David Flickwir's Tunkhannock Viaduct - 1914 Construction Photo

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Abram,

The mention of an Orchard Hill St. address for David Flickwir caught my eye because I lived on that short street for many years after first coming to Roanoke.  At that time this street lay one block east of S. Jefferson St., and extended only south from Elm Ave. across Mountain Ave. to just one house beyond (south) of Highland Ave.  In its heyday it was the Nob Hill of Roanoke with many N&W, banking, lawyers, etc., executives' homes there.  It would be interesting to me to know which one of the dozen or so houses on that street belonged to Flickwir.

When I was hired by the N&W after I finished school in 1956 I learned of Mrs. H. H, Hart's boarding house on Orchard Hill, and thus began a 23-year residency on Orchard Hill (less two years for mandatory military service.  The house was typical of the grand homes of some 100 years ago, and Mrs Hart had established bedrooms in the basement and on the second and third floors.  The main (first) floor had a formal parlor (that we boarders never used) and a living room with the only TV receiver that any of us owned.  But, the most outstanding features were the first floor kitchen, breakfast room, and dining room.  Her cooking was so well-known that people from some of the other houses in the neighborhood would show up for supper.

In additional to railroad people who boarded there, the large GE plant in Salem sent cadres of engineering trainees, who were at this plant for six months or longer.  It was quite a cosmopolitan experience with twenty or so boarders (what ordinance) from all over the US, Ireland, S. Africa, etc.

As I'm sure you can perceive, by 1956 the fine old houses on Orchard Hill were down to their second or third owner and Orchard Hill was no longer the Nob Hill of Roanoke.

Gordon Hamilton