Tag Archives: Kingsport TN

Cherokee Ice House

Leave a reply

Cherokee Ice House was a long-time supplier of ice to homes and businesses in Kingsport. This is, I think (it is in a frame and I’m reluctant to take it apart), a wrapper for a bag of ice. A gallon of water weighs a little over 8 pounds, so this represents a gallon of ice, maybe. I don’t know from weighing ice…
This is what Cherokee Ice House looked like in 1977:

This drawing got me started on representing some of the buildings in and around downtown Kingsport. I did them in pencil, which gained me the comment, from a local art gallery, “Don’t you do anything in color?”.
Yes, I do, but I like doing buildings in black-and-white. Monochrome me.

I did a bit of research on this company. It appears to have been in business as early as 1922 (Kingsport Coal & Ice – they also made ice cream – began in 1917 on Main Street).
It was also known as “Cherokee Ice Plant, Old Kingsport”. Ice in the 1940’s was 60 cents per 100 pounds, 50 cents for commercial interests. There was a huge ice shortage in July of 1946. Ice had to be shipped in from as far away as Kentucky. Scott Roller owned Cherokee Ice in that year.

Cherokee Monument

Leave a reply

This is on Long Island.
Top left: Wolf Clan Central: Cherokee Seal Top right: Blue Clan
Left: Deer Clan
The central plaque:
(an arrow indicating north then a silhouette of Long Island)
Long Island of the Holston
Sacred Cherokee Ground
Relinquished by Treaty on Jan. 7, 1806.
3.6 acres returned to the Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians by the
City of Kingsport on July 16, 1976
Richard Bevington. John A. Crowe
Mayor Principal Chief
Central Right: Bird Clan
Lower right: Paint Clan Central: Wild Potato Clan Right: Long Hair Clan

Books on Kingsport

Leave a reply

Four books and a pamphlet about Kingsport: (l to r) Kingsport: A Romance of Industry, by Howard Long. 1928 (Sevier Press); the Rotary Club 1937 green book of Kingsport with forward by J. Fred Johnson; the Rotary Club 1946 blue book of Kingsport with forward by C.P. Edwards, Jr.; the Rotary Club 1951 beige book of Kingsport with forward by William F. Freehoff, Jr.; and The Early Years on Bays Mountain, by Muriel Millar Clark Spoden. 1975 (privately printed). Except for the pamphlet on Bays Mountain history, these books are quite similar, most taking their lead from the Long book.
In my opinion, the best book about modern Kingsport’s history is Margaret Ripley Wolfe’s “Kingsport Tennessee A Planned American City” (1987, University of Kentucky Press), which I’ve commented on before.

Watauga Street

Leave a reply

Here we are looking east down the 900 block of Watauga. It’s around 1934 or so. This is a T.J. Stephenson commissioned card printed by Tichnor Brothers. It appears a little faded, but it’s not. This was done before Tichnor introduced the embossing (linen pattern) roller into the printing process which supported more vivid colors.

Kingsport Federal

Leave a reply

In 1930, as the Nation slowly eased into the Great Depression, a group of Kingsport rainmakers gathered to form a new institution: Kingsport Federal Building and Savings Association (Wolfe, Margaret Ripley. Kingsport Tennessee A Planned American City. University of Kentucky Press 1987). The bank became Heritage Federal late in 1978 and folded its tents in 1995.

B. F. Goodrich

Leave a reply

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.

Photo Paperweight

Leave a reply

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.