In November, 1985, the building that once housed The Big Store burned down. The Big Store was an all-in-one place; even the Post Office was there. It was said you could go from birth to death at The Big Store. J. Fred Johnson’s, which is now a furniture store on the west corner of Broad and Center, was a spin off, as was Hamlett-Dobson Funeral Home.
Judging from the shadows, I must have gotten there early in the morning, but it appears the firefighters had everything pretty much under control by then.
This was one of our first strip malls, on Lynn Garden Drive, when it was still the main way to Gate City. Had a Grant’s…had a Kroger…had my stepbrother’s barbershop. It even had a decent common area:
Those trees in back, striving for the sunlight, survived, I hope. Probably just bulldozed over, though. All compound things are impermanent.
A long time ago, I began the first permanent rock show on WKPT-AM. John Dotson had “Sounds of Summer” the previous year, but it ended when he went back to school or left town or something. It was a good show and broke the Easy Listening hold on that staid, NBC-affiliated station. So, I swooped in the next year, ditched “Teenage Terrace”, (which I had been on when I was in high school, from 5:00 to 6:00 pm, as I recall, with Marty running the board and we students, when we showed up, sitting at the table in the news studio) and had the 6:00 pm to midnight slot all to myself as “The Midnight Sun”. Since this was before 8-track tapes in cars became widely available, I was a success, as it were, with the kids cruising Broad Street. Then, the tapes came and I eventually moved into the afternoon Drive Time slot. The fact that, for the most part, I had to buy my own records for the show and management had the nerve to put out something like this cloth sticker: “Like it is”, my ass. The phrase was a joke by this time. The ellipse is 4″ on the horizontal axis and 2-1/2″ on the vertical.
“The famous Rotherwood Farm at the junction of the North and South Forks of the Holston River” bottom: “Kingsport, Tenn. in the distance”
This is one of a series of cards published by T.J. Stephenson, Kingsport, Tenn.
I have 20 unduplicated cards of this series and I know there are more. The earliest postmark I’ve found is 1925 and the latest is 1942. They were around for a while.
The cards were printed in Cambridge MA under the “Tichnor Quality View” name.
Here’s the back:
The plate numbers on the cards I have run from 121027 to 121042 (I don’t have all of them).
This is on the corner of Fairview and West Sullivan. Back in the 50s, this was Barker’s Grocery. The owners lived upstairs. Down from it somewhere was a Yellow Front Market. There were a number of homes and small businesses here once, before the city decided that the increase in traffic warranted a complete redo of that area where Sullivan Street goes under the railroad. The roads in the area; West Sullivan Street, West Center Street and Ft. Robinson Drive, were also rerouted slightly.
The home next to the building is of the period, also. It’s not in this picture, but if you look carefully, should you be idly passing by this area sometime, you’ll see a stonework gatepost with the original iron still in it just west of the brick house. I suspect it was the entrance once to the Roller property.
This Duotone card’s picture was taken, I think, around 1915 or 16 from about halfway up Cement Hill. The street to the left is Shelby, with the Big Store on the left. The bank, the building with the columns, is on the corner of Broad and Main. Note there’s no Church Circle, but there is the old school and the old Presbyterian Church just to the right of where Shelby ends at Sullivan.
It looks as if someone at the publishing company (CT – Curt Teich – in Chicago) inked in some of the fainter lines of the buildings in the background, which makes it harder to identify them. However, I think the building I live in is there.
This card was “published by Kingsport Drug Store”. Standard double-back for the time. Typical penny postcard.
I picked this card up at a flea market recently for 25 cents. It was published by Creed Studios in Bristol and measures 8-3/4″ by 3-1/2″. This had to have been published before 2005, when Skoby’s left the Barger hands. The card was printed by Dexter Press in West Nyack NY. ID number is 78651-D. I see these often.
I miss Skoby’s. I didn’t eat there often, but I always enjoyed it when I did. The Back Room was rather a middle-class dive, but the restaurant’s food was excellent.
I miss the old Peerless, too. At one time, it was in the same class as Skoby’s.
This is 469 West Sullivan Street. In 1959, this was Porterfield City Feed Company, next to City Poultry and Egg Company. CP&ECo was on the corner of Sullivan and what was then Island Street (It’s now Mission Street). The buildings are no longer there.
When I was a kid, I had a paper route in downtown Kingsport. One year, the Kingsport Times-News, then located on Market Street, held some sort of contest and I ended up winning a certificate for a turkey from CP&Eco, just in time for Thanksgiving. It was, as I recall, a mingy turkey, but it was quite welcome, since my stepdad wasn’t having a particularly good year. My stepdad never had a particularly good year.
When I first spied this card, I thought it was maybe from the 50s. Then I saw the old City Hall/Public Library on the left and revised my estimate of the printing date. Later, I scored this specific card, which is dated, sort of. “Holston Heights”? We always called it “Cement Hill”. This is an E.C. Kropp card, printed in Milwaukee. Plate #4844-N. 333 miles is about right for Washington, D.C. (and a million other places).
Hello, Dobyns-Taylor Warehouse. In some places on the current building, the old sign is beginning to show through. This is a T. J. Stephenson postcard. A Tichenor printing, plate 12140. It’s postmarked on the back: Kingsport Tenn. July 11 3-pm 1935.
The postmark covers some of the message. “spent night in (unreadable) we’ll spend night in Tenn. then head for home. Krepps”
Addressed to: Mrs. M. Valentine & Family Keymar Carroll (?) 6 (?) 0 Md.
Bob Lawrence's Kingsport 