Category Archives: Kingsport TN ephemera

Gone Mill

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There has been discussion about whether this was Rice or Hord Mill, but, make no mistake, it’s Gone Mill now.  My buddy and I carefully walked around this mill in 2014 and were surprised at how well it had survived.

No more. I’ve heard what happened to it, but I can’t verify the story.

Cherokee Post Card Company in Jefferson City appears to have been doing chromes of East Tennessee sometime in the 1960s.

Volunteer State Printing Company, assumed from the monogram, yields no citations.

Dimes from the Press

Courtesy of Carl Swann

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Difficult to date this. Since there’s no ZIP code and “Tenn.” is used instead of “TN”, I’d guess pre-1963.

The “Kingsport Press, Inc.” is stamped on.

The Abbott Coin Counting Company made coin sorting machines from about 1917 or so.  It’s now in Connecticut.

If you find a $3 dime coin wrapper, grab it.  They’re rare.

Warriors’ Path (early)

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It’s actually 950 acres, according to current information.  This is mid- to late-60s.

Tennessee acquired the land for the park in 1952. Fort Patrick Henry Lake was fully impounded in 1953.

Looking over old maps of this area, I found that Duck Island didn’t exist, as an island, before the impounding of the lake.  It was just the eastern shore of the South Fork of the Holston River above Wexler Bend.  And somewhere in there, it got ducks.

Kingsport Oil Specialty

 

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Kingsport Oil Company, the area Shell gasoline distributor, was founded in 1946 by, I think, A. R. Brashear, Jr.  In the 50s, he traveled in the rarified air of bank directors and committee chairmen.  And judging from a quick scan of newspaper archives, the company was a ball of fire when it came to giveaways and contests.  At one point, in the early 50s, they gave away a new car.  This 2.5 x 4″ handy (it’s been used!) little sewing kit was probably thrust at you when you filled up the tank in your merry Oldsmobile.

The Brabant Needle Company, Ltd., of Redditch, England, is long gone.  There was a Duchy in Germany held by the Duke of Brabant, fwiw.

The generous-hearted Carl Swann gave this to me.  And it was much appreciated, since it’s getting harder and harder finding Kingsport stuff lying in the open.

Methodist Church

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This postcard, copyright 1964, was published by the Colorcraft Studios in New York.  I can’t find any information about this company, but it was credited with a lot of 1964/1965 World’s Fair postcards.   On the back: BROAD STREET METHODIST CHURCH P.O. Box 907 Kingsport, Tennessee 37662

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First Broad Street United Methodist Church, 50 years later.

Olde West

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Home of beef tips and noodles and earnest actors on the dinner theater circuit. The inside reads, white letters on red, “Olde West Dinner Theatre  Airport Road. Hwy. 75
call: Johnson City.. 928-2121  Kingsport…323-4151
Open Tuesday thru Saturday
Buffet  from 7 til 8
Curtain 8:30

My first job after I came back from my Air Force stint was for Joan Hensley at Olde West.
I wanted to design sets.  She had no budget.  Shortly, I went to work at the Times-News.

Broad Street, 1946

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Summer, 1946.  Looking toward Church Circle.  The movie playing at the State Theatre is “The Enchanted Forest” (Maltin gives it 2-1/2 stars), released in December, 1945.

The war had been over for a year.

This is a real photo postcard (RPP).  EKC paper (available from 1939 – 1950).

Shelby Street Apartments

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Early morning, sometime around 1925.  It’s another T.J. Stephenson card…I’ve posted information about him here.  (Nothing special on the back, except the inventory number of 121035…the lowest number of these cards I have is 121023 and the highest is 121042.  It’s a Tichnor Quality Views card)

I think these were all residential then.  When I delivered papers down this street in 1957, there were several businesses along the way.  Whenever I catch the smell of kneaded erasers, my memory escorts me back to an art supply store about halfway down the street.  I’ve mentioned before that my dream was to have all the illustration board I wanted.  Got there.  Did that.

Oh, look, Ma!  No antennas on Bays Mountain.  Obviously.