Monthly Archives: March 2014

Kingsport Foundry

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This was in 2004.  The business had already closed by this time.  There’s a good aerial shot of this complex in its heyday in the “Wings Over Kingsport” second edition by Dick Alvey. I interviewed him once when I had a talk show on a little station in Kingsport.  He was a pleasant guy.  He gladly gave me permission to use a shot of Broad Street he’d taken from the upper window of the train station tower back in 1939.  I worked up a (not very good) ink drawing from it.  Made prints.  Sold some.+
Kingsport Foundry

Stone’s Grocery

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I think I took this in the late 60s, when I was working for the Times-News as a photographer.  It was just an incidental shot, but, you know, these “incidental” pictures can sometimes really end up being a window into the past.  I think Stone’s Grocery was closed by this time.  No merchandise is in the window and a sign suspiciously resembling a “For Rent” sign is in the lower left.
I don’t think the Golden Rule grocery, just across the street, again to the left, was there then, either.  Golden Rule was deep cool.  They stocked interesting food items –  the scents of which, all mingled together in the building and etched into the walls, was enticing.
However, at Stone’s Grocery, Mom would buy cheese bread delivered from Peter Pan Bakery in Bristol.  Ah, toasted cheese bread…almost as tasty as toasted salt-rising bread.  With coffee, natch.  And butter.
stonegrocery