Vince Staten: Kingsport History Comes Out of the Attic

Every Picture Tells A Story

If you’ve read the Sunday Kingsport Times-News in the last, oh, 35 years, then you know the “Out of the Attic” feature. Each Sunday from 1987 till 2022 the newspaper published a reader-submitted photo from Kingsport’s past, scenes in and around the city.

The general rule was that photos had to be at least 25 years old. Most of the submissions were even older. In fact the very first “Out of the Attic” photo, published on Aug. 30, 1987, was from 1908, 79 years earlier.

It was a photo of railroad workers at the Stonega Mining Camp in southwest Virginia. It featured an extremely long caption:

“In days past, if one worked in the coal mines, living in a mining camp was the best option. Company stores charged more for food and other supplies, but the housing was cheap, and schools and medical services were provided. The camps alleviated the need to trudge over mountains and through valleys for work and necessities. This photograph, provided by the Wise County Administrator’s office, was taken at Stonega Mining Camp in 1908. The men in the photograph were railroad workers, possibly responsible for the construction of this primitive railroad through the camp. The camp, one of hundreds scattered throughout Southwest Virginia, was owned by Stonega Coke and Coal Company, which later merged with Westmoreland Coal Company. The mine existed from the late 1800s until 1952, according to Earl Houser, a life-long resident of Stonega and former Westmoreland employee. The coke processing plant closed two years later. The mine was reopened in 1961, and it operated until the minerals were exhausted, Houser said. Although no longer a mining camp, many of the buildings still stand in Stonega, and Houser lives in one of the old camp houses. During its heyday, hundreds of people lived and worked at the camp, which was prosperous enough to have a hospital, Houser said. Movie theaters also were located there, he added.”

Whew. That is a caption!

What was missing was instructions for anyone who wanted to submit future photos. That wouldn’t come for another two weeks, when an Out of the Attic photo of a Watauga Street gathering that included Lula Dobyns, the wife of the city’s first mayor, and often called “the first lady of the city.”

The instructions for submitting photos read, “Anyone interested in submitting old photographs for publication should send them to Out of the Attic, c/o Vicki Booth, Kingsport Times-News, 701 Lynn Garden Drive, P.O. Box 479, Kingsport, Tenn., 37662 or drop them by the office during regular office hours.”

And with those early photos “Out of the Attic” was off and running, a run that lasted 35 years and more than 1,800 photos all totaled, until it ended in July 2022.

I even submitted a few myself over the years.

Some of the photos are of interest only to relatives of the pictured. But others raise even more questions than they answer.

Take this Jan. 1988 “Out of the Attic” photo submitted by Eula Chase Wheeler.

“Performing in the ‘Paste Princess’ in 1924 (or 1925) was memorable for Eula Chase Wheeler. She sang in the chorus for this show, put on by the Kingsport Press at Kingsport’s Strand Theater. Edd Triebe, formerly of New York and future president of the Kingsport Press, wrote and directed the show and Elizabeth Hamlet (center) was the princess. Members of the chorus surrounding her were (from left) Kate Baker, Grace Trimble, Stella Loflain, Mamie King, Bonnie Livesay, Verna Larken, Chase (Wheeler), Theresa McClellan, Irene Chase (Eula’s sister) and Hazel Barnes. Tickets for the show ranged from $1 for orchestra seats to 30 cents for gallery seats, Wheeler said. The show ran for two nights, she said.”

To begin with, I had no idea that the Kingsport Press at one time sponsored an annual musical-comedy featuring local talent, an out-of-town director and a script by a Press executive, in this case, vice-president William Nordmark.

So I had to dig out the original story.

“The Paste Princess” was not produced in 1924 or 1925. Eula Chase was off by a year. The extravaganza, which was a precursor to the annual Kiwanis Kapers, was produced in April 1926.

The Kingsport Times even reviewed it, giving it a rave.

John M. Oliver wrote, “Showing before two packed houses at the Strand Theatre on Monday and Tuesday nights, ‘The Paste Princess,’ presented by the employees of the Kingsport Press, has been acclaimed by an overwhelming majority of those who witnessed it as one of the best productions ever put on here. [Kingsport was 10 years old at the time!] The ability of those in the play, the dazzling costumes, and the wonderful stage settings, all combined to make the production a success.”

“The Paste Princess” was dedicated to E. W. Palmer, president of the Press, “in appreciation of his sincere interest in the welfare of all the employees.”

The review continued for another ten paragraphs, praising everyone except, seemingly, the ushers who cleaned up afterward.

Out of the Attic wasn’t the Kingsport Times-News only attempt to connect readers to Kingsport’s past. The newspaper was running photos from Kingsport’s early days as early as 1939, when Kingsport’s early days were only 20 years earlier.

Miss Eula Gaines, the paper’s Arcadia correspondent, was a frequent contributor of old photographs.

In 1953 the paper even organized a contest for old photos, offering $3 for each one published. (That’s about $37 today.) Over the course of the next two months the paper published almost 30 under the title “When Kingsport Was Younger.”

So here’s a trip down Kingsport’s memory lane featuring photos from "Out of the Attic," "When Kingsport Was Younger," and correspondent Miss Eula Gaines’ personal collection.

Here's the second Out of the Attic, published Sept. 13, 1987: