Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504150012
SECTION: HOTEL ROANOKE PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Mark Lambert never left, and the lights never completely went out.
The Blacksburg native was in charge of hotel maintenance during its last 3 1/2 years as a Norfolk Southern Corp. property. When the hotel closed, he was asked to hang around and be its bodyguard and do whatever else was needed. When the railroad gave the hotel to the Virginia Tech Foundation, Lambert was asked to continue as its caretaker and to work for the foundation.
And now that Doubletree Hotels Corp. is preparing to reopen a renovated Hotel Roanoke, Lambert has been hired as an assistant engineer by the Phoenix, Ariz., company.
"I love it dearly. It's home," Lambert said.
He knows the old lady on the hill as well as anyone. He shored up the water-damaged ceiling in the Shenandoah Room when the place was empty. He found old plans in the basement that helped the development company understand the labyrinth of underground piping that fed the hotel steam heat generated one-fourth of a mile away at the Norfolk Southern shops. He found murals in the basement that have been cleaned for display in the new conference center.
Lambert knew things, such as that the hotel had only one working fireplace and that it was in the Ad Lib Club in the basement, that the ballroom was 4,000 square feet and that 575 people could have a sit-down dinner in it.
And he knew its special secrets, too, like when John Fishwick Jr., now a Roanoke lawyer, set off a fire detector when he grilled steaks on the penthouse balcony and got the grill too near the hotel's fresh air intake. Fishwick's family lived in the penthouse when his father, Jack Fishwick, was president of the railroad.
"You could smell steaks on the second floor," Lambert said.
by CNB