Since this building has been in the news lately, here’s what it looked like in its heyday, in the 1930s.
Kingsport Hosiery Mills
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Author Archives: Bob Lawrence
Watauga Street
Here we are looking east down the 900 block of Watauga. It’s around 1934 or so. This is a T.J. Stephenson commissioned card printed by Tichnor Brothers. It appears a little faded, but it’s not. This was done before Tichnor introduced the embossing (linen pattern) roller into the printing process which supported more vivid colors.
Kingsport Federal
In 1930, as the Nation slowly eased into the Great Depression, a group of Kingsport rainmakers gathered to form a new institution: Kingsport Federal Building and Savings Association (Wolfe, Margaret Ripley. Kingsport Tennessee A Planned American City. University of Kentucky Press 1987). The bank became Heritage Federal late in 1978 and folded its tents in 1995.
B. F. Goodrich
This was the location of Kingsport’s B. F. Goodrich store in the 1940s (it’s now Anchor Antiques). B. F. Goodrich was a very early company to put rubber on the road.
When I was a kid, B. F. Goodrich was on the corner of New and Cherokee Streets, 324 Cherokee, the former home of Kroger. I bought my Schwinn bike there after my second-hand English bike rattled its last transmission.
The Downtowner match book
I have posted before on the Downtowner Motor Inn but I recently ran across this matchbook listing the amenities of this place, corner of Center and Shelby Street.
It went up in 1960 and lasted under various names (“Port o’ Kings”, “Motor Inn”, Kingsport Inn”) before being demolished in the early 90s
Photo Paperweight
This is a solid glass paperweight 2.75 x 4.25 x .75. It is recessed on the back so a photo or other flat memorabilia can be pressed in. In this case, it is a black and white photo, taken from the train station clock tower, of a festive, patriotic event in the 1920s in downtown Kingsport. My guess is some July 4th celebration. Btw, these molded glass paperweights may still be purchased. Check Behrenberg Glass website.
McNeer Apartments
This building, at 519 Holston Street, housed one of the first clinics in Kingsport. It was also the home of Charlie Deming, the man who helmed “The Gloomchaser” morning show on WKPT-AM from the early 1940s to 1973. This was taken in 1991. The building has long since been demolished.
King & King Chiropractors
This rather shopworn ice scraper was issued sometime before 1995, when the North American Numbering System assigned the area code of 423 to parts of East Tennessee (Tennessee had originally been assigned 901 in 1947, then in 1954, 901 went to West Tennessee and the rest of us Volunteers had to make do with 615). Old 247 prefix was CIrcle-7.
Lotsa pens
If you can’t find a pen when you need one, don’t blame the advertising specialty companies!
Appalachian Book Mart
Kingsport used to have several, individually owned book stores, like this one:
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 