Campbell Avenue in Roanoke, Virginia shortly after sunrise today. New Order would approve.
Tag Archives: Campbell avenue
Campbell Avenue and Market Square, Roanoke, VA, December 2022
Town always looks pretty around Christmastime.
Sunglasses Guy at the end of the video looks like he thought I was surveilling him. That was totally not my intention, Sir.
Darwin’s bus station.
Construction proceeds slowly but surely off Campbell Avenue at the site of the now-extinct bus station.
I love the phrase “extinct bus station” — like it was too big and slow to adapt, and stone age hunters ran it down to oblivion.
Concrete forest.
It looks like they’ve started constructing the framework for the next set of buildings on Campbell Avenue where the former bus station was razed. This picture doesn’t quite do it justice — but it has a postindustrial, otherworldly look to it around twilight. I thought it was neat.
I almost wrote “infrastructure” instead of “framework” in the first sentence above. But I’ve read that engineers roll their eyes at the word, because laypeople invariably use the term incorrectly.
Here’s another picture of the demolition site between Salem and Campbell Avenues.
I just think it’s neat. It’s weird looking to where the Campbell Court bus hub used to be and seeing an enormous empty space.
The city has a deal with developer to put a few things in the redesigned space, including apartments and stores. You can read all about it here at The Roanoke Times.
Newly vacant lot between Campbell and Salem Avenues, Roanoke, VA, July 2022
This is after the buildings facing Campbell Avenue (including the former Campbell Court bus station) were razed. The latter two shots were taken from Salem Avenue, looking south.
“Raze” is a weird word. Its antonym is also its homophone (“raise”).
Buildings being demolished on Campbell Avenue, Roanoke, VA
June 2022. I thought this was pretty wild — what you see is a row of buildings that have been almost entirely demolished, all facing Campbell Avenue. (These include what used to be the Campbell Court Bus Station and the deli beside it.) The facades at front remain intact for now, but they are otherwise gutted.
Sign for defunct “1 Hour Cleaning” on Campbell Avenue, Roanoke, VA
June 2022.
“Night on Mill Mountain?”
I thought this Campbell Avenue storefront display was pretty cute. What you see is a gargoyle overlooking one of those quaint ceramic villages. (Sorry for the terrible picture … there were reflections in that glass.)
I don’t know if this diorama is an intentional reference to the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” (1940), but that’s what it makes me think of. It would make it a really clever homemade Halloween decoration.
Seen from Campbell Avenue SW, Roanoke, VA, October 2021
Pictured after the first photo are the rears of buildings that face Rorer Avenue to the north.
That building you see in the distance in the last photo before the video is the Wells Fargo Tower.
Regarding the black-and-white shots here — Roanoke is actually a very cheery place, and a clean and well kept city. I just like draining the light and color from photos and then boosting their clarity through the roof.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 