New state historical highway markers approved in Franklin Co., Roanoke
RICHMOND, Va. (WSET) — A Roanoke library that hid a censored trove of Black literature, and the Franklin County community of Ferrum are among the seven new historical markers approved by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources this December. The new texts cover the Old Dominion’s past from 1776 to the present day.
The Virginia Board of Historic Resources approved the markers earlier this month during its quarterly meeting hosted by the Department of Historic Resources (DHR).
After approval by the Board of Historic Resources, it can take upwards of four months or more before a new marker is ready for installation. The marker’s sponsor covers the manufacturing expenses for a new sign.
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Virginia’s historical highway marker program began in 1927 with the installation of the first markers along U.S. Route 1. It is considered the oldest such program in the nation. Currently, there are more than 2,600 state markers, mostly maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation, except in those localities outside of VDOT’s authority.
New markers in Central Virginia:
Gainsboro Branch Library
The Gainsboro Branch Library, founded as a result of local Black activism, was the first public library for African Americans in western Virginia and the second in the state. It opened in the Odd Fellows Hall at 446 Gainsboro Ave. NW in Dec. 1921 and moved here in May 1942. The library became a center of Black intellectual and social life by hosting lectures, conferences, reading clubs, and exhibitions. Librarian Virginia Young Lee, who served from 1928 to 1971, developed a regionally significant collection of Black literature, history books, and ephemera. Defying city officials’ attempts to censor some of this material in the 1940s, she continued to make it accessible in the library’s basement.
- Sponsor: Nelson Harris
- Locality: City of Roanoke
- Proposed location: 15 Patton Ave. NW
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Ferrum
Ferrum (Latin for iron) developed ca. 1892 along the new Roanoke and Southern Railway linking Roanoke, VA, and Winston-Salem, NC, known as the “Punkin Vine” line. The village became a regional shipping hub early in the 20th century. St. James Methodist Church (ca. 1896) is Ferrum’s oldest brick building. The Virginia Methodist Conference, at the initiative of its Woman’s Missionary Society, established Ferrum Training School in 1913 to educate mountain children. The school grew into Ferrum College and the Blue Ridge Institute and Museum. During Prohibition, a number of Ferrum residents were involved in a lucrative illegal whiskey conspiracy that ended in one of the longest trials in VA history.
- Sponsor: Blue Ridge Institute and Museum
- Locality: Franklin County
- Proposed location: Franklin St. (state Route 40) near the intersection with Fieldcrest Road
