The Hotel Roanoke is as old as the city of Roanoke itself. It opened in
1882, when the city became the headquarters for the Norfolk & Western
Railway, and signaled the city's progress. It has since survived a
devastating fire, the Depression and closure after a century of
operation. Thanks to the determination of the leaders of Virginia Tech
and the Roanoke Valley, the hotel reopened in 1995. Today, the
reimagined Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center is once again a symbol of
the region's economic vitality. This revised and updated version of
Donlan Piedmont's Peanut Soup and Spoonbread: An Informal History of the
Hotel Roanoke captures the amazing history of not only a hotel but also
the personalities and stories that have made the Hotel Roanoke what it
is today--a remarkable blend of century-old tradition and
state-of-the-art hospitality.