D-B Turns 100!

Dobyns-Bennett High School, the name anyway, turns 100 this school year.

Whether you count the centennial date as the start of school, which is Aug. 3, 2026 in Kingport this school year, or the centennial of the actual date of opening of the original D-B, which was Sept 7, 1926, D-B is 100.

Of course many of us know the school itself has had two buildings. We refer to them as The Old School, the stately Georgian Revival style building at 1200 Wateree Street, which opened on Sept. 7, 1926 to much fanfare. Or The New School, the Jetsons-style pod building at 1644 Fort Henry Drive, which opened on Aug. 31, 1967 to even greater fanfare: the new school was much more expensive - $6 million vs. $300,000 in 1926 – plus more students (197 vs. 1,713) and more Kingsport residents (10,000 vs. 30,000). Of course that additional fanfare could be attributed to a much larger circulation newspaper (3,312 vs. 28,251) and the addition of two local TV newsrooms plus the local powerhouse news department at WKPT-AM-FM (WKPT-TV didn’t sign on for another two years).

For those of us who went to the Old School, there will always be that demarcation: the Old School and the New School, even though the Old School was only D-B for 42 years. The New School has been D-B for 58 years and counting. I don’t expect to be around to see the opening of The Newer School which isn’t even being talked about.

For those who remember the Old School or even those who wonder what it was like, I have assembled a portfolio of photos from those early decades of D-B. 

Typing class 1947

Study Hall - 1948 (This is not the way I remember Study Hall)

Girls gym class 1948

Band room addition 1949

New library - 1949

New Home Ec room 1949

When football games were played in a stadium next to the school - 1938

Construction of the new Catawba Street wing, with new Sprankle Gym at far left - 1949

Boys gym class - 1948

Locker talk - 1947

When the school was built the lockers were a big deal!

In April 1926, the Kingsport Times devoted prominent front-page coverage to what might today seem like a routine administrative detail: the awarding of a municipal contract for school lockers. This detailed reporting highlights just how central the construction of the new Dobyns-Bennett High School was to the civic pride and daily consciousness of the growing town.

The newspaper treated the locker selection with the weight of major public news. Rather than merely reporting the winning vendor, the article meticulously documented the entire competitive bidding process. Readers were provided with an exact breakdown of all five bids submitted—ranging from the winning offer of $3,352.50 by the Office Supply Company of Johnson City up to $3,958.40 from a St. Louis manufacturer. Every dollar, company name, and location was laid out for public scrutiny, reflecting a strong emphasis on municipal transparency and financial accountability.

Furthermore, the article went to great lengths to describe the technical specifications of the equipment itself, detailing the installation of 468 recessed 60-inch corridor lockers and 75 specialized gymnasium locker sets. It emphasized that City Manager Frank L. Cloud and School Superintendent Ross N. Robinson personally inspected product samples to ensure quality, underscoring the hands-on care town leadership brought to the project.