Flashback: Tracking NRV history

The Roanoke Times file 1938
The cutline on the photo from that year: “Pictured above is the Eggleston school building, erected in 1935 at a cost of more then $60,000. It houses both high school and graded departments, the total enrollment being in excess of 200. Many of the pupils are transported to the school by bus.”

1988
(25 years ago)
-“Radford University, a once-troubled women’s college that has more than doubled enrollment in 15 years, should stop growing at 9,000 students, President Donald Dedmon said Tuesday.”
-“Television is coming to the town’s [Blacksburg] municipal building.”
-“Virginia Tech, Radford University and other institutions of higher education in Virginia will have to wait to get state funding for most building projects.”
-“If consistency is a desirable trait in a basketball team, then Pulaski County and Northside have a long way to go.”
-“Fashion experts say, and hope, that some of the ‘in’ clothes many teens wear – such as holey jeans and clunky, untied, high-top sneakers – are just fads. But not the multicolored, hand-woven yard bracelets becoming popular at Radford High School.”
-“Wolverine Gasket Co. in Blacksburg has created an endowed scholarship at New River Community College for dependents of its employees.”

1963
(50 years ago)
-“Instruction in depth for top-level secondary school students will get top billing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute this summer.”
-“Virginia Tech’s basketball collapse picked up steam Saturday at Wake Forest, and unfortunately for the Gobblers it had to be seen by countless thousands over a 14-station TV network.”
-“The oldtimers can’t remember better times in the New River Valley.”
“The nation’s highest court Monday ruled against Ricky, the Giles County dog under a death sentence for sheep killing.”
-“And then there were two. Narrows passed its first New River District challenge Friday night, beating previously undefeated Dublin, 56-52, to set up a two-way tie for the league lead.”
-“Virginia Tech’s 41-game home winning streak ended in a stall Wednesday night.”
-“Southwest Virginia took an early morning stretch Thursday from Bristol to Roanoke when two mild earthquakes vibrated through the region.”

1938
(75 years ago)
-“Last of the seven men arrested here [Pulaski} Monday and yesterday on charges of minting and passing counterfeit money were taken to Roanoke today to stand trial in United States district court.”
-“Plenty of elk are still in the Giles county mountains, according to Game Warden E. W. Wilburn…”
-“An embattled Virginia Tech basketball team waged a determined fight against North Carolina’s White Phantoms tonight but faded in the final minutes and the Tar Heels won, 38 to 32.”
-“Virginia Tech’s honor roll for the fall quarter issued here today contained the names of 161 students, seven of whom has made a perfect record of ‘A’ in every course.”
-“A glee club has been organized in the Willis high school by Miss Jessie Tise, director…”
-“Improvements to the old cemetery on ‘Bunker Hill’ has started. This work is being financed principally by an allocation from W. P. A., and the [Giles] county board of supervisors…”
-“Pulaski experienced wintry weather last night and today with the mercury dropping slightly below freezing during the night. Snow flurries late yesterday and today failed to materialize in a real fall.”

1913
(100 years ago)
-“The installation of the double daily train service between Pulaski and Galax went into effect this morning.”
-“Basketball is now claiming attention as the only sport possible during the mid-winter months and other student affairs will come in for their share as soon as the period of necessary adjustment after a vacation is over.”
-“Montgomery county will, on January 30th, vote upon a $15,000 bond proposition for the purpose of securing funds for the erection of a new county jail at Christiansburg.”
-“The Dora furnace of the Virginia Iron, Coal & Coke Company, located in this place [Pulaski] will go in blast within the next few days.”
-“The prospects for a prosperous year – from a business standpoint in this immediate neighborhood [Whitethorne] look remarkably good as is evidenced by the fact that five sawmills are busily engaged getting out large quantities of lumber for building operations, railroad ties, etc..”

-Compiled by Roanoke Times librarian Belinda Harris

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