I
CITY OF INDUSTRIES 5
SCHOOLS CHURCHES HOMES
From the collection of the
z n z m
Prejinger v Jjibrary
San Francisco, California 2006
KINGSPORT
TENNESSEE
KINGSPORT
CITY OF INDUSTRIES
SCHOOLS CHURCHES
AND HOMES
9 3 7
Published by the
ROTARY CLUB
N N
G
N
COPYRIGHT, 1937
BY THE ROTARY CLUB OF
KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE
Printed and Bound in the U. S. A. by KINGSPORT PRESS, INC., KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE
DEDICATED
TO THE MEN AND WOMEN
WHOSE UNSELFISH DEVOTION
AND
UNSTINTED SERVICE
HAVE MADE
KINGSPORT
A
FRIENDLY, HAPPY, PROSPEROUS COMMUNITY
FOREWORD
This little book is the response to the oft-repeated request of visitors to Kingsport for a concise story of the origin, development and present status of this some- what unique industrial community. An earnest at- tempt has been made to keep it free from any trace of the bombastic and to portray a bit of the real romance which it is believed exists in the hitherto untold stories of business.
Frequently we are asked what motivating spirit has been most apparent in the building of this city of in- dustries, schools, churches and homes. Were I to undertake to define the spirit underlying every step in the growth and development of Kingsport, from the days of its humblest beginnings until now, I could not avoid the assertion that the spirit, if it be a spirit, is one of mutual helpfulness and a willingness to sub- merge selfish interests beneath the individual effort to assure the greater good for the greater number.
Rotary has a slogan "Service above Self — he profits most who serves the best." Without attempting to eulogize, it is my firm conviction that those words truly epitomize what may be said to be the spirit of Kingsport. It matters not what we endeavor to ac- complish, in the words of a one-time visitor to Kings-
vii
port "the humanics are more important than the mechanics."
So it has been and will continue to be with Kings- port — if it is not good for the community, it is not good for the individual or for the business activity within that community — in that we have a funda- mental truth.
}. FRED JOHNSON
Kingsport, February 15, 1937
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CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD vii
PART ONE
KlNGSPORT, THE ClTY I
KlNGSPORT, THE COMMUNITY 31
THE KINGSPORT NEIGHBORHOOD 95
PART TWO
INDUSTRIAL KINGSPORT .. 113
TENNESSEE EASTMAN CORPORATION 115
BORDEN MILLS, INC 127
BLUE RIDGE GLASS CORPORATION .... 131
PENNSYLVANIA-DIXIE CEMENT CORPORATION . . 135
KINGSPORT FOUNDRY AND MANUFACTURING CORPORATION 137
SLIP-NOT BELTING CORPORATION 141
MEAD CORPORATION — KINGSPORT DIVISION .... 143
HOLLISTON MILLS OF TENNESSEE, INC 149
KINGSPORT PRESS, INC 151
KINGSPORT ELECTRIC COMPANY 161
GENERAL SHALE PRODUCTS CORPORATION 163
CITIZENS SUPPLY CORPORATION 165
PET DAIRY PRODUCTS COMPANY 169
KINGSPORT PUBLISHING COMPANY 171
SOUTHERN OXYGEN COMPANY 172
WELDING AND MACHINE CORPORATION 173
MILLER-SMITH HOSIERY MILL 174
FISHER-BECK HOSIERY MILL 175
SMOKY MOUNTAINS HOSIERY MILLS 176
SOUTHERN MAID DAIRY PRODUCTS CORPORATION . . 177
ix
UNION COAL AND SUPPLY CORPORATION 178
KINGSPORT LUMBER AND SUPPLY COMPANY . . . . 179
HOWARD-DUCKETT COMPANY l8o
KINGSPORT CHERO-COLA COMPANY 181
KINGSPORT LAUNDRY COMPANY 182
KINGSPORT HIDE & METAL COMPANY 183
PART THREE
BANKING, POWER, TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATIONS,
HOTELS, REAL ESTATE 185
FIRST NATIONAL BANK 187
KINGSPORT INDUSTRIAL BANK 188
}. L. REYNOLDS FINANCE COMPANY 189
KINGSPORT UTILITIES, INCORPORATED 191
CAROLINA, CLINCHFIELD & OHIO RAILROAD .... 197
MASON & DIXON LINES 201
TRI-CITY AIRPORT 203
INTER-MOUNTAIN TELEPHONE COMPANY 205
THE KINGSPORT INN 209
THE HOMESTEAD HOTEL 213
KINGSPORT IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION 215
FAIRACRES 219
PART FOUR
CLASSIFIED BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY . . 223
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Aerial View of Kingsport Inside Front Cover
Industrial Kingsport — Night Scene Frontis
PART ONE
Holston River, North and South Forks .... 8
Old Netherland Hotel . 14
Rotherwood 16
Old Elm Tree . . . . 18
Map of Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroad ... 24
View of Civic Circle .... 30
City Building 34
City Water Works 36
Clinchfield Railroad Station ... .... 38
Police Department, Fire Department 40
Schools 42, 46, 48
Churches . 50, 52
Hospital and Nurses Home 56
Public Library 60
The Church Orphanage 62
Country Club 64
Tri-City Airport 66
Broad Street 68
Street Scenes 70, 80, 86
Civic Center 72
Post Office and Federal Building 74
Homes 76, 78, 82, 84, 88
Motor Highway Map . 96
Natural Tunnel, Virginia . 98
Kingsport from Chestnut (Eden's) Ridge 102
Cattle Raising 112
PART TWO
PAGE
Tennessee Eastman Corporation 114, 116, 118, 120, 122, 124
Borden Mills, Inc 126
Oakdale Village .128
Blue Ridge Glass Corporation . 130
Pennsylvania-Dixie Cement Corporation . . . . 134
Kingsport Foundry and Manufacturing Corporation 138
Slip-Not Belting Corporation 140
Mead Corporation 144, 146
Holliston Mills of Tennessee, Inc 148
Kingsport Press, Inc. 152, 156, 158
Kingsport Electric Company 160
General Shale Products Corporation 162
Citizens Supply Corporation 166
Pet Dairy Products Company 168
"The Kingsport Times" 170
Rugged Scenery 184
PART THREE
First National Bank 186
Kingsport Utilities, Incorporated . . . 190, 194
Along the Clinchfield Route ... ... 196
Mason & Dixon Lines 200
Tri-City Airport, Administration Building and Hangar 204
Inter-Mountain Telephone Company .... 206
Kingsport Inn . 208, 210
Kingsport Improvement Company 214
Fairacres . . 218, 220
Good Roads Abound 222
Map of Kingsport Inside Back Cover
xn
PART ONE KINGSPORT
Written by John A. Piquet, contributor to national magazines on the development of cities and regions in the United States
KINGSPORT
Incorporated: March 2, 1917
Government: Mayor, Council, City Manager Plan
City Plan: Dr. John Nolen, Cambridge, Mass.
City Charter : Drawn by Bureau of Municipal Research of the Rockefeller Foundation
City Water System: Bay's Mountain Reservoir, in- stalled 1916; Holston River System, installed 1928
Paved Streets: 21.5 miles on December i, 1936
Assessed valuation of all property: $13,692,593.00 on December i, 1936
Bonded Indebtedness on December 31, 1936: School Bonds . . $730,000.00
Property Owners 47,960.40
Sewage 40,000.00
Water System 726,000.00
City Improvement 547,560.00
Public Improvement 320,000.00
General Improvement 66,000.00
Total $2,477,520.40
Population :
Inside Corporation Limits {Census, 1930) .11,914 Outside Corporation Limits, but served by city (Estimated, 1936) 12,000
Total 23?9I4
Schools: Enrollment, pupils 2,890; value of buildings and equipment, $988,753.00
Churches: Membership, 5885; Sunday School enroll- ment, 4017. Valuation of Church property, $531,- 890.00
Employment in industries: 8000 persons
2
KINGSPORT— THE CITY
Nestling amid the hills of East Tennessee, along the shores of the Holston River, the unique industrial city of Kingsport presents a most interesting panorama to the stranger viewing the scene for the first time. With an elevation of about 1200 feet above sea level, the saucer-shaped city area is completely encircled with mountain ranges towering above the lofty church spires and the industrial smoke-stacks. At first glimpse one realizes that this is no unplanned community al- lowed to grow in helter-skelter fashion.
A sense of newness is counteracted by an atmosphere of sturdiness; the evidences of modernness with an in- termingling of peoples that suggest the possibility of age-old hardihood; the sight of farm wagons and trucks parked side-by-side with dozens of the newest in automobiles and trucks; an ordered activity within the peaceful environment of an agricultural area.
History is often stranger than fiction. A com- munity has grown amid these hills in less than two decades; a prosperous, intensely active city has been built in what was once a quiet agricultural valley by taking advantage of natural resources and in giving de- sired employment to thousands of worthy native sons and daughters. And in this community are to be
found some rather modern ideas in industrial develop- ment and in civic statesmanship.
The site, the people, the diversified nature of the industries, the plan upon which the city was con- structed and the apparent harmony prevailing all about, interests and intrigues the visitor and encourage* research into the past as well as present conditions. One is immediately impressed with the necessity for knowing more about the beginnings of Kingsport, and in indulging one's fancy a real romance in empire building is uncovered.
Early Years
Howard Long, in his book "Kingsport, a Romance of Industry," states:
"But back of all this, unknown to many of the citizens themselves perhaps, there is a heritage of honor, bravery, romance and colorful setting which would be a pride to any of the oldest cities in the country. Indian braves have hunted wild game and have lit their solemn council fires where the big indus- trial plants now lift their stacks to the heavens, the feet of hallowed pioneers like Daniel Boone have made their wilderness trails across the meadows where Kingsport now stands. The spots today occupied by business buildings and attractive homes were many times dyed with the blood of pioneer heroes and heroines in the almost continuous Indian wars of the early days, or the blood of other heroes in the Revolu- tionary War and the conflict between the states — blood that made possible the homes and business enter-
prises of today. Presidents of the United States have been entertained there many times, and many of the men and women whose names have held places of honor in the histories of the country have called Kingsport their home."
The name Kingsport became the accepted title about 1774, deriving its designation from Col. James King, who established a mill at the mouth of Reedy Creek in that year. Many have supposed the title came from a desire to name the community for King George of England. Col. King used the Boat Yard, on the south fork of the Holston and just west of the present Kingsport, as a shipping point for iron, bacon, salt and other commodities to towns down the Holston and Tennessee Rivers. In consequence of this, the port be- came known as "King's Port," later contracted to "Kingsport." Prior to the coming of Col. King, the site had been known by various names. The Indians probably knew it by the synonym, in their dialect, of Peace Island, or Big Island. Early white explorers also referred to it by those same names and as Long Island, by which title the three-mile-long island in the Holston still is designated. In earlier days Kingsport bore the title of Island Flats, Fort Robinson, Fort Patrick Henry, then Christiansville for Gilbert Christian who bought an extensive tract intending to build a town, and for Dr. Frederick A. Ross who established Rotherwood. The Boat Yard appears to have been the generally accepted title until Col. King established his mill. "Dunmore's War," by Twaite and Kellogg, mentions briefly, "King's Mill Station was at the mouth of Reedy
Creek, near the present site of Kingsport, Sullivan County, Tennessee, in the year 1774." Some historians are inclined to credit the "King" portion of the name to William King, of Abingdon, Virginia, owner of the salt works north of that town, who had his salt hauled to the Boat Yard for shipment.
Sullivan County boundary lines were established in 1779 and the county officially organized in 1780. Blountville has been the county seat since 1795. Until 1802, the people of Long Island, and the present area of Kingsport, were unsettled as to what state they owed allegiance; they were successively a part of Virginia, then North Carolina, afterward within the ill-fated State of Franklin, and finally officially in Tennessee.
Much has been written and might be repeated here, if space permitted, concerning historic happenings in and about the present Kingsport. But we must pass hurriedly over more than a century and a half of pioneering and self-reliant mountain farming amid the wilderness of East Tennessee, pausing only to hazard the opinion that, out of those years of privation and pioneering came the heritage of ingenuity, sturdy character and perseverance, so evident today in the native people who make Kingsport their home.
The first white expedition into the Holston valley wilderness occurred in 1748, but it was a full two years later before a permanent settlement was begun, near the junction of the north and south branches of the Holston River, near the site of historic Rotherwood, now owned by John B. Dennis, one of the founders of modern Kingsport. Dr. Thomas Walker, intrepid
6
pioneer surveyor and explorer, led both parties. In his diary he mentions under the entry of March 31: "We kept down Reedy Creek to Holston where we meas- ured an Elm 25 feet round three feet from the ground. . . ." This elm still stands close by the forks of the Holston.
The coming of the white men across the mountains into the fertile valley of the Holston and their subse- quent settlements did not, at first, cause difficulty with the Cherokees who were inclined to be well disposed toward the pioneer settlers. But not for long was peace and harmony to pervade the valley. Early in 1761, hostilities began and until a treaty was consum- mated with the Cherokees in 1777, whereby they ceded much of their lands, including their tribal jewel — Long Island — the settlers were rarely free from fight- ing. In fact, even after this episode, sporadic forays of other Indian tribes kept the hardy pioneers busily engaged until as late as 1812.
Despite the imminent danger from the Indians, these not-to-be-daunted empire builders found time to take an active part in the Revolutionary War, notably at King's Mountain, where they assisted nobly in routing the British. It is conceded by historians that in this decisive battle of the Revolution, the dauntless fron- tiersmen in their homespun clothing and coonskin caps, armed with squirrel rifles, actually won the bat- tle.
In commenting upon the treaty with the Cherokees, whereby the settlers won the rich lands of the valley and the prized Long Island, it is worthy to note that
this spot was, even in those days, the cross-roads of eastern America, for from it radiated the war and trading paths of the Indians, north, south, east and west. Today, with the intersection of two of the great- est national highway systems, the Great Lakes to Gulf and the Lee Highways at Kingsport, history appears to be repeating itself.
Into this same valley, in 1769, came Daniel Boone from his home in North Carolina. Boone was one of the most colorful figures of the early frontier days. As Howard Long states: "Perhaps there were other pioneers who played just as important a part as Boone in wresting the land from the Indians; but the life of Boone has been, and will ever be, covered with a glamour and romance that place him in a class by himself. For this reason the ground where the foot of Daniel Boone has trod is hallowed ground to the people of East Tennessee and Kentucky. . . . On this trip he passed directly over the spot where Kingsport now stands, thence through Moccasin Gap into Vir- ginia. This route has since been known as the Boone Trail, and markers have been placed along the way. One of these markers — a simple slab of granite with a bronze plate — now stands by the Circle, in the city of Kingsport."
Again quoting Howard Long, we learn something of the ancestry of the early settlers: "they were mostly Scotch-Irish, with some German, French and English immigrants."
Fort Robinson, the Battle of Island Flats, Dunmore's War, Fort Patrick Henry (the second fort on the site
influence of north and south fortes of the Holston River and site of Port Robinson
of Fort Robinson), Col. William Christian's campaign against the Indians and many other incidents and battles of the early days are fully recorded in history, as is the part which the pioneers in the Holston valleys played in those tragic and eventful happenings.
Theodore Roosevelt, in his "Winning of the West," mentions the decisive battle of "Island Flats" in 1776, and his description of the battlefield "... a narrow strip of bottom, covered by black oak saplings, and lying between two parallel ridges," fixes the spot as the present site of the business section of Kingsport.
It was from a spot on the bank of the Holston, near the present Tennessee Eastman plant, on the morning of December 22, 1779, that a ^-year-old girl, later to be identified as Rachel Donelson, wife of General Andrew Jackson, boarded one of the great flatboats that composed a strange flotilla of thirty boats, to travel down the Holston and Tennessee Rivers, through the wilderness, and up the Cumberland to French Salt Lick in Middle Tennessee.
Among the many illustrious and great men who either visited or resided in Kingsport in the olden days, including Presidents Polk and Andrew Johnson, none seems quite as near to the people of the Kings- port community as Andrew Jackson, for both Jackson and his wife lived in or near Kingsport in their youth. Jackson boarded for a time with William Cobb, near the Holston River in Sullivan County, and practiced law at the courts of Abingdon and Jonesboro, having been admitted to the bar in the latter place in 1788.
10
Industrial Beginnings
Oliver Taylor, in his historical sketch of the city, wrote: "After the treaty of 1783 there was a long peace. Industries sprang up and farming was carried on unmolested. One of the industries . . . was the powder mill. In 1806 Kingsport had as many as four powder mills in operation for powder then was as nec- essary in the family as salt. A charcoal iron furnace and iron works were built and the tilt-hammer pounded away along the river. The oil mills turned out at least pure linseed oil. Tanneries made leather to replace rawhide moccasins. The grist mill and saw mill were worked together. Following these, Dr. Frederick A. Ross, a pioneer Presbyterian minister, who inherited a large area in this section, erected a cotton mill at the west end of Long Island, hauling in his raw cotton from Knoxville."
Writing again in his "Historic Sullivan" Taylor says: "The most prosperous industry in Sullivan and East Tennessee was the manufacture of iron. There were twenty-nine furnaces scattered throughout this section. Sullivan and Carter counties had thirteen. The Tilt- hammer iron works, operated by water power at the shoals in Kingsport, thrived for a number of years."
In 1834, Eastin Morris, a Nashville banker, and publisher of "The East Tennessee Gazetteer," referred briefly to Kingsport in his publication: "Kingsport, a post town in Sullivan County, situated on the north side of the Holston River, at a place known by the name of Boat Yard, one mile above the junction with the north fork, — contains about 50 families, 317 in-
ii
habitants, two taverns, two stores, two physicians, one Methodist and one Presbyterian church, and there is a good bridge across the north fork." (It is of interest to note that this "good bridge" disappeared in 1874 and for many years it was necessary to ford the river.)
Chancellor Allison, sometime later, described the village as having "a hatter shop, a tin shop, a tailor, a coppersmith, a wagon maker, blacksmith, shoemaker, and harness and saddle maker."
Other writers, from time to time, referred to Kings- port as being at the head of navigation for Upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia; to the "thou- sands of barrels of salt which could be seen stacked upon the river bank, waiting for tides and flat-boats to carry it off"; to the large mercantile business done there; and to the hemp factory and spinning mills.
Railroads did not come to East Tennessee and South- west Virginia until shortly before the Civil War, hence King's Port, located on the main post road from Virginia points to those of middle Tennessee and at the head of navigation on the Holston River, developed a real importance as a shipping point. It is interesting to know that the boats used in those days were of the flatboat type, with small covered cabins and of rather cheap construction, usually about sixty to seventy feet long. The boats were built at the boat- yard and were invariably sold upon competing the somewhat hazardous trip to Knoxville, a tance of some 242 miles by water. The sale prir seldom ex- ceeded five dollars and the crew had then to walk back to Kingsport, or ride the stage coach. The record
12
walking time for the homeward trip is said to have been set by one Hezekiah Lewis, who regularly covered the distance in just 24 hours.
Again quoting Oliver Taylor, we find in his "His- toric Sullivan"; "In the year 1850, when the building of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia railroad was contemplated, some of the promoters . . . wanted the road to go by the present road by Jonesboro. The natural route was by Kingsport. . . . Those interested in the other route approached the people of Kingsport with a proposition. They said . . . 'You have a river for your transportation, give us the railroad and we will see that you get an appropriation for cleaning out a channel in the Holston that will make it navigable for steamboats.' They even went so far as to send two steamboats up there to prove the feasibility of the plan. The 'Mary McKinney' and 'Cassandra' pufred into port. . . . The boats came in on a tide and as they had not counted on the rapid ebb of this mountain river, the receding water left them grounded on a sand bar. The event was exciting and served the object of the promoters' efforts. . . . The railroad went by Jonesboro, but the river appropriation never went any- where."
With the coming of the railroad to Bristol, the shipping business waned and eventually declined to a point w^°re it was virtually abandoned.
The Netherland Hotel
With the importance of Kingsport as a post town and a shipping and trading point, came the necessity
13
•mm
iiiji
I
for suitable accommodations for travellers. Richard Netherland, big land and slave owner and a man of consequence in the community, built the awkward but impressive structure of frame and stone, in 1811. To- day, amid the modern homes which adjoin it along the modern Lee Highway, it seems a bit out of place, yet proudly holds its place, marked by a suitable bronze tablet on an outer wall.
The Netherland Hotel, known today as the "old Tavern," was in those days the haven of rest for Presi- dents, statesmen, military officers, business men and other travellers. President Andrew Jackson, on his trips from the Hermitage at Nashville to Washington, and on the thirty-day return drive by coach, frequently spent several days here. Similarly, Presidents Andrew Johnson and James K. Polk made it a stopping point.
Rotherwood
The stately country estate, located on the west bank of the Holston, overlooking the confluence of the two forks of the river, has had a romantic and epochal history directly connected with the early industries of Kingsport and later with the actual building of the present city.
The original home, built in 1818, by Dr. Frederick A. Ross, a Presbyterian minister, was located across the Lee Highway on the terraced slopes still visible from the road, and was burned in the last year of the Civil War. The present home was reconstructed in 1850 by Dr. Ross for his daughter Rowena, later Mrs. Edward Temple, by combining two parallel houses which
15
The Netherland Hotel as it stands today
had been standing on the present site since 1823.
Dr. Ross was born at Cobham, Cumberland County, Virginia, in 1796 and at the age of 21 became heir to a large estate, heavily encumbered with debts. Young Ross had visited the family lands in Hawkins County, Tennessee, just over the Holston from Kingsport, and decided to settle there. Here he built his home, the original Rotherwood, named by him for the castle of Cedric the Saxon in Scott's "Ivanhoe" — a book of which he was particularly fond. To this home he brought his bride in 1823, Miss Theodocia Vance of Jonesboro. Two years later young Ross was ordained to preach and for many years served as a minister, never asking or receiving compensation.
Ross also built a bridge across the North Fork River, since known as the north fork of the Holston, at al- most the identical spot where the bridge stands today.
Dr. Ross became interested in various manufactur- ing enterprises, none of which appear to have been overly successful. Finally, he began the culture of silk worms and the manufacture of silk. As Howard Long puts it: "The rather uncertain success which attended this venture added to his zeal along the line of manufacturing enterprise, and consequently, about the middle of the nineteenth century, he risked his whole estate in a cotton factory, allied with partners who were probably just about as visionary as himself. The factory was built on the bank of the North Fork River, just above the "Old Elm" and the bold spring at its foot. The remains of this old mill are still there. . . . But the mill itself was a failure, which consist-
'resent-day Rotherwood: top, fronting on river', lower, rear view with formal garden
ently lost money for its founders from the first turn of its water-propelled wheel. The cumulative result of it all was that in 1852 the master of Rotherwood lost his entire magnificent estate."
The estate and stately Rotherwood came then into the hands of Joshua Phipps. Early in the twentieth century it came into the possession of the Kingsport Farms, Incorporated, (later the Kingsport Improve- ment Corporation), and today is owned and occupied by John B. Dennis, modern Kingsport's founder and greatest benefactor. Since his ownership, needed re- pairs and renovations have been made ; a new entrance to the grounds and a sunken garden constructed, to- gether with new servants' quarters, but the old charm of both exterior and interior have been studiously preserved and today, under his administration, Rotherwood continues, in the words of Howard Long : "to shed the beneficent glow of its legendary and en- thralling hospitality, and is today the most delightful spot about the young industrial city of Kingsport."
The Civil War and Industry
True to their predominating Scotch-Irish ancestry, the people of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia have been, and still are, an indomitable race, home- loving, peaceful and patriotic. At the same time they have been quick to rally to the support of what they have considered a just cause.
During the years of the Civil War, the peoples around Kingsport were torn between two allegiances — to that of their Federal government, and to the cause of
19
he Old Elm: showing old cotton mill
the South of which they were such a rooted part. The problem was a difficult one and could be answered only on an individual basis.
