We think of Roanoke as a railroad town but that’s only partially true. For much of its history, the city was both a railroad town and a factory town – the main factory in question being American Viscose, aka “the silk mill,” which was hailed as the largest rayon factory in the world.
At its height in the 1920s and ’30s, the plant employed 5,500 people (in a city of just under 70,000 then), a figure that rivaled the number working for the railroad. The American Viscose plant in the southeastern part of the city operated as its own community – with a gymnasium, dining halls and even dormitories to house the young, single women who came from surrounding rural communities to work there.
The plant’s abrupt closure in 1958 – by then rayon was being supplanted by nylon, acrylics and polyester – came as a shock to the community that thought big employers would…
