Nomination Form
The Grandin Road Commercial Historic District includes buildings that provided a commercial center for the surrounding Virginia Heights and Raleigh Court neighborhoods, which developed as the city of Roanoke’s first streetcar suburbs in the early 20th century. Resources include a public elementary school, a fire station, retail stores, offices, a social hall, a movie theater, and a church. The Grandin Theater, built in 1931, was the first and only historic movie theater constructed outside of downtown Roanoke; its rehabilitation in the early 2000s with the use of state and federal tax credits has sparked the revitalization of Roanoke city’s largest commercial center to develop after World War I.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
