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A grand plan by the Shriners in the 1920s would have made Raleigh Court a very different place!

Courtesy of the Virginia Room, Roanoke Public Libraries

A 1920s aerial of the Virginia Heights/Raleigh Court section shows Shrine Hill.

In 1924, a most ambitious plan for the Raleigh Court area was announced by the Kazim Temple. What is known today as Shrine Hill came into being when the Shriners voted to buy a tract of land encompassing the present-day site of Patrick Henry High School. The 101-acre tract was purchased for $237,500 for the following purposes: to erect a mosque for the Shrine, which would contain an auditorium of 3,000 seating capacity, reading rooms, quarters for officers, club house and other departments; to construct a modern stadium of concrete, seating between 25,000 and 30,000; to open a nine-hole golf course, with hopes of adding another nine holes at a future date; and to build tennis courts and a swimming pool. This mammoth undertaking had been four years in the making.

The project was to be located at the end of the Raleigh Court streetcar line on Grandin Road, and a mosque was to be constructed for an estimated $550,000. Surrounding the structure would be Kazim Park with a club house, recreation fields and stadium. The location had been chosen because of its “commanding topography” and easy access.

The Shriners retained the services of landscape architect Sid J. Hare to design the park and grounds. Hare commented about the site, “The ground is ideally located and decidedly suited for all the purposes spoken of…As for the Shrine site at the top of the hill, I feel that all who visit the building would always remember the vistas and views to the mountains and hills and to the city. From this site one would also view the players on the grounds, the children to the east of the building and your members who play golf would be in full view of the Temple building.”

Following the nearly unanimous vote of the Shriners in attendance (over 500) at their November meeting to proceed, C. B. Wilson of the Building Committee declared, “This is one of the greatest civic enterprises ever planned for Roanoke.” Wilson stated this “playground of the Masonry” would house the Shriners in “regal style.”

After the adoption of the plan, approximately 2,500 Nobles and their ladies attended an elaborate Potentate’s Ball at the City Auditorium, concluding what must have been an enthusiastic meeting.

Fundraising moved quickly. “1,500 Shriners to Invade City” read a front page headline in the Roanoke Times on May 16, 1925. “Shriners will be in attendance at Kazim Temple’s spring ceremonial here today to be staged under a tent which has been pitched in the ‘Garden of Allah,’ the one hundred acre tract of land acquired recently by the Shrine just east of Grandin Road to Raleigh Court. Indications point to the biggest celebration ever staged by Kazim Temple here.” So read the opening paragraph.

After a short business session at the Masonic Temple, the Shriners made their way to the future “Garden of Allah”, where they found a huge tent erected upon a knoll in the center of the property and the spot the proposed mosque was to occupy. “One look at the magnificent view afforded from this point and the majority of the visiting Nobles were converted into enthusiastic supporters of the undertaking,” reported The Times.

Within 48 hours, the Shriners launched the campaign to raise $400,000 among its membership for their proposed mosque. An architectural rendering of the grand structure ran in the newspaper, with the campaign literature describing the knoll in Raleigh Court as “the most beautiful spot in America” and once developed would become “unexcelled in beauty in this section.”

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