Back in the day, this was J. Fred Johnson’s headquarters. When I did this, Arcata was there. It houses city offices now.
Home Improvement building
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Category Archives: Bob Lawrence Art
Charles store
When I got out of the Air Force and back from Germany in 1967, this was the only place in Kingsport that had pants close to the bell bottoms I saw all over the place in Europe. The pants I bought here looked like mattress ticking and didn’t have back pockets, but, hey, I was forward fashion!
Public Safety Building
The old Public Safety Building, corner of East Center and East Sevier. Earlier, it was Douglass School, built in 1928. All gone now.
Bank building, previously
The is the same building as in the previous entry, just 20 or so years earlier. The line across the building is where the roof of the watch repair shop joined the brick of the main building. Upstairs were apartments. That’s me, back when I smoked a pipe, sitting in the window (artistic license: I didn’t live there).
Bank building
This, of course, is on the corner of Main and Broad Streets. It was a bank off and on for decades. Back in the 70s, there was a watch repair shop across the front of this building (the portico and columns were gone at that time). An earlier pencil drawing I did of this location shows the marks of where the roof of the watch shop was.
State Theatre
I saw “2001: A Space Odyssey” here. Came out wondering just what the hell I’d seen. Special effects were great, though. This was how it looked before the, um, renovation.
Katty’s Korner
In 2000, I was out of work. I’d been downsized after 31 years. I’d soon have what proved to be a much better job, but I was doing a number of small pencil works for a possible show. I wasn’t starving or anything, but I’d been working nearly all my life and the longueurs were killing me. This restaurant, in the old Nick’s Western Shop building at the corner of Market and Cherokee Streets, was quite popular. It’s still in business, but under different ownership, I’m told.
Fuller & Hillman
A clothing company in Bristol bought Fuller & Hillman out some years ago. When I was young, however, if you dressed well, you bought your clothes here or at Sobel’s. I didn’t buy my clothes here…or at Sobel’s. Later, I bought hats at both stores. They had great hats.
Jay’s Restaurant
This building’s been a lot of different businesses. In 1997, it was Jay’s. It’s on Market Street, a little over a block west of Broad Street.
Lovedale gas station
In 1959, this gas station, at 666 Sullivan Street, was Estep’s Gulf service station (I looked it up). I took the reference picture for this in the late 70s or so. Note the price of gas.
Further notes: Lovedale was an intermediate area as the business section of Kingsport moved gradually to its current location. At first, it was down on the river: Old Kingsport. After the Civil War had laid waste to this area, things moved a little to the east, to the intersection of the Bristol Highway (Bloomingdale Pike) and Scott County Road, which went up to Gate City. It was called Peltier then. Later, for reasons unknown to me, it became Lovedale. Slightly to the north, a wholesaler named Lynn maintained a farm. That came to be called Lynn’s Gardens.
The first airport in town was in Lovedale. Zoom, zoom.
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 