The Roanoke Times from Roanoke, Virginia • 15

a a a THE ROANOKE TIMES ROANOKE, VIRGINIA, THURSDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1938. Fifteen NEW HOTEL ROANOKE READY FOR OPENING TWIST OF DIAL BRINGS FRESH AIR TO ROOMS Refrigeration System Could Make 200 Tons of Ice Every Day Have you imagination? Can you picture 200 tons of ice melting every 24 hours to keep you cool during sweltering weather? If you can, you have imagination and you get some idea of the effect of the warm weather phase of Hotel Roanoke's. air conditioning. Of course, there is no ice actually melted to keep guests of the new hotel comfortable, but if the refrigerating system which cools the air were making ice it would turn out about 200 tons a day. The guest who by the twist of a dial can control the "weather" in his room does not realize it, perhaps, but in the basement of the building compressors with the power of 200 horses are harnessing freon gas to chill water for the units.

Nor does he realize that water from a well whose bottom is 286 feet below sea level-think of -helps condense the freon to a liquid state. A guest does not see tons of metal ducts conveying conditioned air throughout the building. Nor does he see the water that is extracted from the air to make him comfortable. He doesn't know that the well in the rear of the hotel, an integral part of the system, is 1,230 feet deep, probably the deepest well in the Hotel Roanoke is the first hotel in America scientifically designed and built for a air conditioning; hence it has one of the most modern systems in the nation. No Need to Open Windows No longer is it necessary for windows to be opened.

The size of crowds does not affect the temperature, which is held at 10 degrees less the outdoor than summer temperature. Transoms have become passe because of the system, although they have been succeeded by grilles with sound baffles. Through the grilles a portion of the air is exhausted from the rooms and recirculated. It is a fact that water which cools the air is colder than the water that circulates to rooms for drinking water! The drinking water is circulated at a temperature of 58 degrees, 20 above freezing; the water in the "summer" coils of the air condition units is chilled to 44 degrees. Behind the hotel, on Wells avenue, is a small brick structure.

It sits just off the hotel driveway. Beneath it a well was dug 1,230 feet deep, its bottom 286 feet below sea level, to supply water for air conditioning only. Eighteen thousand gallons of water are used from the well evry hour, or as much as th average family would use in five or six months! The well water helps to refrigerate other water. But first step into one of the fresh air intakes of the systemand hold your hat! There are two such intakes in the basement, one serving public rooms except the ballroom and room, the other for the main dining room. There is another over the private dining room to serve the ballroom, and a fourth on top of the hotel to serve the largest conditioning unit of all.

As you step a fresh air intake via an aperture ordinarily closed by a steel door, you have to hold your hat because of the breeze. The intake actually is a room larger than most pantries, and its "windows" on three sides, are filters made of cellulose cloth. Air rushes into the intake because it is being pulled by an enormous fan in the conditioning unit nearby. Dirt is held by the cloth filterswhich are replaced when they carry all the dirt they will hold- and then the air passes over coils containing cold water. That is.

air passes over cold coils if the weather is warm. If the weather is cold, the air passes over a separate set of coils filled with steam. The air conditioning unit is as big as a truck. On one side is a small glass pane. When air is being cooled it also is being dehumidified; through the pane you can watch moisture of the air condense on the cold tubes.

The "dew" drips from the pipes and runs off. Two hydra headed nozzles also visible through the pane tell a different story. They are for use in winter and cool weather periods where air is warmed and humidified. Moisture is to the air through the nozzles, amount added, added being determined by the temperature of the water, since air will not absorb as much cold water as hot water. Sounds simple, doesn't it? With each unit is a wall panel that controls the "weather" in the unit.

Beneath a knob is inscribed "SUMMER" and "WINTER." Turn the knob and the kind of weather changes. The principle of cooling city water for use in the units is that of heat transfer. After freon is condensed to a liquid by means of the well water, the freon is made to boil by coming in contact with pipes containing water for the units. The water gives up its heat freon and consequently gets colder. Telescopic Lens Gives Striking Effect of Modern Hostelry STRUCTURE 0 TIL I IF 1 The striking effect of Hotel Roanoke, the modern version of an Old English inn, appears in this view of its broad expanse.

