Wasena is a Roanoke,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

(

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

)

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

located in south, central Roanoke bisected by U.S. Route 221 (Main Street), immediately to the south of the

Roanoke River The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the ...

. It borders the neighborhoods of Raleigh Court on the west,

Old Southwest The "Old Southwest" is an informal name for the southwestern frontier territories of the United States from the American Revolutionary War , through the early 1800s, at which point the US had acquired the Louisiana Territory, pushing the sout ...

on the north and east and Mountain View via the Wasena Bridge across the Roanoke River on the north, and Franklin-Colonial on the south. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, Wasena has a population of 1,633 residents.

History

Taking its name from the Native American word meaning "beautiful view," Wasena was annexed into the city in 1919 and began its development as an early suburb of Roanoke in the 1920s. Nearly all of the structures within Wasena date from between the 1920s and 1950s. The architecture of the area is varied with the largest numbers representing both the

American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. ...

Bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is typically single or one and a half storey, if a smaller upper storey exists it is frequently set in the roof and Roof window, windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide ve ...

and

American Foursquare The American Foursquare (also American Four Square or American 4 Square) is an American house vernacular under the Arts and Crafts style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the ...

design for residential construction. Formed in 1983, the Wasena Neighborhood Forum has been a member of the Roanoke Neighborhood Partnership since 1984, serving as a citizen advocacy group for the neighborhood. Today, Wasena is the location of the Wasena Park, Smith Park, Triangle Park, Valley Avenue Park and a portion of the Roanoke River Greenway. Wasena Elementary School is the lone public school located within the neighborhood. The Wasena Historic District was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2012.

References

External links

Wasena Neighborhood Forum

{{Roanoke neighborhoods Streetcar suburbs Neighborhoods in Roanoke, Virginia