Category Archives: Uncategorized

Center Dale Service Station

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centerdale

Back in June of 1967, I was working as a photographer for the Kingsport Times-News.  I got dispatched to this service station, then known as Smith Shell, to photograph the aftermath of an accident: a lady driving away from getting gas snagged the hose  of one of the pumps.  The pump overturned, electrical connections were severed and a fire ensued, quickly extinguished by the Kingsport Fire Department.  By the time I got there, the fire was out and the KFD was mopping up.

I just looked up the photo I took.  It’s at newspapers.com.

The station was built in 1955 by J.D. Smith.  I remember him well, but from the 1980s or so.

Kingsport Oil Specialty

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kptoilback

kptoilopen

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.

Five Points Sunoco

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5points

Ran across this in Johnson City.  It poses a problem for me.  This gas station was next to Craft Motors on Sullivan Street.  The fully numeric telephone number places it no earlier than the mid-1960s.  But I have absolutely no memory of what the place looked like and I’ve lived downtown for most of my adult life.  It amazes me how much I don’t really see around me (I mean, I know the way the eyes process and edit input, but it’s still amazing what I miss).

Olde West

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oldewest

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.

Clifton’s Radiator Service

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cliftons

This paint-up is not that old, but it’s beginning to fade.  Clifton’s is on corner of East Market and Unicoi Streets.  Years ago, Unicoi Street came up in some news story or other and I was perplexed…I’d never heard of it and I’ve lived in Kingsport since Hector was a pup*.  The street is a one-blocker, though, and forever didn’t have much of anything located on it and, more importantly, it wasn’t on any of my paper routes.

* Obsolete phrase. See https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/since+Hector+was+a+pup

 

Coming Down!

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wardsfeed

It looks like this old building on the corner of East Main and Cherokee Streets is coming down…literally.

Back in the 50’s, this building was mostly Ward’s Feed Store & Hatchery.  There were some other businesses downstairs and apartments upstairs.  I delivered the newspaper to a lady who lived in one.  She always had a snuff stick in her mouth.  But she always paid her subscription on time (I collected weekly for the paper delivery).

It appears that there are condemnation notices on the whole building, but only the back portion is blocked off.

Google in Kingsport

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google

I saw this going in on Sunday afternoon and, for a moment, I felt a faint quiver of excitement, then I remembered that the City was having a Google enterprise workshop on Monday (8/13/18).  That’s what the people in the background are doing: loading in chairs for the event.  Anyway, it was kind of different, though.

Older Huddle Sign

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olderhuddlesign

Much faded now, this is an earlier Huddle Electric Sign, possibly from when Kyle Huddle had this building constructed in 1947.  Just barely visible is a image of a late 40s Bendix dryer.

Side note: when this building officially opened on May 16, 1947, there was a beauty salon on the second floor.  It was operated by Mrs. R. S. Owens, who had opened the first beauty salon in Kingsport, on Boone Street, in the mid-20s.

In this new salon, she had seven operators ready to curl your hair: Lillian Ford, Audry Hale, Kay Wilkes, Minnie Curtis, Nelle Miller, Jerry Bevins and Beulah LeRoy.

A cold wave was $35.

Incidentally, Kyle Huddle had installed Kingsport’s first Electric Eye Automatic Door to this new appliance/photography/film/boat store.  I remember it.  It was, by today’s standards, pretty clunky, but it was quite the novelty.

Huddle was a film enthusiast, also.  He was no Virgil Q. Wacks (Wacks shot film of businesses for his TV show; Huddle shot vacation and family footage).

(source: a May, 1947, article in the Kingsport Times/newspapers.com)