Salem Avenue-Roanoke Automotive Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

This boundary increase adds eleven buildings to a historic district in southwest Roanoke, Virginia. They sit on the north side of the 500 and 600 blocks of Campbell Avenue and the 700 block of Patterson Avenue, next to the existing district. The group includes two older frame houses from about 1890 and 1900, a ca. 1920 brick duplex, an Art Deco former Buick dealership from about 1930, and several service stations, dealerships and light industrial buildings from the 1940s and 1950s. Several of the houses gained small commercial additions around 1950 to 1955. The area began as a residential neighborhood in the 1880s and by 1919 held small retail businesses, light industrial firms and warehouses. After the 1920s, automobile dealers and service businesses became prominent. At least five of the added buildings were first used for automobile-related business. Though generally plain in design, the buildings illustrate Roanoke's commercial and industrial growth, and all date from the district's period of significance, 1909 to 1958.