The WPA Guide to the Old Dominion
The American in the 1930s section of the UVa. American Studies Department website contains the WPA Guide to the Old Dominion. The complete book is here, including the wonderful Preface to the 1992 Edition by Garrett Epps (the site won't support direct linking so you'll need to hit the "contents" on the upper left of the home page), and the original 1939 dry, dull and phony preface by Governor James Price. Before you go anywhere in the Commonwealth take a look at this site for an excellent rundown of what your destination was like in 1939. The amount of candor and opinion is pretty striking for the era.
Here is excerpt from the entry on Roanoke: "It is perfectly evident that the population is not preponderantly Virginian, for people seem always in a hurry. Industrial executives, factory workers, merchants, and professional people make up the majority of those seen on the streets.
The era of architectural ugliness in which Roanoke was born and the city's precocious growth have complicated the task of the planning commission created in 1928. Shops and factories are near the center of the city as well as toward the outskirts, and better sections are close to those not so good. There are unsightly areas of houses quickly built and poorly kept, and junk heaps near historic places. The retail district, with Jefferson Street as its axis, is crowded between railroad tracks and Tazewell Avenue. Houses in the older residential section are late Victorian, but suburban developments give evidence of an architectural renaissance.
The Negro population, 18 per cent of the whole, finds work principally in factories and railroad shops and yards. Negroes are skilled in manipulating the immense car wheels, a task that requires a delicate sense of balance. Though several Negro residential districts reflect a wage scale higher for Negroes than that prevailing in most other Virginia cities, many districts show the need for slum clearance."
Check it out. If your destination is not (or was not in 1939) a major city, you'll be able to find it in one of the tours-- like Tour 5: "(Martinsburg,W.Va.)-Winchester-Woodstock-Harrisonburg-Staunton-Lexington-Roanoke
-Pulaski-Wytheville-MarionAbingdon- (Bristol, Tenn.). US 11. West Virginia Line to Tennessee Line, 343.4 m." That's a hell of a tour.
Here is excerpt from the entry on Roanoke: "It is perfectly evident that the population is not preponderantly Virginian, for people seem always in a hurry. Industrial executives, factory workers, merchants, and professional people make up the majority of those seen on the streets.
The era of architectural ugliness in which Roanoke was born and the city's precocious growth have complicated the task of the planning commission created in 1928. Shops and factories are near the center of the city as well as toward the outskirts, and better sections are close to those not so good. There are unsightly areas of houses quickly built and poorly kept, and junk heaps near historic places. The retail district, with Jefferson Street as its axis, is crowded between railroad tracks and Tazewell Avenue. Houses in the older residential section are late Victorian, but suburban developments give evidence of an architectural renaissance.
The Negro population, 18 per cent of the whole, finds work principally in factories and railroad shops and yards. Negroes are skilled in manipulating the immense car wheels, a task that requires a delicate sense of balance. Though several Negro residential districts reflect a wage scale higher for Negroes than that prevailing in most other Virginia cities, many districts show the need for slum clearance."
Check it out. If your destination is not (or was not in 1939) a major city, you'll be able to find it in one of the tours-- like Tour 5: "(Martinsburg,W.Va.)-Winchester-Woodstock-Harrisonburg-Staunton-Lexington-Roanoke
-Pulaski-Wytheville-MarionAbingdon- (Bristol, Tenn.). US 11. West Virginia Line to Tennessee Line, 343.4 m." That's a hell of a tour.
posted by Virginian | 8:06 PM
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