Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 2, 1995 TAG: 9504180002
SECTION: HOTEL ROANOKE PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR AND SARAH HUNTLEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
She was 17 when she convinced the then-manager of the Hotel Roanoke to give her a shot at a job.
"I couldn't type but I told him to give me two weeks and I would learn," Hall said. In between odd jobs - answering phones and running errands - she did.
Hall became the front office clerk. Her mother was the cashier.
"I checked them in and she checked them out," said Hall, now 54.
Eventually, Hall quit to have children. She was saddened when the hotel closed.
"It was part of my childhood, part of my life," Hall said.
News of the hotel and conference center project thrilled her. And it occurred to her that she had a chance to renew ties with an employer that had given her such fond memories some 30 years ago.
She applied for a job.
Hall remembers the celebrity guests - the star of the old soap opera "Search for Tomorrow"; the actor who was featured in the old television show "The Millionaire."
The actor even wrote out a bogus $1 million check for Hall. She still has it.
Returning to work at the hotel "is just a thrill. It's really like coming back home again."
He'll give hotel extra polish
Donald Manns has a sly but effective way of bringing in business.
From his shoeshine stand at the Roanoke Regional Airport, he glances first at the shoes of people walking by. Then his eyes travel quickly to meet theirs.
Without a word, he knows whether they'll stop for a shine. Often, they do.
Manns' approach - or better, his shoeshining talents - attracted the attention of Doubletree Hotels Corp., whose staff had been flying in and out for the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center project.
Manns signed a contract to work at the hotel much as he does at the airport, while also providing valet service. If that means working at 1 or 2 a.m. to get guests' shoes ready by the time they rise, so be it, he said.
Manns is providing his own equipment - a stand built by a Salem cabinet company - and supplies that include more than 60 shades of shoe polish.
He is not sure yet how he will split the day's hours between the hotel and the airport. He will have some help, he says.
"I'm really excited, very happy. I have a feeling it's going to work out very well. Everything's on me. Whether I sink or swim, it's all on me."
It won't be Manns' first time working at the Hotel Roanoke.
In the late 1940s, Manns shined shoes for a day to help out the then-resident shoeshiner during a busy Virginia Tech-VMI football game weekend.
"It was Thanksgiving Day and I worked at a stand in the men's room," Manns said.
Not much about shining shoes at the Hotel Roanoke will have changed since then, except the location. Manns' shoeshine stand will be stationed close to the gift shop and conference center entrance.
And the cost has gone up a bit.
"A shine was 35 cents then. Now it's three dollars," Manns said.
- LESLIE TAYLOR
In the family tradition
It runs in the family.
When Neasia Small earned a position at the newly remodeled Hotel Roanoke, she secured more than a job. She got the opportunity to carry on a tradition.
"I'm a third-generation employee," Small, 27, said. "I didn't know it when I applied, but my mama and my grandmother used to work at the hotel. It was like fate. I was meant to be here."
Both Small's relatives were housekeepers, but she'll be a clerk at the front desk.
"I can't wait. We're going to have a lot of people coming from all over. You want to make them feel welcome, and the first place they'll come is the front desk."
Before she was hired by the hotel, Small worked for five years at a dry-cleaning business. She was looking for a career change and, after taking a six-week hotel management course, she knew just where to look.
"I know I'm lucky. There was a whole list of people who wanted to work here," she said. "I get to be here every day and see it coming together little bit by little bit."
It probably was more than luck that landed Small this job. As she speaks, her personality bubbles over and her enthusiasm is marked by a frequent warm, wide smile. She is a walking welcome.
Small was born and raised in Roanoke and, like most natives, she has wonderful memories of the grand ol' hotel.
"I had my junior and senior proms here," she said. "I can't find the room we had them in anymore, but they were both here. This is a historical landmark."
Now Small has but one wish.
"I don't know whether it will happen, but I want my daughter to have her prom here. She's 7, so she's got a while to go, but I'm already hoping. Somehow it just seems right."
- SARAH HUNTLEY
A good place to start career
James Smith sometimes forgets to remove his employee name tag when he leaves the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center grounds, as is required of employees.
Reminders usually come in the way of questions from strangers, who don't hesitate to ask him, "Are you working at the hotel?"
Smith, 23, says he tells them that he is, as a reservations agent. His response always prompts a tale or two of hotel memories.
"Everyone has a Hotel Roanoke memory," Smith says.
Smith, a native Roanoker, wanted to create a few of his own.
Smith had worked in the hotel hospitality field for three years. When the Hotel Roanoke's new management announced that it was hiring, Smith eagerly applied.
"If this is the career I'm going to pursue, what better hotel than the Hotel Roanoke? There's not anything else like it."
The renovated hotel and new conference center are "mind-boggling," Smith said.
"It's ironic to see the old and the new sitting side by side," he said. "I think it will bring a lot of things into Roanoke. And it's helped this whole side of town."
Getting in on the ground floor of possibly the year's most-anticipated business opening in the Roanoke Valley is exciting, Smith says.
"I wanted to be here for the grand opening and watch it all come together," he said.
"Ten years down the road, if someone asks me how long I've been working here, I can say 'I've been here since the opening.'"
- LESLIE TAYLOR
Finally a chance to go inside
For years Carolyn Washington had admired the Hotel Roanoke -from a distance.
A native Roanoker, she had never set foot inside the landmark. When it closed in the late 1980s, she figured the opportunity had passed.
"I remember looking at the hotel, thinking it was so beautiful and that I'd like to go in there one day," said Washington, 35.
The hotel's reopening granted Washington's wish - and more. Now, she can view the hotel - inside and outside - whenever the mood strikes. She is a hotel employee, working as a laundry operator.
The hotel interior is far more than Washington envisioned, she says. Despite the renovations and restructure, she says, many hotel features that friends and family used to talk about have been preserved - the Palm Court, Peacock Alley, the paneled-door elevators.
"There's still some of the old - not too much but just enough," she said.
Like other employees, Washington has been swept into the chaos and excitement of opening day preparations. She welcomes the chance to be part of the hotel's new generation.
"Everyone's got an attitude and excitement. It's great to see the hotel open back up.
"Who knows? This might be a place for me to retire from."
- LESLIE TAYLOR
by CNB