothic Revival structure was built between 1917 and 1921 and was listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.^[8] Other notable buildings in the district include the H. L. Lawson & Son Warehouse, a 1925 Campbell Avenue structure that was listed to the Register in 2008, as well as the Roanoke City Firehouse No. 6.^[9] The firehouse dates to 1911 and was one of three in the city that opened on the same day and were designed to resemble an American Foursquare home in order to blend into their residential surroundings.^[10]

The period of significance for the district ends in 1958.^[3] In that year two impactful events occurred that had a long-lasting negative effect on both the neighborhood and the city at large.^[3] First, the American Viscose Plant, which had largely been supplanted in use by newer factories, permanently closed its doors, resulting in the loss of nearly 2,000 jobs.^[11] Additionally, N&W converted its entire fleet from steam power to diesel, which resulted in another 2,000 jobs lost in the city.^[12] The two occurrences, combined with the mid-1960s construction of Interstate 581 on the western edge of the neighborhood, initiated a decades-long aging and loss of population in the district.^[3]

The area was faced with another potential crisis at the turn of the 21st century, when the Virginia Department of Transportation determined that the path of the planned Interstate 73 would also run through the district.^[13] Historic preservationists fought for and won the re-routing of the highway away from the district.^[14] The Virginia interstate 73 project was subsequently deemed a low priority 2019,^[15] before being terminated completely in 2024.^[16]

The district was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.^[17]