KINGSPORT — Sitting atop Bays Mountain, history lingered in the walls of an old house that stood the test of time for over two centuries.
The house at 529 Hood Road in Sullivan County is now reduced to ashes after a fire destroyed the home a couple weeks ago.
The fire went unnoticed by local authorities until several days after it ravaged the structure.
Nunley contacted the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 9.
According to Cptn. Andy Seabolt, an arson investigator was assigned to the case of the fire, but the extensive damage made it impossible to determine the area of origin or the cause.
Nunley is the daughter of Bud Nunely who took over renting the house in 1969.
“My dad [Bud] passed away in January 2017, and my mom lived there a couple years longer,” Nunley said. “When we needed someone to stay and watch over the place, my daughter’s biological dad moved in and has stayed there the last two to three years.”
Nunley said that her daughter’s biological dad was periodically in jail.
The significance of the house extends far beyond the Nunley family. The Pierce family, one of the oldest families in the area, has a long and storied connection to the property.
A century legacy on Bays Mountain
Jack Pierce, a 95-year-old resident of Kingsport recalls his grandfather, Jerome Pierce, purchasing the land off Bays Mountain in the early 19th century and building the house.
According to the Sullivan County Register of Deeds, on March 27th, 1888 Jerome purchased 163 acres of land on Bays Mountain from Nancy Hayes Vincent for $53.00, worth roughly $1,754.00 in 2024.
There, he constructed the two-story log cabin with a rock chimney, living room, kitchen and three bedrooms for his family, Pierce said.
Jerome would raise his seven children there, including Albert Pierce, Jack’s father.
“Now, my grandfather, Jerome, was a former slave,” Pierce said. “And after he was freed he got to keep the last name of his owners’ [Pierce]. I do remember him telling me that his owners treated him good.”
(Click on the map to make it bigger)
For orientation, the small red circle at the bottom of the picture is the old Pierce Homestead on the side of Bays Mountain, at the bottom left. Circled at the upper left is what used to be the Rotherwood Plantation. Circled at the top center is what was "Old Kingsport." Circled on the right, in order from top to bottom is geographic Downtown Kingsport, the Riverview Community and at the bottom right, is Eastman Chemical (the former Tennessee Eastman Company).About 28 acres of Jerome’s property going up the side of the ridge was sold to Bays Mountain in April 2006, but the original homestead remained in the Pierce family who rented it out for more than 40 years. Pierce recalled his grandfather’s property having lots of animals — including hogs and chickens, in addition to grapevines.
Pierce said that his father and grandfather helped construct the dam atop Bays Mountain, hauling the stone and concrete using large Belgian horses.
In the late 1920’s, Eastman began hiring men to log timber to make methanol and later acetic acid anhydride for the process of filmmaking. The Pierces were an important family in logging and getting the logs to the Eastman sawmill, Pierce said.
“My father always worked for himself,” Pierce said. “He hauled timber and what not, he raised his own animals — the family always had plenty to eat.”
‘Old Kingsport’ - circled in red above. Click on the map to make it bigger. The blue circle in the center is the Old Kingsport Presbyrterian Cemetery, thought to contain many African-American graves from near the nearby Rotherwood Plantation.
Pierce said he grew up in “Old Kingsport” and as an adult, often took his children to the house on Bays Mountain.
“Old Kingsport is about where the Netherland Inn area is at,” Pierce said. “We were the only black family living there, our father raised us on a farm.”
Pierce said he remembers his family helping each other out and sharing goods with white families around them.
“We shared milk, hogs, eggs, just about anything,” he said.
After graduating from Douglass High School in the 1940’s, Pierce married Miss Betsy Whittington and together they had six children. Pierce worked at Eastman for 38 years.
“They didn’t treat us blacks very well,” Pierce said. “Our department with all the black folks had the most firings.”
While raising his children, Pierce said he would take his children to the house on Bays Mountain where they would play and hang out with friends. Pierce recalls having very fond memories of the house and its impact on keeping families together.
“That house was something very special,” Pierce said. “It is very sad that it’s burned down, it has stories and carries a lot of history. I had always hoped that Bays Mountain would’ve bought it and made it a historical site.”
Memories of the past
“Growing up, we loved that house,” Nunley said. “Having a home where anyone was welcome to come hang out, have a meal and great conversation, it was the glue that held us all together.”
Nunley said that some of her best childhood memories were created in the house growing up.
“We lost something that mean a lot to us,” Pierce said. “Just knowing it was out there and we’d go every once in a while to see it brought some comfort.”
Jerome Pierce passed away in 1945. He was preceded in death by his wife Alice Luvenia, who had passed in 1928. They are buried next to one another in the Pierce Chapel A.M.E. Cemetery in Kingsport, which is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
Anna Coley, another grandchild of Jerome’s wrote a book published in 2011 titled “From Whence We Came: Good Old Days.” Coley recounts the Pierce’s family history and their linkage to Bays Mountain. Coley died in 2021
She writes:
“Grandpa and Grandmother Pierce were the roots of our family tree as we know it today. They were the vines, we are the branches. We have a very rich heritage, a very proud family history. Let’s not every forget to sow the same fruits of the spirit that our forebears did.”
Pierce said he would not change anything about the City of Kingsport, “I’m happy to be where I am.”
NOTE: As one of the oldest families in Kingsport's Black community, the Pierce-Bond family is part of the continuing story of the influence that "The History of African-Americans in Kingsport" experience has done to make Kingsport what it is today.