Howard Long sums it up most ably when he says: "For four years the village of Boat Yard, or Kingsport, which for a long time had known only friendship and contentment, was torn by hatred, distrust, military raids, and the anguish of want, suffering and death. The plough stood forgotten in the furrow, the infant factories along the Holston, with the exception of the powdermills, stood idle and neglected, and forgotten too was the busy shipping industry on the river."
While there were a number of skirmishes about Kingsport during the period of the war, there was but one engagement that might be dignified as a battle. This was the battle of Rotherwood, which occurred on December 13, 1864, at which time the Federal com- mander, General George Stoneman, leaving Knoxville with a force estimated at five thousand and marching easterly, overtook a small detachment of Confederate troops under the command of Col. R. C. Morgan, at the forks of the Holston. After nearly a full day of fighting, the federal officer sent a flanking party across the north fork of the river, a considerable distance above the junction of the two streams, and after a masterly defense on the part of the small Confederate band, succeeded in capturing the entire contingent. General Stoneman and his men continued on to Bristol, where they captured more prisoners, destroyed the railroad tracks and depots, and seized stores of food and ammunition.
20
Industry Slumbers
As might naturally be expected, the war left the Kingsport community broken in spirit, demoralized socially, disorganized and paralyzed from an indus- trial, shipping and agricultural standpoint. Farms were neglected, run-down and with no slaves to work them. The new railroad from Knoxville to Bristol, by way of Jonesboro, had virtually ruined their ship- ping business, as it had put to an end the usefulness of the stage coach and Kingsport's importance as a post- road town. Stunned by the cumulative conditions, the once lusty infant industries had drooped and died dur- ing the war, and no one seemed to possess the means or ability to resuscitate them.
The once active community, denuded of those vitalizing forces of business which had stimulated its progress, gradually fell into a deep and devastating sleep — a slumber that was to last until the roar of the first locomotive on the newly completed Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad, as it crossed the peace- ful valley near the long disused Indian War Trail, was to give portend of a new and mightier attempt to build an industrial Kingsport far beyond the com- prehension of those first pioneer industrialists.
History records but one notable attempt, during those three decades of slumber, to start industry anew. Sometime after 1885, two brothers, David and William Roller, joined with C. N. Jordan in establishing a brick and glazed tile plant at Kingsport, which, be- cause of its later origin, might be considered the prede- cessor of the present General Shale Products
21
Corporation. The Roller Farm, across the Holston from the old boat-yard, is still one of the finest agri- cultural properties along the river, extending to the foot-hills of adjacent Bay's Mountain.
Nearly a century and a half had passed into history when the railroad, in 1895, flung its steel bordered path, much as the pioneer explorers had hewn their trail, across hill and valley, land and water, but the objectives were identical — to open up a new section for the betterment of humanity, and in the process to tap the undisturbed natural resources lying inert, ready for the hand of man.
The Railroad Arrives
As far back as 1832, John C. Calhoun advocated the building of a railroad from Charleston, South Caro- lina to Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1836 a company was formed for that purpose. After making extensive sur- veys and constructing eighteen miles of road in South Carolina, the project rested until 1887 when other capitalists, led by a former Union soldier, General John T. Wilder, organized a new company known as the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railway, with the intention of constructing a road from Charleston to Cincinnati. Again surveys were made and this time two short stretches of road actually built; one strip in South Carolina, another in Tennes- see just south of Johnson City. Failure of the English bankers backing the project forced a suspension of construction. Sold under foreclosure proceedings, the property changed hands, a new company was formed
22
titled the Ohio River and Charleston Railway Com- pany, which built another short strip of road, this time extending the line which had reached Chestoa, Tennessee, southward to within five miles of Hunt- dale, North Carolina.
In 1902, George L. Carter, (himself a native of southwest Virginia and whose death occurred during December, 1936) and associates acquired the road, organized a new company, bought immense tracts of coal land in what has become known as the "Clinch- field Section," and extended the line from Huntdale, to Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
The year 1905 marked an epoch in the history of Kingsport. During that year Mr. Carter interested the present owners, through Blair and Company of New. York, in the possibility of completing the project and it was at this point that John B. Den- nis, himself associated with Blair and Company, took over the building of the present Carolina, Clinch- field and Ohio Railroad, known today as "The Clinchfield Route."
Fortunate indeed, were the fates that placed the ultimate completion of this long contemplated rail- road in the hands of an industrialist as well as a builder of railroads, for Mr. Dennis envisioned not only the completion of a railroad that would tap the extended, and as yet untouched areas rich in natural resources, but planned the development of industrial communi- ties along the route to provide employment for many thousands and to furnish profitable tonnage for this new enterprise.
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Aiurkell!
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1
MAP OF THE
Clinchfield Railroad Company
From the day his hand first touched the helm, his leadership, his planning and his undaunted courage carried the entire undertaking steadily forward, despite many a handicap that would have deterred one of less resourcefulness. Right here, it might be said, was the crucial point in the future of Kings- port, for had not the Clinchfield Road been completed north from Johnson City to connect with other trunk line railroads, Kingsport could not have become the industrial city it now is. It should be remembered that in 1905, in fact until as late as 1925, there were no highways capable of supporting the huge motor transports which today vie with the railroads in handling freight. There had to be a rail- road or there would have been no Kingsport.
By 1909, the road had been completed from Dante, Virginia, to Spartanburg, South Carolina, the present southern terminus of the Clinchfield, and by 1915 it had been completed from Dante to Elkhorn City, Kentucky, thus connecting the entire territory with many trunk line railroads in the distance of 309 miles from Spartanburg to Elkhorn City and providing adequate transportation facilities for an hitherto un- served section.
With the bringing to Kingsport of the railroad in 1909 came the awakening impulse that was destined to stir the slumbering valley of the Holston into pulsa- tions of new industrial life, the results of which are, even now, only partially visible in the lusty and rapidly growing Kingsport. In the bustle of growth this impulse has been forgotten.
25
of the Clinchfield Route and connecting lines
Industry Reawakens
The Clinchfield Railroad completed beyond Kings- port, with the prospect of an early completion of the entire route, Mr. Dennis and his associates turned their minds to the development of industry as a means of creating communities along their railroad.
At that time, just 27 years ago, the present Kings- port was little more than a wide expanse of meadow land 1200 feet above sea level, encircled by wooded ranges, protecting it from wind and storm and giv- ing it a uniformly equable climate. True, to the west of the railroad and along the river, there was a cluster of old homes in what is now called Old Kings- port, but those homes and their location left much to be desired as a possible site for civic development. The railroad station in those days was merely a de- crepit box car, stripped of its trucks and reposing serenely on posts, near the location of the present freight station. Of highways as we know them today, there were none. The common mode of travel was on horse or mule-back, or by wagon — even the T- Model Ford was an uncommon sight, and only then where there were good dirt roads.
But the eye of the engineer and the mind of the empire builder see beyond the immediate limitations and hazards; those eyes envision and that mind plans years into the future and comprehends what can be made to result from using the facilities at hand, molding them to fit into the master plan of a com- munity that shall rise upon virgin soil.
Here was an admirable natural location for a city
26
and with it, within easy working distance, a wealth of almost untouched natural resources — virgin tracts of timber, immense supplies of shale, limestone and silica, other rich mineral resources, with the coal fields of Virginia and Kentucky close at hand; transportation facilities for shipping manufactured articles to the markets of the country; and an almost 100 per cent pure American population, which for nearly two centuries had been hewing out their own destinies, unaided, and were eager for the opportuni- ties for greater development.
Of these native people, Howard Long has this to say: "Perhaps to this latter consideration was attached more significance than to all of the other factors com- bined, for the city builders, in their preconceived ideas of an ideal community, were not unmindful of the fact that after all, people, not buildings and streets, make a city. The same moral stamina which enables people to wrest a wilderness from the hands of savages in a pioneer age, . . . will make industrial empire builders in a commercial age."
And thus industry began again along the banks of the Holston, stimulated by a new generation of the same sturdy, dependable pioneers that originally popu- lated the valley, guided this time by minds made practical by experience, and backed by the financial resources necessary to insure permanent success. Above all, and intermingled with each projected activity, was the prior planning and fitting of each component part into the structure of the modern in- dustrial community.
27
Many visitors to Kingsport have termed it a "unique" industrial community. Its uniqueness, if such be the correct term, lies principally in the as- semblage of a group of industries, both large and small, by careful selection; rigid elimination of the undesirable, either from type of product, management or danger of operation; strict adherance to the rule of maintaining diversification; a careful avoidance of at- tempting to crowd in industries beyond the supply of labor available in the immediate vicinity, merely for the sake of preventing some other community from securing such an industry; and finally, the practice of endeavoring to interest industries that are both independent and interdependent of each other (as to raw materials and products), with a willingness to work together for the general good of the entire com- munity and its inhabitants.
As might be anticipated, the first industries located on the site of the planned community, were those which employed the readily available natural re- sources. First came a cement plant, then one to make brick; after those an extract plant, followed later by a tannery. Meanwhile, an ample community power plant was built to furnish electricity. By 1917, a hosiery mill and a pulp mill had been installed, fol- lowed in 1920 by a methanol (wood alcohol) distilla- tion plant, and in 1922 by a book manufacturing and bookcloth making establishment, which brought also the inclusion of paper making equipment by the pulp mill. In 1924 came a cotton spinning and weaving mill, a belting plant and shortly thereafter, manu-
28
facturers of glass, bookcloth, weavers of broad silk and other hosiery knitting plants. In 1932 the methanol plant added the manufacture of acetate yarns, plastics, the processing of timber and lumber, box-shooks, and many other products. With these major industries have come useful smaller businesses.
Thus, from 1909 to 1936, was the industrial fabric of Kingsport woven. Missing are many of those major industries of the stirring days of 1806 to 1865, but in their stead are to be found modern plants, of size and capacity that fire the imagination and thrill the visitor. Here is a planned balance be- tween industries great and small; of those which em- ploy largely men, those that employ mostly women, and those which employ both; of those which need workers to do the simple and less technical operations, and those requiring the highest form of craftsman- ship in their production; an evenly balanced diversity of employment making for greater stability of earn- ing power and equal opportunities for all workers.
Upon this industrial foundation has been built a city, the story of which has been characterized by many writers in words similar to those employed by the New York Times in reviewing "Kingsport, A Romance of Industry" by Howard Long: ". . . here is one of the marvelous stories of the Western World, because along with rapid and immense commercial development has gone, . . . the definite purpose of making a clean, wholesome, beautiful city of healthy, happy, busy human beings all cooperating in the general welfare."
29
KINGSPORT— THE COMMUNITY
Approaching Kingsport over the Lee Highway from Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia, or over the Great Lakes to Gulf Highway from Kentucky and Virginia, the visitor travelling by automobile is treated to a pano- ramic pre-view of the community that is thought- provoking.
Accustomed as one is to older communities in which little or no planning was possible, or if possible was not attempted, the first impression of Kingsport is that of a young city, the building of which was accom- plished by a definite, predetermined planning, setting aside particular areas for residential, business and in- dustrial development with due forethought and re- striction for ample school sites surrounded by adequate parks and playgrounds.
One instinctively misses the usual crowding to- gether of homes and factories, of schools and business establishments, on congested, narrow streets with a lack of space, light and air. Here, one's first impres- sion is one of space — of air and sunlight. One looks in vain for the usual conglomerate mass of stores of all sizes and shapes, cheap hotels, imitation skyscrapers and peanut stands found in some cities, all crowded together and all leaning over narrow streets in which a confused swarm of traffic travels at a snail's pace to get nowhere. Nor does one see nearby the customary slums, interspersed with factories or with the melan- choly remains of weatherbeaten mansions.
Upon inquiry, one learns the reason. Here is a
livic Circle, Kingsport
community that was planned in advance, before a store, a factory or a home was built.
Planning the City
Back in 1915, when the vision of an industrial com- munity was first projected, it was apparent that this site, unhampered by previous plan or buildings provided an ideal opportunity to avoid the common errors in community growth, and to develop a city lay- out that would permit expansion for many years to come, without disturbing or distorting the original conception. Accordingly, Dr. John Nolen, eminent city planner and engineer, of Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, was engaged to plan a city that should eventually house at least fifty-thousand people, with many industries and business establishments to pro- vide employment and the servicing for such a metrop- olis.
Those interested will find depicted on the inside front and back cover pages of this modest book, graphic views of the entire Kingsport area, including the city proper. From these a comprehensive idea may be obtained, not only of the actual engineering layout of the city, but of the topography of the country as well.
Dr. Nolen was given a free hand in his planning. His first consideration was the locating of residential areas employing the higher altitudes, with the finer outlooks and the better drainage, away from the dust and noise of the industrial and business sections, wherever possible. The level tract between the higher
32
elevations assigned to residential sections and the long level meadows along the railroad and the south fork of the Holston River designated as industrial sites, was laid out for the business section. The industrial plants would require large, reasonably level sites for their buildings, accessible to water, transportation and to the business section, within easy travel of the resi- dential groupings. This three-way planning, adapted to the terrain of the country, proved an admirable grouping.
Obviously, this was but the merest skeleton of the ultimate plan. Broad avenues were laid off with ample parkways, designed for beauty and a practical assurance against lack of parking facilities. Attractive sites, with ample acreage, were set apart for schools, churches, parks and playgrounds — an important ad- junct in the developing of citizenship. A hospital site was set-ofT and it is worthy of note that in 1935, just twenty years later, a beautiful and strictly modern city hospital was constructed on this very site, saved for that purpose all these years.
The business section is in almost the exact geo- graphic center of the city. The main artery of the city, starting at the railroad station and traversing the center of the business district, extends about a quarter of a mile, to a gently rising eminence, at which point is a street encircling a small park. From this circle six streets radiate, not unlike the spokes in a wheel, and other streets, following the circumference of the original circle, in turn encircle the city in gradually widening arcs, until the terrain prevents a continuance
33
* m&t
™ 'JSP?*
1
and the outlying streets resume more regular direc- tions.
In the beginning provisions were made for the con- crete paving of all streets within the city proper, with requirements for concrete curbs, walks, storm and sanitary sewers and for seeding and planting the park- ways along both sides of every street and avenue. Sensible building restrictions were imposed and an experienced landscape architect engaged to supervise the planting of all street parkways, public parks, school plots, etc.
City Government
Desiring to have nothing short of the best form of municipal government, the early projectors of the city prepared a charter embodying their ideas of the form and scope of government the new city should have and submitted it to the Bureau of Munici- pal Research of the Rockefeller Foundation for their criticism and improvement. This institution, having made an exhaustive study of city charters all over the world, was able to make many suggestions for im- provement. Features which might have been tried, but which had proven failures elsewhere, were dis- carded and practical substitutions made. The wisdom of such careful planning has been demonstrated since.
The charter was approved by the Tennessee General Assembly and the Governor in March, 1917. This charter provides for the operation of the city manager form of municipal government, with the people electing five aldermen by popular vote, two
35
Municipal Building: city offices, public library, police department, city jail, court house.
and three being elected alternately in biennial elec- tions. These aldermen in turn elect one of their own number as mayor and also appoint the city manager. The city manager selects the heads of the various city departments — finance, legal, police, fire, health, public works and utilities. The board of mayor and aldermen also appoints the board of education and this board appoints the superintendent of schools, who in turn employs the principals and teachers in the school system. The board of education also selects the trustees of the public library. The board of mayor and aldermen likewise appoints a city judge to preside over the municipal police court.
Kingsport was the first city in Tennessee to adopt this form of government. Since its adoption several other cities have adopted the same plan.
The city offices, the city court, the jail and the public library are all housed in the central city building, most conveniently located one block from the main busi- ness street.
Water Supply
It was understood when the city was first planned that the original water supply would not be adequate for a city of over ten thousand inhabitants and only for that maximum population provided the industries that might be added did not require an excessive amount of processing water. By 1927 the Bay's Mountain Reservoir, which is a natural impounding reservoir atop the mountain, gave evidence of being inadequate. A nationally known firm of engineers
37
lunicipal Water System: (/) Pumping Station; (2} iver intake, (_j) settling, filtration and treating basins
I
1
s^
was engaged to make a survey of facilities available and a consulting board of city officials, citizens and local plant executives was appointed, serving without compensation, to make recommendations for the build- ing of a new and adequate system to care for the needs of the city for an indefinite period. After these reports and recommendations were received, the re- sult was submitted to the people by referendum vote, resulting in a decision to construct a new system im- mediately. Thus, Kingsport has two distinct sources of supply, one the Bay's Mountain Reservoir, the other a modern pumping, filtration and treating system handling water from the Holston River, taken from the river far above the city and away from any danger of pollution. An interesting side-light, giving evi- dence of engineering technique, is the tying in of the Bay's Mountain main to the new system in such a manner as to utilize the pressure of that water supply to operate the pumps which draw the water from the river to the new settling, filtering and treating plant, from which it is pumped into the city mains.
Fire Protection
From high-pressure water mains, with strategically located hydrants on all streets, is available a never diminishing supply of water. At a central fire station, on call from many dozens of automatic fire alarm boxes and responding to telephone alarms, is main- tained an adequate number of modern automotive fire-fighting machines, with pressure pumps, chemical extinguisher tanks, pulmotor and every known means
39
lilroad Station, Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio R.R.
of protection for property, ably manned by an ex- perienced corps of paid firemen on duty both night and day.
Nearly every industrial plant is equipped with a sprinkler system and auxiliary fire-fighting equipment, and maintains fire-drills for the protection of their em- ployees.
Police Protection
It is reasonably safe to assert that few, if any, cities the size of Kingsport, operate as complete a system of police protection as is found here. In addition to a full staff of patrolmen in the business and nearby residential districts, there are radio equipped cruiser cars, motor-cycle patrolmen and detectives for the residential districts and city streets. Compulsory stopping of automobiles at all intersecting main arteries is required and danger signs warn the visitor to that efTect. In the business district automatic signal lights control traffic, augmented by traffic officers stationed at central points, to further protect life and property.
Kingsport was one of the first of the smaller cities to install fingerprint records and maintain a finger- print division. All itinerant, indigent male persons applying to the relief station for food or shelter are re- quired to appear at the police station for fingerprint- ing before any aid will be given. Several cases are on record where this procedure has assisted in appre- hending persons wanted in other cities and their rec- ords are often requested.
41
/) Police Department; (2) Fire Department
m" f
lit
Educational System
"People, not buildings, make a city" wrote Howard Long in his book on Kingsport. Evidences of the recognition of this vital truth are found throughout the community and most particularly in the planning and development of the city's educational system.
Realizing the opportunity which existed for avoid- ing the mistakes so common in communities where educational facilities and policies have been developed after growing pains were encountered, the foresighted leaders in Kingsport decided to carefully plan their educational program before the growth of the school population presented the necessity for constant change. Likewise, realizing the value of expert counsel, they turned to the officials of Columbia University for guidance in projecting an educational program that should provide for expansion and modernization as time and experience directed.
Again, in the planning of the city, foresight was demonstrated in placing school sites throughout the city, although many of them would not be utilized for several years, perhaps never. Sensible allowance was made for the school population that might be logically expected to appear eventually in a city of the size contemplated. In each school site was al- located sufficient land, (from four and one-half to nine acres), to permit the building of ample play- grounds, athletic fields and space for flowers, shrubs and trees. The sites were placed convenient to resi- dential areas, but away from the business and in- dustrial districts, thus insuring an abundance of
43
) Dobyns-Bennett High School; (2) Junior High School
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sunshine, fresh air and quiet surroundings. Schools oppressed by the din of traffic, the smoke of factories, or the crowding of nearby stores and homes are absent here — the surroundings of all school buildings are conducive to the health and safety of the children. The park and playground areas around each school afford opportunity for play in woods and fields as though in the deep country-side.
From an architectural standpoint, the community's school buildings give evidence of careful planning, wise choice of materials and a sense of the artistic. All buildings are of brick and concrete, fireproof, modern in layout and equipment. The High School especially, is an outstanding example of school archi- tecture, as are the new Junior High and the newest grade school. In the High School and the Junior High School are commodious classrooms, large audi- toriums, gymnasiums and a full complement of laboratories and other teaching facilities. In the new- est grade school have been provided special rooms and facilities for classes in special subjects and for the care of those backward students which present a problem to the teachers in all communities.
From the educational standpoint, Kingsport fully appreciates the importance of the teacher as a giver of information and an exemplar of ideals.
"When one considers the fact," states J. Fred John- son, an outstanding civic leader, "that a teacher is giving instruction to thirty children or more, then it follows that it is thirty times as important to find a good teacher as it is to find almost anybody else."
45
This observation reflects the desire of the community that its children shall have the best possible start in life. In the nineteen years of Kingsport's schools, no teacher has been chosen for political reasons nor have any had to resort to political intrigue to hold their positions. Merit is the sole test.
The high degree of educational preparation required for a teaching position is evidenced by the fact that of the 102 teachers in the city's schools, 81 have had uni- versity training. Although the majority of the teachers come from the Kingsport region and nearby localities, a number are recruited from distant states for certain specialized knowledge, or to give adequate representa- tion to outside points of view.
Emphasis is laid on practical as well as cultural sub- jects. High school girls are required to attend classes in cooking and sewing. For boys, manual training and mechanical drawings are obligatory. In addition, there are courses in home economics, business methods, thrift, chemistry, architecture, public health, and home decoration, as well as in English, mathematics, music, the languages, and other customary subjects. Hygiene and physiology are taught by competent physicians.
Practical education is also carried on by the local industries. The distance of the city from large indus- trial centers made it necessary for the local manufac- turing plants to train their new workers. Foreman- ship training courses have also been given. In many Kingsport plants, practically the entire force of work- ers and supervisors are local people who have received their instruction in the plant in which they work.
47
Schools: (/) Lincoln, (2) Washington
Only a few officials and technical experts have been brought in from outside. Opportunity is therefore present for workers to learn on the job and to advance themselves.
In cooperation with the University of Tennessee, at Knoxville, several of the industrial plants have insti- tuted the plan of training university students in pairs, alternating three months each, first in the plant and then at the University. Such students are drawn largely from the schools of Engineering and Chemistry at present. Opportunity is thus given deserving young men to earn as they learn and the industry profits eventually by securing graduate students already trained in their particular industrial requirements.
When modern Kingsport was first laid out the only education in the vicinity was provided in a single school, which had one teacher and 32 pupils. The term lasted only four months and the total expenses were under $200. To-day there are several great mod- ern buildings in which nearly 3000 children receive instruction for the full school term. The annual edu- cational budget for 1937 is $155,243.75.
Due emphasis is laicSapon school athletics. From Kingsport's High School football teams young men have gone to colleges and universities, there to dis- tinguish themselves not only in scholarship, but in athletic prowess. The names of Bobbie Dodd, (Grant- land Rice's All-American selection), Paul Hug, Albert Agett and several others are already well known in athletic circles, while new names are appearing each season. Baseball, football, basket ball and track are
49
Schools: (/) Jac/^son, (2) Lee, (j) Douglas {colored)
actively a part of the program. A bandmaster is en- gaged on a full time basis and the High School Band is known throughout the South, having participated in many contests, earning deserved recognition.
Religious Atmosphere
As the visitor to Kingsport stands at the Civic Circle, at the head of the main business avenue, and gazes about, four imposing church edifices grouped around the upper segment of the circle, catch the eye. Inquiry develops the information that within the corporate limits of the community are no less than ten churches and three missions not including the Salvation Army Chapel. A review of the church and Sunday school membership figures, coupled with the physical investment in church properties, is sufficient to convince the most incredulous that Kingsport is a religiously inclined community.
A ministerial council exists in which the majority of the religious leaders of the city participate. There appears to be no religious competition in the com- munity— each family and person find ample oppor- tunity to follow their individual religious proclivities.
The peoples of this mountainous area have shown distinct religious proclivities since the earliest settlers braved the unconquered forests. As one gazes upon the Sunday morning exodus from the various church edifices and hears the frank discussion of the sermons of the day, one cannot avoid the impression that the same seriousness with respect to religion still exists among these twentieth century church-goers.
