Principally Located In City Of Roanoke For Many Years – Extended 46 Miles Of Mains
From the 1938 centennial edition of The Times-Register
The origin of the Roanoke Gas Light Company dates back to September 25, 1883, when the first exclusive privilege of furnishing gas to the town of Roanoke for a term of twenty-five years was granted to J. H. Dunstan, P. L. Terry, M. M. Rogers, John P. Pettijohn, William Welsh and their associates, who found the first gas company.
The town council authorized the gas and water companies to transfer to the Roanoke Gas and Water Company all of their rights for supplying the city with gas and water in 1889. In 1908 the city was authorized to purchase the properties of the gas company but the city preferred to extend their franchise for an additional twenty years.
The original franchise has been renewed and extended from time to time and for many years the gas company operated as a combination with the local water works until 1912 when the gas plant, mains and business of the gas department were sold to C. H. Geist Company of Philadelphia, who formed the present Roanoke Gas Light Company incorporated under the laws of Virginia. The next major change came in 1927 when they sold out to the Central Public Service corporation. The property is now owned by the Consolidated Electric and Gas Company under the management of Stone and Webster Service Corporation.
In 1922 the city, in the interest of future development, entered into a new agreement on condition that the company lay mains to South Roanoke and other outlying suburbs that were built up enough to warrant extensions. The company met this requirement and has since gone far beyond, having at the present time 46 miles of mains in service supplying gas to Salem. Vinton and Roanoke County in addition to 126 miles within the city limits of Roanoke.
Mains Extended
The mains were extended to Salem and Vinton in 1928. At that time a branch office and sales display room was opened in Salem and is still maintained there.
In the beginning gas was used only for lighting; on the streets and in stores and the best of homes. No cooking was done with gas until 1891, when the first gas range was installed by the company in Roanoke.
Only meager information is available concerning the first gas plant and distribution system. The plant still stands on the original site, adjacent lots having been purchased as the necessity for expansion arose. The first gas making apparatus consisted of one bench of six small, hand-fired retorts which were gradually added to until there were seven such branches in operation, supplemented by a six-foot water gas machine purchased in 1910.
The First holder, a 50,000 cubic food unit, was for eight years the only holder capacity the company had. Today the holder capacity is 1,850,000 cubic feet, a million and a half cubic foot unit having been erected in 1926. This is one of the largest gas holders in Virginia.
1912 Records
The oldest records in the local office are for the year 1912, at which time the company had 2,982 consumers and was manufacturing about a quarter of a million cubic feet of gas a day. Ten years later the business had grown to such proportions that the plant was operating beyond capacity, so in 1923 a larger size water gas unit was added and the following year an entire new coal gas plant of modern and efficient design was built. In the year 1936 reconstruction work was compiled at a cost of approximately one hundred thousand dollars, in order to increase plant capacity and adequately supply over eleven thousand consumers now using all the different classes of gas service.
In 1932 the gas office was moved to larger quarters to provide housing space for the district accounting office. In March of the following year the president’s offices moved to the city of Roanoke and district executive offices were established there.
Roanoke is also division headquarters for the Virginia-Tennessee properties and the number of employees has practically doubled in less than five years.
The present officers of the Gas Light Company are as follows: R. C. Hoffman Jr., president; C. B. Melton, treasurer, and Guy T. Henry, manager.
– Prepared by Lingjie Gu
