Remember this? The 1953, or thereabouts, Buick that protruded over the door of Sharon’s Barbecue restaurant across from the Post Office on Center Street.
The chicken is driving and the pig’s in the passenger seat. Zoom, Zoom.
This was the Research Lab at General Shale Brick Plant. I always wondered what they got up to in there. It’s gone now, but I guess I ran, walked or rode a bike past it a hundred times over the years. It was on the road through GS that connected Cherokee Street to Industry Drive (there was going to be an extension of Cherokee Street directly to Industry Drive, but it was never really completed. I walked it a couple of times – it came out on Industry Drive beside that abandoned brick power station). Clever clogs, these research guys. Look at the designs in the brickwork. The one on the right does kind of look like the ABC TV logo, doesn’t it?
I never know where my buddy comes up with stuff. We were swapping out some magazines and he handed me this. “What do you think of it?”
The first thing to catch my eye was that it was from the fairly short-lived gallery that Raymond Williams had on Market Street. I shakily believe it was in the ’70s. I’d drop by now and then. I knew Ray casually; we were both artists.
But the really interesting thing is that it was made by Ideal Rubber Stamps (later Office Supply) at 222 East Center Street, across (for many years) from Copeland’s Office Supply. I suspect that as Copeland’s eased out of the humdrum paper-and-pencil trade, Ideal took on more office supply merchandise.
When I was at WKPT-TV, I was forever running over to Ideal with a purchase order to get Prestype transfer lettering for whatever sign or ad I was working on (I bowed down in gratitude when I got my first computer and printer at work)(I hated presstype letters…only slightly less than I hated rubber cement).
The company was incorporated in 1975 and is listed, as we well know, as “inactive”.
But for a while, if you had a rubber stamp made, chances are Ideal did the deed.
I would guess this is from the 90s. The plastic case is in pretty good condition, not broken, and everything listed as contents is here. It’s 3 -5/8 by 2-7/8″.
Of course, that massive 1920s-era factory has been knocked down and hauled away like Mr. Peabody’s coal. Somewhere, I hope, someone thought ahead and kept the big, black-and-white aerial photo of the plant that hung in the conference room (I think. I’m a little hazy on exactly where I saw it…it was years ago).
March 3, 2009
When I was in my mid-20s, this location on Shelby Street was Spirit, an exotic head shop. I knew the couple who lived there and ran it. They sold killer incense.
To show how smooth I was back then, I once blundered into a ladder on that front porch…a ladder that, unfortunately, had an open can of purple paint atop. I helped clean up some of it, all while blushing at my clumsiness. They cleaned up the rest…I was told it took a bit to do.
The stained glass window on the second floor was installed by the couple.
Later, it became Country Comfort, a more bluegrassy-style head shop sort of thing.
When I was delivering newspapers in 1957 or so, this row of buildings , à la The Fifties, was more commercial than residential.
This is the back of 119 – 121 Commerce Street as it looks today. The upper door and balcony give away what it used to be: a movie theater. It got hot in that projection room and this gave the person running the movie a way got get some relief and, probably in those days, a smoke. I think the balcony is still in the back of the old State Theater building, too. (later: I checked behind the old Strand Theater…no balcony there.)
This was the Center Theater. It existed for about seven years, closing in 1955.
I note that there are three good door crops here and one that’s messed up with the power lines. Old doors can be good subjects. They don’t move around a lot and there’s always a chance that you’ll be the first and only person to record them. Gold star material, no lie.
A 3.75 x 3.75″ ashtray. Information square is fired on the underside. My mother’s favorite restaurant. Made their own pies with real meringue, browned on top. In my 20s, I thought the place was stodgy, but I’d love to have a meal there now. Food was excellent, waitresses motherly. And I don’t mean that in any derogatory way.
I think the restaurant began in the early 60s. In 1953, Jack May was managing both Jack’s Grill in Sullivan Gardens and the Luncheonette at the new Little Store. Jack and wife Jeanette co-owned Center Street Restaurant and, later, Jack’s Restaurant on Main Street. There’s a complicated history in all this, but I can’t find a source for it right now. I’ll update as I learn more.
05/08/2021: Updated time line:
From the late 1940s to 1960, the building at 504 West Center Street was owned by Cardwell and Alberta Hounchell. The original building was a a block building painted white (in the only picture I’ve seen of it) and known at “Center Street Restaurant and Grill”. (When I was a kid, we lived in the apartments at 315 Cherokee Street. In one of the apartments lived a man named “Happy” Hounchell. He was a barber with a shop behind Bingham Furniture on New Street. I wonder if they were related.) (the man and the family, not the furniture store and the barber shop)
An ad in the June 6, 1951, issue of the Kingsport News touts a “completely remodeled” restaurant with pale green walls and gray leatherette upholstery. The current building, though, is shown in the records as having been built in 1952.
In 1979, the restaurant was owned by Gary and Angie Francisco. It closed in August, 1989.
Let it be clear, right here, right now: I am not a phillumenist. I don’t collect matchbooks. But, if something interesting I spy, I buy. Within reason…
E. Ward King. Whatta guy. Junior Achievement has a concise accounting of this man’s life here.
Their 50th in 1982. In 1986, they’d be in Chapter 11.
This is a 28-match book. Several have been used from this book, but I have two more in an original 2-book plastic pack.
This is a matchbook from Skoby’s World in Kingsport TN:
Skoby’s, on Konnarock Road in Kingsport TN, was a treasure. Started in 1946 as a barbecue joint, the restaurant became the place to take an out-of-town guest or to just enjoy a civilized dinner. Skoby’s World came about when Pal Barger donated Skoby’s to Virginia Intermont College in 2005. The place was demolished in 2010.
Back in the 70s, one time when I had gotten a raise at work, I took mom out for dinner at Skoby’s. Reserved a room and everything. Now, mom was a small little critter (wore a 4B shoe) and I was not a heavy eater. When the waiter brought out the salad and the warm yeast rolls, mom and I tucked in. And when the waiter brought the steaks and baked potatoes, we realized that we didn’t have much appetite left. In true foodie fashion, we offhandedly mentioned to the waiter that we would like a takeaway tray. Instantly provided.
And their crème brûlée was, honestly, just drag in the casket and die for it…
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 