51
Churches: (/) First Presbyterian, (2) First Baptist, (3} St. Caul's Episcopal, (4) Broad St. Methodist, (5) First Meth- odist Episcopal
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53
Health and Hospitalization
Uppermost in the minds of the builders of the city was the necessity for planning for an abundance of open spaces, an avoidance of crowding homes together and a desire to make Kingsport a healthful community in which to live, work and enjoy life. As a result, the wide streets and avenues, the spacious home sites, the parks around the schools and in the residential areas, all afford excellent access to sunlight and fresh air. One is impressed with the fact that Kingsport, while a thriving young metropolis, still retains the atmosphere of life in the wide-open country, with city conveniences.
Children are given physical examinations in the schools, and bodily defects noted for correction at home or under the care of physicians and dentists. Indoor exercise in gymnasiums and the abundance of parks and playgrounds provide ample opportunity for health- building recreation.
Organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls and many others, contribute to the teaching of healthful out-door activities.
During the summer vacation period in the schools, a supervised play-ground is maintained by the city, aided by certain civic bodies. Here, the children of the community, and especially groups of the more youthful youngsters, are taught many out-door sports, handicraft, and certain manual arts. Safety and health are thus encouraged.
In the industries one finds a unanimous attempt to foster health and safety. From the earliest days of
54
industrial development, the industries of Kingsport have enthusiastically supported every known means for promoting the safety and health of their employees. They have instituted full measures advocated by the American Safety Council; provided the facilities of group-life, accident and health insurance; cooperated with the original nursing service in the homes, pro- vided by one of the insurance companies for several years; many establishments require physical examina- tion before employment and provide periodic free physical examinations for their employees; at least four of the industries, quite naturally those employing the greater number of persons, maintain a doctor or a nurse (in certain instances, both) in attendance in their plant, both day and night. Many of the indus- tries provide recreational centers for their people, in which baseball, volley ball, hand ball, tennis, quoits and other activities are encouraged; others offer club rooms, with radios, libraries, magazines, card tables, ping-pong tables, shower baths and the like; a few operate their own cafeterias in which all may secure plain, wholesome food and some delicacies at nominal cost.
With the enactment of the Social Security Act and the enabling legislation by the Tennessee General As- sembly (December, 1936), the provisions of the Act covering Unemployment Insurance and Old Age Pensions become applicable to the workers in Kings- port. Investigation indicates that local employers are generally favorable to the institution of the intended benefits for their employees.
55
IP maw.
prf 1
Perhaps the crowning achievement in the com- munity's health program is the Holston Valley Com- munity Hospital, completed late in 1935. Kingsport has had two privately owned hospitals, both serving the needs of the community admirably, but as the city grew and the population increased, along with the in- dustrial strata, more adequate facilities were a neces- sity. Then, too, Kingsport is a merchandising and recreational rendezvous for an area extending nearly twenty-five miles in every direction from the Civic Circle. Therefore, the modern hospital service to be rendered by such an institution would extend over an area, which would embrace Scott County, Virginia, Sullivan County, Tennessee, except Bristol which has suitable facilities, and those sections of Lee and Wise Counties, Virginia, and Hawkins, Hancock and Greene Counties, Tennessee, within that radius.
The hospital, the nurses' home and the elaborate equipment cost over $300,000, a major portion of which was furnished by the Commonwealth Fund of New York, a foundation established by bequests from the late Mrs. Stephen V. Harkness. The $75,000 that it was necessary to raise locally to qualify for this gift was pledged in a remarkably short time by more than 8500 contributors throughout the Valley who gave one dollar or more. In less than a year every cent of these pledges was paid. The major industries of the city contributed on a pro-rata basis per employee.
The site of the hospital is unique in that it is only seven blocks from the center of the city, and yet is free from noise or other disturbance. When the city
57
Holston Valley Community Hospital; Nurses Home
plan went into effect in 1915 this site of ten acres was set apart for a hospital, and ever since, in spite of tempting offers, has been jealously preserved for that purpose. The buildings rest on a knoll guarded on three sides by sharp ravines, thus ensuring quiet and privacy, while almost every room commands a sweep- ing view of cheering landscapes.
The medical, surgical and nursing staff of the hos- pital appears to have been recruited with unusual care, following the requirements of the American Medical Association, and the hospital enjoys the high- est rating for a hospital of its size. The maximum ca- pacity is seventy beds. A fine auditorium is a part of the hospital, providing excellent opportunity for hold- ing clinical institutes and informative meetings for the benefit of the medical profession throughout the valley.
A Hospital Service Plan has been organized to ex- tend the facilities of the hospital to the greatest num- ber of people. Groups of employees pay seventy-five cents a month each, which entitles them to full hos- pital care up to 21 days per year. This includes opera- tions, nursing attention, X-rays, medicines and dress- ings, and other services. If a group member pays an additional twenty-five cents monthly, members of his family or other dependents can obtain a 331/3</c reduc- tion in their hospital bills. The majority of the indus- tries contribute to the expense of this plan up to a maximum of $3.00 per annum per employee.
At the close of 1936, there were 2126 members and 4111 associate members of this service plan, indicating
58
that in having extended the hospital facilities to a total of 6237 persons, on a minimum, pre-determined basis, in a little more than one year since the inception of the plan, the people of the Kingsport area are quick to appreciate and accept the benefit which such a service offers. Hospital records show that during the fourteen months the plan has been in use, 170 members and 143 of their dependents have enjoyed a total of 1,544 days °f hospitalization, equal to $5,007.34 in monetary value. These figures, of course, do not in- clude the pay patients accommodated who were not members of the Service Plan.
The casual visitor to Kingsport's new hospital comes away with the feeling that, if one has to be ill, here is the place to enjoy illness to the best.
In addition to the usual hospital facilities, this insti- tution maintains an out-patient department and has recently established an out-post service under the capable direction of an experienced nurse, formerly superintendent of the out-post section of the University of Maryland. Three general and private clinics are held each week, with a competent physician in at- tendance, giving needed medical courses without cost to residents in the hospital's service area. The location of these clinics is varied weekly.
Sullivan County is reputed to have, under the direc- tion of Dr. F. L. Moore, one of the best County Medi- cal Units in the state, just as Tennessee is given credit for having one of the best state-wide county medical services in the nation. Headquarters for Sullivan County, at Blountville, 16 miles east of Kingsport, are
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about to be housed in a fine new building, also the gift of the Commonwealth Fund.
As one would naturally expect, after viewing the many provisions for the protection of the health of the community, the city zealously guards the quality of milk, food, water; and the observance of city ordinances respecting sanitation, disposal of garbage, waste from industries, pollution of streams within the city, fire hazards, etc. Clean streets, well kept vacant lots, elimination of rubbish and periodic in- spection of sanitary and storm sewers are essential to the health of a community.
The Public Library
Blessed is the community that enjoys the privilege of a good library. Many towns and cities have libraries, some of which seem to be pervaded with the wholesome atmosphere of actual public interest. Per- haps too many are merely institutions, run by paid workers, lacking that intimate, personal touch of hu- man interest in what we read and desire to read. Not so in this community. The board of trustees is, per- haps, no different from boards serving other libraries elsewhere ; a doctor, a financier, a public official, an edu- cational director, an industrialist and two ladies, wives of other industrialists. But here is the difference — four of the men members and both of the ladies are univer- sity graduates and the ladies have been school teachers, added to which, one of the ladies is the book selector recommending to the board the titles to be purchased monthly — there is the personal interest touch which
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Public Library: (/) reading room, (2) stacks, (j) juvenile room, (4) adult stac/{ room
reveals itself vividly when one browses among the book stacks and glances at the range of titles available for public consumption. Here are books really worth reading, in infinite variety to suit every taste and all ages. A little library — yes — but credited with over 12,000 volumes and the best list of any library in any city of its size anywhere, and growing monthly in content and circulation, with two librarians in attend- ance. Dozens of current magazines, several daily papers (including the New York Times), and a most
delightful reading room complete the picture. _ The Church Orphanage
Not to be outdone by the good deeds of others, a little over two years ago, a small group of ladies com- prising representatives of several church units, started an orphanage for the destitute and forgotten little waifs who, somehow, drift into our midst, no matter where we are. Started on the proverbial "shoe-string," these women found warm hearts and ready hands to aid them in their noble work. Today, there are 20 youngsters being cared for, amid happy surround- ings and in an atmosphere of Christian devotion. Absent are the habiliments of the forsaken child, in- stead there are happy faces and an evidence of well nourished bodies and carefree minds.
The Community Chest
In Kingsport, the Community Chest plays an im- portant part in the human program of the community. Once a year, funds for all relief, youth developing,
63
'hurch Home Orphanage, Kingsport
health promoting and character building effort are raised within a week of intensive effort. The record shows that not once since the Chest was organized, (it has been operating since 1926), has it ever failed to receive subscriptions which exceeded its quota, and the collection of pledges annually exceeds 92% of the total.
The spirit behind the organization, which is com- posed of an entirely volunteer staff, is well expressed by one of the contributors who told his friends:
"The fortunate have a responsibility to the unfor- tunate. Should the heart of Kingsport cool or harden, then that sense of responsibility will have died, with disastrous effects on other activities of the community."
The Country Club
Included in the planning of the city was a tract set aside for a golf course. This was not sub-marginal or waste land, suited for no practical usage, but an area sufficient to comfortably accommodate an eighteen hole course, within five minutes drive from the Civic Center and a shorter drive or walk from the larger residential districts, directly on the Lee highway where it enters the city from Bristol. In more recent years, the new Johnson City highway, part of the Great Lakes to Gulf Highway, was built into Kingsport skirting the golf course on the east.
An eighteen hole course was laid out by E. S. Draper, landscape engineer and architect, now as- sociated with the Tennessee Valley Authority, and
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Kingsport Country Clitb, from the first tee
nlk
•Ik
nine holes were constructed. A small but commodi- ous club house, with a large and comfortable lounge room, kitchen, locker rooms, showers and caretaker's quarters was built on an eminence overlooking the first and ninth greens. Later, two tennis courts were added, and today there are four well kept courts available.
Much of a community's social life centers around its country club. In Kingsport, despite the fact that its citizens are essentially a home loving, home living and home entertaining people, the country club is the scene of much of the community's social activity, especially of the younger generation. Imagine, if you please, being able to enjoy the pleasures of a country club, with golf, tennis and social privileges, for the large sum of $24 per year single, or $36 for a family membership. Tennis memberships are but fio per year and include all of the club privileges except golf. A golf professional operates the club and gives les- sons, purveys equipment and supplies. It is not sur- prising that this club has a full membership and does better than break even each year.
Tri-city Airport
A few miles outside the city, in the triangle formed by the cities of Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport, and to be reached over a new concrete highway con- necting with the Johnson City highway, a new air- port is under construction. When completed, early in 1937, the three cities will be connected north, south, east and west by fast plane service, over the routes
Tri-city airport, from artist's drawing on aerial photograph
of the American Airlines. Already, plane service is available from a temporary field just north of Bristol, and when transferred to the new and modern port, with runways, hangar, administration building, beacons, markers and radio-beam controls, the service will be greatly augmented and the largest air-liners may enter and leave this port in safety and with dis- patch.
The building of this joint airport is an example of inter-community cooperation. It was not a simple matter to locate, amid the hills of East Tennessee, a spot large enough to accommodate an airport suffi- ciently extensive to harbor the largest ships now flying the air-lanes. A joint commission representing the three cities and two counties, Sullivan and Washington, was appointed. The counsel of air transport companies, the state aeronautical commission, the officials of the War Department in Washington, and others was se- cured. Finally, a suitable spot was found, situated geographically near the center of the triangle. Then came the problem of funds for construction, for nearly a million and three-quarter cubic yards of earth must be moved, runways constructed and much expensive equipment installed. About that time, the Works Progress Administration announced the intention of the Federal government to foster the construction of airports, and its desire to see several built in Tennes- see. Money was appropriated by the several political divisions for the purchase of the site, options taken and a request made for government aid. Two appro- priations were made by the Federal government,
Kingsport's Broad Street, looking from Circle toward railroad station
which, with the sum paid for the land, will bring the cost of the completed airport close to $900,000. When put into operation shortly, it will be one of the first class, major size airports of the nation.
History again appears to be repeating itself. As the old Indian War Paths were the main lines of passage in the early eighteenth century and the automobile highways of the present century repeated the trails, so now the argosies of the air will fly the avenues of the heavens, giving Kingsport air-line prominence. Here is an interesting repetition.
The Business District
Alighting at the railroad station, one finds himself in a parkway of shrubs, trees and flowers which al- most screen the railroad, the station and the freight depot from the business section of the city.
A broad avenue runs parallel to the railroad tracks and from it, at right angles, lead away other wide avenues, toward the more elevated areas of the city. Directly in front of the station, a wide avenue, parked in the center and bordered with grass plots and trees, extends several long blocks to the Civic Circle, from which radiate the residential streets and avenues. The business district proper extends for two wide blocks to the right and left of the central avenue. Every- where are trees bordering the streets, trees that give mute evidence to original planning and a desire for beauty. The central parkways and the grass plots along each curb and sidewalk are well kept and en- riched at occasional points with shrubbery and flowers.
Street Scenes: Broad Street from railroad station; Market Street from Broad Street
One wonders at the seeming space and absence of congested parking of cars along the main business avenue. In most cities the wide parkway in the center would have been sacrificed years ago to this necessity. The explanation is found in the employment of the open spaces back of business structures and of all vacant plots for parking lots. Graded and paved with a rolled surface of cinders or crushed rock, and hav- ing entrances and lanes marked-ofT with posts painted white, these areas serve an admirable purpose, at the same time disposing of what, in many communities, are the most unsightly spots.
Proceeding along the main business thoroughfare, one passes two motion picture theaters of obviously modern construction, while on several of the side streets, others are visible. There is a great variety of stores, some small, others larger and of the department store type; three bank buildings and, as one ap- proaches the Civic Circle, protected on all four sides by wide streets, the Kingsport Inn. Across the parked street appear the architecturally impressive office build- ing of the Kingsport Utilities, Inc., the city's electric power company, and the Post Office and Federal building. These two buildings, situated on opposite corner sites, facing on the main avenue, are the first two of a group of five structures which will eventually grace this center street. Between these buildings is a vista of well kept lawn, flanked by the cloistered facades of the edifices, at the far side of which will someday stand the proposed Public Library building. Then at the two remaining corner sites of the square,
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Kingsport's Civic Center as it will eventually appear
will be placed two office buildings, one of them, in all probability, to accommodate a trust company, and the other, a newer and more imposing central city office building. This will then be the Civic Center.
On the streets parallel to and crossing the main busi- ness avenue are other stores, office buildings, automo- bile retailers and the dozens of establishments that make up a city's business structure. The preponder- ance of brick used in construction, with the absence of "false-fronts," lends harmony and an air of dignity usually lacking in the young and unplanned com- munity.
Motorists arriving by either the Lee or the Lakes to Gulf Highways pass along an important business thoroughfare running at right angles to the main busi- ness artery just described and passing around the Civic Circle, from which radiate the streets leading to the residential areas, the churches and the hospital. Some- day, perhaps only a few years hence, motor traffic will pass through the city on a more direct route, a block nearer the main business district, on another and wider avenue, passing the present City Office building and continuing through one section of the industrial district, across a new bridge over Reedy Creek and on to the Lee Highway in the western edge of the city proper. All of this has been planned in the original conception of the city.
Homes
One gains the impression that the city fathers, in planning for a city of sizeable proportions, were not
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Post Office and Federal Building
sufficiently swayed by the prospect of selling industrial sites to the extent that they permitted a curtailing of the finest areas for residential properties. On the con- trary, and governed, it might be assumed, by the terrain of the country, the major number of the many residential areas are on the higher ground, above and away from the business and industrial sections. The gently undulating heights form natural groupings for home sites, varying in size of plot and in number of plots to a group.
Whatever distinction Kingsport may deserve as a city designed for industry, it deserves greater distinc- tion as a city of planned homes. Here is no common mill village with a few handsome homes and hundreds of mediocre dwellings. From the smallest and least expensive of its housings, to the largest and costliest homes that grace its finer residential boulevards, all give evidence of the architect's touch and skill.
No less than four architects of national reputation had a hand in the designing of the public buildings, schools, churches and homes of Kingsport. Their aim was to combine usefulness and beauty in each struc- ture, and variety in the city as a whole. A fourth re- quirement was the adoption of a style that would be appropriate to the region and its history. Early Ameri- can architecture therefore predominates. In some of the public buildings such as the Inn, with its colon- naded veranda; the High School with similar entrance portico and clock-tower spire; the First Methodist and First Baptist Churches, likewise graced with columns; and the Utilities Building and the Post Office with ap-
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Group of private liomes
PUT
propriate facades, one finds reminders of restored Williamsburg, Virginia.
The brick, the stucco with beam lacings and even the frame dwellings carry good design and there is a wealth of variety in form, size and treatment. Brick appears to be predominant, due perhaps to its local production in many varieties. Stucco is also a favorite material, again due, possibly, to the availability of local material.
Variety is also present in groupings and location. The gently rolling nature of the site lends diversity even to the elevation of the residences and has been used to form unusual groupings of homes, as well as to plot thoroughfares that curve and climb, thus avoid- ing the commonplace, the flat and the checkerboard pattern so often found. The majority of the building plots are not less than fifty feet wide in front and gen- erally from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, or more in depth. Many are of more generous dimen- sions.
Large numbers of the smaller homes were built at one time under unified direction and with the use of locally manufactured brick, cement, and building lumber. Mass production methods were thus com- bined with architectural variety to produce homes for the average family at reduced cost. In addition, people desiring to own their own homes were given twenty years to pay for them by means of small monthly payments. It is evident that with such mass produc- tion methods as were used, a sensible control of style was exercised.
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Planned Housing groups: (/) Hammond Avenue, (2) White City Circle, (3) Shelby Street
A City Beautiful
One is impressed with the prevalence of designed planting around homes, regardless of size, location or importance. A question as to the underlying cause brought the answer that the services of a landscape gardening expert were made available to household- ers free, along with the purchase of shrubbery and flowering plants from a nursery established for this purpose.
A substantial percentage of homes have a command- ing view of the city and the winding Holston river dis- appearing among the distant hills, while to the south Bays Mountain and to the north the Clinch Mountains are seen towering a thousand feet above the valley. To the southeast looms crater-shaped Chimney Top Moun- tain, with the mountains of North Carolina in the background. To the west, across Reedy Creek Valley, are visible the far flung ranges of the Cumberlands and to the east the distant peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Within these homes, modern conveniences abound. There is no natural or artificial gas for lighting and fuel in Kingsport. Electricity is the ready, practical and comparatively inexpensive energy for power, light- ing and cooking. Coal, wood and in a few homes oil, is used for heating. Natural gas has been located a few miles across the Virginia line to the north, bearing promise of later availability. Electrical refrigeration, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, mangles, irons, clocks, fans and other modern mechanical conven- iences are everywhere visible. Radios are popular and
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Street Scenes: (/) Linville Street, West, (2) Watanga Street, (j1) Longi'iew Circle
the city enjoys good radio receptivity. In the majority of homes, including those in the industrial villages, modern plumbing, with hot and cold running water and bath rooms are the order of the day.
Mention has been made of the park sites around school buildings. In nearly every residential group- ing, some area has been intentionally set aside, the natural foliage preserved or ordered planting done to provide parks in which children may play and to in- sure open spaces for sunshine and fresh air. The larger the developed grouping of homes, the larger the park area. In the industrial village of "Oakdale," for example, several acres of the forest primeval, with brook in dale and rock on hill, have been carefully retained by the city in perpetuity, for the protection of the home-owners.
Truly, Kingsport is a community of homes — attrac- tive, livable and substantial.
Social and Recreational Activities
In Kingsport one finds the usual complement of civic clubs, Rotary and Kiwanis; Business and Pro- fessional Women; Virginia, Book, Wednesday, Alpha Delphian and many other women's and church bodies; the Parent Teachers', Shrine, American Legion and Auxiliary; many young people's units, together with several industrial fellowship and educational groups.
Bowling is popular and the alleys are operated by the Rotary Club, the proceeds being used for the pur- chase of milk for undernourished children. Several industrial teams bowl regularly.
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fanned Housing Groups: (/) Oakdale Corner, (2) Center Street, (j) Shale Products Corp'n Village
The American Legion is about to start construction on a Recreation Park near the Country Club, to con- tain a fine fresh water swimming pool and other recreational features.
A City Concert Band is an established institution, giving open-air concerts in a band stand near the Civic Circle, during the summer months.
Kingsport is a baseball town. Two years ago there was arranged an exhibition game between the Cleve- land Indians and the New York Giants. For more than a decade, each summer, a carefully organized local industrial league, composed of teams from five of the largest plants, have played twilight baseball on a regular schedule culminating in a "little world's series" for the championship of the community. As evidence of the popularity of the sport, about 4,000 fans bought season tickets for the 1936 schedule, and a surplus of funds was donated to a worthy local activity.
Football is likewise very popular. The local High School has developed some quite phenomenal teams at times during the past decade. It lost but one game in the 1936 season and travelled as far as Miami, Florida to play. Attendance at these games is on a par with that at the league baseball games and intense rivalry exists between the various school teams in East Tennessee.
A local soccer team was organized in 1936 and had a successful season. A renewed interest in this sport is already apparent this year.
Basketball, by both boys and girls teams, is another sport finding favor with the followers of high school
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ipartment Houses: (/) Allen, (2) Wex-Jo-Leon, (j) Reed
athletics and inter-community rivalry is very keen.
Golf and tennis have the usual number of devotees to be found in any community of reasonable size and many inter-club matches with out-of-town teams are played at the Country Club and on private and indus- trial courts.
Social functions abound; dances, card parties, con- certs, musicales, lectures, amateur dramatics, and the usual variety of home entertainment are frequent diversions.
Many saddle horses are kept. The proximity of forest and meadow, with numerous bridle paths and country dirt roads nearby, afford ample opportunity to enjoy riding.
The Holston River offers swimming and boating; mountains suitable for climbing surround the city; picnic spots are legion in number — everywhere is there opportunity for young or old, well-to-do or those in moderate circumstances, to enjoy the added hours of leisure that long hours of daylight permit. Dwellers within a few minutes walk or ride from their daily activities have more time for recreation.
A Decentralized Community
Kingsport does not stop at the city limits. Perhaps forty per cent of the workers in Kingsport's industries, and a goodly ratio of those engaged in other pursuits within the city, have their homes out in the surround- ing country-side, within a radius of 25 miles.
Several obvious reasons appear to the interested visi- tor. Due to the rapid growth, especially during the
Street Scenes: (/) Linville Street, East, (2) Watauga Street, East, (j) Oakdale Circle
W^lprfllfj
last three years, of several of the community's indus- tries, an acute housing shortage has existed. In prior years this same shortage of homes has occurred from time to time.
But the main reason goes back farther than this. From the earliest days of the city, Kingsport's indus- trial personnel has been recruited from the families residing on the hills and in the valleys round about the city. From the farms came the young men and women eagerly seeking new opportunities made avail- able in this new industrial city. They left parents and relatives back on the farms and in the small com- munities where they were raised. With steady em- ployment, an assured income and a bright future ahead, their thoughts turn to marriage, a family and a home. What more logical step than to establish the new fire- side close by the parental hearthstone, perhaps on land that was theirs' by birthright ? Good roads make quick travel to and from the city; for many the first major investment was in an automobile for that very pur- pose, if not, neighbors gladly oblige their friends, as they, too, travel to work.
Thrift also played an important part in the locating of the home. In the building of a new city many im- provements are required which cost money and taxes are naturally higher within, than without, the city.
A more powerful factor, however, appears to have been the rural heritage of the people themselves. They have been reared to recognize the standing and in- dependence of the land owner; they are accustomed to wide-open spaces and timber lands, to farms and gar-
89
Group of private homes
dens and cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens of their own ; they want plenty of elbow room. They like to hear the twittering of the robins in the early morning, the call of the katydids at night, undisturbed by the roar of the locomotive and the shrill call of the factory whistle; they like to feel the pride of ownership in a garden, in cattle and bees and fruit trees. They enjoy walking around their estate, in the bright twilight of the long summer evenings, after work in town is over and supper has been partaken of, observing the growth of the corn and potatoes they have planted, and the development of their hogs and calves. And they value the beauty of the unobstructed sunsets, the distant mountains> the nearby farms; they love the song of brooks and enjoy tramping the cool expanses under the trees where they romped as children.
