Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce Postwar Planning Committee Collection must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information:Roanoke Chamber of Commerce Postwar Planning Committee Collection, Ms2011-083, Special Collections, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

Special Collections, Virginia Tech purchased the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce Postwar Planning Committee Collection in July 2011.

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce Postwar Planning Committee Collection was completed in September 2011.

Historical Note

The city of Roanoke, VA was founded in 1884. It is located west of the Blue Ridge Mountains and midway between the "great valley" that lies between Maryland and Tennessee. Originally the Town of Big Lick, Roanoke today is major urban center for western Virginia.

The Roanoke Chamber of Commerce was established in 1870 and today employs more than 9000 citizens.

For more information, please see the official Roanoke website .

Scope and Content

The collection contains correspondence papers and a booklet regarding the Chamber of Commerce of Roanoke, Virginia Postwar Planning Committee from 1946.

Two letters and minute meetings detail preparations for the publication and distribution of the booklet Roanoke Looking Ahead . The latter--which outlined the reconstruction of Roanoke, VA after World War II--was slated for release on the evening of January 25, 1946 and cost "$2,061.63 [for] all printing, layout and artwork, photographs, and engravings." As expressed by meeting minutes from January 23rd of that same year, all "in attendance were favorably impressed with the...presentation."

As for the booklet itself, Roanoke Looking Ahead is a relatively comprehensive guide on future municipal improvements. The Chamber of Commerce intended for plans such was wider streets, improved airports, and more highways to make Roanoke "a community where every citizen can walk with dignity and face the future with confidence." A small section towards the end of the booklet calls attention to urban "slums...[which] cost Roanoke thousands of dollars year after year." The booklet also includes a composite map that illustrates the distribution of "sub-standard dwellings" versus areas of "welfare, juvenile delinquency, tuberculosis and venereal disease." It is unknown how many of these improvements the committee actually enacted.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged by material type.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
• Roanoke (Va.)