Hard Times on Williamson Rd.

Some of you older folks might remember Gill's Motor Court and Restaurant. Some of you younger ones might look at the sign and find it vaguely familiar.

Look at it again. The distinctive shape of it. The placement of the circle.

Get it yet?


Does this help? (courtesy GIS)






You still pass it every day. The Roma Restaurant and Motel. Abandoned for years on Williamson Rd. (4611). Well, nearly abandoned.

A year does not pass when, according to sources in the RCFD, there is not a fire from squatters in the main 'motel' building.

It's not unthinkable that the photographer for the Roanoke City GIS was leery of getting too close to the building, hence the shot from back by Queen Nails 3. There are many other angles from which a similar photo could be taken.

Gill's/Roma was built in 1940, consisting of roughly 14 rooms, an office, and a large restaurant. It offered a clean, hospitable nights rest to the weary traveler in the days before 581.

I can venture to guess what happened next. Gill's was most likely a family owned and operated venture, which came upon hard times and was sold. It reopened as the Roma, an Italian themed restaurant and motel. It did well enough for a while. But the advent of 581 put a serious crimp in the number of long-haul travelers who would be on Williamson Rd. So traffic increased, while business decreased. Whatever fate brought it to the point which we all see it at today, it exists as such. For sale, abandoned, squatted in, burned several times over, and ignored.

It has an owner, someone who should be taken to task for allowing it to exist in the condition its in. Someone who probably has either forgotten about the place, or is holding out for a higher price. In either case, the rest of the surrounding area suffers.

With an assessed value of just north of $440k, the fact that the buildings would need demolition (sadly, this includes the restaurant and sign), the land being higher in value than the buildings - at this point, the focus should have shifted away from getting highest price and towards extracting the property from Williamson Rd.

For the betterment of the surrounding business community, the local residents, and all of us that have to travel past it in our daily commutes.

Would that it have remained in the condition we see it as Gill's Restaurant and Motor Lodge, it would be a landmark. In the condition it is today, it has become an eyesore.

Remove the malignancy, and hope that the ground is fertile enough to support something other than another Car lot.

For the common good.