Working hours in the factories of Kingsport like- wise create an incentive for rural living. The eight hour day is prevalent in the majority of plants, thus giving their workers extra hours of daylight for their own pursuits. In plants operating, as some do, two and three shifts, many workers enjoy morning or after- noon hours for recreation or for work about home.
Certain of the industrial leaders of Kingsport, be- lieving in the whole program of the dilution of rural populations with industry, particularly that associated with products of this area, have maintained that the practical and permanent solution of the employee- during-depression-problem could be attained through the careful integration of agriculture and industry. The industrial worker living on the ancestral farm,
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has ample time and opportunity for building up a reserve vocation on his farm to which he may retire, temporarily, during slack periods and with the cash reserve from industrial earnings, maintain him- self and his family in reasonable comfort and safety until times improve. Naturally, and without publicity, this very experiment has been taking place around Kingsport during the past ten years, fostered almost entirely by the people themselves, engendered by the employment offered in the nearby industries. How successful it has been may be judged by the evident prosperity of the workers of Kingsport, the oversub- scription of the Community Chest campaigns all dur- ing the depression years, and the constant building which has prevailed. During the years 1934-35-36 nearly 1500 homes have been built, about 1000 of which were on small rural tracts outside the city.
"These workers," states the head of one of Kings- port's industries, "reflect in their cheerful countenance the enjoyment they feel in balancing their indoor work with gardening and other outdoor pursuits. They keep fit, and what's more, if it is necessary to close down the plant in a slack period, they occupy the idle time in improving their property, cultivating their land, and putting themselves that much more ahead of the inevitable ups-and-downs of life."
Kingsport Serves the World
Ask a man on the streets of Kingsport where he works and he looks you in the eye and answers with the dignity of a justifiable pride in the establishment
of which he is a part. He appears to feel a possessive interest in the business, not alone his employment in it. And well he may, for the products from this in- dustrial community go out into the world to add com- fort, safety, education and pleasure to the lives of countless millions.
The average citizen of any community, throughout our land and in many foreign climes, if he were to analyse the source of many of the daily necessities of home, personal and business life, would find they origi- nated in the little city of Kingsport, Tennessee!
Early in the morning of an average day, Mr. Citi- zen may don underwear, shirt and socks, the former made from cotton spun and woven and the latter from cellulose acetate yarn produced here. Doubtless, Mrs. Citizen's attractive house dress, her lingerie, her hose and even her kerchief, came from that same type of acetate yarn, as did her husband's necktie and the draperies that adorn the windows in their home. Per- chance, their house is of Kingsport brick and the win- dow shades are also from this Southern city.
Starting to business, Mr. Citizen steps out along a concrete sidewalk made with Kingsport ingredients, and climbs into his car. Rolling along the highway, he looks through safety glass in the windshield prob- ably made of two sheets of glass and an acetate com- bining film that originated here; grasps the steering wheel, touches the horn button and works the gadgets on the dashboard all of which were produced from plastic molding composition made in Kingsport. The concrete highway reminds him of a Kingsport product.
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Arriving at his office, Mr. Citizen gazes with justifi- able pride at the fine buildings constructed of Kings- port brick, cement and lumber; splendidly lighted by large windows, the glass in which came from here. The safety wire glass in the revolving doors of the office entrance, the glass in the office partitions and the safety glass in elevator-wells, skylights and fire- walls were all made in the local glass plant.
Walking through his factory, again on concrete floors, he observes with satisfaction the smoothly run- ning machinery, the electric furnace equipment, the gears, hoppers, fans, and speed reducers, in all of which might be found some parts coming from Kingsport. Even the leather belting that transmits power from motors to machines, and whirls at high speed without danger of slipping oft the pulleys was manufactured in Kingsport.
During the course of the day, our friend looks at the calendar, studies a map, makes notes on a tablet, thumbs the labels on some merchandise, consults a catalog, refreshes himself from an individual drinking cup, dictates to his secretary a general letter to be mimeographed, and she in turn addresses the envelopes —and all of which are made from pulp or paper pro- duced in Kingsport, from wood from nearby forests, with water drawn from the historic Holston River. He signs his letters with a fountain pen whose case is also of local plastic; perhaps he must catch a noon train to a nearby city and, lunching on the train, he eats food cooked over charcoal briquets produced by the methanol distillation plant at Kingsport, while the
93
fresh fruit composing his dessert was transported over thousands of miles in cars heated in winter with the same brand of charcoal. As the train rushes onward, it crosses bridges and culverts, dashes in and out of stations, all constructed of brick or cement, reminding him again of Kingsport. At one point, a new concrete bridge is being built and the train crawls slowly over a temporary trestle of heavy timbers on which is barely discernible the stencilled name of "Kingsport." Re- turning to his home town that night, he climbs again into his car and wends his way homeward past more homes and farms; on the latter he sees many silos, water tanks and troughs, dairy floors, again of brick or concrete.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Citizen, in happy anticipation of the husband's return, is dressing for dinner. The gown she selects is made of a lustrous fabric that rivals pure silk in its sheen and durability; even the maker's label is woven from cotton and acetate yarn. She ar- ranges her hair with a comb and adds some costume jewelry, both prepared from Kingsport plastic. The daughter of the house rushes in from seeing a feature picture at a local theater, the mother little realizing that the safety of her child has been protected by the non-inflammable film made also from cellulose acetate produced in the industrial city of Kingsport. In comes the young hopeful of the family with a Kodak filled with pictures taken on the photographic film manu- factured from Kingsport chemicals.
Upon his arrival home, Mr. Citizen finds the house comfortably heated, thanks to the smooth burning of
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the dirt-free high quality coal which has been thoroughly cleaned at the mine by machinery made in Kingsport. At dinner, the cloth and napkins used are, no doubt, of cotton and acetate yarns, and the food containers are of glass, all of which had their origin in materials coming from Kingsport factories.
After dinner, the family gathers in the library. Son and daughter are busily engaged with their school studies, using text and reference books made in Kings- port, from paper, bookcloth and other materials pro- duced there. Mother is enjoying one of the newest fiction titles, while Mr. Citizen relaxes after a strenuous day with his favorite mystery author and around the walls of the cozy room are shelf after shelf filled with a choice collection of biography, poetry, fiction, humor, travel, history and the necessary encyclopedias and reference books of a well balanced library for the home circle, all of which, perchance, were the handiwork of the workers of Kingsport!
Verily, the makers of the better mouse-trap have caused the world to make a beaten path to their door!
THE KINGSPORT NEIGHBORHOOD
Wide concrete highways connect Kingsport with the outer world, as does the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad. The Clinchfield, as it is commonly called, is primarily a freight road; passenger trans- portation, except for points along its own line, is not voluminous. Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia, 24 miles to the northeast, and Johnson City, Tennessee, 20 miles to the southeast, are on main highways and on the
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rsvmc Marli
main line of the Southern Railway. The Clinchfield connects with the Southern and the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroads at Johnson City. Travellers by train from Washington and the northeast usually leave the train at Bristol, while those from New Orleans, St. Louis and Chicago points, com- ing through Knoxville, prefer Johnson City. From either of the two nearby cities it is but a short and pleasant motor ride to Kingsport and the preferred method of travel.
The Lee Highway connects Kingsport with Knox- ville, 95 miles to the southwest, and with Roanoke, Vir- ginia, 182 miles northeast. The Dixie Highway going south brings the traveller to Asheville, N. C., 105 miles distant, while the nearest large center on this route north of Kingsport is Ashland, Kentucky, ap- proximately 230 miles to the north. Both routes in reaching or leaving Kingsport pass through magnifi- cent mountain scenery, passable on safe roads at all seasons of the year.
Following the motor trail north, through Virginia and Kentucky, the motorist finds he is in historic country; here trudged Daniel Boone on his explora- tions, as from the site of present Kingsport he began his famous Wilderness Road of frontier days; here, too, is the scene of "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," from the gifted pen of John Fox, Jr. Along this same route, one may visit the Natural Tunnel of Virginia and the famous Cumberland Gap, at one point look- ing across sections of three states, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky.
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Motor roads from five states converge at Kings- port; the Great Smol^y Mountain National Parl{, Unal{a and Pisgah National Forests are close-by
Natural Tunnel and Caverns
It was no less a personage than Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, wife of the President, who remarked, on a recent visit to the Natural Tunnel: "It is even more wonderful than the Natural Bridge of Virginia!"
This rugged mountain formation is in reality a natural bridge. Views of the chasm give an idea of its size in comparison with the railroad train far below. The tunnel, carved by nature underneath the bridge, is 1557 feet long, while the chasm at its highest point is 750 feet above the stream flowing below!
Until the improvement of the Dixie Highway route, few outside this immediate territory were acquainted with the existence of so spectacular a natural forma- tion.
Eden's Ridge
Approaching Kingsport by motor from Bristol on the Virginia border, the highway winds pleasantly up to the top of a range of hills, mentioned in historic writings as Eden's Ridge. Today, it is known as Chest- nut Ridge. One is tempted to tarry awhile at the sum- mit for below stretches the Holston Valley and the gleaming Holston River, winding westwards for ten miles before it converges with the north fork of the same stream at Rotherwood, and disappears amid the distant hills. To the east are the Blue Ridge Moun- tains of Virginia, to the west the ranges of the Cum- berlands, to the north the serried ranks of the Clinch Mountains and to the southeast the nearby peaks of
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Natural Tunnel, Virginia
crater-shaped Chimney Top and the more regular out- line of Bay's Mountain, while in the deep distance the mountains of North Carolina, row upon row, form a scenic backdrop in the picture.
Just below us, seven miles away, lies Kingsport, its church spires gleaming in the sunlight, its smoke stacks indicating activity and the variety of its planning visible in the scattered groups of white dots lying in a background of verdant greenery reflecting the setting of its homes.
Between the city and the Cumberland Range winds Reedy Creek amid its peaceful, agricultural valley. On the other side of Chestnut Ridge, as we mount to this vantage point was spread the panorama of an- other farming valley, the varying colors of the soils and timber tracts forming an attractive and imagina- tive checkerboard.
One is in the heart of the Southern Appalachians. Here is a country of rugged hills, verdant valleys, winding streams and sloping fields. As one gazes upon the far-flung scene, there comes to mind historic passages in which are depicted the exploits of the frontiersmen who first travelled this land.
Old-Time America
Greater than all of these famous attractions, per- haps, is the old time America that still exists in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Kingsport is sit- uated in the very heart of this last stronghold of the colonial frontier.
Ladies who go in for early American homes and
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antique furniture, botanists who love flowers and plants, fishermen who like to wade in tumbling brooks, hikers who seek rare spots of beauty in cool gorges or desire to scan the view from moun- tain tops, poets who long to hear the old folk songs and ballads, — go, as this writer has gone, into the countryside within walking or riding distance of Kingsport, and see America as it used to be!
Here is a picturesque grist mill, its old wheel turn- ing ponderously before the force of the rushing stream. When this mill was built, stage coaches were still in use. Times have changed, but not in this quiet spot. The mill grinds slowly and well as of old, and the horseman balancing his sack of cornmeal or flour across his saddle bags travels home as of yore. He uses the horse, or perhaps a wagon, because the roads are steep and difficult of improvement back in the coves to which he is returning. On his way he will splash through many a ford, impassable when streams are high.
The little red school house of historic fame is here also, although in this greener Southland it is more often painted white when it is painted at all. These schools generally have one or two rooms, a stove and desk benches, and a teacher who knows how to "han- dle" the class. To these schools often return their graduates who have gone to college, and now as teachers bring back new learning and new sparks of ambition as well.
Not far from the school is the little church, with its open shed in the rear, where the men hitch their
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horses and linger a while to talk of the weather and the local candidates for office. On a nearby hillock, under the pines, is the graveyard with its ancient dates and names — names which provide a valuable source of information for the genealogists from far and near who seek clues to early branches of their family trees.
The people in these hills are descended largely from Scotch-Irish and English strains, with some Germans and French among them. Isolated in the mountains, families have retained the original names almost unchanged — Bellamy, Bridwell, McCoy, Mc- Neer, McCorkle, Gillenwater, Hargrave, Groseclose, Bachman, Johnson, Quillen, Riddle, Kincheloe, Mountcastle, Jackson, Lincoln, Smithson, Vineyard and others.
We turn a bend in the country road and come upon a low-roofed farm home, wide in front, with an ex- tension in the rear for the kitchen and storeroom. In it live some of the descendants of the names we were reading on the headstones. The old feather-beds are there, and the quilts, and ancient Bibles and clocks. The kitchen stove has come, but the open fireplace still retains its dignity and use, and both burn wood.
The self-reliant customs of Old America continue. In the summer time the brood of children are turned loose, and as they return with full pails, there is a "sight" of canning of wild fruits and garden vegeta- bles for winter. Potatoes and turnips are stored away, apples are dried and hung up on strings, and herbs gathered for ready use in case of illness. Corn and wheat must be brought to the mill for grinding, and
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Kingsport from Chestnut (Eden's} Ridge
the sorghum cane crushed and boiled just right for good syrup. The first frost comes, and it's hog-killing time, with its reward of fresh sausage, bacon, canned meat, and sufficient hams to last until next season.
Children, too, abound. We count five of them, from the baby to a fifteen-year old, — another old fashioned idea that still continues in these hills. For- tunate it is for the cities of America that this is so, for with their falling birthrates they now depend more and more upon the incoming rural youth to keep up their populations.
Watching these youngsters, one sighs for the days of the old homestead, and thinks of Whittier's great poem about the "barefoot boy with cheeks of tan." Here is the land where that boy still reigns supreme! And his sister, too. They are coming in from the fields to greet us. They have been picking black- berries and their smiling lips are purple with them. Running in the fields and woods like young rabbits, they know when the first fruits ripen, where the best nut trees are, why the mother partridge feigns crip- pled wings instead of flying away. These youngsters know the call of different birds, and what the hounds say when they yelp or bay in the deep forest. They have been taught, also, to know what is in the book that lies on the parlor table and to believe in it as un- questioningly as they accept parental discipline and look forward, with faith, to the morning's light. These children — they are the grandest sight in the Southern mountains! It is from their ranks that the people of Kingsport come.
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A Paradise of Flowers
Kingsport and its backcountry of Appalachian hills and valleys lies almost exactly half-way between the Canadian border and the deep South. With its cli- mate, therefore, neither too cold nor too hot, condi- tions are favorable for the growth of almost all prod- ucts of nature.
In the forest numberless species of hardwoods and evergreens grow in profusion. The Holston Valley itself is one of the premier American spots for black walnut, that king of New World trees which produces the most valuable of woods and the richest of all nuts. In the surrounding hills, again, the lordly rhododen- dron, the wild azalea and the white-petaled dogwood reach unexcelled perfection.
Over one thousand varieties of flowering plants of all kinds grow in the region of which Kingsport is the center. May and June bring iris, ladies' slippers, passion flowers, magnolias, Indian pinks, columbines, galax, wild lilies, phloxes, black-eyed susans, and Queen Anne's lace. Even in winter nature gives us blossoms of several varieties of violets, as well as bud- ding elms, alders, and red maples.
The lily of the valley grows naturally in this region, whereas elsewhere in the United States the flowers now being cultivated or growing wild come from the European variety brought over in years past. These exquisite native flowers flourish in the upper Holston valley and along the Nolichucky river.
Here also are two other plants not yet found else-
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where in the land. The Buckleya, known as the sap suck bush, grows under the detached roots of the hem- lock. It reaches a height of five to ten feet, and has a small dainty blossom, the color being white faintly tinged with green. The white Judas tree grows in this region alone. It has white flowers, instead of the red ones usually associated with this tree.
Mineral Resources
Underneath this vari-colored carpet of beauty, nature has also been generous. The vast upheavals that cre- ated the long ranges of the Southern Appalachians brought near the surface in many places rich mineral deposits of many kinds.
In Kingsport's immediate vicinity are found quan- tities of sand approximately 99% silica, suitable for the manufacture of fine glass. Shale suitable for ce- ment and for brick making is also available in enor- mous quantities. Large deposits of building sand are being worked. Rock quarries and limestone quarries have been opened.
The great Virginia coal fields sixty-five miles to the north produce a superior grade of steam and gas coal. The same distance south at Jefferson City, Tennessee, are large zinc mining operations. Again within the same radius are the historic Virginia salt deposits, for which the little village of old Kingsport was once a great shipping port for river markets to the south. Finally, the whole region is underlain with iron ore, awaiting the day when improved methods of process- ing and increased nearby markets for iron and steel
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products will revive the days when the flaring blast of colonial furnaces and the ring of forge hammers was heard along the Holston and Tennessee valleys from Virginia clear down into Alabama.
Agriculture and Stoc\ Raising
Agriculture is another source of Kingsport's strength. The city lies in the midst of the nation's richest belt of burley tobacco. Other products of na- ture may grow if climate and care and fertilizer are present, but tobacco in addition must have exactly the right kind of soil — and that soil is here. For this reason the burley crop, which is grown on the small patches of many individual farmers, is a valuable source of cash for the people of the hills and valleys roundabout.
Livestock and dairying are increasingly important in the Kingsport region. The hilly nature of the countryside runs the risk of erosion from too much planting of corn and other row crops, but is admirably adapted to the growth of grasses and legumes which serve the double purpose of providing innumerable grazing areas for cattle and sheep and which at the same time with their myriad roots prevent the top soil from washing away down the slopes during rains. Butter and cheese, evaporated and condensed milk plants, and feed-mixing concerns should be a natural outgrowth of the dairying activities, while the fattening of beef cattle leads to opportunity for industries such as meat packing, sausage, and canned meat specialties.
Corn and hogs, cows, the flock of chickens and the
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vegetable garden still constitute the mainstay of the small farm. Wheat and oats are also important. The climate and soil of the Kingsport region are extremely well adapted to a much greater production of apples and other fruits, which have grown well here ever since pioneer days. The honey bee also thrives here amid the profusion of flowers. The production of natural oils and essences from the many varieties of roots, herbs, barks, and flowers is an activity as yet largely undeveloped. Proper grading and market- ing of black walnut kernels for national markets is a field which is now beginning to grow, and which is particularly suitable to the Kingsport region.
The Great Smoky Mountain National Par\
Seeking an abundance of rugged mountain scenery, the tourist may reach this recent acquisition to Ameri- ca's national park system in less than five hours by fine roads from Kingsport. Two routes are available, one through Newport and Sevierville, the other by way of Knoxville, both converging at Gatlinburg in the Park. Or, if one prefers a longer and more varied trip, another route beckons through Asheville, North Carolina.
Respected descendants of the Cherokee Indians, original lords of the Holston valleys, have a reserva- tion within the Park. Here, over fifteen hundred Indians, one of the few remaining groups of that once proud and powerful nation, make their home, support- ing themselves and their families by farming and other occupations, including the making of Indian hand-
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craft articles for sale to visitors. A visit to this Qualla Indian Reserve, reached through the beautiful Indian River Gap, and to the divide atop the mountains be- tween Tennessee and North Carolina, is well worth the trip and may be made over excellent highways. There are seven peaks within the park which ex- ceed 5000 feet in height; the highest being Mount Le Conte, 6580; Clingman's Dome, 6644; and Mount Guyot, 6636.
The Old Elm
On the west bank of the north fork of the Holston River stands the magnificent elm tree referred to by Dr. Thomas Walker in the diary of his exploration trip through the valley in 1748. This tree is one of the twelve famous trees listed in the Hall of Fame for trees in the National Forestry Department at Wash- ington. Nearly two hundred years have passed since the pioneers of 1748 first recorded its existence. Still it stands, silent sentinel of the centuries, with a spread of branches approximating 150 feet and a trunk diame- ter of 22 feet, sheltering a "bold" spring among its roots.
Tennessee's First Capital
A few miles to the southeast, lies the town of Jones- boro, famed as the first capital of the short lived "State of Franklin," formed out of the secession of the Ten- nessee counties from North Carolina in 1784. Here, the first legislative assembly was held, in March, 1785, and John Sevier was elected Governor. The Legisla-
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ture of Franklin ended its existence at Greeneville, in September, 1787, this town having become the perma- nent seat of government.
From June 8, 1790, until the first Constitutional Convention was held January n, 1796, at Knoxville, the state was under territorial government, William Blount being the Governor. In 1796 Knoxville became the state capital, and continued as such with brief changes to Kingston, until 1819 when the capital was moved to Murfreesboro, remaining there until 1826 at which time Nashville became the permanent capital.
The People
"People, not buildings, make a city, and the moral and mental fibre of the sturdy, resourceful people of the Kingsport community required two centuries in the making. These two centuries play a greater part in the city to-day than most of us are likely to realize."
Thus do we repeat the words of Howard Long as a prelude to the final observation in this book on Kings- port and its people.
The tourist, the historian, the botanist, the geologist, the industrialist, the sociologist, the collector and the hiker — all may find in this country objects of absorb- ing interest. The untrammeled wilderness is prac- tically gone, after two centuries of settlement, yet so rugged and forested is the country and so isolated are large sections away from the main roads that a little search reveals what one desires to find.
But the greatest find of all, and the one overlooked by many, is people!
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Hence we give you — the mountain people them- selves, who because of that long isolation in the hills only recently broken by good roads and schools and industry, have retained certain early American virtues that a rich and proud America has well-nigh lost — a realization that one cannot get something for noth- ing— an amazing equality between men as men re- gardless of wealth or family name — and finally a faith in the power of prayer without which men would not have dared to cross an ocean in cockleshells and con- quer a wilderness with hand-axes, and with which families have been raised in that wilderness against fearful odds to carry on the magnificent blood-strains which gave to our Republic in its hours of need such leaders as Daniel Boone, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and a host of others!
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PART TWO INDUSTRIAL KINGSPORT
Cattle raising still flourishes
TENNESSEE EASTMAN CORPORATION
The name, "Eastman," means photography in any corner of the world. On a vacation, it means snap- shots. In a photographer's studio, it means the raw material of portraits. In Hollywood, it means hun- dreds of thousands of miles of film running through cameras and printers. In a large number of homes, it means personal movies of the children as they grow up.
Many persons are surprised to find the Eastman name connected with other products that are not pho- tographic. Yet it is not unlikely that those very per- sons may be driving cars equipped with fittings and safety glass made of Eastman material, or that they may be wearing garments whose fabrics are from the same source.
That is where Kingsport comes on the Eastman scene. Its output is important, not only in photog- raphy, but in other fields as well.
Of the thirteen Eastman plants throughout the world, the Tennessee Eastman Corporation is second in size only to the vast Kodak Park Works at Roches- ter, New York. The Kingsport plant consists of 82 buildings on a site of 372 acres, beside the Holston River. Employees number approximately four thou- sand.
Behind this factory, which is the world's most ad- vanced cellulose-acetate plant, is a very interesting story.
The Tennessee Eastman Corporation began as some-
Tennessee Eastman Corporation: General view of Plant
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thing quite different from what it is now. It was organized, soon after the war, as a source of supply for certain chemicals used in film-manufacture at Rochester, principally wood alcohol ("methanol," to the chemists). Wood alcohol comes from wood; so the company bought forty thousand acres of timber- land or timber rights in four states, built a 2o-mile logging railroad out of Kingsport, established timber operations on near and remote mountainsides, built a modern sawmill, and set about selling high-grade hardwood lumber.
Establishment of a lumber industry — and here is a paradoxical thing — was only for the purpose of get- ting rid of a by-product, for Tennessee Eastman's large output of lumber is just that! In a lumbering opera- tion, a large percentage of every tree felled is ordinarily considered waste because limbs and tops, small or defective scrub trees, and the "slabs" and the sides and ends of boards cut in a sawmill can't be sold as lumber. But they were a useful raw material for Tennessee Eastman's wood alcohol.
