This 3″ x 3″ adhesive-backed cloth sticker probably dates from the early 70s.
Tsk, Radio was a whole ‘nother thing back then.
Country Giant
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First Baptist Church
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.
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
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 Hank and Bev 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:
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).
Goodrich Silvertown Stores
This intact matchbook probably dates to the 40s. In the late 50s, this location was a credit company. Now it’s Anchor Antiques.
Wings Over Kingsport
This is the 1938 edition of “Wings Over Kingsport”. Photographer Richard Alvey took the pictures, mostly in 1937. There are 30 images. He credits Louis Hilbert and Howard Cooper as his pilots and Kelly and Green for helping prepare the photos for publication. They were lithographed at Howard-Duckett of Kingsport.
I have had the 1964 “Wings Over Kingsport 2” for years and never expected that I’d find a copy of this one in the wild.
I had Dick Alvey as a guest a couple of times on a radio interview show I hosted back in the ’70s. He was an interesting guy to talk with. He gave me permission to use a photograph he’d of Broad Street, taken from the train station tower, as a reference for a pen-and-ink drawing that I later made into a limited edition print.
Old topographic maps
If you’re a map nerd, like I am, check out this website. (http://www.oldmapsonline.org)
It’s free to use and has 1935 and later topos of Kingsport. They’re fascinating. They’ve been scanned at very good resolution, so zooming in is no problem.
Go, Pirates!
I found this today at an antique store. It’s the old blue and gold, Sullivan High Pirates. Looks like a booster item to be. I can’t even hazard a guess as to the date. I went there 1961-1963 and don’t recall ever seeing one. But, then, I never paid much attention to sports.
It’s 1.25″ in diameter with a lethal-looking pin on the back. Those were dangerous times…
Kingsport Police Department Trading Cards
These are Royal Trading Cards, printed by Royal Printing Company in Johnson City.
I don’t know how many were printed for this set.
Batclub!
WKPT-TV kicked up its bombazine skirts in the late ’60s to get down with the bat crowd. Someone came up with this club idea.
If you joined the club, you got two things: this pin and ignored.
Flying rodents. O u kid.
Grier’s 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?).
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 