Gainsboro Library

At the library's first anniversary celebration in 1922, a high school junior named Virginia Young acted as student representative. The following year she graduated valedictorian from Harrison School and became part of the inaugural class at Hampton Institute School of Library Science. She returned to Roanoke in 1927. By 1928, Young—now Virginia Lee—was head librarian at the Gainsboro Branch, the basement library that had opened in 1921 as just the fourth library for African Americans in the Southern United States. Lee began collecting books by and about African Americans early in her tenure. In 1928, city library administrators warned her to "slow the pace" of her displays of black history. She kept collecting. By the late 1930s the collection had grown enough that the city negotiated funding for a new building. Roanoke City Council issued a $20,000 bond for construction in Gainsboro; that same year, it issued $150,000 for a library serving white residents. Lee knew $20,000 wouldn't cover both construction and land. She approached St. Andrew's Catholic Church, which owned a site across from the original library. The priest couldn't authorize the donation himself, but he helped Lee write to Pope Pius XII in Rome. The pope granted the library use of the land for 99 years. Ground broke in 1941. Lee reportedly suggested the Tudor Revival style to complement the nearby Hotel Roanoke. The one-story building—five-course American bond brick, seven symmetrical bays, shingled gabled roof—featured bow windows flanking a limestone door. Above each window, the words "Gainsboro Library" were handpainted in blackletter. Inside: oak tables, chairs, Mission-style bookcases. The new library opened in 1942. Soon after, the city told Lee to remove her black history collection or lose her job. She moved the volumes to the basement and retrieved items by request. When Lee retired in 1971 after 43 years, the collection held 3,500 items. It was dedicated as the Virginia Y. Lee Collection in 1982 and now occupies its own room. The building closed March 2008 through March 2009 for its first renovation—$1 million, nearly doubling square footage while retaining the historic interior. It closed again in September 2020 for another $1 million in upgrades, reopening in June 2021. In September 2023, a historical marker was unveiled acknowledging Gainsboro residents' activism in establishing the library and Lee's work preserving black history. Later that year, the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation recognized the library as the city's foremost keeper of African American history across a century. The Virginia Y. Lee Collection is open to the public. Free admission.