The so-called "chemical wood" is loaded into steel- slatted "buggies," which run on railroad tracks into air-tight chambers. There, by the application of heat, the wood is carbonized into charcoal, and gases are driven off, to condense into a dark fluid called "pyro- ligneous acid" — the liquid used by the Egyptians to preserve their mummies.
In addition to lumber, charcoal is thus another by- product sold in large quantities: for fuel, for the proc- essing of metals, and for other purposes.
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"Chemical wood," the raw material of Tennessee-Eastman's
wood-distillation process, in storage, awaiting ttse at the
rate of 40,000 cords a year
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From the pyroligneous acid come other by-products before chemically pure methanol for Kodak Park is reached as the "end-product."
Throughout the 1920 decade, Tennessee Eastman operated on the basis described. Then, just as the de- pression set in, the scope of the Eastman Kodak Company's southern subsidiary underwent a very important change. Home movies were gaining rapidly in popularity. The gain was reflected in the demand for Cine-Kodak Safety Film. The advantage, also, of safety film for x-rays stored in hospitals was becoming more widely apparent. It was necessary that the supply of cellulose acetate for use in the manufacture of safety film should be put on a large and permanent basis. Tennessee Eastman was selected for the job.
Cellulose acetate is made by treating cotton with two chemicals: acetic anhydride and glacial acetic acid. Cotton was available from sources within eco- nomical reach of Kingsport, and acetic anhydride could be derived right there in the plant as a by- product of methanol, simply by altering the processes.
From that chemical reaction — the treatment of cot- ton to make cellulose acetate — came the great Eastman expansion at Kingsport after 1929. Following upon years of experiment at Rochester, the first Tennessee cellulose-acetate unit went into production in 1930.
Since then, the plant's capacity for making this material has been expanded somewhat more than ten times. With extremely rigid specifications to meet, the
(/) One stage in the preparation of Eastman Acetate Yarn H/or delivery to the knitters and weavers who fabricate it for manufacture info clothing and draperies. (2) The beginning of cellulose acetate production. Baled purified cotton linters are fed into a machine that fluffs them up ready for chemical treatment. Every year 500 carloads of linters are used
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process of making cellulose acetate at Kingsport for Kodak Park's safety film is a model of large-scale chemical manufacturing under precise control.
So we find the Tennessee Eastman plant, early in this decade, growing rapidly and producing an im- portant ingredient of photographic safety film. But this is only the middle of the story.
Cellulose acetate is a substance from which textiles of high quality can be made. The correct name for such textiles is "acetate yarn," although "artificial silk" is perhaps more familiar.
Similarly, cellulose acetate can be manufactured in a form useful for molding such articles as steering wheels, dashboard gadgets, combs, costume jewelry, fountain pens, and almost anything made from "plas- tics."
The more cellulose acetate that Tennessee Eastman could make, the better and cheaper would be the supply for safety film. If large amounts of Eastman acetate could be used for other products than film, the quantity manufactured would obviously be increased.
So Tennessee Eastman expanded its operations to include the manufacture of yarn and of a plastic molding composition called "Tenite." Experimental work on the production of these products had been carried on for several years previously.
To meet success, a synthetic textile must satisfy two groups. The weavers and knitters who buy the yarn for fabrication demand uniformity and mechanical perfection for their manufacturing operations. Con- sumers, the wearers of the garments made from the
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Uses of cellulose acetate: a compact from TENITE, resting
on a fabric from Eastman Acetate yarn, photographed
on Eastman Safety Film
resulting fabrics, demand style and serviceability: re- sults of quality and special properties in yarn.
Because Eastman Acetate Yarn possesses these, it is appearing in an increasingly large number of dresses that are setting the style, as well as in hosiery, neck- ties, draperies, and other quality products.
This yarn offers the advantages of "cross dyeing'* when it is used in conjunction with other fibers, such as silk or rayon, that respond differently to the dyes in a single bath; the advantages of brilliance and clarity in pastel shades; of "feel" and draping prop- erties often surpassing those of real silk; of thermo- plasticity permitting the production of moire effects more permanent than those of real silk; and the ability to be manufactured in dull as well as bright luster.
TENITE, the cellulose-acetate molding composition previously referred to, is sold to molders in any color or tint, and either transparent or opaque.
The molders shape the material, by heat and pres- sure, into a large variety of products. For instance, 121 different motor-car appointments, in 26 cars were made from TENITE, at the last report.
The Tennessee Eastman Corporation also does a large business in supplying cellulose acetate to be used in the manufacture of safety glass for automobiles. The acetate is made into a plastic sheet, which is put by glass-makers between the two plates of polished glass that make up the safety product for automobile windows and windshields.
One section of the plant is devoted to the manu- facture of another group of products that should not
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Here are a jew samples of TENITE, the Eastman plastic molding composition, after it has been con- verted into automobile fittings.
be omitted from mention. Hydroquinone is an im- portant developing agent for photographic film, plates, and paper, including motion-picture film. Tennessee Eastman makes that, and along with it a type of fer- tilizer that is particularly useful in the regions along the South Atlantic coast.
This brief survey of Tennessee Eastman's products gives some idea of why the plant has grown to such proportions during the present decade ; but only a close study of the plant itself would give full understanding of one of the essential factors: the extremely careful, scientific processes that insure the manufacture of cel- lulose acetate of the highest possible quality.
Still one more factor is very well worth a glance: the measures taken in behalf of the concern's employ- ees. Excellent medical facilities are available. Good cafeterias are provided. The Tennessee Eastman em- ployees share the "wage dividend" that Eastman Kodak provides for its employees on the basis of that company's yearly earnings. A credit union gives em- ployees an opportunity to save and to borrow funds for provident purposes.
Those who know industry know that people are the key to success. When visitors view the great array of clean brick buildings beside the Holston River, they are seeing the physical form of one of the world's most advanced chemical industries. But, in Kingsport's worthy setting, it is Tennessee Eastman's people that make the products that made this plant.
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Manufacturing hard wood lumber
BORDEN MILLS, INCORPORATED
Cotton cloth manufactured by the Borden Mills in its Kingsport plant eventually reaches millions of homes throughout the United States in one form or another. The weekly production in this huge mill averages 900,000 yards of cloth, a little more than half of which is shirtings and the remainder percales. When one considers that garment manufacturers can produce from this weekly yardage approximately 250,000 shirts and 114,000 dresses, or nearly 20,000,000 garments on an annual basis, it is not difficult to im- agine the wide-spread contacts of Kingsport-made Borden Mills goods.
The mill manufactures only unbleached cotton cloth, also called cotton gray goods by the industry. In bulk, about a railroad car of the finished product is produced each day. It is then sent elsewhere for bleaching and printing, and is sold through the corporation's New York office at 90 Worth Street. All standard weaves of print cloth are made here.
More than 850 people are employed in spacious buildings, quite different from the old time cotton mill, equipped with the latest improved machinery. An example of the modern methods used is found in the transportation of the raw cotton from the separate cot- ton warehouse building to the third floor of the main plant immediately adjacent. Instead of the laborious handling of immense bales, the cotton is blown from the warehouse, underground, by a tube system to the machines which start the manufacturing processes.
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Borden Mills, Incorporated, aerial view
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The corner stone of this mill was laid October n, 1924 and actual production began May 26, 1925. Upper East Tennessee may on first thought seem a peculiar location for a big textile plant. It is north of the cotton belt, and yet is very near the raw material. It is within easy and economic reach of the finished goods markets. Combine with these advantages the further advantage of a supply, at all times adequate, of industrious, dependable American labor of the Anglo- Saxon strain and you have a better understanding of Kingsport as a textile center. Go a step farther and couple to these advantages the natural advantages of Kingsport as a city and as an industrial center, with a fine spirit of cooperation everywhere in evidence and you have the fundamental reasons of the founders of this enterprise, the subsequent success of which has well justified the vision of the men who placed it in Kingsport.
The plant built and maintains a most attractive resi- dential village of 277 single homes, named "Oakdale," in which every house is located on parked streets with concrete paving, curbs, gutters and sidewalks. Each home is thoroughly equipped with all modern con- veniences, is surrounded with well kept lawns, ample shrubbery and rented to the employees at a most mod- est monthly cost. A park, churches and ample re- creational facilities are available to all.
One of the largest of Kingsport's industrial opera- tions, the Borden Mills fits quite naturally into the civic picture. Oakdale is regarded as an ideal indus- trial housing unit.
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Scene in "Oakdale," the Borden Mills' village
BLUE RIDGE GLASS CORPORATION
Among the many products manufactured here by the Blue Ridge Glass Corporation, and some of their uses, are rolled figured glass for factory windows, ornamental and polished figured glass for partitions in offices and elsewhere, and rolled and polished wire glass for use where safety is desired or required by law from fire, breakage or other hazards, such as in the windows, elevator shaft openings and fire walls of buildings of all kinds, factory windows, overhead lights, revolving doors, skylights and ship uses. "Optex," the glass from which an increasing number of schoolroom black- boards is now being made, is produced solely by the Blue Ridge Glass Corporation.
Requiring a great investment in equipment, facilities and talent, the company's methods and operations com- bine the glass-making arts of both the old and the new world. Fathered by a triumvirate of inter- nationally famous glass-making institutions, Blue Ridge was organized in 1925, as a corporate offspring of the Corning Glass Works of Corning, N. Y., one of the nation's leading glass industries, and two great foreign concerns — St. Gobain, Chauny et Cirey of Paris, incorporated in 1665, and Glaceries Nationales Beiges of Brussels. The products are distributed ex- clusively by the Libby-Owens-Ford Glass Company.
Glass is one of man's oldest materials, but as manu- factured here in Kingsport it is in such greatly im- proved form for so many different uses that it is
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Blue Ridge Glass Corporation, aerial view
making possible greater efficiency and comfort in factory, office, bank, shop and home.
The manufacture of glass calls for many ingredients, some of which are among Mother Earth's most im- portant children — sand, soda ash and lime. Fusing of these raw materials, obtained from Virginia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, with gas made from coal mined in Virginia and Kentucky, provides the bril- liant glass which is shipped in crates made from the lumber of a fellow-industry, the Tennessee Eastman Corporation.
The corporation's rolled figured glass, by means of an improved process, is famous for its brilliant lustre, flatness and uniformity of thickness, its ease of cutting and its adaptability of design.
"Diffusex" glass, for instance, is used largely for partitions as well as outside windows. Its beauty and light-diffusing properties are practically unaffected by exposure in dusty areas so common in industrial com- munities and cities, as the patterned surface is free from sharp lines and angles which so often act as dirt and dust "catchers."
There are fourteen different patterns of Blue Ridge rolled figured glass, ranging in thickness from l/8 to l/2 inch and available in widths up to 60 inches and maximum lengths of 144 inches — each designed to solve a different type of daylighting problem and to satisfy the individual tastes of architects generally. Into Kingsport every day come letters from architects all over the country, each seeking new data regarding the use of various types of glass.
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Blue Ridge "wire" glass is produced by inserting a hexagonal wire mesh into the sheet of glass while it is in the molten state. Such glass, a legal requirement for fire protection in many states, is a form of safety glass of tremendous importance when used in a fire wall. Its ability to stay in place, even though broken through impact or severe jolts, makes it ideal for sky- lights, revolving doors, office partitions, in ships and in many other places where breakage hazards must be reduced to a minimum.
Formerly, wire glass was made in single sheets up to twelve feet long by sealing wire mesh between two sheets of plastic glass, the composite sheet thus created being smoothed over by passing the glass under a pair of heavy rollers.
Better results are obtained now, however, with the Lewis-Pond continuous process developed by Blue Ridge. First of all, a patented wire-plating process provides a wire mesh that does not discolor during formation of the sheet and prevents rusting of the wire later on. This process of insertion provides a perfect seal at all points, aiding in the elimination of rust possibilities and preventing bubble clusters from form- ing around the bright clean wire.
Wire mesh is pushed and fed into the sheet of glass, parallel with the glass surface. Thus a continuous sheet of wire glass is obtained, completely sealed at all points, the wire remaining bright and unoxidized and the method providing for increased strength and clarity.
Polished wire glass, because it is ground and polished
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on both surfaces, has the strength of ordinary wire glass and the transparency of polished plate glass. It is enjoying an ever-increasing demand, particularly in office buildings.
Emphasis on daylighting in current architecture has brought wire glass into greater prominence than ever. Millions of feet of this Blue Ridge product are being used in construction.
A continuous machine, the "Boudin" process, is used to produce Blue Ridge unwired figured products. The hot glass passes between metal rolls, one roll being smooth, providing a lustrous flat surface, while the other imprints a desired pattern — DifTusex, Luminex, Industrex — any of the designs so much sought after by architects.
Son of illustrious parents, Blue Ridge today is a friendly fire-eating giant of industry, its appetite a ravenous but enthralling spectacle to behold, its products the every-day light-giving material so neces- sary to better work and more enjoyable relaxation for millions.
PENNSYLVANIA-DIXIE CEMENT CORPORATION
The Kingsport Plant of the Pennsylvania-Dixie Ce- ment Corporation shares with one other plant the distinction of being Kingsport's first industries. Begun in 1910 and put into production June i, 1911, it ranks among the largest plants of the country in the manu- facture of the nationally known Portland cement.
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Pennsylvania-Dixie Cement Corporation, aerial view
Among the eight plants of the Pennsylvania-Dixie chain it ranks fourth in volume produced.
A subsidiary, Marcem Quarries Corporation, oper- ates a large quarry, just across the state line at Gate City, Virginia, from which point, after proper crush- ing, is transported the limestone to be combined with shale from its Kingsport quarry and gypsum to form the ingredients from which cement is ultimately produced. All of this limestone is transported in standard gauge cars owned by the Corporation, over the Clinchfield Railroad, into Kingsport. Upwards of 350,000 tons of limestone, 55,000 tons of shale and 10,000 tons of gypsum are used annually in Kingsport alone. More than 5,500,000 cotton and paper bags are required annually to ship the product.
The Pennsylvania-Dixie Cement Corporation ranks among the leaders in the cement industry. Its eight plants, listed below, produce a sizeable portion of the Portland cement used in this country.
PENNSYLVANIA-DIXIE PLANTS
|
PLANT NUMBER |
PLANT LOCATION |
PRESENT ANNUAL CAPACITY BBLS. |
|
i |
Kingsport, Tennessee. . ... |
1,500,000 |
|
2 3 |
Clinchfield, Georgia (near Macon) Richard City, Tennessee (near Chat- tanooga) |
1,100,000 2 4OO OOO |
|
Nazareth Pennsylvania |
I,6OO,OOO |
|
|
C |
Nazareth Pennsylvania |
I,2OO,OOO |
|
6 7 8 |
Bath, Pennsylvania Portland Point, New York Valley Junction, Iowa (near Des Moines) |
2,IOO,OOO I,IOO,OOO 1 , 200,000 |
|
Total present annual capacity in barrels |
12,200,000 |
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The main office of the Corporation is located at Naz- areth, Penna., while sales offices are maintained at New York; Philadelphia; Boston; Rochester, New York; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; and Des Moines, Iowa.
KINGSPORT FOUNDRY AND MANUFAC- TURING CORPORATION
Steady increase in the variety and quality of products demanded by a widely divergent clientele has been responsible for the rapid growth of the Kingsport Foundry and Manufacturing Corporation. The busi- ness was organized and the foundry built in 1927, but it became necessary in 1928 and again in 1929 to make extensive expansions to the original buildings and equipment.
As one of Kingsport's newer and fastest growing industries, it is interesting to note that the organizers visualized not only the immediate opportunities exist- ing within the city, but likewise appraised Kingsport's central location within a rapidly developing industrial area, coupled with adequate railroad freight facilities with which to serve such a constantly enlarging field of activity. Few persons realize that one railroad, provided it has ample trunk line connections, can furnish superior transportation, especially for heavy and bulky products.
This plant was primarily designed to produce heavy chemical processing castings up to fifteen tons per unit. Such is the changing requirements of service in such
137
industries that soon after this plant was completed and put in operation, the demand for pure nickel, monel, ni-resist, bronze and aluminum castings warranted the immediate installation of special furnaces for melting non-ferrous metals and alloys.
Castings are alloyed to specifications to meet the most exacting requirements of the chemical industry. Special machinery is built to order and tested, embody- ing gears, speed reducers, fans and frequently including special metals, such as pure nickel drums, non-magnetic iron hoppers, gears, frames, etc.
From the foundry and machine shop of this plant go castings for the manufacture of soap, alkali, the refining of sugar and other essential products in far parts of the east and middle west of our United States. Electric furnace machinery for the chemical trade, con- spicuous because of the non-magnetic qualities of the metals used in such construction and blast furnace equipment, such as the gas controlled apparatus much used by the steel industry, are regular productions here.
A highly specialized type of coal-cleaning machinery, based on the principle of the pneumatic process in cleaning coal, is manufactured, shipped to all the principal coal-producing states, erected and serviced by this corporation who carry a complete line of replace- ment parts for instant shipment.
As might be expected, due to the heavy type of products handled, this plant is provided with heavy duty equipment; two fifteen ton electric cranes, travel- ling the entire length of the main plant, above a rail- road siding, furnish handling facilities for the largest
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Kingsport Foundry and Manufacturing Corporation plant
and heaviest of products; in the machine shop are found huge boring mills, planers, shapers and the nec- essary smaller machines. Completing the picture, the corporation operate its own pattern and forge shops, thus affording a form of complete service seldom found outside the largest plants of this type.
SLIP-NOT BELTING CORPORATION
Leather belting and textile leather specialties made by the Slip-Not Belting Corporation are found in many factories and textile plants throughout the United States.
The corporation was organized by H. J. Shivell in March, 1926, having for seven years previously been a department of the Grant Leather Company of Kings- port.
The manufacture of belting, the original product, has been continued. The Slip-Not brand is noted for its firm adhesion to pulleys, and is made by craftsmen skilled in careful cutting and working of the strong, expensive leather it is necessary to use. George Wood- cock, the oldest belt maker in the United States, is employed here. He has been active in the evolution of the trade and its various improvements through fifty- eight years of experience.
The same craftsmanship is applied to the manufac- ture of its textile specialties, such as NUFORM check straps and SLIP-NOT strap leather. The ad- dition of a curry shop in 1928 for the finishing of leather made possible the production of these special-
• 141
Slip-Not Belting Corporation plant
ties. Larger quarters became necessary and the busi- ness was moved to its present location in 1933.
A complete line of power transmission equipment to supplement the belting service was added in the new location. This line includes motors, pulleys, bearings, conveying equipment and allied articles. The com- pany's tannery produces leather solely for its own use and not for the market.
An example of the constant improvements the company makes in its products is seen in the use of a waterproof cement for belts that is made from cellu- lose acetate manufactured by the Tennessee Eastman Corporation. It is a safe and non-inflammable adhesive and replaces cement made from nitro-cellulose.
The Slip-Not Belting Corporation is essentially a service organization. Its general policy has been to render every possible service to local industries in con- nection with their mechanical operations. Hand in hand with this has been the development of specialty leathers that are used throughout the entire textile field. The company's sales organization not only con- tacts local industries, but sells leather belting through- out the eastern part of the United States, principally through mill supply dealers and distributors. In ad- dition, the sales organization contacts textile mills directly, both throughout the South and New England. Thus the Slip-Not Belting Corporation products are distributed over a wide area and enjoy a reputation of high quality and honest merchandising wherever used.
Organized by local men, with only local capital, it has built its own place in the field it serves.
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THE MEAD CORPORATION KINGSPORT DIVISION
Wood and water are the essential components of papermaking. Eleven million gallons of water, one hundred and fifty cords of yellow poplar, gum and maple are used each day by The Kingsport Division of The Mead Corporation in the manufacture of paper and pulp.
Soda pulp was first made in Kingsport in 1917, when the plant of the Kingsport Pulp Company was placed in operation. Within three years the initial production of forty tons of pulp was doubled, and the company was reorganized and made part of the chain of mills constituting The Mead Corporation.
Soda pulp differs from ground wood pulp — which is commonly used in newsprint — by being manufactured chemically rather than mechanically, and from sul- phite and sulphate pulps by the solvent with which it is cooked. It is named for the solution of caustic soda which performs the disintegration of the wood.
The wood received at Kingsport is from eight Southern states, and is already peeled and cut into four- foot lengths. It is stacked in the wood-yard for twelve months before use. An endless drag chain carries the logs into the mill, through a pressure washer, to a rotary chipper which reduces the wood to small uni- form chips. A screen sorts out all oversize chips to be cut again, while those which pass through the screen are carried to great thirty feet high cooking cylinders called digesters.
143
Colorless caustic liquor, prepared by the action of soda ash and lime, and steam are circulated through the chips in the digester for five hours, until the ligneous matter is dissolved out of the wood, turning the liquor a rich dark brown. The mass of cellulose fibers which remains is blown by the pressure in the digesters into large circular wash-pans, where repeated washings free it from the dissolved impurities.
The brown stock is fed into rotary screens which remove all knots and undigested particles of wood, and is dropped into Bellmer bleachers. For several hours the stock is circulated with bleach liquor, made from chlorine and lime, and is turned imperceptibly from deep brown to bright white.
Again it is washed and after dilution with great quantities of water is formed into a continuous sheet on wire-covered cylinders rotating in vats filled with pulp, pressed and dried. The heavy, absorbent sheets of pulp are shipped to other paper manufacturers in bales and rolls.
From 1920 to 1923 soda pulp was the sole product of the mill; the entire production was shipped away from Kingsport to be converted into paper by other plants. In 1923, the paper mill was erected and a Fourdrinier paper machine was installed to use part of the pulp directly in the manufacture of paper.
Pulp for the paper mill is handled in a slush form. From the bleachers it is washed and forced between the bars of beaters which brush and hydrate the fibres to the degree required by the type of paper in manu- facture. The strength of paper is controlled by the
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Mead Corporation, Kingsport plant: (/) office and plant, (2) wood storage yard
beater treatment, and various types of pulp are added to the soda here to vary the qualities of the finished paper. Dye is also added in the beaters to give the right off-white shade, and sizing to obtain the proper resistance to dampness. The rotating blades of the jordans complete the preparation of the stock for papermaking, and insure that the fibres have been uniformly cut and treated.
The pulp flows through rifflers to trap out any dirt not previously removed, is diluted to a thin suspension in water, and passes out onto the moving wire cloth of the paper machine. Excess water drains out through the wire, which is constantly shaken from side to side, and a web of felted, closely woven fibres is left. The wet paper is squeezed between heavily loaded presses and is carried through a long battery of steam cylinders which dry it alternately on the top and bottom. When it leaves the driers, it is threaded through two large stacks of smooth, heated rolls, called calenders, which impart to it the desired finish.
By adjustment of its complex mechanism, a single paper machine can make papers with an infinite variety of texture, smoothness, opacity, weight, and thickness. A second Fourdrinier was installed by the Mead Corporation in 1927, and on its two machines the company regularly produces paper for novels, text- books, tablets, hosiery inserts, envelopes, drinking cups, book end sheets, magazines, mimeographs, labels, pamphlets, maps, calendars and sheet music.
The Kingsport Plant of The Mead Corporation is a wholly self contained manufacturing unit, having its
Steps in paper-making: (/) drippers, (2) digesters, (j) washing pulp, (4) bleaching pulp, (5) paper machines, (6) finishing rolls, (7) calendering rolls, (8) sheeting
own power plants — both steam and electric — and pro- duces an average of 72 tons of finished paper and 100 tons of pulp daily.
HOLLISTON MILLS OF TENNESSEE, INCORPORATED
The bookcloth manufactured by the Holliston Mills of Tennessee finds its way into the bindings of millions of books, made in Kingsport and over the world, while its other products have an equally wide distri- bution. All these products are marketed through the sales organization of the parent company, the Holliston Mills of Norwood, Massachusetts, incorporated in 1893, and having agencies throughout the United States and in a number of foreign countries.
Shade cloth and window shades are other principal products of the company, while cloth is also manu- factured for makers of the labels and tags one sees on innumerable articles requiring serviceable markings, such as clothing and mattresses.
