I vaguely remember Cole (we called it Cole’s) Drug Store on Broad Street. Later, it was off Sullivan Street, next to The Little Store. It became Revco, then waved bye-bye as it decamped to Stone Drive as a CVS.
The ads in the almanac are cheerfully non-pc (“Throw Away That Truss!”) (“Eyeglasses By Mail”). Just right in your face (“Develop a He-man Voice”…buy looser underpants?).
This place only existed from 1912 to 1926. It was below what became Mead paper, which used wood pulp from this plant to, well, surprise, make paper.
The card is postally unused, but, by looking at the dates above, I would hazard a guess that it dates to the early 20s. It’s an Asheville Post Card Company issue, 54952.
Oh, hey, antique dealers? Please don’t write your price and stuff on the back of cards. I know you tell me that it can be erased. No, it can’t and it mars the card to try to do so. So, there.
COMMUNITY “Y,” CENTER AND SHELBY STREETS, KINGSPORT, TENN.
On the back:
Pub. by T. J. Stephenson, Kingsport, Tenn.
(Plate number) 121036
Printed by Tichnor Quality Views (Boston Mass.) (here’s a link to their Tennessee issues)
Notes: This is the Shelby Street side. I remember the open porch. That part of the building was the Public Library in 1957. The rest of the building housed City Hall offices.
Earliest confirmed postmark date I have for this series is 1926. I also have post dates into the ’40s, so they hung around for quite a while.
Radio Electric Supply Co. (RESCO) was THE place for electronics when I was starting out in Radio. They had everything, or could get it quickly for you. This shows them at 961 East Sullivan Street in Kingsport and this is where I remember them. At the station where I worked, it was standard practice to answer any query as to where the engineer was with “You checked RESCO?”
However, in 1945, the company is listed at 210 Cherokee Street (near the alley behind the bank) (across from where Kingsport Camera Shop used to be), you know the place.
This little measuring tape (I haven’t chanced pulling the tape out to see how long it is) was made in Hong Kong. That the trademark is “HONG KONG” and not “Made in Hong Kong” places this in the ’60s.
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 