ROANOKE, Va. – One of Downtown Roanoke’s most historic buildings has been undergoing a facelift over the past few years.
The old Fire Station No. 1 is just a couple of weeks away from opening to the public.
Dale Wilkinson is a partner at Old School Partners, the developers heading up the project.
“The first objective was to do no harm,” Wilkinson said.
The Fire Station is a historic building — which means the task of turning it into a restaurant, storefront, and boutique hotel was no easy feat.
“It’s sort of a Roanoke icon, so we had to be careful with the kind of historical aspects with it,” Wilkinson said. “But we knew we wanted to create a new, urban vibe in downtown Roanoke.”
The storefront, Txtur, opened back in September.
“They have about 200 employees that make everything in Roanoke,” he said. “You don’t know that about Roanoke, well we have a big furniture manufacturer here.”
The upstairs boutique hotel has seven guest rooms, as well as a large event space.
“You dream about what the vision, what it should be for so long, and then the selections you’ve made with the paint choices and the trim,” Wilkinson said. “Seeing it all come together is satisfying.”
One unique feature is if you like the furniture in the room you stay in — you can buy it from Txtur.
“You like the bed? You can buy the bed. You like the lamp? You can buy the lamp,” he said.
Wilkinson says he’s excited for people who haven’t seen the building in decades to experience it in a new light.
“I’m excited for people who have really not seen the fire station in upwards of 50 years, that are now able to come back through and actually see how the firemen lived and interacted,” he said.
Wilkinson says he hopes the hotel will be open in the coming weeks.