David Ramey’s Gainsboro memories reached a public wall

Past

Drawings, recollection and neighborhood participation.

2 minute read · Gretna Junction Research Desk

AI-assisted · Last verified Primary project and annual-report bodies checked October 17, 2026.

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An artist’s long practice

Roanoke Arts Commission identifies David A. Ramey’s life dates as 1929–2017 and credits him with more than 700 drawings over nearly forty years.

His subjects included neighborhoods, railroad work, religious imagery and still life. His books included the self-published The Times and Life on Henry Street.

The commission’s August 2024 annual report describes detailed colored-pencil drawings and handwritten text made from memory to record places lost through urban renewal. That description identifies the method as well as the subject: these were a resident artist’s remembered scenes, not photographs taken at the moment depicted.

From work to shared space

The commission says Gainsboro neighbors worked with the city, PARK Roanoke and the Arts Commission on the mural at Gainsboro Garage. Its annual report records eight applied murals and four cutout figures at the Ramey Lot.

Keep those stages distinct when discussing the project. Ramey made drawings; neighbors participated in bringing selected work into public space.

Calling everything simply a mural would hide the earlier practice. Calling it only an individual memorial would hide the neighborhood’s participation.

Neither description needs an invented conversation or an assumed response from every resident.

The linked project page also carries old dedication and exhibition notices. They are not evidence of a current event or open exhibition.

Use the page to learn about the project, not as a promise of today’s programming.

Sources & verification

Roanoke Arts Commission

Project account; undated event notices excluded from current claims.

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Roanoke Arts Commission, August 2024 annual report

Page 20: recollection, materials and public project.

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