The Roanoke Downtown Historic District is a historic district in Roanoke, Alabama. Roanoke was settled in the 1830s, but became a major agricultural trading center in East Alabama following the Civil War. The Central of Georgia Railway extended its line to the town in 1887, soon followed by the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway, and a large cotton warehouse was founded the same year. The commercial district began growing from this time, mostly with one-story brick structures, some of which carry influences from Romanesque Revival, Italianate, and Beaux-Arts details. The W. A. Handley Company built a textile mill in Roanoke in 1901, which would remain the major employer in the town until its closing in the early 1980s.