The Kingsport plant of the Holliston Mills was constructed in 1926, due to a considerable increase in the business of the main plant at Norwood, and the decision to establish a new factory near the source of raw material, which is the unbleached gray cloth ob- tainable from certain southern cotton mills. Another factor was the need for establishing its own bleach- ery to handle the bleaching of all gray goods for both plants. Such a bleachery, from an economic stand- point, should be located near the source of raw ma-
149
Holliston Mills of Tennessee, Incorporated, plant
terials and in line of transit to both finishing plants. The Borden Mills, Inc., already located in Kingsport, could be considered as a source of certain types of gray goods, while the Kingsport Press, Inc. was already a large consumer of the products of the parent com- pany. Kingsport also offered desirable opportunities as a distribution point for company products.
In making bookcloth and shade cloth, fabrics spe- cially woven for the particular purpose are purchased from cotton mills specializing in these types of cloth. The first process, bleaching, is done to remove the natural oils in the cotton fibre and to eliminate other impurities which have accumulated in the making of the cotton into cloth. The cloth will then take the dyes readily and give clear bright shades.
Bookcloth and shade cloth are both bleached and dyed in much the same manner. The finishing op- eration varies considerably, dependent upon the type and grade being manufactured.
Finishing mainly consists of filling the bleached and dyed cloth with a coloring material after which this filling is usually smoothed out by calendering. Book- cloth is quite frequently embossed with a variety of designs and is made in a great variety of colors and finishes.
In combination with the parent company, this Kings- port plant enjoys the distinction of being one of the three largest producers of book-cloth in the United States. At the Norwood plant, pyroxylin coated and impregnated cloths are also produced, which grades are very popular, especially for text book bindings.
150
KINGSPORT PRESS, INC.
Locating the world's largest book manufacturing plant in Kingsport, nearly 700 miles from the book publication centers of the United States, may appear a bit unusual. In 1922 when this establishment began operations it was most unusual and the skeptics scoffed at the possible success of such an undertaking. Today, with the advantages of rail, motor and air transporta- tion, the telephone and the teletype, the trend to de- centralization of industry, it is less difficult to under- stand.
Kingsport has the unique distinction of being the only city in the world in which is found the true com- bination of all the essential industries which provide facilities for complete book-making. Here the logs are turned into pulp, the pulp into paper; raw cotton is spun into thread and the thread woven into cloth, that cloth bleached, dyed, and finished into bookcloth; the manuscript translated into type, type into plates, plates used to transmit the printed word to the paper, and the printed sheets cut, folded, assembled and bound into book form, with covers of bookcloth prop- erly embellished to complete the process. Not to stop the chain of production, here also may be seen trees cut into lumber, that lumber made into box-shooks and those shocks into packing cases, to house the finished books in their journey to some market in the outer world. Belts which supply the power from in- numerable electric motors turn the wheels which pro- pel the endless machines used in the various processes
11
1
of book manufacturing are also made in Kingsport.
Begun in 1922 as a plant for making a low cost, nationally distributed series of titles of the "classics" variety, in 1925 it was transformed into a plant capable of producing all types of durable bound books. No magazines are attempted for two obvious reasons; the magazine production field, like the book field, is a highly specialised industry and is likewise over- equipped today, also it is not economically possible to produce magazines and books in the same plant on the same equipment simultaneously. The book-maker, like the shoemaker, "sticks to his last."
The development of this plant from a modest be- ginning to its position today as the worlds' premier book plant, was not accomplished in a day, nor with- out growing pains. In its inception it was designed to provide employment for local young men and women. To accomplish this, expert craftsmen were needed to provide the instructors for training these young people. A vocational school was operated for several years, under the supervision of the State Board of Education, and continuation courses were main- tained after the early preparatory training was com- pleted. Today, less than thirty men and women are employed here who were not actually trained entirely in this plant.
Visitors to this interesting industrial giant find many technical operations and much fascinating machinery to intrigue them. Planned for straight-line produc- tion, one may start in the office with a visualization of the preparation necessary to start a book into life,
153
Kingsport Press, Inc., plant, aerial view
follow the authors' manuscript out into the composing or typographic division, see it translated from type- written sheets into type (monotype) or slugs (lino- type), observe the care with which the proof-sheets from the type are compared by expertly trained readers with the original copy, then watch deft fingers makeup the "pages," lock them into steel chases and prepare them for the plate-making operations.
In the electrotyping room are to be seen the molding of the type forms in wax, the preparation of those molds or "cases" by building-up, wet-black-leading, and sensitizing for immersion in the electrolytic tanks, where the thin copper "shell" is deposited on the wax case, giving a perfect reproduction of the type face. And, after the shell is ready, the peeling of the shell from the case, the backing-up of the shell with elec- trotype metal to give the "plate" the sturdy quality needed for many thousands of press impressions, and finally, the shaving, finishing, trimming, bevelling and proving processes which end with a perfect printing plate. Here also, are to be observed the processes of making duplications of half-tone or other illustration plates by either the wax or the lead molding steps. Four-color process plates, with their gradations of color, are fascinating to watch in both manufacture and printing.
One may then step down into the pressroom where huge, roaring monsters of presses of one and two "cylinders," accepting tall "skids" of paper at one end in electric elevators, and with up to 256 plates fastened to their "beds," deliver enormous sheets printed either
154
on one or both sides ready for folding and binding. Here, too, are marvelously intricate two-color presses printing two colors on one side of the paper simulta- neously. Plate storage vaults, ink storage vaults, a paper storage and conditioning warehouse, high-speed small presses turning out book jackets, electric trucks transporting three ton loads of paper and printed sheets are envisioned as one walks along. Curious looking "guns" with many shining chambers are en- countered and curiosity elicits the answer that these are the molds in which the ink rollers, used in the presses, are cast.
On into the bindery, where one sees endless rows of huge machines turning flat printed sheets into folded book-sections, or "signatures" as they are called; dozens of good looking young women pasting the black or colored illustrations into book sections; ma- chines which add the folded endpapers and reinforce them to the first and last sections of the book, and a long caterpillar-type of machine that assembles the sections into a complete book. There are two of these and one adds wire stitches to the assembled book if desired for strengthening, or prior to side-thread stitch- ing, as in school books. And dozens of quietly mov- ing, but speedily operated sewing machines which sew the book sections together, after which the books travel down a long belt to disappear into a smasher (which reduces each to a uniform bulk, that it may fit its cover), and out of the smasher on another belt into a wicked looking guillotine-type three-knife machine which neatly trims off the three edges and the books
155
really begin to look like books. The trimmings are drawn by air, baled and returned to the paper mill.
Then comes a gluing-ofl of the book backs, the coloring or gilding (with 23 carat gold in leaves) of the edges, after which one encounters another huge caterpillar-type machine which rounds and shapes the book, adds the gluing, crash and paper reinforcements, the neat upper pieces at head and tail called head- bands, and prepares it for its cover. We hurry along and see rolls of bookcloth and piles of pulp-board being cut to cover sizes; then being automatically fed into machines which make the cover complete ready for embellishment. A few steps farther and other bat- teries of machines are either inking, gold stamping or embossing designs and letterings on these same covers. Finally, we encounter still another group of interesting machines in which the book and cover are combined, after which the books are built into presses between metal-edged wooden boards to dry and each press load is given a squeeze in a curious air-powered press.
Final examination, encasing in the attractive colored jackets, or cellophane (more probably Eastman Koda- pak) wrappings; perhaps school books in packages, and finally packing in bulk in fibre-containers or wood cases for shipment, complete the processing.
The walk through the storage and shipping rooms — books, books, everywhere, loose, in packages, in cartons and in cases; all neatly piled, in bins, on skids, or in cases tiered eight-high to the girders — nearly four million books at all times awaiting the word to start out on their trip to some point in the world.
157
Railroad cars, motor trucks, mail bags, express trucks —all waiting for their loads.
With a maximum capacity of two million books a month, this plant averages to produce more than a million books a month, using more than thirty tons of paper daily. One month's output alone, if laid in a continuous row as in a book shelf, would measure nearly 25 miles; the thread consumed annually ex- ceeds 41,000 miles, while the glue used in the various processes throughout the year would weigh, in liquid form, 250 tons.
Here are many familiar titles and sets; Bibles, testa- ments, fiction volumes, encyclopedias, reference sets and books, school and college text books in great variety, catalogs, in fact, a great miscellany of books and still more books. A trade-marked type of air- brushed and embossed covers, known nationally as "KINGSKRAFT" are also to be observed in the mak- ing, while the making of real leather and artificial leather covers, including the familiar divinity-circuit type of Bible cover causes one to pause in astonish- ment. Thumb-cutting of indices for dictionaries and the like, as well as flat side-cut indices for bridge guides and commercial catalogs present intricate operations in machine and hand work.
Everywhere is ordered activity, absolute cleanliness and apparent pride of craftsmanship. Club rooms, recreation spaces, a cafeteria, even a credit union and a plant monthly magazine contribute to the comfort and enjoyment of over 700 employees.
Kingsport is nationally known today for many of
159
\Boo1{-maJ(ing processes: (/) imprinted paper seasoning, (2) \batteries of printing presses, (j) making-ready a press, \4) folding printed sheets, (5) gathering sections into booths, (6) millions of books in storaee. (7} the final touch
its industrial products yet it is not out of place to say that it is internationally known for the volume and mechanical perfection of the millions of books pro- duced annually in the plant of the Kingsport Press, Inc.
KINGSPORT ELECTRIC COMPANY
A complete electrical service to industries, business houses, schools and other institutions is provided by the Kingsport Electric Company. Originally organized as a motor rewinding shop on October 30, 1924, the com- pany now handles all leading electrical supply items needed by its many customers in Kingsport and in surrounding cities within a seventy-five mile radius.
Industrial electrical apparatus is an important feature of the company's business. Motors are provided for many purposes, including special motors designed for the customer's particular needs. Examples of these are motors suitable for explosive atmospheres such as are found in chemical plants, and splash-proof motors for wet surroundings in creameries, pulp and paper plants and others. Motor controls are handled, as well as motor repairing and rewinding.
Lighting in all its phases is provided by the company, fixtures and service being available for factory and store lighting to suit the particular problem involved, vapor lighting, floodlighting, and other varied needs. Another important line is electric heating equipment and supplies.
The Kingsport Electric Company has grown along with Kingsport. From the modest building, with less
161
Kingsport Electric Company, stocf^ room
than one thousand square feet of floor space, occupied at the start in 1924, it now has over six times that area in its newer location on Market Street. The com- pany looks forward with confidence to providing a still greater electrical maintenance and replacement service to a still growing Kingsport.
GENERAL SHALE PRODUCTS CORPORATION
In driving around Kingsport the visitor is immedi- ately impressed with the number of buildings con- structed of brick. An industrial writer recently referred to Kingsport as "a veritable city of brick." Practically all of the business houses, the plant build- ings and a very generous proportion of the private residences are constructed of this serviceable and eco- nomic material. Brick from the local plant of the General Shale Products Corporation, operated for many years as the Kingsport Brick Corporation, has been used exclusively in this construction.
Yet only a very small part of the brick manufactured in Kingsport has been used locally. From Kingsport has gone brick, in tremendous quantities, into at least five nearby states and all along the Atlantic seaboard. The daily output of this large plant exceeds one hun- dred thirty-five thousand bricks, while an average of nearly four thousand cars of the finished product move out of Kingsport annually.
This brick plant is Kingsport's second oldest manu- facturing industry. The original plant was begun in July, 1910, and production began in November of that
163
leneral Shale Products Corporation plant, fylns
year, seven years before the city was incorporated. In 1927 the entire plant was virtually rebuilt, at which time the latest in brick making machinery was in- stalled and the most approved modern methods of production adopted.
At this plant are produced common brick, facing brick and all sizes of hollow building tile. Facing brick include rugs, regular texture, velvetone, sand face, old hickories, selects, wire cuts and colonials. The only raw material needed is shale which is avail- able in a practically inexhaustible supply from the hills a few hundred yards directly behind the plant. This shale is of an exceptionally fine quality, which in it- self contributes to the high grade of the Kingsport product. About four hundred cubic yards of this shale is used daily.
Lifted from the hills by steam shovels, this shale goes by dump-cars over a "dinkey" railroad to the plant, where it is first ground, then mixed with water to form the brick clay, after which it passes to the brick machines in which the clay is molded and then cut into the shape and size of brick desired. Baking and drying completes the process — but the baking and dry- ing is the longest and most particular process in the manufacture of brick. After cutting, the brick is placed on steel dryer cars and those cars conveyed by electricity into tunnels with radiated heat. After dry- ing for forty hours the raw brick goes into the kilns, 75,000 to the kiln, carefully built in by hand to provide for proper heat circulation, and burned for an average of one hundred and forty hours, starting with a mod-
164
erate temperature and increasing the heat as the brick hardens, until a maximum temperature of 1,800 de- grees Fahrenheit is reached during the final hours. After burning, the brick goes through a five day cool- ing process, after which it is graded and made ready for shipment.
The forty-two drying tunnels and thirty-one bee- hive, down-draft kilns consume over six hundred cars of coal, used for heating, each year. Other raw mate- rials used include sand, zinc, tar and brick oil.
This plant provides comfortable bath houses for its workers, rigorously enforces a "safety first" program and owns a fine village of modern four and five room houses, equipped with baths and all modern con- veniences.
The local plant is one of six plants operated by the General Shale Products Corporation. Other plants are located at Knoxville, Oliver Springs, Bristol and Johnson City, in Tennessee and at Richlands, Virginia.
CITIZENS SUPPLY CORPORATION
Lumber and building material play an important part in the building of a city. Keeping pace with the demands of an ever-growing city, the Citizens Supply Corporation has the distinction of being the oldest lumber and supply house in Kingsport, having com- menced operations in the spring of 1915, before motor trucks had demonstrated their practicality, with one team of mules and two wagons.
Incorporated in June, 1915, it has had an impor- tant part in the building of the city, having furnished
the material for approximately seventy-five percent of all the buildings within the corporate limits. In ad- dition to being the oldest firm of its type in Kingsport, it also has the remarkable record of having remained in the same location, under the same name and with the same management, since it started in 1915.
Located at the corner of Main and Cherokee streets, along the tracks of the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad from which a branch siding extends into its plant, it operates in addition to a complete supply warehouse, extensive lumber storage yards and a com- plete mill for the manufacture of sash, doors, finish and other materials used in construction. Growing steadily and consistently, along with Kingsport, its sales have increased from just a few thousand dollars to over a half million dollars annually. It operates the largest lumber yard in East Tennessee and South- west Virginia and carries a complete stock of building material of all kinds, proudly displaying its slogan, "if it's to build with, we have it."
One incident of its service is that of furnishing for an expansion to one of the industrial plants in Kings- port, in one order, lumber and timbers to the extent of 158 carloads — more than three solid trainloads. The timbers came from the state of Washington by boat down the Pacific coast, through the Panama Canal, up the Atlantic coast to Charleston, South Carolina, and thence to Kingsport by rail. By no means unusual, as orders in the lumber supply field run, this incident likewise typifies the scope of expan- sion encountered within the industries of Kingsport.
Office, plant and yard of Citizens Supply Corporation
: § p ; ^
PET DAIRY PRODUCTS COMPANY
If, as it has frequently been said, an army moves upon its stomach, then it may truthfully be said that a community depends largely, for its health, upon its milk supply.
Kingsport's milk supply comes from numerous prominent dairies located in upper-East Tennessee ad- jacent to the city. All dairies are regularly inspected by State officials and the quality of the raw milk de- livered to the Pet Dairy Products Company is carefully checked upon receipt at its plant. The cattle, barns, feed and milk handling equipment of the dairies are inspected frequently by Pet representatives.
This privately owned plant, located at the corner of Market and Clay Streets, was constructed in the early months of 1930, and began operation in July of that year. This Kingsport plant is one of a chain of nine similar establishments; other plants are located in Johnson City, Bristol, Elizabethton, Newport, Greene- ville, and Morristown, Tennessee; in Abingdon and Big Stone Gap, Virginia.
Modern in every facility, this plant began with a daily handling of approximately 25 gallons of milk, which has now been increased to approximately 1,050 gallons daily; its original daily output of ice cream was but 30 gallons, today it touches an average of 200 gallons daily. Pet pasteurized milk, Pet ice cream, Pet butter and Pet creamed cottage cheese are its best known products and constitute its main volume of business. This plant employs on an average, 18 persons.
169
Pet Dairy Products Company plant
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KINGSPORT PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
A community without a daily paper, especially a community of the size and with the progressive spirit of Kingsport, would be as out-moded as a business house without a telephone. Kingsport has been fortu- nate in having "The Times" as its daily paper since 1924.
The Kingsport "Times" was actually founded in 1916 — a year before the city was incorporated — by R. D. Kincaid and Major Cy Lyle of Johnson City, begin- ning publication on April 16, 1916, with Mr. Kincaid as editor. The first offices of the paper were on Main Street in the building now occupied by the Gem Theatre and during the first three months of operation the paper was printed in Johnson City. At first the "Times" appeared only as a weekly paper. After a few months, the plant was moved to Kingsport, oc- cupying a building not far from its present location.
In 1919, the paper was purchased by T. H. Pratt, who, with his associates, incorporated the Kingsport Publishing Company, of which Mr. Pratt remains as President today. The "Times" was changed to a semi- weekly with Ike Shuman as editor and a year later Mr. Shuman was succeeded by Howard Long, who served as managing editor until 1935, when he became postmaster of Kingsport.
The "Times" became a daily in 1921, but was changed to a semi-weekly again a few months later, continuing as such until 1924 when the growth of the city justified a new start as a daily, and the first issue,
171
Facsimile of front page of "Kingsport Times"
as such, was printed October ist of that year. It has continued as a daily ever since and its growth has been rapid and sure.
Despite the years of depression, the circulation con- tinued to rise and moved upward at an accelerated speed as business conditions improved, until today the average net paid circulation of the "Times" is almost six thousand daily. The paper goes into over ninety percent of the homes of Kingsport and has a wide dis- tribution throughout the surrounding territory.
The "Times" runs a minimum of eight pages daily, contains the full Associated Press news, a full page of the leading comics, scores of the best features to be found in the metropolitan papers, and through its local staff and a corps of more than forty country corre- spondents, complete regional news is furnished its readers. With its own staff photographer and a com- plete photo-engraving plant it is enabled to publish pictures of local events on the same day that they occur. On Sundays, a full color supplement of comics is added to issues that frequently run in excess of the usual sixteen pages.
SOUTHERN OXYGEN COMPANY
In the production of oxygen, acetylene and carbon- dioxide gases, this recent addition to Kingsport's in- dustrial family, the Southern Oxygen Company, brings also an entirely new group of products to the already generously diversified line for which the city is well known.
This Kingsport plant provides capacity for the
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daily production of eighty cylinders of commercial oxygen of the 220 pound type, ten thousand cubic feet of acetylene and 9600 pounds of carbon-dioxide gases. These products are distributed through branches in Asheville, North Carolina; Roanoke, Norton, Welch, Virginia; Bluefield, Beckley, Williamson, West Vir- ginia; Harlan, Hazard, Middlesboro, Pikeville, Whites- burg, Kentucky; and Johnson City, Tennessee. It also distributes all kinds of welding and oxy-acetylene cutting equipment and supplies, such as rods, fluxes, lights, goggles, etc.
Much of the oxygen and acetylene gases produced are employed in the welding and cutting of metals for commercial uses, through the oxy-acetylene process. It also makes medical oxygen and the newer medi- cal gas, carbon-dioxide. Another usage to which this carbon-dioxide gas is put is in the cleaning of com- mercial pipe lines, such as the enormous amount of piping employed in acetate plants similar to that of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation.
The main office and plant of this company is lo- cated at Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D. G, from which point R. B. Swope, the head of the company and the founder of the Kingsport plant, di- rects operations of this local establishment. An aver- age of sixteen men are employed continuously here.
WELDING AND MACHINE CORPORATION
Back a few years, the old adage "a stitch in time saves nine" was a truism. In these modern days, at least in the industrial and commercial field, and even
in the home, it would be more correct to say "a weld in time saves mine" — referring to anything made of metal —for the modern mender deals in more sturdy materials.
Founded in May, 1936, by A. W. Greene and Sam Williams, the Welding and Machine Corporation fits a very essential niche in the busy picture of Kingsport's business and home life. Its business is divided almost evenly between automobile repair welding and machining, and in general industrial welding and ma- chine work. Automobile and other heavy-duty springs are a specialty with this plant.
Here may be found a most complete machine shop and every facility for all kinds of metal welding by the electric arc and oxy-acetylene processes. Five men, all experienced in their crafts, are employed regularly.
MILLER-SMITH HOSIERY MILL
One of a chain of hosiery manufacturing plants, others being located in Chattanooga, Etowah and Dayton, Tennessee, this Kingsport unit devotes its ef- forts entirely to the knitting of full-fashioned women's hosiery. Its product is shipped in bulk to the Chattanooga main plant for dyeing and finishing, it having been found more economic to concentrate these steps in processing in one plant.
The Kingsport plant produces a maximum of three quality grades and averages two hundred dozen pairs per day and operates on a five day week, with two working shifts per day. This plant employs a mini- mum of seventy persons.
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Operation of this local plant began in 1932, soon after the closing of the old Kingsport Hosiery Mills and the removal of its machinery. The present plant, which has enjoyed continuous operation since it started, occupies part of the original building and a fine new extension built to suit its particular type of machines.
Hosiery produced in this mill, after dyeing and finishing at the Chattanooga plant, is marketed through state distributors direct to the retail merchants, thus saving all jobbing expense and enabling the retailers to sell a high grade product at a most reasonable scale of prices. The highest quality hose produced in this Kingsport mill retail at a top price of one dollar and a quarter a pair.
FISHER-BECK HOSIERY MILL
With a monthly output of 1,300,000 pairs of seamless men's hosiery, the Fisher-Beck Hosiery Mill main- tains an important position among Kingsport's indus- trial plants.
This knitting plant was established in 1928 and today operates one hundred and twenty machines giving employment to upward of one hundred persons, on a two shift basis of production.
Its products consist of cotton, silk and rayon, and pure silk hosiery. Much of the yarn used is from southern manufacturing plants, with the preponder- ance of the acetate yarn coming from the local plant of the Tennessee Eastman Corporation.
Knitting alone is done at the Kingsport plant; at
another plant located at Cranberry, North Carolina, all dyeing and finishing for both plants is. consum- mated.
Its products are marketed through jobbers scattered through the south and west, with a small percentage going into the northern and eastern markets. In grade, these products vary from a minimum line at ten cents per pair, to grades bringing fifty cents per pair. Both prices being to jobbers, not retailers.
SMOKY MOUNTAINS HOSIERY MILLS
Kingsport's newest hosiery mill is distinctive in that its product is exclusively ladies' hosiery of the full- fashioned, pure silk variety.
Coming to Kingsport in October, 1936, the Smoky Mountains Hosiery Mills occupied the premises for- merly housing the Kingsport Silk Mills. Before undertaking any production, the entire building was renovated, a new cork-lined roof installed and a full air-conditioning system introduced, together with many employee comforts absent under the former tenant.
This company manufactures hosiery from pure silk thread imported from Japan and "thrown" in mills in Philadelphia. The completed hosiery is shipped to its other mills in and around Philadelphia for dyeing and finishing. This hosiery is all of the 45 gauge quality and is distributed through nation-wide jobbing connection.
At present, there have been installed twenty-three full-fashioned knitting machines, with some 35 men
and women undergoing instruction in the care and operation of this type of equipment. When installa- tion is completed there will be a total of seventy-six machines, giving employment to about four hundred persons. All of this new equipment is of the latest design, equipped with lace-top and other special knitting attachments. When in full operation, this plant will be capable of producing approximately 30,- ooo dozen pairs of pure silk ladies' hose per month.
SOUTHERN MAID DAIRY PRODUCTS CORPORATION
In the daily diet of the American family ice cream has become an important commercial factor. Not- withstanding the rapid electrification of the family refrigerator, ice is also a product in constant daily demand. With the steadily increasing popularity, especially during the summer months, of ice cream and soda fountain drinks, there has been developed a tre- mendous industry dealing in the supplies from which are concocted the typical American thirst-quenching drinks.
