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Martha Park Martha Park

Editor’s note: Last July, Martha Park wrote about the Dumas Hotel, a revered building in Roanoke, Virginia, with an uncertain future. The hotel appeared in the The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1936 to 1967 and survived the city’s sweeping urban renewal efforts from the same period.

Today, downtown is thriving. But on the other side of the train tracks, residents in historically black Gainsboro—where the Dumas Hotel still stands—aren’t so sure they’ll benefit from the boom.

Below, Park retells the story of Northeast Roanoke’s urban renewal, the scars it left behind, and what today’s residents are bracing themselves for next.

Further Reading: