This is a solid glass paperweight 2.75 x 4.25 x .75. It is recessed on the back so a photo or other flat memorabilia can be pressed in. In this case, it is a black and white photo, taken from the train station clock tower, of a festive, patriotic event in the 1920s in downtown Kingsport. My guess is some July 4th celebration. Btw, these molded glass paperweights may still be purchased. Check Behrenberg Glass website.
This building, at 519 Holston Street, housed one of the first clinics in Kingsport. It was also the home of Charlie Deming, the man who helmed “The Gloomchaser” morning show on WKPT-AM from the early 1940s to 1973. This was taken in 1991. The building has long since been demolished.
This rather shopworn ice scraper was issued sometime before 1995, when the North American Numbering System assigned the area code of 423 to parts of East Tennessee (Tennessee had originally been assigned 901 in 1947, then in 1954, 901 went to West Tennessee and the rest of us Volunteers had to make do with 615). Old 247 prefix was CIrcle-7.
Kingsport used to have several, individually owned book stores, like this one:
Google didn’t turn up anything when I searched for this club, but I did see an article from 1965 in the Kingsport Times-News that indicated about 4,000 people filed in to attend a Kingsport Riding Club Horse Show at J. Fred Johnson Stadium.
From the 1941 Maroon and Grey annual
This is from the Kingsport Times-News 02/27/1955. J. Mack Ray (1910 -1968) was from Cocke County. He moved to Kingsport to start this restaurant.
He was also a three-term state Senator.
What’s a Potato Toffenetti? Read all about it here
From Wednesday, February 13, 1957. Kingsport News
As I’ve noted before, my Kingsport Times paper route took me down Shelby Street, behind the Post Office (it became the library in ’61). The tempting smells coming from Pal’s made my stomach rumble. Still does, even today.
For the record, $1 in 1957 would be worth $9.36 in 2021(CPI Inflation Calculator)
In my previous (August, 2015) posting on Parkway Plaza, I was a little dismissive of it, which was wrong. When this Plaza was built, in 1961, it was poised to take advantage of the fire hose of traffic heading into Kingsport from the Southwest Virginia/Southeast Kentucky region. Well, then I-26 (completed in 2003) went in, bypassing Kingsport and taking the fire hose with it.
In an article written by Frank Creasy for the Kingsport Times-News edition of June 4, 1961, Greene Investments announced that the new Parkway Plaza was scheduled to open that October and would feature anchor stores Kroger, Grants, and W.B. Greene Ladies Fashion Shop. The Plaza actually opened in November and included One Hour Martinizing #4, Reba’s Coiffures, Potter’s Barber Shop, Armour Drug, Top Value Stamp Store and Dutch Oven Bakery.
Kroger and Armour Drug store kept their downtown locations, also. The other Kroger was located approximately where the church-owned building sits across from Mafair UMC at Prospect Drive. Armour Drug had their store a little to the east of that building.
For its time, it was a happening place.
From March, 1966 Kingsport Times-News
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 