Category Archives: Kingsport TN ephemera

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 was.

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.

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 someone named 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).

Grier’s Almanac

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almanac
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?).

Extract Plant and Tannery

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kptextract
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.