Henry Street is a short block of buildings just north of the railway tracks that was, from the 1900s to the 1970s, the social, cultural and commercial core of Black Roanoke. The Hotel Dumas, the Ebony Club, the Magic City Pharmacy and the Strand Theatre were among more than 200 Black-owned businesses on or near the block.
Most of the original buildings were lost during a long and contentious urban renewal programme in the 1960s and 1970s. What remains is the Hotel Dumas, a three-story brick building that has been restored as the Dumas Center for Artistic Development, and a row of buildings used by the local Harrison Museum of African American Culture. Interpretive panels along the sidewalk explain the street's history. It is a short, sober visit but a necessary one to understand how Roanoke became the city it is.