This was the location of Kingsport’s B. F. Goodrich store in the 1940s (it’s now Anchor Antiques). B. F. Goodrich was a very early company to put rubber on the road.
When I was a kid, B. F. Goodrich was on the corner of New and Cherokee Streets, 324 Cherokee, the former home of Kroger. I bought my Schwinn bike there after my second-hand English bike rattled its last transmission.
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.
If you can’t find a pen when you need one, don’t blame the advertising specialty companies!
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.
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
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.
These are from an unopened deck of promotional playing cards produced by Carta Mundi (“Cards for the World”) when the company had a location at 10444 Wallace Alley Street in Kingsport from 1996 to 2007.
According to a business website, Carta Mundi provided wholesale playing cards, game books, lotto games, memory games, game kits, educational games, board games, playing cards, video games, puzzles, dice, and classic games.
The facility moved to Dallas in 2007.
This badge, shown as made by Stoffel Seals of Nyack NY, is undated. However, Stoffel Seals moved to Tallapoosa GA sometime in the early 2000’s and was acquired by TydenBrooks in 2010. Check the link for all the gory details.
Interestingly (to me), Stoffel Seals made almost all of the domestic airline “kiddie wings” during the heyday of air travel. I ought to know, since I’ve got a ton of them.
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 