Roanoke is a city in Randolph County, Alabama, in the Piedmont region of the state's eastern edge, near the Georgia line. The area was settled in the 1830s, and Roanoke grew into a major agricultural trading center for East Alabama in the decades after the Civil War. The Central of Georgia Railway extended its line to the town in 1888, spurring commerce, and Roanoke was officially incorporated in December 1890. The city's modern identity is closely tied to textiles. In 1901, the W.A. Handley Manufacturing Company was built along with the nearby Lowell Mill Village, and for much of the twentieth century the mill produced yarn, canvas, and fabric and employed generations of Roanoke families. That industrial heritage is visible today in the Roanoke Downtown Historic District and in the community's civic institutions, including Handley High School, named for the mill family. Roanoke functions as a commercial and residential center for the surrounding rural county. Its downtown mixes historic storefronts with local businesses, and the surrounding blocks hold older single-family homes and former mill-village housing. The city sits along US Route 431, which connects it south toward Opelika and Interstate 85 and north toward the Anniston area, giving residents access to larger employment centers while preserving a small-town setting. For recreation, Roanoke is within reach of Lake Wedowee, a reservoir on the Tallapoosa River formed by the R.L. Harris Dam, and the Talladega National Forest and Cheaha State Park, the site of Alabama's highest point, lie within a drive. Like many textile towns, Roanoke's population has moderated from its twentieth-century peak, and today the city of about 5,300 residents anchors a largely rural corner of the county. It suits those seeking a quiet Piedmont town with deep local history and easy access to East Alabama's lakes and forests.