The many gables and the half-timber treatment carry out the English design in the new hotel, on the west, and the wing which was built in 1931, on the east. Using a telescopic lens, the photographer stood atop a down-town building to get this picture. Note the hotel's Tudor entrance portico flanked by two towers and by bowed terraces. The terraces are flagged with stone. The forecourt appears between trees which are a frame for a landscape program designed to make the hotel an "oasis amidst business and industry." Did You Know That: Drinking water in the ice water faucets at Hotel Roanoke is not as cold as the water used to cool air in the air conditioning system? There are 10,000 separate panes in the windows of Hotel Roanoke? If you should traverse all the corridors in the new hotel, from top to bottom, you would walk nearly a third of a linear feet--not counting the distance you walked down? A water softening plant provides water of zero softness for the hotel's barber shop and beauty parlor? The Roanoke's peacock alley--the gallery outside the ballroomis one of the few peacock alleys that use the peacock's picture as a decoration? Cushions in the hotel's sofas contain light springs instead of being just padded? The main dining room has 5,000 square feet of floor space? The penthouse on the seventh floor is a house atop a hotel, and includes kitchen, dining room, living room, two bedrooms with baths, and a hall, plus large closets? Chairs in the private dining room, handsome bent wood, appear new-but actually are the chairs that were in the main dining room of the old hotel? (They used to be black and gold, were sandpapered and given new leather), Wire rings you see sticking from the slate roof near the eaves are snow guards--to prevent huge gobs of snow from sliding from the steep roof? (The snow will be held and allowed to melt.) Italian rye grass planted temporarily around the reflecting pool in the hotel's forecourt sprang up in three days? Or that the permanent planting in the circle will be periwinkle, in keeping with the rest of the evergreen planting in front of the hotel? Telephone booths are equipped with swivel chairs--and they're comfortable--and have a switch by which a fan can be turned on or off, to suit the fancy of the occupant of the booth? Nine hundred doors were hung in the new hotel? And more than 1,000 lighting fixtures keep the hotel aglow? Finally, that tower rooms can be turned into three four-room apartments? Managers and Department Heads of New Hotel RELIC FOUND ON HOTEL GROUNDS Millstone Unearthed While Landscaping Hotel Roanoke's grounds yielded an old relic when landscaping of the grounds was begun.

Two or three workmen were digging a hole for the planting of a shrub only a few feet from the wall of the hotel's old wing when their picks struck a hard object. They thought it was a large rock. Continuing to dig, they unearthed--an old millstone. The heavy stone was pulled out by a cable attached to a truck, and A. A.

Farnham, landscape architect, measured it. Its diameter was 46 1-2 inches. It was about a foot thick. How long the stone had be buried no one knew. The workr.en pointed out that the stone evidently was from a solid piece of rock, contrasting with stone composed of two sections.

Penthouse Is Built To Overlook City Picture a room a story and a half high with high studio windows in a gable, a fireplace opposite the windows which are equipped with Venetian blinds, and artistic decorations, and you get some idea of the living room in the penthouse on the seventh floor of the new Hotel Roanoke. BUILDING HAS MILES OF WIRE Telephone Facilities Include 10 "Trunks" Enough telephone wire to reach from here almost to Staunton is part of The Roanoke's extensive telephone system. There is nearly 80 miles of telephone wire in the building. The telephone facilities include: 10 trunk lines to a two-position switchboard. Three long distance toll lines with direct connections to the toll room of the Roanoke office of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia.

340 extensions in the hotel. Five direct lines to offices such as the managing director and the manager. Ice Plant's Output 4,800 Pounds Daily Ten thousand pounds of ice made in the new Hotel Roanoke's ice plant were stored for the opening of the hotel tomorrow. The ice plant, located in the basement, is capable of turning out pounds of ice a day. Crystal Spring water in cans is submerged in brine at a temperature of 12 to 16 degrees, and presto! ice soon is formed.

The cans then are hauled out and tilted and the ice slides down. a trough into a trap door in the storage bin where 10,000 pounds can be stored. Heads of departments of the new Hotel Roanoke are shown in and came here in 1929 after serving as assistant manager of the the group picture above, with Kenneth R. Hyde, general manager, Chamberlin-Vanderbilt at Old Point Comfort. and George L.

Denison, resident manager, pictured in the insets In the group picture are shown (left to right): (Hyde, left; Denison, right), Front row- -James A. Harvey, garage manager; Mrs. Alice E. Ladd, Hyde was manager of Hotel Roanoke for six years prior to going housekeeper: Virginia I. Wingo, secretary general manager; to Hotel John Marshall, Richmond, in 1935 as manager.

Since Lee J. Griffith, steward. his appointment as general manager of Roanoke, Hyde has Middle row--W. J. Hunt, laundry superintendent; Miss Majessie been elected president of the Southern Hotel Association.

His Miles, secretary to the resident manager; Chlora Kessler, manager, first hotel job was as a night clerk in a Hagerstown, hotel. cigar counter; J. E. Weaver, chief engineer. Denison, who succeeded Hyde when the latter went to Richmond, Back row Charles J.

Hofer, maitre d'hotel; R. B. Neighbors, began his hotel career as clerk in the Palmerin hotel, Tampa, assistant manager, and H. W. Popper, auditor.

