Category: Move To Kingsport
-
Where Americans Moved in 2025
You may have seen this pop-up in your feed recently. Though many will jump to political conclusions or shout we’re being overrun by newcomers, neither is entirely true. The graphic shows net domestic migration in 2025 per 10,000 inhabitants. That means the numbers are not percentages and not total headcounts. They show whether a state…
-
Why Kingsport Is Called the Model City
Kingsport’s municipal election is underway, with early voting through August 1 and Election Day on August 6. This is a good time to remember why we are called the Model City. The name is often associated with Kingsport’s physical plan—Church Circle, an orderly street system, and a balanced layout for businesses, neighborhoods, parks, and schools.…
-
A Steadier Season for Newcomers
Move To Kingsport Quarterly Report April-June, 2026 Kingsport continues to welcome new families from across the country, though at a slower pace than last year. From April to June, 90 families moved to Kingsport from outside the region, representing 22 states. That works out to about 1.47 new families per workday. This report does not…
-
Special Edition Tennessee Housing Report
This special edition of Kingsport Spirit is offered as a gift to the public and municipal officials gathering in Kingsport for the 86th Annual Meeting of the Tennessee Municipal League later this week. It takes a robust dive into Tennessee’s single-family housing market across 120 communities—from Memphis to Mountain City—using per-capita comparisons to help level…
-
From Old Kingsport to Dobyns-Bennett: An Intuitive Chronology for the D-B Band Centennial
The Dobyns-Bennett High School Band centennial is best understood as the story of how Kingsport’s school identity moved from scattered rural and county schools to a modern city school system. The band was formed in 1926, the same year Kingsport’s high school moved to Wateree Street, took the name Dobyns-Bennett High School, and began a…
-
Maybe Others See Kingsport More Clearly Than We Do
I recently saw a Facebook post that said, “Kingsport gets the least credit of the three cities, and it’s not even close.” Then the commenters jumped in, comparing them. Here is a hot take: It is perfectly fine to be a citizen of the region. You can live in one community and enjoy everything the…
-
The Mixed Messages of Appalachia
We took the granddaughters to see Toy Story 5 at Hilton Head this week. As we were watching the opening ads, a Mountain Dew trailer depicting a fictitious scene from Tennessee in 1948 popped up on the big screen. A theatre full of people saw a ‘hoedown’ with stereotypical images of Appalachia–bibbed overalls, banjos, and…
-
From Flag Swingers to World Champions: Dobyns-Bennett’s Color Guard Tradition
The Dobyns-Bennett Band traces its beginning to 1926, when Professor S.T. “Fess” Witt organized the first school band and helped launch what would become one of Kingsport’s proudest traditions. By the fall of 1940, the band was already growing in size, visibility, and community support. Fourteen years after its founding, Dobyns-Bennett added a new visual…
-
Roots and Renewal: Why Kingsport Needs Both Locals and Newcomers
In retirement, I’ve spent a lot of time working on the landscaping around my 55-year-old house. The house sits beneath towering oaks that were there long before the first footing was poured. They give the place shade, structure, and character. The foundation plantings came later, when the house was built. Over time, some of them…
-
Kingsport: High Quality at a Lower Cost
Many people instinctively equate higher tax revenue with higher quality. They assume that if a state collects more per person, it must provide better schools, better services, better infrastructure, and better local government. Sometimes that may be true. But it is not automatic. Higher collections can also reflect higher costs, greater service demands, larger bureaucracies,…
Kingsport Spirit 