In November, The LEAP Hub was awarded a 2024 Kegley Preservation Award for Rehabilitation from the Roanoke Valley Preservation Foundation, a nonprofit established in 1988 to preserve the historic, natural, and cultural resources of the Roanoke Valley.

The award lifted up LEAP's renovation of our new home at 1027 Patterson Ave. The LEAP Hub is the site of the offices of the nonprofit Local Environmental Agriculture (LEAP), as well as our food hub, processing kitchen, the Tuesday West End Farmers Market, the LEAP Community Store, and The Gathering Place, a space available for community use.

Property records show the building was constructed in 1925. Census records reveal a complicated picture of owners and renters throughout the building's long history.

Census data show that Sam Gorieb, a Syrian immigrant, and his family (a wife and two daughters) lived upstairs. His occupation in the 1930 census is "manager of a fruit stand.” The Goriebs shared the building with another family, this one from Kentucky. Frank and Agnes O’Bryan lived upstairs with their three children and Frank’s brother William. Frank’s occupation in the census is listed as "manager of a retail grocery company;" another brother, Robert, was listed as "butcher in a grocery store."

Sam sold the building to another Syrian family, the Najjum family, in 1933. It was originally sold to Rachel Najjum, the widowed matriarch of the family. Her husband, Melhem, owned Roanoke Fruit and Produce. She had six children, all of working age at the time of the sale. Three of her children are listed in the 1935 city directory as bookkeeper, manager, and salesman of Roanoke Fruit and Produce. More information can be found in this presentation by historian Holly Silvers.

But research indicates that the Najjums did not live at 1027 Patterson Ave. nor was Roanoke Fruit and Produce located there. It seems that they rented the downstairs of the building to a Mick or Mack grocery store. (The 1935 and 1937 city directories list 1027 Patterson Ave. as a Mick or Mack location.) The Najjums rented out the upstairs as apartments.

Sanborn property maps in 1951 and 1955 list The LEAP Hub as a furniture store downstairs and rented apartments upstairs. The lots between The LEAP Hub (where West End Farmers Market now pops up on Tuesdays) and a large building that faced 10th Street held single family homes.

A church rented the building for a time. (A baptismal font was still located in the basement when LEAP purchased the property in 2021.) The property was vacant for seven years before reconstruction began in 2022.

A big shout out to Spectrum Design, who designed the renovation. Thanks, too, to building contractors Square 1 for construction. And thanks to the City of Roanoke for disbursement of the American Rescue Plan Act funds that made the renovation possible.

Read the full award citation for The LEAP Hub and see the 10 other award-winning buildings here.