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
vm
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 2 3?9 I 4
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.
23
//
r^BRV
Aiurkell!
w o
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.
4 1
/) 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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44
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.
5 1
Churches: (/) First Presbyterian, (2) First Baptist, (3} St.
Caul's Episcopal, (4) Broad St. Methodist, (5) First Meth-
odist Episcopal
S
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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 33 1 /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
59
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
61
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
65
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,
73
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
75
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-
77
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.
79
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
81
Street Scenes: (/) Linville Street, West, (2) Watanga Street,
(j 1 ) 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.
83
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
85
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-
8 9
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,
90
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.
92
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
94
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
95
rs vmc 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.
97
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
99
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
100
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
101
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
103
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.
104
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-
105
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
1 06
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
107
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-
108
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-
109
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!
no
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!
in
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.
117
"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
!
i ^
r
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
f
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
121
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
123
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.
125
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.
127
Borden Mills, Incorporated, aerial view
J- '*-/S
mm'm
Bora*
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.
129
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
131
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.
132
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
133
1
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.
135
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
136
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
139
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.
142
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
145
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
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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.
174
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
177
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.
179
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
180
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
181
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
182
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.
183
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
188
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.
191
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-
192
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
i l / 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
193
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.
195
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
197
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
199
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
201
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
202
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
203
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,
205
r ri-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
209
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
211
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.
212
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.
213
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
215
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.
217
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
219
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.
221
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
22 4
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
225
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
226
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
227
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
228
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
22 9
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
230
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
2 3 I
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
2 3 2
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
233
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
234
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