Tag Archives: J. Fred Johnson & Company

The Big Store

This is one of the oldest Kingsport postcards in my collection. It is a real photo card, meaning it was produced by a local photographer sometime early in Kingsport history. This is the Big Store, or J. Fred Johnson & Company, at the corner of Main and Shelby Streets. Note that Main Street isn’t paved yet.
The Big Store had it all. Saying was that “you could go from birth to death” at that store. Even the Post Office was located there.
The mound behind the store appears to be wood for the paper plant.
There is no useful information on the reverse of this card.

J. Fred Johnson’s

J. Fred Johnson & Co. was on the corner of Broad and Center Streets in downtown Kingsport. My family didn’t shop there. We tended more toward Belk’s or Penney’s. However, in J. Fred’s, there was a roasted nuts kiosk at the bottom of the escalator that always carried roasted, salted jumbo pecans. A quarter’s worth would do me for an hour or so. For me, that’s a fine memory.