Firehouse No. 3 this morning^

Firehouse No. 3 in 1909 (note the small tree at the left, which is a big tree today)^

Interactive Design Group, a small Web design firm in Roanoke, plans to open in its new quarters, the re-designed Firehouse No. 3 on Sixth Street Thursday. The firehouse, one of the prettiest in Roanoke, surrounded by old, colorful trees, dates to 1909 and was actually the second Fire Station No. 3. This one has that look of an old blacksmith shop where the village smithy would be standing under the oak, banging out a horse shoe.

Interactive Design Group (not to be confused with Blacksburg's Interactive Design & Development) was the primary contractor in designing an interactive Web site for Arlington National Cemetary. The 2005 project was announced as being worth between $10 million and $15 million at the time and, according to a Roanoke Times story, "involves moving hundreds of thousands of paper records into a modern database; documenting every plot, headstone, building, pipe and streetlight; building a system to allow easier scheduling of resources; and linking it all to outside databases such as those of the Social Security and Veterans administrations."

The grand opening is Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at Interactive Design Group.