Category Archives: Kingsport TN ephemera

Matchbooks

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matchbooks

Four survivors of a bygone era.
1) on the back of the Fuller & Hillman: the logo and Kingsport Tennessee.  Fuller & Hillman spelled out in its official font face.  Then “We Now Have Our Largest & Most Complete Selection – COME IN TODAY”     on the bottom: Tri-City Adv. Co., Kingsport

2) On the top of the Quickway match book: “While U Wait” and, on the back: QUICKWAY PRINTING CENTER  KINGSPORT – 247-5134  KNOXVILLE – 546-8161  on the bottom: Superior Match Co. Chicago, U.S.A.

3) on the back of  the (unused) Dobyns-Taylor book: “SERVICE AND QUALITY SINCE 1922”  On the bottom: TASCO IND. DALLAS TX

4) on the back of the 1st Nat book:  (star symbol) SERVING THE BANKING REQUIREMENTS OF THIS COMMUNITY SINCE 1916 (star symbol)(star symbol).  On the bottom THE DIAMOND MATCH CO. SPRINGFIELD MASS.

Businesses gave out matches because it seemed that everyone smoked, urged on by relentless marketing by certain companies to the effect that cigarettes were entirely safe and that all that coughing and dying was caused by, well, maybe carelessness? After all, early thinking was that diseases were transmitted by bad air.  And, if one remembers, Kingsport had it some bad air at times.

Shortly after we moved to Kingsport, Mom and I were walking past a restaurant when we caught a lungful of pew.  Mom said, “Gosh, I wonder what they’re cooking in there?”

But we got used to it.

CIrcle

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bankblotter

It’s always pleasant to come across a CI prefix on advertising.  The two-letter Ci (Circle) prefix – it was the two-letter, five number system – meant that you had an early phone (assigned to your residence or business).  I think Ci5 was very early because I don’t recall ever seeing a Ci4.  But I was a kid, what did I know… The two-letter, 5-number system was replaced by the 10-number system sometime in the 60’s.
This piece, a bank blotter (I think), is 7.5″ long and 3.75″ high.  My Colorblind Assistant (great program!) names the color as “Midnight Blue” (good oldie, too).

Rock on.

Holston River Bridge

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bridgeholstonrvrfull
“K.24 BRIDGE OVER HOLSTON RIVER ON U.S. 23, BETWEEN KINGSPORT AND JOHNSON CITY, TENN”

Verso: He (unreadable) Since I didn’t send that card from Knoxville I promised you, I will send you one today as we are in Johnson City having a swell time.  Marie

Mailed to Miss (?Nepall?) Rader, Route 2, Greeneville, Tenn.

PM: Johnson City August 10, 1945.

Work didn’t begin on Ft. Patrick Henry Dam until six years later.  The person who took this picture was probably in a boat or had water wings on or something.  This is looking south, more or less.

Hello, Bank!

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oldbank

Construction work brings to light the facade of a structure built in 1927 at 209 Broad Street.  The date is in the escutcheon above the remains of the front door. Originally, there were white columns on either side of the building, in front of the facade.

There was a building boom on Broad Street in 1927 and both Kingsport National Bank and this, The Farmers and Merchants Bank, opened up around June of that year.  In 1945, it became Sullivan County Bank. At some later date, it was home to Harris & Graves Insurance.  By 1959, it was the Moore & Walker Insurance building.

Garrett & Garrett Attorneys, as you can see, had the upper floor.

Diamond Cabs

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diamondcab

In the 1959 City Directory, the address of “Gillam (sic) and Diamond Cabs” (it’s Hinch Gilliam again…he was also managing Friendly Cabs up on Brooks Circle) was shown as 328 East Sullivan Street.  It was behind the old Trailways (Union) Bus Terminal on Cherokee Street, where the Greyhound Bus Station is now, sort of.

Anyway, there were seven cab companies listed for Kingsport in 1959: Friendly Cabs at 1725 Ft. Henry Drive, Gilliam and Diamond Cabs at 328 East Sullivan, City Cabs in Highland Park, Lynn Garden Cabs, 1212 Lynn Garden Drive, Nick’s Cabs in Highland Park, West View Cabs at 140 Fairview and Yellow Cab Company at 124 West Market (I think it was behind where the Nutty Java shop is now).

The “Roberts” was my stepfather.  He drove a cab off-and-on, until his ship came in.  After he was escorted off the ship later, broke again, he never went back to driving cabs.  He told me once that, back then, he never went into Long Island after dark.  It was a rough place, he thought, awash with bootleggers and blackguards.

First Baptist Church

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firstbapfront
This was how First Baptist Church looked in the mid-40s.  There’s a color shot of this around, but it’s a commercial card that has been pretty heavily retouched.  This card was produced by the church.
firstbapverso

upper left:  Picture of L.B. Cobb, the pastor at the time.
First Baptist Church

“Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” – Matt. 20:28

First Baptist Church, Kingsport, Tennessee, organized 1916, membership 1600, S.S. En. 1180, value of church property $150,000.00.  Annual budget approaches $30,000.00.  Radio ministry: Sundays, 11:00 – 12:00 A. M.; Saturdays, 8:45 – 9:00 A. M., Station WKPT.  L.B. Cobb is the pastor.

(below)

“In the Heart of Kingsport, for the Hearts of Kingsport.”

Oklahoma School

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oklahomaschool
I don’t know who or what owns the copyright on this image.  If I get yelled at, I’ll take it down.
Anyway, this is the 1913 building that housed the first school in Kingsport.  To read more about this building and its history, click here.  Neither this site nor Wolfe’s book on Kingsport gives a hint as to why it’s called Oklahoma, or Oklahoma Grove, school.
Maybe Hank and Bev Oklahoma kicked in some seed money…
This image is in the University of Tennessee Volunteer Voices collection, with only the notice that, on the back, is “where Robert E. Lee school now standing”.

The above image and quite a few others appear in this publication:

kptpamphlet

It appears to have been published (Watson Lithographing) as a 1967 50th anniversary promo piece by the Chamber of Commerce (not mentioned in the booklet).  Nothing is copyrighted and no photo credits are shown at all.  It is a standard 8.5″ x 11″ size. Great pictures, though (I can see where I live in this cover photo).

Wings Over Kingsport

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wingsoverkpt

This is the 1938 edition of “Wings Over Kingsport”.  Photographer Richard Alvey took the pictures, mostly in 1937. There are 30 images.  He credits Louis Hilbert and Howard Cooper as his pilots and Kelly and Green for helping prepare the photos for publication.  They were lithographed at Howard-Duckett of Kingsport.
I have had the 1964 “Wings Over Kingsport 2” for years and never expected that I’d find a copy of this one in the wild.
I had Dick Alvey as a guest a couple of times on a radio interview show I hosted back in the ’70s.  He was an interesting guy to talk with.  He gave me permission to use a photograph he’d of Broad Street, taken from the train station tower, as a reference for a pen-and-ink drawing that I later made into a limited edition print.