10 thoughts on “Last House on Cement Hill”

1. Debbie DaGrosa April 23, 2020 at 7:32 pm

   Hi! My grandparents lived on the very top of the hill in the last house on the right. My grandfather worked at Penn Dixie in the 60’s and 70’s. My grandmother was a kindergarten teacher at First Broad St. Methodist Church. I was wondering if you have any pictures of those houses at the top of the hill. I loved that house and have such fond memories visiting my grandparents on Cement Hill.

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   1. Bob Lawrence Post authorApril 23, 2020 at 8:37 pm

      When I was going to John Sevier and had a paper route downtown, I delivered to the homes on Cement Hill. I also had an Argus double lens reflex camera and took as many pictures that my dad could afford to fund the processing for. In the time between then (1957) and now, all those pictures have been lost. I think the Kingsport Archives might be able to help you.

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   2. Jim Smallwood October 23, 2025 at 2:17 am

      I lived on Cement Hill from 1949 till my parents moved in 196This

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   3. Bob Lawrence Post authorOctober 23, 2025 at 5:11 pm

      I’m sorry, no pix. I was just a kid then with a paper route and no camera.

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2. JE Wall September 14, 2020 at 3:34 am

   Hi Bob,
   I had an aunt and uncle that lived on Cement Hill. He worked for Penn-Dixie. One thing that always amazed me was that, while plumbed, the bathrooms were located outside the main house in a small building similar to an outhouse. Any time our parents were downtown shopping, my brother and I would slip off and go play with our cousins on Cement Hill.

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   1. Bob Lawrence Post authorSeptember 14, 2020 at 10:08 am

      When I was in high school, we lived in a building like that, with the facilities in a separate building out back. It was an improvement over a privy, like the one I had to use when I visited my stepfather’s sisters, but it was literally cold comfort in winter.

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   2. Bob Lawrence Post authorOctober 23, 2025 at 5:10 pm

      I wish I did. The unfortunate fact is that I was a kid and, at that time, I didn’t even have as camera.

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3. Gloria October 26, 2025 at 6:12 pm

   I was looking at a 1950 census in my neighborhood of Hillcrest where I grew up. I was trying to remember most of my neighborhood friends last names. I’m very interested in ancestry.com. Long story short, I happen to see the last name Grimm. I just found out we are related through my grandparents, Taylor’s from Yuma, Va. Grady Grimm moved to Cement Hill around late 1920’s. Occupation was Cement Plant. Moved to Hillcrest area of Kingsport between 1940’s or 1950. The 1940’s census reads, Holston Heights. Do you know if that was a street name? I have searched the web with no luck.

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   1. Bob Lawrence Post authorOctober 26, 2025 at 9:16 pm

      Holston Heights was apparently the name of the row of houses at either the base of Cement Hill or that community just adjacent to the “brick plant”…we called it “Brick Town”.

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      1. pioneeringzorrofdd94c8db8 October 26, 2025 at 10:59 pm

         Thanks!