Kingsport, as a community, evinces no exception to the general popularity of such refreshments. The in- creasing demand for ice, ice cream, fountain syrups and supplies led to the organization of this company in 1922 as the Southern Ice Cream Co. In 1924 came the consolidation of this company with the Chapin and Sacks Company and in 1928 the present modern plant, located on Cherokee Street near Market, was constructed and the name of the firm changed to
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its present title, the Southern Maid Dairy Products Corporation.
This Kingsport plant is one of seven plants under one management. Here its business is limited to the production of ice cream, ice and the dispensing of those products together with fountain supplies, syrups, etc. The Kingsport plant has a capacity of fifteen tons of ice each twenty-four hours and three thousand gallons of ice cream per month.
Other plants are located at Johnson City, Tennessee; at Bristol and Appalachia, Virginia; at Bluefield, Welch and Williamson, West Virginia. Several of these plants outside of Kingsport handle milk and produce butter and cottage cheese in addition to ice and ice cream.
UNION COAL AND SUPPLY CORPORATION
Originally destined to be both a coal and a building materials supply house, this company, founded in 1929 by J. P. Bray, Jr., and Henderson Horsley, has con- fined its activities, since the spring of 1936 to the building materials field, in which it caters almost ex- clusively to the retail trade.
Ample storage warehouses for supplies, an extensive lumber yard and a milling plant for the production of door and window frames and simple mill work, con- stitutes this quite complete establishment.
Nearly sixty percent of its sales are within the con- fines of Kingsport, yet this establishment serves a some- what extended field in the surrounding territory adjacent to the city.
KINGSPORT LUMBER AND SUPPLY COMPANY
Not all business may be conducted upon a whole- sale basis. There is great need in every community for those who operate upon the retail plan. Summing up the total sales of all those establishments dealing with the retail trade in any city frequently astounds the analyst when compared with the total business within the area.
True it is, that in the lumber and supply field, especially in an urban-rural area, the amount, or vol- ume of retail sales is surprisingly large. Kingsport, with its diversification of industry, is well-balanced in the variety of its wholesale and retail establishments in those activities where both types of merchandising are needed.
The Kingsport Lumber and Supply Company deals principally on a retail basis, arid as such, operates one of the largest establishments in the Kingsport area dealing in building materials of every description. Organized in April, 1931, this company is located at the corner of Main and Clay streets, on the site of the former Poarch Brothers Lumber Company, and enjoys an enviable portion of the retail lumber and supply business within the city and out in the surrounding country. Extensive warehouses for the storage of sup- plies and a complete mill for manufacturing sash, doors, finish and for other mill work are maintained in addition to an ample lumber storage yard with a branch siding from the tracks of the C. C. & O. R. R.
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HOWARD-DUCKETT COMPANY
In every live community, especially one with an ex- tensive trading area, there exists an excellent opportu- nity for a competent, aggressive commercial printing establishment. Printing has been aptly termed "the Mother of progress." Wherever business exists in any quantity, there must be a printing service to foster and maintain business.
Kingsport had several small commercial printing plants, and still has sufficient. It remained for some enterprising individuals, visualizing the future growth of Kingsport and the surrounding area, to establish a really adequate and modern commercial print-shop, capable of ministering to the varied needs of a rapidly expanding industrial, mercantile and professional cli- entele.
Lee L. Duckett and S. B. Howard, as the Howard- Duckett Company, began serving the community in 1926, with two small platen presses and a goodly as- sortment of types and other paraphernalia of a print- ing shop. In 1930, Howard sold his interest to Duckett. In 1931, the business was incorporated and B. M. Hagen with Gordon M. Hughes became allied with the enterprise.
By 1935, the business had increased to such an ex- tent, and the advent of offset printing in the com- mercial field brought demands for service to the point, that further expansion was a necessity. Today, this plant includes a complete equipment of job, cylinder and offset-lithographic presses, mechanical typesetting
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machines, automatic letterpresses, an art department, a commercial photographer, and a complete commercial bindery with many precision machines, employing a minimum of twenty persons regularly.
Thus equipped, this company is now enabled to handle a wide range of commercial printing, includ- ing direct-by-mail advertising printing from the incep- tion, through the designing, to the printing, folding and mailing, in its own shop.
KINGSPORT CHERO-COLA COMPANY
From the earliest days of the small travelling circus, when peanuts and soda-pop first appeared to appease the hunger and wet the whistles of the American public, the soft-drink has been an ever-present institu- tion. Baseball, football and every form of athletic contest, either in or out-of-doors, would be incomplete without this favorite form of thirst-quencher.
Today, among our larger national advertisers will be found the manufacturers and bottlers of many well- known soft-drinks. Among these, marketed under the trade name of NEHI, will be found a wide variety of appealing beverages.
Kingsport, because of its large industrial population, and by reason of its extended trade-area, early became a logical center for the bottling and distribution of these nationally known beverages. Organized in 1920, the Kingsport Chero-Cola Company, an accredited representative of the Nehi Bottling Company, began production in a small building on Boone Street, rapidly outgrew its quarters and eventually located
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in its present building on East Main Street. From year to year, as local business expanded, and new methods and equipment made their appearance in the bottling field, this forward-looking concern re- vamped its plant and today operates a most modern, sanitary plant and complete distribution service for all types of soft-drinks made under the nationally known NEHI label. Today, its output of all kinds of soft-drinks exceeds 650,000 bottles annually.
KINGSPORT LAUNDRY COMPANY
Entering Kingsport by motor from the west or north, one of the first establishments encountered within the city is that of the Kingsport Laundry Com- pany, housed in a fine new building just recently completed.
One of a chain of plants, this Kingsport unit repre- sents an investment in building and equipment of close to $85,000, and is the latest word in practical and economic commercial laundry and dry cleaning layout. The local plant, as well as others at Big Stone Gap and Norton, Virginia, is under the personal supervision of R. P. Dyerle, Vice President and General Manager of Operations. This plant is also connected with plants at Bristol and Greeneville, Tennessee, through stock ownership.
This new plant, an improvement and expansion over the original plant in this city, will employ between 45 and 50 persons and have an average weekly capacity of nearly $1500 gross business. With five motor units it serves not only Kingsport but a considerable area
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outside the city including Rogersville and Gate City, Virginia. This plant handles all types of laundry work, including the rendering of family, hotel and industrial service; and perform a complete service in the dry cleaning and pressing of garments and all materials that may not be cleansed by washing.
KINGSPORT HIDE AND METAL COMPANY
Probably for the reason that this company operates under a title that is somewhat of a misnomer, very little is known locally of an infant industry that serves a most useful purpose and does an extensive line of work.
One might suggest that its proper title would be more understandable. Actually, this company handles house and industrial wrecking, and purveys the used materials resulting from the demolishing of homes and plants.
With headquarters in North Carolina, the local or- ganization handles all work in East Tennessee, em- ploying from ten to twenty men regularly, and maintains large stores of building material, steel, tile, plumbing supplies, electrical equipment and the thou- sand-and-one articles which result from the wrecking and salvaging of buildings.
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PART THREE
BANKING
POWER
TRANSPORTATION COMMUNICATIONS
HOTELS REAL ESTATE
lugged scenery along the Clinchfield Route below Kingsport
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
Kingsport's only national banking institution is a bit over twenty years old having been incorporated under a national charter in June 1916.
Located originally at the corner of Main and Chero- kee Streets, it began business with a capital of $25,000. William Roller was the first President and con- tinued in that office until succeeded by J. Fred John- son in 1926.
In 1927 the present bank building was constructed at the corner of Broad and Center Streets at a cost of $165,000. Today it houses, in addition to the bank- ing departments, an imposing group of professional and business offices. It is, by far, Kingsport's most impressive office building, excluding only the pri- vately owned and occupied Utilities structure.
From the very modest beginning in 1916 this pro- gressive banking institution has grown steadily in size and in service to the community and the sur- rounding territory. In 1932 it absorbed the Bank of Kingsport, the other commercial bank within the city, strengthening its own financial structure and providing still greater service to the growing needs of Kingsport, already an important industrial center. Today the capital, surplus and undivided profits of the First National Bank of Kingsport stand at $400,- ooo and their total assets exceed $4,500,000. In 1935, keenly alive to the constantly changing demands for banking service and always foremost in adopting every known protection for the funds intrusted to their care, membership was taken in the Federal De-
"irst National Ban% Building, Broad and Center Streets
posit Insurance Corporation, whereby the funds of individual depositors were insured to the extent of $5,000 coverage on each depositor's account.
While it may, upon first thought, appear a bit strange that in this progressive industrial city of Kingsport, with payrolls alone aggregating over $750,- ooo monthly, there should be but one commercial banking institution, this situation is easily understood when the amplitude and character of the service they render the citizens and business interests of the com- munity is recognized; it may truthfully be stated that the First National Bank adequately serves, with com- plete satisfaction, every banking need of the city and adjacent area.
KINGSPORT INDUSTRIAL BANK
The rapid growth of Kingsport as an industrial com- munity brought many new business opportunities. In 1931, a group of far-sighted business and professional men envisioned the opportunity for establishing a banking service outside the usual scope of the com- mercial, and especially the larger, banking institutions.
The Kingsport Industrial Bank deals principally in small loans of the endorsed paper variety, in amounts from twenty-five to one thousand dollars. Some col- lateral loans are made but the majority of accounts handled are those of wage earners needing temporary loans of small denominations.
The increase in the number of employed persons in Kingsport, with the resulting expansion of payrolls, gave impetus to the sale of automobiles and electrical
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equipment, particularly electrical refrigeration equip- ment, and provided another field for a bank familiar with the industrial field borrowers. Automobile and household electrical equipment installment accounts for local distributors have become an interesting vol- ume of financing in this industrial banking institution. The same officers have served continuously since organization and the Bank has enjoyed a satisfactory increase in its business from year to year.
J. L. REYNOLDS FINANCE COMPANY
Organized under a small loan charter, this corpora- tion began business in Kingsport August 18, 1936, as the newest of the community's banking enterprises. Headed by W. R. Jennings, for many years identified with the development of Kingsport through asso- ciation with the Bank of Kingsport and more recently with the First National Bank, this institution started with an auspicious list of Kingsport and Bristol di- rectors, to which added prestige is given by the par- ticipation of J. Louis Reynolds of New York, whose activities in the fields of finance and industry are well known.
This Tennessee corporation deals largely in dis- tributors installment paper taken in payment for equip- ment in the electric refrigeration, radio and automobile sales fields. It also handles small loans of any reasonable denomination, of the co-maker, two en- dorsement type and in the financing of monthly real estate deed of trust items. Its offices are located in the former Bank of Kingsport Building on Main Street.
htfU i
KINGSPORT
tfflLITIES -
KINGSPORT UTILITIES, INCORPORATED
Kingsport Utilities, Incorporated, our electric service company, had its inception in what might be termed a "Community Electric Company," for the then ex- isting industrial plants contributed to the installation and construction of its original power plant. This original plant even yet operates as a standby plant. The far-seeing plan upon which Kingsport was built recognized the fact that an ample source of power was a necessity if progress in industry and perfection in home life were to be attained. Therefore in 1917, the year the city was incorporated, Kingsport Utilities, Incorporated, was formed.
The many advantages of Kingsport soon attracted new industries to such an extent that the original electric plant was found to be inadequate. It was evi- dent that it would be necessary either to make arrange- ments for plant extension — and a series of such extensions as the years went by and electric require- ments increased — or to secure the service from a reli- able and satisfactory existing public utility.
Accordingly, the owners who were interested in the industrial development of the city made a survey of Electric Service Companies, in search of an outstand- ing electric system with a dependable and adequate supply of power under the finest type of far-sighted management. The American Gas and Electric Com- pany was selected, and in 1925, Kingsport Utilities, Incorporated, was purchased and became a subsidiary of the Appalachian Electric Power Company.
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Automatically and at once, the City of Kingsport ceased to be served only by an isolated power plant, subject to the pranks of weather and the ravages of disaster which so often cripple a single power plant. Instead, Kingsport is served by high tension lines con- nected with the 132,000 volt transmission line of the Appalachian Electric Power Company on the north and with the Tennessee Public Service Company's 110,000 volt line on the south. This pool of power, exceeding a million horse-power in capacity, is a source of supply that not only provides ample power capacity for the needs of industry in Kingsport at the present time, but also anticipates all possible future demands and growth.
The present General Manager of Kingsport Utilities, Incorporated, erected the first poles for the original Company and he threw the switch that turned on Kingsport's first electric lights. It has been both his policy and his nature to continue the simple friendli- ness of those early days when the Company was a community affair. His companionable personality has done much to continue the early feeling that the Elec- tric Company is, in reality, a community enterprise, though necessary expansion has made it a part of a huge system.
In line with the management's policy of making the Company's office building a center of civic activities, the beautiful colonial building of the Kingsport Utili- ties has in it the only large assembly hall in the city which is fully equipped and is given over for the free use of the ladies. It is booked weeks ahead by com-
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munity organizations. Its use is not permitted for purely social functions, but such groups as the Parent- Teachers' Association, Garden Clubs, Church Organi- zations, Farm and Civic Associations, are constantly employing it. This is but another link in the splendid relations existing between the Company and the peo- ple of Kingsport.
Kingsport Utilities, Incorporated, has made a num- ber of reductions in rates to residential customers, hav- ing decreased them 69 percent since 1927. The present rate is 30 kw-hrs. at 5 cents; 40 kw-hrs. at 4 cents; the next 230 kw-hrs. at 2% cents; and the remainder at il/2 cents. Corresponding reductions have been made in rates for commercial service. The rates for industry have met consistently competitive conditions, so as to successfully attract new industries.
Kingsport has become one of the outstanding in- dustrial communities of eastern Tennessee. It is the industrial town of the C. C. & O. Railway on whose main line it is situated. Leading industries have been attracted to Kingsport not only by the cheap and de- pendable electric power but also because of planned, coordinated selection of industries.
Since December, 1925, Kingsport Utilities, Incor- porated, has invested well over one million dollars in lines and substations. Available power has been in- creased so that there is an unlimited amount when and if required. Energy from the parent company's system is brought in, at Holston Substation, which is some distance from the corporate limits of the city and steps down to 22 KV at which voltage it is transmitted
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INGSPORT UTILITIES
.JKJLL
to Cherokee Substation, which is within the city and nearer the center of distribution. The various indus- tries are supplied with energy at 22,000 volts and 6600 volts, while the distributing system is 4000 volt, 4-wire construction.
From Holston Substation in Kingsport, a 110,000 volt, steel tower line extends to Waterville, North Carolina, connecting with the lines of the Carolina Power and Light Company and the South, through Knoxville, and into Alabama. This allows an inter- change of energy between various companies from which great benefit has been derived by the public, as it has resulted in vast improvement of the service to the communities served, as a whole, and has in- creased economies and furnished an unlimited supply of power wherever needed.
Its beginning as a Community Electric Company was prophetic. Today, under able management whose vision has assured low cost, dependable, and adequate electricity for all future needs, Kingsport Utilities is above all proud of its friendly relations with fellow townspeople. While no effort has been spared in rendering the very best possible service, one of its satisfactions is knowing that this service is appreciated, as exemplified by the friendly spirit existing between the Company and Customers.
Kingsport, as a community, is proud and apprecia- tive of the fine cooperative spirit which has actuated this public service organization. No more striking example of the exemplification of the modern slogan "the public be pleased" may be found anywhere.
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n
THE CAROLINA CLINCHFIELD & OHIO RAILROAD
A Romance in Railroad Construction The building of a railroad from the seacoast across the Blue Ridge Mountains seems to have been the dream of statesmen of affairs from the beginning of railroad .construction in the United States. John C. Calhoun, in 1832, advocated the building of a road from Charleston, S. C. to Cincinnati. In 1836 a com- pany was formed for this purpose. Robert Y. Hayne, the great South Carolina Senator, famous because of his debate with Webster, was made president of the road. Surveys were made and construction was be- gun, though only eighteen miles of the line was com- pleted, that portion being in South Carolina. It is stated that John C. Fremont, later to become a candi- date for the Presidency, was employed on the road as a surveyor.
Various projects for building a railroad on a direct route from Charleston to Cincinnati were conceived but were never carried into execution on account of the almost impassable mountain barriers. The plan lay dormant until about 1887. General John T. Wilder, who had been a gallant soldier in the Union Army, interested capitalists in the construction of the road, and organized the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railway, known as the 3-C. The object of the road was to connect the rich coal fields of South- west Virginia and Eastern Kentucky with the North and South by means of a road extending from Charles- ton to Cincinnati. This company made surveys
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Along the Clinchfield Route
through the entire route. Two sections of the railroad were completed, one extending from Marion, North Carolina, to Kingsville, South Carolina (now owned by Southern Railway Company), and the other ex- tending from Johnson City to Chestoa, a distance of twenty-five miles, now a part of the Clinchfield.
Associated with General Wilder were several Eng- lish capitalists. They spent about seven million dol- lars, but were forced to suspend work in 1893 by the failure of the English bankers, Baring Brothers.
The road was sold under foreclosure proceedings, and was purchased by Charles E. Hellier on July lyth, 1893, who organized what was known as the Ohio River and Charleston Railway Company. About September ist, 1899, that company extended the road from Chestoa, Tennessee, to five miles south of Hunt- dale, North Carolina, a distance of about twenty miles.
In 1902, George L. Carter and associates purchased the property of the Ohio River and Charleston Rail- way Company and organized the South and Western Railway Company, with the idea of developing the coal fields of Southwest Virginia and Eastern Ken- tucky. They acquired large tracts of coal lands in what has since become famous as the "Clinchfield Section." This company extended the line from Huntdale, North Carolina, to Spruce Pine, North Carolina. Further extension of the line was inter- rupted until the year 1905, when Mr. Carter interested the present owners, through Blair and Company of New York. John B. Dennis was the principal factor in the extension of "The Clinchfield Route," Mr.
Dennis having done more for the industrial develop- ment of the section traversed by "The Clinchfield Route" than any other individual.
In that year extension of the road from Spruce Pine, south and from Johnson City, north, was begun. While the general plan of the old 3-C road was fol- lowed so far as the country traversed was concerned, new surveys were made and easy curves and low grades were adopted.
In the year 1909, the road was completed from Dante, Virginia, to Spartanburg, South Carolina. Be- tween the years 1912 and 1915 the line was extended north from Dante, Virginia, to Elkhorn City, Ken- tucky, a distance of about thirty-five miles.
The construction of the road marked a new era in railroad construction. Where other roads seeking low grades had gone around mountain barriers, the Clinch- field cut through them. Throughout almost its en- tire length it traversed a rugged mountain country, cutting through the intervening ridges with a high standard of construction and easy grades, which fit it for the carriage of an immense tonnage. A glance at a railroad map, shows that it is a bridge line between the Middle West and the Piedmont section of the Carolinas, through the Kentucky and Virginia coal fields.
The length of the present line is 309 miles, and in crossing four distinct water sheds makes use of 55 tunnels, the shortest of which is 179 feet, and the long- est 7854 feet long, the aggregate length being 3.5 per cent of the total mileage. Ample road clearance has
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KASON{} Oixo»
been provided. The standard for tunnels being 18 feet wide by 22 feet high.
The elevation above sea level is 795 feet at Elkhorn City, Ky., and 742 feet at Spartanburg, S. C. The highest point being at the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 2628 feet.
Five states, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina are crossed in the 309 miles.
The construction of the road, with low grades, makes an ideal proposition for Mallet and Mikado locomotives and heavy trains. The usual operation being trains of 80 to 100 cars of coal.
The building of the Clinchfield has justified, not only the dreams of the early statesmen, but the ex- pectation of those who finished the project, in open- ing up a section of the country rich in natural resources.
THE MASON & DIXON LINES
Early in 1932 a group of far-seeing individuals, en- visioning the future possibilities of motor freight transportation, made a rather complete survey of the eastern half of the United States to determine the best point from which to originate a new motor freight line. Kingsport was their selection for an operating center, largely by reason of its many and varied indus- tries and its rapid and consistent development as an industrial city. Motor freight lines must depend upon a continuous movement of tonnage the year around to insure profits. Diversification among industries in
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The Mason & Dixon Lines: (/) group of trucks, (2) typical equipment, (3) New Yor/< City terminus
an area makes for more steady shipping, both of finished products and of raw materials used in manu- facture.
The Mason & Dixon Lines, Inc., began operating its first motor freight route out of Kingsport to New York City in August 1932, establishing a 36 hour schedule. The flexibility of motor freight serv- ice, the advantages of the rapid schedule and the door- to-door delivery brought immediate response from shippers in the form of increased demands for tonnage transportation and necessitated frequent additions to the first equipment put into service, which consisted of but three tractors with semi-trailers. Likewise, constant demands for an extension of the New York route to other points, led this enterprising concern to institute service to Atlanta, Georgia, to Asheville, North Carolina, and to formulate connecting line agreements with other established and responsible motor freight lines to facilitate the moving of freight to all the principal cities east of the Mississippi River.
Incorporating in January, 1934, this company has expanded operations to meet the requirements of their shippers to such an extent that it now operates ap- proximately 90 trucks, employs over 200 persons on its trucks, in its offices and terminals, and operate in Kingsport a complete service division for main- taining its truck equipment in top operating con- dition at all times.
To give the best possible routing, checking and tracing service to its shippers it maintains a com- plete teletype service in all its offices, which enables
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it to dispatch, trace and control shipments system- atically and rapidly.
All-steel equipment is operated, fully covered (in- cluding loads) by insurance. Twenty-four hour serv- ice is maintained in all terminals. Affiliations are established with all state motor freight associations, the American Trucking Association and the National Safety Council.
TRI-CITY AIRPORT
Kingsport counts itself most fortunate, as a com- munity, in participating in the development of a fine, modern airport.
An emergency landing field had been maintained for many years within the city limits, but was most inadequate. Bristol and Johnson City, neighboring communities, had similar fields. The construction of an airport of ample area, with all the equipment neces- sary to qualify as a first-class port, was beyond the power of either individual city.
Early in 1935, consideration was given to a site near Gray's Station, between Kingsport and Johnson City, just off the new highway between the two cities. This site did not offer all the features desired but appeared to be the best spot available.
Later, at a conference between civic leaders from Bristol, Johnson City and Kingsport, it developed that a possibility existed for constructing a fine, class-A airport with the cooperation of all three cities and the counties of Sullivan and Washington.
A joint commission was appointed, representing all
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political sub-divisions and the counsel of air transport companies, the state aeronautical commission, the offi- cials of the War Department in Washington, and others was secured.
After considerable search, a most suitable spot was located, situated almost in the geographical center of the triangle formed by the three cities. Appropria- tions were secured from the three cities and Sullivan County for the purchase of the land and an application filed with the Works Progress Administration at Wash- ington for governmental assistance in building a class-A airport. Two appropriations were made by the Federal Government, and with the sum originally invested in the site, the cost of the completed port will be close to $900,000.
Construction of the airport is nearly completed. In the site is included a total of 323 acres, providing ample areas for expansion if found necessary. The finished airport will occupy an area of 200 acres. Nearly a million and three quarter cubic yards of earth will have been moved, at, we are told, a phenomenal low cost per cubic yard.
When completed the port will have two standard runways, one of 4000 feet, the other 3500 feet, in length, with an "apron" extending to the hangar and administration building which are included in the project.
All the equipment of a class A airport is being in- stalled. The runways will be surfaced with bitumi- nous macadam; the administration building is of concrete and brick; the hangar of steel frame and roof,
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rri-city Airport, Administration Building and Hangar
1 MM
with concrete and brick walls. A full complement of approved markers, lights, beacons and radio-beam con- trols is included.
Not to be outdone, Sullivan County is constructing a new highway (in which is included a new bridge over the Holston River), to link the present concrete highways between the three cities more closely to the new airport.
It is expected that the port will be entirely com- pleted and in full operation early in 1937.
