Category Archives: Kingsport TN ephemera

Driver Manual

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When I returned to Kingsport in 1967, fresh from a posting in Germany while in the care of the United States Air Force, I needed to get myself a driver’s license. I asked Dad to drive me to the Highway Patrol office on Brooks Circle, where I picked up this manual to study for my license test.

Complete with these charmingly archaic illustrations.

The photo of Governor Clement apparently had been taken sometime before the 1963 – 1964 General Assembly (it appeared in their program). He was governor from 1963 – 1967, his second term, so I suspect that this manual, complete with the clunky diagrams, was published in 1963 or so, in plenty of time for me to pick it up in 1967.

Later, I took the test, driving Dad’s old Chevy. Passed it and then only drove Dad’s car into a ditch once before buying my own (regrettable) Corvair.

Central School Building

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In 1918, as WWI slowly ground to a halt in Europe and the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic began raging out of the foul trenches of that war, Kingsport was building its first combined school building. The building, much remodeled, still stands at the corner of Watauga Street and East Sevier Avenue.
This post card, probably printed in the early 1920s, is another of the series commissioned by T. J. Stephenson.

Summer, 1946

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This Kingsport Intermountain Telephone Directory was issued in July, 1946. These are two of the three pages of restaurant listings compiled probably in late spring or early summer of ’46. The Center Street Grill building became Center Street Restaurant, then the AAA Office and others.

“Chat & Chew Grill”?!?

Just out of curiosity, I wondered who had the lowest number listing in the directory and it turned out to be Hutchwallen Florists at number 1. Hutchwallen (it’s spelled that way in the directory) was located directly in front of the train station, where that patch of flowers is now.

I couldn’t find a listing for number 2, but Huff Funeral Home and Ambulance Service – at Charlemont and Watuaga – had 3, General Shale Sales Office had 4 and Clinchfield Railroad Company Ticket Agent had 5.

The directory is a fascinating glimpse of the business community in Kingsport as the nation came out of WWII.

Launch of a Vessel at Belfast

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belfast

belfastback

Interesting postcard.  Printed in Germany, published in London.  It’s pre-WWI.  Addressed to a party in Gate City from “Guess Who” in Kingsport, but never mailed.

The “London E.C.” stands for London’s East Central Postal District.

B & D, Pictorial Post Card Pioneers, (Blum & Degan) operated in London from 1885 to 1908, when they went bankrupt.