The "long wait" from the Tennessee Historical Commission for the Douglass High School Historical Marker.. is over.
The marker is here.
Already.
What was supposed to be a 14-to-16 week wait for Douglass and Riverview to take its place in the history books, took less than a month to complete.
Right now, the marker is about 20 miles away from its permanent home in Kingsport, and we have the very first exclusive pictures of it.
FRONT SIDE
BACK SIDE
A spokesman at the Tennessee Department of Transportation's Signs and Markings office confirms, the marker commemorating "Douglass High School - Kingsport", arrived at the state garage in Johnson City on Tuesday, March 22rd, a whopping 13 weeks ahead of schedule.
"Right now, was a good time to get the Douglass marker done," said Bradford Smith, 3rd-generation president of Sewah Studios in Marietta, Ohio. He said in an interview this week with the Douglass Alumni Association, his company is contracted to make about 75 per cent of all the historical markers in the United States.
SEWAH STUDIOS, MARIETTA, OHIO
"Typically, it's about 4 to 6 weeks for us to turn a marker around, once we get the fee, we start and finish the project, and it's then shipped off to the recipient," he says. "Much of the time, it does take longer, depending on our work load, which pushes the receiving time by the states way back. We have 20 employees, that fluctuates with production. Right now, production is the highest it's ever been."
Believe it or not, that high production schedule is the very reason the Douglass Historical Marker got moved to the top of the manufacturing list.
FREEDOM RIDERS HISTORICAL MARKER - BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - DONE BY SEWAH STUDIOS
"Right now, we're working on a huge project with the state of Alabama," Smith says. "They have us doing 215 historical markers to be delivered by November, and while we're focused on that, it's not a higher priority than the markers that came ahead of them. That's where the Douglass marker came in. Although Alabama 'struck when the fire was hot,' we had a small few orders already in. Douglass was one of those."
FEBRUARY 19, 2010 - TENNESSEE HISTORICAL COMMISSION MEETING, WHEN THE DOUGLASS MARKER WAS APPROVED
Remembering that the Douglass Alumni Association had just received approval for the historical marker on February 19th, "we got the order for the Douglass marker on March 9th," says Smith, "and here, you and I are talking about the finished product on the 19th. We almost beat our own deadline for making one. We had a situation where the Alabama markers are starting to stack up on us in a bottleneck, and we went ahead and did the Douglass one and a few others, to get ready for Alabama."
Every state has a different-looking marker, that sets theirs apart from other states and municipalities. Smith says, Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kansas, Oklahoma, Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri and Iowa ALL purchase their official state markers from Sewah Studios. He says, the company does between 10 and 20 historical markers for the Tennessee Historical Commission every year.
PACTOLUS IRONWORKS MARKER, NEAR THE SITE OF THE OLD PACTOLUS FERRY CROSSING AT THE HOLSTON RIVER SOUTH FORK, NEAR THE HAMMOND BRIDGE
"There's a numbering system that we use, which the folks in Tennessee came up with back in 1952," said Smith. "It's an alpha-numeric system of sequential numbering for each of its markers. The idea was that, for each year starting in 1952, there would be, say, 20 markers done for Tennessee that year, 1 through 20, then the next year 1953, they would start at 53, then 1 through 20, and then they would advance like that every year. Well somehow, the sequencing never advanced, and now the Tennessee numbering system is kind of unique to just Tennessee historical markers."
"Probably nobody but me, and a couple of the older folks who work around the shop here, know that," he chuckled.
PHOTOS FROM SEWAH STUDIOS
How does the process to form a Tennessee historical marker work? If you've seen one, it starts just like you would think.. with a blank molded pattern sheet that Smith says, is state property, almost like a copyright.
"We take that sheet, and typeset it by hand," he says. "We set all the letters out, according to the text we received, on trays, and then transfer all of them in order, to the blank pattern. Then, we glue them on, in the manner that they'll read. The pattern then goes into the sand foundry, and we start ramping up each side, making two molds, front and back."
"At that point, once the molding process is done," Smith says, "we'll actually transfer molten aluminum out of the holding furnace into the hand molds, and it becomes the marker casting. Really, from that point on, it's just a matter of cleaning it up and getting it ready to paint with the black paint. It's then painted, dried, everything is checked and double-checked, and then it's wrapped up and shipped to you."
The Douglass Historical Marker is a unique two-sided marker, with different text on both sides. It joins two other East Tennessee two-sided markers, one at Erwin, Tennessee for the "Battle of Red Banks" and another two-sided marker scheduled for the Baileyton School in Greene County. That's because there was so much information about the building, location or site, that the Tennessee Historical Commission felt that the markers merit two different sides of information.
Does that present any problems in the manufacturing process?
"Actually, it's the reverse with a two-sided, or even a one-sided marker," Smith says. "Occasionally, we'll get text for just one side with the back side blank. You wouldn't think that would cause a problem, but it really adds a separate step during which we have to take apart and remove the process for making a marker with the same, or different text on the back side. With the two-sided marker, like the Douglass one, you do have to typeset two different patterns, which does increase the work load, and the price."
Most people who notice the markers, or sometimes, stop and read them, may not realize the care and patience that goes into making one.
"We take a lot of pride in our work," says Smith. "Our product is going all around the country. People from presidents, to rock stars, to movie stars, to my family, your family, everybody... they're getting to enjoy the historical work that we do right here in little bitty Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River. Our employees consider each marker a work of art, because they're helping to extend the heritage of a person, a building, or a place. It's a neat feeling."
And to the people of Kingsport, the residents of the Riverview community, and to the Douglass alumni, Smith has words of pride.
"Always be very proud of your school's heritage, its history in the state, and its legacy in the community," he says. "None of us has ever visited your school, but we feel like it's part of us now. Through this marker and others, we understand how important they are to your city and community just like you do, and we're real proud to be a part of that. Quite a few hands went into the making of your historical marker and have their work in it."
"We're just proud to have put it together in a lasting form for you all."
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Douglass Historical Marker will be placed in a special ceremony, planned on the day the ribbon is cut at the grand re-opening of the V.O. Dobbins Sr. Complex. That date has not been scheduled yet, but we are planning a huge alumni and neighborhood homecoming program for that day. Everything depends on the progress of the renovation work. More information will come as soon as it's available. We're on it.