Located at the cross-roads of the air lanes, serviced by the American Airlines, Inc., this new port will give Kingsport and the neighboring cities of Bristol and Johnson City air mail and an air transport service equal to many of the larger cities of the nation.
INTERMOUNTAIN TELEPHONE COMPANY
For fourteen years it has been the opportunity and privilege of the Inter-Mountain Telephone Company to render the "Magic City" of Kingsport its telephone service. The telephone system, like the community, has grown by leaps and bounds. On July i, 1922, when the Inter-Mountain Telephone Company was organized and took over the operations of the Kings- port exchange, there were 469 telephones in service. Today, fourteen years later, 2351 telephones are in op- eration.
For several years the exchange was located on Broad Street on the second floor of an office building. The rapid growth of Kingsport and the need of more room for central office operations brought about the
207
Intermountain Telephone Company Building
necessity of larger quarters, and in 1930 the present telephone building was constructed with new central office equipment installed throughout.
In 1933, in keeping with the march of progress in Kingsport, there was installed in the building a Tele- typewriter exchange, which serves a large number of TWX users in the city. Of pardonable pride to it is the distinction of having the only TWX exchange in- stalled anywhere in the Nation thus far in a city of less than 100,000 population.
During the history of Inter-Mountain the number of patrons served in Kingsport has increased by more than 400 % . This is a phenomenal growth, and has not been excelled anywhere in the Nation to our knowledge, except in instances of "mushroom" popu- lation growth.
With this rapid growth in Kingsport, it has had always a sense of security in its expansion for the reason that its advancement has been built upon the rocks of sound business development.
THE KINGSPORT INN
The Lee Highway from New York to the south and west by way of Virginia and Tennessee and the Dixie Scenic Highway from Chicago to Florida both pass by the Kingsport Inn, located on Broad Street at the Circle.
Opposite this civic center, facing on a broad park- way boulevard which is the main street of the city, and surrounded by public buildings, adjacent to many of the city's churches and the business section, this unique
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The Kingsport Inn, Broad Street at the Circle
hostelry rests amid an atmosphere of beauty and charm. Across the boulevard is the imposing Post Office and Federal Building, next to it the ultra- modern home of the Kingsport Utilities, while a block away the First National Bank, the City Building and the business section are readily accessible.
Somehow, an "inn" usually appeals to the weary traveller in a more comforting and romantic sense than a mere "hotel." Of Georgian architecture, with a wide portico adorned with high white columns in true southern style, this two-story, pleasantly rambling type of edifice immediately attracts one seeking rest and refreshment. With sixty-eight rooms, fifty of which have private baths, a many windowed, tile- floored dining room of generous proportions in which the most jaded or fastidious appetite may find viands that please, comfortable lounge rooms for both ladies and gentlemen, a game room, a piano for the music- lover, books for the reader and, above all, the cleanest and most comfortable beds and rooms one can find anywhere, there are ample facilities for the comfort of guests.
Well landscaped grounds, with a formal garden to intrigue the flower-lover, invaluable box-woods and ivy-clad walls, there is an atmosphere of quiet charm, enhanced by comfortable reclining chairs, swings and Kingsport's elevation of 1200 feet.
Dining, one may look out upon the volcano-like peak of nearby Chimney Top Mountain, and the more regular outline of Bay's Mountain, one source of the city's water supply. From the veranda is visible the
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Scenes in the Kingsport Inn: (/) fish-pond and arbor, (2) main lobby, (j) private sitting-room, (4) ladies' parlor, (5) dining-room, (6) and (7) typical bed-rooms
panorama of Kingsport's industrial plants and the distant ranges of the Blue Ridge and the Cumberland Mountains. An hour's drive to the north, across the line into Virginia, is the now famous Natural Tunnel, which in reality is a great natural bridge of even larger dimensions than its more publicised rival near Roa- noke. A brief hundred mile motor ride, over excellent roads to the south, is the Asheville resort region, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Pisgah National Forest, Unaka National Forest, and Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rockies.
The golf and tennis facilities of the Kingsport Country Club, located but five minutes drive from the Inn, are available to guests. Visits to the many in- teresting industrial plants of the city are readily arranged.
At Johnson City and Bristol, each thirty minutes distant by motor from the Inn, three through trains daily over the Southern Railway provide service to the east and south, and connections to the north and west. If time is of the essence, a new airport is now under construction, and will be ready in a few weeks from which through plane service in any direction may be secured; the airport is a few minutes ride from the Inn over concrete highways.
The Inn is a nationally-known stopping place for travellers and is also a center of the community's activities. Many social functions are held in its spacious parlors. Rotary meets here on Wednesdays at noon and Kiwanis on Friday at the same time. Visitors to both clubs are always welcome.
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Under the direction of B. Frank Warner, resident manager for the L. G. Treadway Service Corporation, New York, the Inn offers clean, comfortable rooms, excellent food and moderate charges as befits one of their eminent chain of hotels.
HOMESTEAD HOTEL
Built originally in 1918 as a club house for the ex- ecutives of the Grant Leather Corporation, one of Kingsport's earlier industries, the Homestead Hotel, or as it is more familiarly called in Kingsport, "the Homestead," was soon remodelled to make a most comfortable and accessible hotel.
Located on Sullivan Street, at the corner of Clay Street, on the direct route from the Circle and on both the Lee Highway and the Dixie Scenic Highway, it ofTers accommodation to the tourist and to those who desire to make an extended stop in Kingsport. It is a favored location for new industrial executives and their families while waiting to locate permanently in their own homes. Many of the teachers in the city's public schools live here during the school year. Nearly sixty percent of their guests are of the permanent class.
With accommodations for one hundred and ten guests, offering sixty-five rooms, many with private bath, a cafeteria dining-room and numerous other comforts and diversions, this hostelry enjoys a generous patronage.
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KINGSPORT IMPROVEMENT CORPORATION
Any recital of the history and activities of the Kings- port Improvement Corporation is so intermingled with the history and development of Kingsport as a city and as an industrial center as to make separation well nigh impossible.
Back in 1915, when Kingsport had its actual begin- nings, a tremendous investment in land had been made by the projectors of Kingsport, both in acquiring rights- of-way for the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad and in providing acreage for the locating of industrial plants, together with areas for residential and business development. It was necessary to have a holding com- pany in whose charge might be concentrated the care of this property and, eventually, the building of the city. Of such necessity came this institution, destined to be a tremendous factor in the planning and creation of a new industrial community.
When one reads elsewhere in this little book the stories of the industries that today make Kingsport the city that it is, no vestige of the master hand and the master mind that did so much of the work and the planning that made Kingsport possible, will be found. Whence came the admittedly practical idea of the diver- sification of industry ? Who was father of the thought that led to the selection of Dr. John Nolen, the eminent city planner, as the expert to lay out a city that should eventually house a population of fifty-thousand souls? Who proposed engaging the Bureau of Municipal Re- search of the Rockefeller Foundation as the most
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Photomontage of activities, Kingsport Improvement Corporation
capable organization to draw the charter for the infant city? From what source originated the assistance of the officials of Columbia University in developing the adequate and efficient school system which has so ad- mirably taken care of the educational problems of Kingsport since its inception ?
Turning to the real job of all, what efTort brought industrialists to the newly laid-out municipality and what convinced them that here was, not a Utopian mi- rage, but a new and different industrial opportunity, with willing hearts and ready hands to assist them in the making of industrial history? What kept those same industrial leaders interested during two major de- pressions and what inspired with new confidence those who at first encountered discouragements ? And above all, who was it, forgetting selfish motives, avoided bringing questionable industries to this community, thereby building for permanence and for industrial peace and harmony? Thus might the interrogation continue indefinitely, with the same answers inevitably reoccurring.
Then, too, who had faith in the future of Kingsport and invested huge sums in building a water system, a power producing plant, a hotel, a golf course, business and industrial buildings, homes and even churches and schools? And invested money in newly located in- dustries to assure their sponsors that here, too, was con- fidence in their enterprises ?
Whose was the influence that was ever ready to fight for favorable freight rates, for better railroad and mail service, for better and more highways, for equable taxa-
216
tion, for needed legislation, for improved telephone service, for adequate hospital facilities, for better fire and police protection, for more and better school build- ings, and last but by no means least, who lent incalcul- able aid in obtaining Federal aid in the building of our new Post Office and our nearly completed Tri-city air- port ?
Disraeli is credited with the saying, "individuals may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation." Well may we in Kingsport affirm, and most correctly so, that the institution most deserv- ing of commendation in the planning of the funda- mentals and in the practical working out of the destiny of this community is the Kingsport Improvement Cor- poration and the far-seeing, empire building individuals who have directed its policies.
Another writer has said "an institution is but the lengthening shadow of the individual." Some day, the author of these few words descriptive of the eminent part this institution has played in the building of Kings- port, hopes to have a free hand in writing the story of the individual most responsible for the conquering of a new frontier in industrial empire building. Only modesty on the part of that dearly loved individual prevents the telling of the complete story in this little book on Kingsport, the City of Industries, Schools, Churches and Homes, where it deservedly belongs.
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FAIRACRES
Most urban communities, at least during that period of most intensive development, pass through the phase of "sub-division" sales of real estate. Not so within the corporate limits of Kingsport. Here the original plan- ning of the city provided for definite areas for business, for industry and for residences. Included in the resi- dential area was reserved the acreage of the late James Wiley Dobyns stock farm, a beautiful tract of some 250 acres (now owned by his sons B. E. and S. F. Dobyns), bordering on Watauga Street and extending nearly to the corporate limits on the east and beyond the limits on the north.
This pleasantly rolling plateau was laid out by E. S. Draper, nationally known landscape engineer who as- sisted Dr. John Nolen in planning Kingsport, the City. Taken as one complete residential property, Mr. Draper employed the sweep of hill and dale to mold gently curving avenues and streets that converge and separate to form attractive land groupings to fit both large and small housing plans. Enjoying an elevation of nearly thirteen hundred feet above sea level, with mountain vistas on all sides and the beautiful Reedy Creek Valley as a background, this sensibly restricted residential park affords all the advantages of a coun- try estate within an easy five minute drive to the center of Kingsport's business district.
Looking southward, across Watauga Street and the main highways to Bristol and Johnson City, one en- visions the south fork of the Holston River and in the
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Group of homes in "Fairacres"
distance crater-shaped Chimney Top Mountain, with the mountains of North Carolina as a panoramic back- drop. Abutting on the Bristol Highway, only a block from the Watauga Street side of the park, ap- pears the Kingsport Country Club with golf and tennis facilities and the American Legion Playground (now under construction) in which will be a fine fresh-water swimming pool and other recreational features. In nearby wooded areas good bird shooting is available in the fall, while the drives and wooded roads leading from the park furnish enjoyable bridle paths for those who like to ride.
The landscaping within the park and around the homes is in harmony with that of the entire commu- nity. Discrimination is used in the selection of pur- chasers of home sites within Fairacres. Suitable consideration is given to the character and refinement of those seeking to construct homes within the park, entirely aside from that of financial responsibility. Ample lot areas are prescribed to insure freedom from crowding and to assure each property owner full op- portunity to indulge his fancy, whether it be in a play- ground for his children or in an extensive flower garden for the enjoyment of his family and friends.
The residents of Kingsport are essentially a home building and home-loving people, hence Fairacres is rapidly becoming Kingsport's premier residential park, replete with homes, bright with flowers and shrubbery, and peopled with home-loving families whose children play happily and safely within the broad confines of this spacious "country within the city" area.
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Landscape plan of "Fairacres"
PART FOUR CLASSIFIED DIRECTORY
Good roads abound; Bristol-Kingsport highway and Chimney-Top Mountain in the distance
BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY
Architects Allen N. Dryden Shelby and Market Streets
Attorneys — see Lawyers Automobile Retailers
W. A. Allen Chevrolet Co. (Gen'l Motors) 315 Cherokee Street
Kyle Motor Co. (Packard) Sullivan Street
Mills Motor Co. (Chrysler — Plymouth) . 223 Commerce Street
Advertising George S. Hannah (Goodwill Advertising) Main Street
Automobile Service Stations
Hay's Service Station Sullivan and Center Streets
Johnson's Service Station Sullivan and Center Streets
Automobile Tires and Accessories Goodrich Silvertown Stores 137 Broad Street
BanJ^s
First National Bank Broad and Center Streets
Kingsport Industrial Bank 105 Center Street
Barber Shops Palace Barber Shop 156 Broad Street
BooJ^ Manufacturers Kingsport Press, Inc. Reedy, Roller, Center and Clinchfield Sts.
Blacksmiths Welding and Machine Corporation 331 Market Street
Bric\ Manufacturers
General Shale Products Co Main Street
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Building Materials and Lumber
Citizens Supply Corporation 301 Main Street
Kingsport Lumber and Supply Co Main and Clay Streets
Union Coal and Supply Co E. Sullivan Street
Business Schools Whitney School of Business 119 W. Market Street
Cafeterias Lester M. Parks S. Main Street
Carbonated Beverages Kingsport Chero-Cola Co Main Street
Candies and Fruits
Broad Street Fruit and News Co. 205 Broad Street
Five Points Fruit and News Co. Five Points
Kingsport Candy Kitchen 113 Broad Street
Cellulose Products and Chemicals Tennessee Eastman Corporation Horse Creek Road
Cement Manufacturers Pennsylvania-Dixie Cement Corporation Main Street
Chamber of Commerce Kingsport Improvement Corp. Office . . Shelby and Market Sts.
Chiropractors R. W. Pannell 212 Broad Street
Churches
Broad Street Methodist Church Broad Street
Calvary Baptist Church Borden (Oakdale) Village
First Baptist Church Holston Street
First Christian Church Broad Street
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Churches (Continued)
First Presbyterian Church Broad Street
First Methodist Episcopal Church Watauga Street
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Broad Street
Maple Street Methodist Episcopal Church Maple Street
St. Dominic's Catholic Mission Broad Street
St. Paul's Episcopal Church Watauga at Ravine
Cleaners, Dyers, Pressers
Bon Ton Cleaners 211 Commerce
Ralph H. Hampton
Woody's Dry Cleaners 205 Cherokee
Cloth Manufacturers
Borden Mills, Inc E. Sullivan Street
Holliston Mills of Tennessee, Inc. . . Reedy and Clinchfield Sts.
Clubs
Kingsport Country Club Bristol Highway
Kiwanis Club (Fridays at 12:00 Noon) Kingsport Inn
Rotary Club (Wednesdays at 12:10 Noon) Kingsport Inn
Coal Dealers
Blue Gem Fuel and Trucking Co Main Street
Brown's Coal Yard 923 Bristol Highway
Dairies
Pet Dairy Products Co Market and Clay Streets
Southern Maid Products Co Market and Cherokee Streets
Dentists
Dr. J. W. Campbell 212 Broad Street
Dr. E. A. Hoge 152 Broad Street
Dr. Will Hutchins 104 E. Market Street
Dr. J. L. Mingeldorff 117 Broad Street
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Dentists (Continued)
Dr. R. P. Moss
Dr. B. F. Robertson
Dr. S. L. Smith ....
Dr. J. E. Wilson
Department Stores
Charles Stores, Inc
J. Fred Johnson & Co., Inc
Montgomery-Ward & Co.
Morgan's Department Store
Parks-Belk Company .
J. C. Penney Co
212 Broad Street 109 Broad Street 128 Broad Street 146 Broad Street
204 Broad Street
146 Broad Street
247 Broad Street
214 Broad Street
Broad Street
.151 Broad Street
Druggists
Clinchfield Drug Company Broad and Market Streets
Holston Pharmacy 235 E. Sullivan Street
Kingsport Drug Company Main and Broad Streets
Electrical Appliances
Auto Electric Co 119 Shelby Street
Dobyns-Taylor Co 116 Broad Street
Electric Appliance Company, Inc Sullivan Street
Electrical Contractors Kingsport Electric Co 115 Market Street
Express Companies Railway Express Agency Main and Market Street
Finance Companies
Personal Finance Co 204 Broad Street
J. L. Reynolds Finance Co Broad and Main Streets
Florists
Hutchwallin Floral Gardens Highland Park
Kingsport Floral Shop 108 Charlemont Street
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Foundries
Kingsport Foundry and Machine Works Main Street
Kingsport Foundry and Manufacturing Corp. E. Sullivan Street
Freight Transportation
Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad Main Street
E.T. & W.N.C. Motor Transportation Co Cumberland St.
Kingsport Transfer Co W. Market Street
Mason and Dixon Lines, Inc. no Clay Street
Funeral Directors (Morticians)
Hamlett and Dobson 117 E. Charlemont Street
Huff-Cook Funeral Home 125 E. Charlemont Street
Furniture
Baylor-Nelms Furniture Co. 127 Broad Street
Dobyns-Taylor Co 116 Broad Street
King Furniture Co Sullivan Street
Gasoline and Oil Distributors
Gulf Refining Co., Robert L. Peters, Agent Main Street
Sinclair Refining Co., G. T. McGuire, Agent . . .Main Street Standard Oil Co. of La., E. D. Smith, Agent .... Main Street
Gift Shops
T. H. Bailey Jewelry Co E. Market Street
Dobyns-Taylor Co 116 Broad Street
P. K. Hash 149 Broad Street
Jay Jewelry Co 138 Broad Street
Glass Manufacturers Blue Ridge Glass Corporation E. Sullivan Street
Grocers — Retail
C. B. Fleenor 107 W. Market Street
Golden Rule Grocery 624 Boone Street
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Grocers — Retail (Continued)
Mack Hampton 112 Market Street
Kingsport Variety Store 443 E. Sullivan Street
R. T. Lyons 303 Sullivan Street
George E. Stone 301 E. Sullivan Street
Grocers — Wh olesale Kingsport Grocery Co 453 E. Main Street
Hardware — Retail and Wholesale Dobyns-Taylor Co 116 Broad Street
Hides and Metals Kingsport Hide and Metal Co Main Street
Hosiery Manufacturers
Fisher-Beck Hosiery Mills Cumberland Street
Miller-Smith Hosiery Mills Reedy Street
Smoky Mountains Hosiery Mills Highland Park
Hospitals Holston Valley Community Hospital Ravine Street
Hotels
Homestead Hotel Sullivan and Clay Streets
Kingsport Inn Broad and Sullivan Streets
Insurance
Bennett and Edwards Broad and Center Streets
F. }. Brownell Broad Street
Harris and Graves t . . . 204 Broad Street
Home Insurance Co 152 Broad Street
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co 212 Broad Street
Moore and Walker 118 Broad Street
Price and Ramey 103 Center Street
Fred J. Reynolds no Broad Street
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Jewelers
T. H. Bailey Jewelry Co E. Market Street
P. K. Hash 149 Broad Street
Jay Jewelry Co 138 Broad Street
Kingsport, City of
City Offices, Police Department, Public Library,
Court House Shelby and Center Streets
Fire Department Watauga Street
City Magistrate, T. Mack Ketron 253 Broad Street
Ladies Wear
Federal Clothing Stores 144 Broad Street
Fuller-Hillman, Inc 124 Broad Street
Lawyers
T. R. Bandy Broad Street
Napoleon Bond Broad Street
W. H. Bowling 109 Broad Street
Ivan Bussart 211 Broad Street
I. T. Collins 120/2 Broad Street
T. A. Dodson 117 Broad Street
H. L. Garrett 209 Broad Street
C. T. Herndon Broad and Market Streets
O. W. Huddle 117 Broad Street
Kelly, Penn and Hunter Shelby and Market Streets
Carl Kirkpatrick 200 Broad Street
Howard R. Poston 109 Broad Street
Clifford E. Sanders 212 Broad Street
Hunter H. Sneed Broad Street
J. R. Todd Broad Street
Worley, Hauk and Minter Broad and Center Streets
Leather Belting
Slip-Not Belting Corporation Main Street
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Loans
Joseph's Loan Office
Personal Finance Co
J. L. Reynolds Finance Co.
1 08 Market Street
204 Broad Street
Broad and Main Streets
Magistrates T. Mack Ketron, City Magistrate
Merchandise Brokers The National Brokerage Co., Inc
Merchants G. P. Cooper
Men's Wear
Federal Clothing Stores
Fuller-Hillman, Inc
Sobel's
Mill Supplies
Dobyns-Taylor Co
Slip-Not Belting Corporation
253 Broad Street
Charlemont Street
..Church Hill
144 Broad Street 124 Broad Street 130 Broad Street
116 Broad Street . .Main Street
Office Equipment and Supplies
Home and Office Appliance Co. . . Howard Equipment and Supply Co. Kingsport Office Supply Co
234 E. Market Street 119 W. Market Street .in E. Market Street
Osteopathic Physicians
Dr. James S. Blair 212 Broad Street
Optometrists Charles G. Frye no Broad Street
Oscar Z. Silver
. 126 Broad Street 23I
Oxygen Gas Southern Oxygen Co N. Main Street
Paints Dobyns-Taylor Co 116 Broad Street
Painters and Decorators Kingsport Paint and Wallpaper Co., Roy J. Belz 620 Boone St.
Photographers McDowell's Studio 126 Broad Street
Physicians and Surgeons
Dr. M. J. Adams Broad and Center Streets
Dr. Frank L. Alloway Broad and Market Streets
Dr. E. M. Corns 152 Broad Street
Dr. L. C. Cox 104 E. Market Street
Dr. E. O. Depew no Broad Street
Dr. Fred M. Duckwall Broad and Center Streets
Dr. }. Atlee Flora 135 Broad Street
Dr. }. C. Foust (Colored) 603 Sullivan Street
Dr. L. L. Highsmith 126 Broad Street
Dr. J. V. Hodge 105 W. Market Street
Dr. George G. Keener 104 E. Market Street
Dr. T. E. LeRoy Old Kingsport
Dr. Thomas McNeer 519 Holston Street
Dr. M. D. Massengill 146 Broad Street
Dr. A. D. Miller 104 Market Street
Dr. W. B. Payne 202 E. Charlemont Street
Dr. W. H. Reed no Broad Street
Dr. H. S. Scott Broad Street
Dr. E. W. Tipton no Broad Street
Dr. W. A. Wiley Broad and Center Streets
Dr. T. B. Yancey 202 E. Charlemont Street
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Plumbing Supplies Dobyns-Taylor Co 116 Broad Street
Postal Service U. S. Post Office and Federal Building ... Broad and New Sts.
Printing
Franklin Printing Co Main and Cherokee Streets
Howard-Duckett Co. (and Litho.) .Market and Cherokee Sts.
Kingsport Publishing Co 220 Market Street
Kingsport Press, Inc. Reedy, Roller, Center and Clinchfield Sts.
Produce and Feed Kingsport Produce Co., J. L. Kincheloe Market Street
Publishing
Kingsport Pub. Co. (The Kingsport Times) . . . .220 Market St. National Masonic Press (Books) . Broad and Center Streets
Pulp and Paper Manufacturing The Mead Corporation W. Main Street
Radios Dobyns-Taylor Co 116 Broad Street
Railroads Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railroad Main Street
Real Estate
Bennett and Edwards Broad and Center Streets
Dobyns Estate, "Fairacres" Fairacres
Harris and Graves 204 Broad Street
Hurst Real Estate Co 505 Center Street
Kingsport Improvement Corporation . . Shelby and Market Sts. Moore and Walker 118 Broad Street
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Real Estate (Continued)
John B. Nail Broad Street
Price and Ramey 103 Center Street
Restaurants Liberty Cafe E. Sullivan Street
Sewing Machines Singer Sewing Machine Co., Geo. S. Garbe, Agent 1 1 1 Broad St.
Sporting Goods Dobyns-Taylor Co 1 16 Broad Street
Telephone and Telegraph
Intermountain Telephone Company Commerce Street
Western Union Telegraph Company .... Broad and Market Sts.
Theatres (Moving Pictures)
State Theatre, L. }. Pepper, Mgr Broad and Market Streets
Strand Theatre, W. J. Roesch, Mgr Broad Street
Utilities (Electric Power) Kingsport Utilities, Inc., C. A. Thornburg, Mgr. . 422 Broad St.
Veterinary Surgeons Dr. }. F. Kagey 209 Center Street
Welding Welding and Machine Corporation 331 Market Street
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