{"nrhp_refnum":"83003313","name":"Roanoke Warehouse Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"109-133 Norfolk Ave., SW","address_restricted":false,"city":"Roanoke (Independent City)","county":"Roanoke (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":37.27316497100003,"lon":-79.94337019799997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-03-29","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of five brick wholesale food warehouses, known as Wholesale Row, on the north side of Norfolk Avenue SW in the Old Southwest area of Roanoke, Virginia, built between 1889 and 1902 beside the Norfolk and Western Railway tracks.","why_significant":"The warehouses are closely tied to Roanoke's rise around 1900 as the wholesale capital of Southwest Virginia. They show the functional tradition of early industrial warehouse design, with heavy brick walls, post-and-beam interiors and loading docks. Two have corbeled stepped gables in a Dutch-vernacular manner. They are the last group of warehouses left on the railway near the central business district.","narrative":"Wholesale Row is a single line of five brick warehouses along Norfolk Avenue SW in Roanoke's Old Southwest area, backed by the Norfolk and Western Railway tracks. Built between 1889 and 1902 to store wholesale food, the two-to-four-story buildings have load-bearing brick walls, interior post-and-beam supports, segmental arched windows and loading docks facing the railroad. Two of them, at 109 and 113 Norfolk Avenue, have steeply pitched roofs with corbeled stepped gables recalling Dutch vernacular buildings. The land was bought by P.L. Terry in 1882, and his milling warehouse began the row. The district matters as a reminder of Roanoke's growth as a railroad town and its turn-of-the-century role as the wholesale center of Southwest Virginia. Grocery wholesaling dominated the row into the 1930s and continued until the last grocer closed in 1981. Despite window and door alterations, the group keeps much of its original character and is the last of its kind near downtown.","period_of_significance":"1889-1902","architect_builder":"Builder/Architect Unknown","architectural_style":"Early industrial warehouse design (functional tradition) with Dutch-vernacular stepped gables","criteria":[],"status_note":"Some buildings still function partly as warehouses and have been modernized with larger windows and altered doors and rooflines; plans called for rehabilitation as an entertainment and retail center. The last wholesale grocer on the row closed in spring 1981.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:57.750505-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/97/6832/41683297/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/83003313.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003313/34c27f2b55-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83003313/34c27f2b55-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Patriarca12","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roanoke_Warehouse_Historic_District.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Patriarca12</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roanoke_Warehouse_Historic_District.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"05001276","name":"Gainsboro Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/gainsboro-historic-district-05001276/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41683297","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Warehouse_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16899380"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/roanoke/roanoke-warehouse-historic-district-83003313/"}