'DIFFERENT' IN BEAUTY, DESIGN Improvements Cost More Than 310 Guest Rooms By SHIELDS JOHNSON The butcher has delivered 600 pounds of meat; the baker has prepared some 2,000 rolls, the candlestick maker has come and gone, and the new Hotel Roanoke, an ultra modern version of an old English inn, is ready to formally welcome guests. Distinctive in the beauty of its design and decoration, the new hotel, modern in every respect, will formally open its doors tomorrow, a little over a year from the date of the announcement that the Virginia Holding company had awarded contracts for its construction. Reared on the site on which the original Hotel Roanoke, a wooden structure of 38 rooms, was built in 1882-the year in which Big Lick, then a village 1,000, changed its name to Roanoke--the new hotel is nine times the size of its namesake of more than a half century ago. The completely fireproof structure, increasing the number of guest rooms to 310, including 129 in the east wing which was retained when the new hotel was built, cost 000, exclusive of furnishings. Nearly 200 persons will be employed on its staff.

The first hotel in America scientifically designed for air-conditioning, guest rooms and public rooms throughout the new hotel are airconditioned. Equipment of the guest rooms includes radio, specially designed mahogany furniture, indirect lighting, tiled baths with tub and shower and ice water. Lobby Paneled in Walnut A spacious English lobby, paneled with American walnut; an ovalshaped palm court, luxurious lounge rooms, a stately main dining room, unique private dining rooms, and 8 brilliant ballroom--the largest in Virginia--are among the things that make The Roanoke distinctive. A "show" kitchen, garden, 100- car capacity garage, large parking lot, a penthouse, the last word in service rooms also are among the features of the hotel. Into its construction went a thousand tons of structural steel.

524.000 -count 'em -brick, and 5,500 cubic yards of concrete. Since concrete weighs 4,050 pounds to the cubic yard, that was an aggregate of 275,000 pounds, or 11.137 1-2 tons, or enough to lay 59,400 linear feet of sidewalk six inches thick in a Roanoke residential district! The number of new guest rooms is 181, with a number of other public rooms, but if each enclosed space to which a door or aperture leads is counted as a room, there are nearly 1,000 rooms. About 900 doors were hung in the building. In the rooms an aggregate of 30 railroad carloads of furniture went, much of its either reproductions of antiques or designed along 18th cen- GLORY OF STATE TRACED IN OIL Series of Murals Depict Historic Scenes The glory of the Oid Dominion of yesterday and today is traced in oil from the brushes of muralists in the new Hotel Roanoke. Virginia's early history is depicted in a series of nine murals rich in tones of gold, red and blue placed in a frieze, in the sub-lobby or "working" lobby, while murals in the private dining rooms show a panorama of the varied activities and attractions in the State today.

Three feet high, the lobby murals extend for 66 feet around three sides of the sub-lobby. They were painted by Hugo Ohlms, and depict from left to right: The landing of the colonists at Jamestown in 1607; the baptism of Pocahontas; the of Pocahontas to John initial marriage, meeting of the House of Burgesses, first representative governing body in America, in 1619; Cornwallis' surrender to Washington, 1781; the founding of the College of William and Mary, 1693; Patrick Henry's "liberty or death" speech before the House of Burgesses, 1775; the arrival of women at Jamestown to become wives of the settlers, 1619, and a scene representative of Virginia hospitality. Scenes in the private dining room, done in three rich brown, tones by Alfred J. Tulk, conform the private dining rooms--the railroad, industrial, scenic and agricultural rooms, in order from to east. The railroad room vest, highlighted by a large mural-mural means wall painting showing three stages in the development of the Norfolk and Western railway, beginning with the early engine, Powerful steam and electric locomotives are done in oils, together with a railroad yard, turntable and a train in transit.

Scenes from coal, steel and shipping industries feature the industrial room. The beauty of Mountain Lake, the Skyline Drive and Natural Bridge was captured for the scenic room, as well as the wonders of the State's caverns and waterfalls, while the walls of the agriculture room suggest the variety of the State's many products and livestock. Other decorative murals are those on the palm court walls, where the design is borrowed from nature and palm leaves are painted in an abstract manner. Roanoke stands out in a spotlight in a mural over the fireplace in the lounge, and in the same room, with its knotty pine walls, eight Curry and Ives prints are hung. The 1 prints range from 24 by inches to 12 by 12 inches.

Good Use Is Found For Maligned 8-Ball In the Hotel Roanoke basement there's a whole barrel of "eight balls." About the size of a soft ball, they are round balls of chemicals which attracted the attention of early visitors to building. Someone called them "eight balls" and the name stuck. The chemicals, said to include sodium alumnite, are used to prevent corrosion in pipes carrying water from the hotel's well to the air conditioning refrigeration plant. The well water is used only in the air conditioning system. STARS SPRINKLE COURT'S HEAVEN Hotel's Open Air Colonnade Is Beauty Spot The service even of astronomers was needed in the decoration of the new Hotel Roanoke -to give the hotel's oval palm court the complete effect of a colonnade in the open air.

The "heavens" of this court, sprinkled with stars, preserve a constellation linked with the history of the Magic City, a constellation which probably no one here remembers. It is that which lighted the heavens November 1, 1852. the day the first train entered the village of Big Lick, predecessor of Roanoke. inTo stars, obtain an astronomers authentic at the layout plana- of tarium in New York were consulted. The deep blue sky on which the stars appear was achieved only after 18 coats of paint been applied.

Plans called for only three, but it was necessary to apply six times that many to get the desired effect. Everything from a brush to a spray gun, and even a sponge, was used in applying the paint! Palm Motif Carried Out Fifty-four feet long and 41 feet wide, the huge oval is surrounded by Doric columns and entablature (entablature is the architecturally treated, portion capitals of of the the walls columns) resting suggesting a circular Georgian colonnade decorated in soft ecru color. The palm motif is carried out not only in wall murals, but also in lighting fixtures and in 10 palms placed about the room. The center lighting fixture with its large chromium star near the ceiling and its large painted compass has a reflecting trough for lighting. Circled by the trough is a 24-inch-diameter illuminated globe with a painted map of the world suggesting the hemisphere floating under the starry sky.

On the sky itself are painted in gold the signs of the zodiac. An Austrian painter in New York whose hobby is painting china painted the globe. Incidentally, the fixture is suspended so that the axis is inclined 23 degrees, as is the earth's axis. After the globe was painted it was burned at 1.200 degrees Fahrenheit. Roanoke is the only spot named on the globe.

Immediately under the fixture is a specially designed table using winged lions for support. On the floor is the largest rug of its kind ever made, oval rug weighing 1,600 pounds. Sixteen men were needed to put it in place. The rug is green, suggesting grass, with a floral design, while the walls. with palms painted in an abstract manner, suggest an atmospheric green, textured with foliage.

Bachelor Guest Prefers Lobbies A guest at Hotel Roanoke the other day confessed to a strange hobby. He is a bachelor and travels in many States. "I get my biggest kick out of life sitting in hotel lobbies." he related. "I have been on the road more than a quarter of a century and have sat in some of the best lobbies in the world. I like to study the people.

watch the hustle and bustle, meet OCCAsional friends and acquaintances. Strange hobby, but it's the only one I have." tury English lines. Pigeon -Blood Red Curtains From throughout the world have come many of the things to contribute to the breath-taking beauty of interiors from Czechoslovakia, crystal for chandeliers; from Italy, gold curtains for the lobby, pigeonblood red curtains for the ballroom, and black and gold marble pilasters in the lobby; from Austria, bent wood chairs for the ballroom. On the walls and floors chiefly of the kitchen and of baths in the guest rooms are 25,000 square feet wall and floor tile. On the floors of the lobby, dining room, gallery, palm room and other rooms are 20.000 square feet of terrazzo.

China accessories in the baths, are in colors matching the tile. While the black and gold marble was imported from Italy, domestic black marble came from Arkansas. A railroad carload of chinaware of a new dogwood pattern included 1,663 2-3 dozen assorted dishes. Seventeen boxes of silverware, averaging 400 to 500 pounds to the boxor nearly four tons of arrived. Modern "candlestick makers" prepared about 1.000 lighting fixtures especially for The Roanoke.

From the five arched Tudor porticos to the tip-top of the slate-roofed towers, the exterior shows the English influence. The same design is carried out within, not only in the lobby, with its quiet air, but also in other rooms. Murals Feature Dining Rooms The ballroom and private dining rooms. with a seating capacity of about 1,000, form a large and beautiful convention area. The dining room itself, oyster white in color.

is Georgian in design. Dogwood, the State flower, has been the decorative motif for the lighting fixtures as well as for the china. The room has a large bay to the north. Connected with the main dining room is the Virginia dining room, deriving its name from a collection of old maps of early Virginia. The grand ballroom, 55 by 108 feet, is striking in green, gold and red colors.

Murals are the features of four private dining rooms. George B. Post and Sons, of New York. -known architects. specializing in hotel designing, were architects.

with Knut W. Lind, a partner of the firm, directly in charge of The Roanoke's design. J. A. Jones Construction company of Charlotte.

N. was the general contractor, and Virginia Bridge company here furnished the structural steel. A great deal of material was furnished by local firms and local labor was employed wherever possible..