Roanoke Warehouse Historic District

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.