Kingsport Spirit

As the modern, model city of Kingsport evolved after 1917, old roads and geographic names were replaced with new ones.

My friend Jill Riggs-Rich who lives on ancestral land off Sullivan Gardens Parkway (formerly Horse Creek Pike) shared that her “grandparents would leave Horse Creek in a wagon, travel down to where Riverfront Seafood is now located, cross the river, and go to Bristol to buy supplies. It took a day to get there and a day to come back home. They would stay with relatives.”

By 1914, there was big news in the Bristol Herald Courier (the Kingsport Times didn’t exist then) as “a new macadamized highway will be built from Kingsport up Horse Creek” and “a modern new steel bridge has just been completed across the Holston River.” It was noted that “an uncompleted gap of two miles, in the road from Kingsport to Bristol, will be completed at an early date. Kingsport is already within one hour and a half of Bristol by automobile.” (Source: Bristol Herald Courier). Kingsport to Bristol took an hour and a half? Can you imagine?

Horse Creek Pike was the main route from Kingsport to all points south of Bays Mountain, including Johnson City, Jonesborough, Fall Branch, Erwin and Greeneville. It became State Highway 81 (not to be confused with I-81) and was eventually renamed Eastman Road, at least in town. While State Highway 81 still exists in Washington & Unicoi Counties, it’s mainly State Highway 93 now in Sullivan & Greene Counties.

By the early 1940s there were numerous newspaper accounts expressing concerns about the 1914 bridge’s safety. By 1948, a new State Highway 81 was built, including two new bridges over Long Island. It was initially called, “Long Island Drive”, but renamed “Wilcox Drive” in 1953.

It’s been 56 years now and it’s still impossible to drive from North Eastman Road to South Eastman Road because of the missing link. The bustling residential community of Long Island was eventually absorbed into the Eastman plant site. In 1986, the smaller bridge over the sluice was permanently closed.

And now it no longer takes an hour and a half to get to Bristol or Johnson City. It’s more like 20 minutes depending on which side of town you’re starting from.