Riverview Demolition Project Gets Underway

The 92 Riverview apartments will be torn down to make way for 24 single-family homes and eight duplexes.


Photos Courtesty Ned Jilton II —njilton@timesnews.net

THIS STORY COURTESY THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS

TOP LEFT, Demolition work began Saturday at the Riverview Apartment Complex. MIDDLE DOWN, former Riverview residents join in the walk over to the Riverview Apartments to watch as the demolition begins. BOTTOM, Calvin Sneed, a member of the Sons and Daughters of Douglass and Riverview Residents Association, is joined by others in a tearful farewell to the historic apartments. .

By CLIFFORD JEFFERY
cjeffery@timesnews.net

KINGSPORT — A mix of emotions were seen on the faces in the crowd who watched the beginning of a demolition project that would soon claim their former homes.

The group of about 130 people gathered at noon Saturday at V.O. Dobbins Gym to remember the good times residents had at the Riverview Apartment Complex.
The apartment complex built of brick, concrete block and steel was first opened in 1940.
Many of those first tenants watched a demolition claw tear into apartments 26 and 27 Saturday.
It took only minutes for the hydraulic wrecker to remove the top floor and roof of the apartments. From the debris, residents were ready to collect bricks as mementos, while others pried the metal address numbers from the front of apartments they had known well.
The demolition of the apartments represents a sad time for those with fond memories of the community spirit they felt while living in the complex.
“It was a place where there was a spirit of togetherness,” said Calvin Sneed, a member of the Sons and Daughters of Douglass and Riverview Residents Association.
“Riverview was a place where anyone could go to a neighbor and ask for sugar, milk, corn, meat... anything,” he said. “You could make a whole dinner just on what you borrowed from neighbors.”
While Riverview had its share of crime, Sneed said the same could be said of Bloomingdale, Lynn Garden and Ridgefields.

“You can tear down the historic Riverview apartments, but you’ll never tear out the soul that we put into the Riverview community,” Sneed said.
Sneed noted that the demolition is making way for a new phase in Riverview’s history.
An $11.9 million HOPE VI grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is being used to build low- and moderate-income housing at the site. The 92 Riverview apartments will be torn down to make way for 24 single-family homes and eight duplexes.

Riverview’s Rebirth Bittersweet For Former Residents

‘Part of our life is going to die’

THIS ARTICLE COURTESY THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS IS PART OF THE "RIVERVIEW ROUNDTABLE" HELD AT THE TIMES-NEWS OFFICE RECENTLY








‘It’s not just apartments. These are homes. These are places that touched people’s lives.’ — Calvin Sneed

THIS ARTICLE COURTESY THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS

By MATTHEW LANE
mlane@timesnews.net

KINGSPORT — The demolition of Riverview Apartments is a historic time for the Model City, as one of the oldest public housing complexes in Kingsport ends its 67 years of service to the city. The demolition is also a memorable time for former residents, who have mixed emotions about their onetime homes being torn down.
Kingsport is planning to replace Riverview Apartments with 32 singlefamily homes and build six additional houses within the Riverview community. The Times-News spoke with several former residents of Riverview, some who grew up in the apartments in the 1950s and 1960s and some who lived there up until the recent relocation effort.


Photos Courtesy Erica Yoon —eyoon@timesnews.net

“It’s not just apartments. These are homes. These are places that touched people’s lives. There were friendships forged there, and there were neighbor relations forged there. I think it enveloped everybody as a big family,” said Calvin Sneed, who lived on Dunbar Street from 1959 to 1972. “Riverview has such a storied history, in terms of the people that came there, that came to work, that came to raise families, and that came to have their kids educated.
“When we had a reunion for the residents of Riverview Apartments recently, I said just imagine what it was like 70 years ago.”
Sneed is the senior news anchor at WTVC-TV Newschannel 9 in Chattanooga and the webmaster of the Douglass High School Alumni Association. DHS was located on Louis Street and served as Kingsport’s “blacks only” school from 1951 to 1966. The school is now the V.O. Dobbins Center.
Sneed went to DHS for six years before the school closed, and he has long ties to the Riverview community. His grandparents lived there, and his mother’s family, the Staffords, were one of the neighborhood’s oldest families.
Sneed’s mother taught at DHS — hired by V.O. Dobbins — and his father owned Sneed’s Cleaning Service and served on the city’s planning commission.
The Douglass Web site includes information and a history of the school along with pictures and news on the Riverview community and the HOPE VI project. Sneed said he started the Douglass Web site about a year ago to help keep the heritage and legacy of the school and the Riverview community alive.
“Nobody had any idea (the site) would take off, and it’s turned out to be a community outreach between neighbors and families who live far away,” Sneed said. “We want to keep the legacy, heritage and history of our neighborhood alive, but not just for us. We may not be here that much longer. We want it for the young ones coming up to remember, that this is part of your heritage.”


Johnnie Mae Swagerty came to Riverview Apartments in 1959 and stayed there until 1966 — in Apartment 79. Swagerty said she loved growing up in the apartments.
“I enjoyed it. I made a lot of friends. My family grew up there, and I just had a good time. The schooling was good. Everybody knew everybody, and if somebody disciplined me, it was all right,” she said. “There wasn’t any child abuse back then; it was discipline and respect.”
Swagerty and Sneed called Lincoln Street, “Swingin’ Lincoln” and remembered it was commercial row for the Riverview community and included a couple of grocery stores and restaurants (Midway Grocery, Dairy Mart and the Del Mar), a barber shop and dry cleaners.
“You were pretty well selfcontained,” said Ozine Bly, whose mother, Gladys or “Momma Bly,” used to read to and look out for the children in the neighborhood. “She made everybody feel special. Whoever was around, she made them feel like they were the only ones.”
Mary Beatty was born and raised in Apartment 11, delivered by a midwife in 1942, and she remained until 2007 when she decided to look into moving into a house.
“You didn’t have to go anywhere to buy something to eat. You didn’t have to go out of Riverview for anything,” said Beatty, who adds she would like to see the community keep the name “Riverview.”
Other fond memories include the Rev. Curtis Edge, who operated a store and restaurant on Lincoln Street and who once a year would feed the whole neighborhood his signature cheeseburgers and hot dogs. During the school year, Sneed said students would race to his restaurant during lunchtime as soon as the bell rang.
“I remember the community parenting,” Bly said. “Anybody would jerk you up and give you an adjustment, and that was one of the great things.”
Where the Carver Library is located, there used to be an open field, and families would use the area essentially as a farm — there were barns and smokehouses, gardens, cows, goats, hogs and chickens.
Unbeknownst to many people these days, residents during the 1950s and 1960s could also take in a movie in the neighborhood drive-in, which faced Riverview Apartments. And the Riverview neighborhood had what Sneed called an unofficial playground — Clay Hill
“It’s an area behind Dunbar Street and Industry Drive, now owned by General Shale. Back then you could leave your homes, your street and school and go up on Clay Hill,” Sneed said. “People built doghouses up there, camped up there, roasted marshmallows, swung from the trees, blazed paths.”
“Got their first kiss up there,” said Swagerty.
“Unbeknownst to us, General Shale used that area as a dump for its waste from making bricks,” Sneed said. “You’d be walking around and see big puddles of white stuff. There were old machines up there, old kilns, loads of bricks. We had everything but a jungle gym.”
Louetta Hall lived with her grandmother in Riverview until 1977 and remembers a time when you could leave your house, go downtown and not lock your doors.
“You came home and found everything as you left it. In the summertime you could sleep with your windows and doors open and never had any fear about anybody coming in and stealing anything from you,” Hall said. “It just shows you how times have changed.”
Sneed said parents weren’t afraid to let kids go out and play in the yard and in the street because they knew they were safe. They knew other neighbors were keeping an eye on them.
“We just don’t have that nowadays,” Sneed said.
Over the years, Riverview took on a negative connotation with stories of arrests, drugs and violence, most recently with the shootings and fights at Club 229.
“I have a feeling why Riverview got that (connotation) — television and newspapers. People would see pictures and hear things going on in apartment complexes in Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte, and people automatically assumed Riverview. Sometimes it was Cloud and Lee, but everybody put the negative connotation to Riverview,” Sneed said. “Everybody just looked at Riverview and said that’s the problem. It was true to a certain extent, but not as much as everybody thought.”
To help address the drug problem, the city established a police substation and cameras in Riverview Apartments along with a Weed and Seed program. The HOPE VI project will also obviously transform the neighborhood, a move these former residents say will be bittersweet.
“You’re going to be sad the houses are gone, and you’re going to lose a lot of memories,” Bly said. “Looking to the future and young people with incomes moving in with the possibility of buying homes, it’s going to be different.”
Beulah Banner came to Riverview in 1953 and said she never thought about moving out.
“It broke my heart when they said they were going to do this because I asked them why would you tear them down? They said they were outdated. I said you should have done it right the first time and you wouldn’t have to tear them down,” Banner said. “It’s hard to see it torn down. I almost cried when the trash truck recently came in.”


Mamie Gillenwater said her family was the first to move into Riverview Apartments back in 1941. At the time the family paid $9 rent, $1.50 for a phone and had one good light in Apartment 12. Her phone number was 2196-W.
“I really don’t like (the demolition) because Riverview was like home to me. When they had my picture taken I started crying,” Gillenwater said, noting she plans to come to Riverview when the houses are built. “Because it’s just home to me over there. That’s the only place I ever moved into in Kingsport that I ever cared about.”
Demolition of Riverview Apartments could take up to 120 days to complete, and work to build the new houses is not likely to start until 2009.
“When they tear them down, the field will be open for a while, probably a year. That’s going to be like an open wound,” Sneed said.
“Tears may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,” Hall said, quoting Scripture. “We’re looking for joyful things to happen in the future ”
The demolition will be “like death,” Swagerty said. “It’s like we’re getting ready for a funeral. We’re going to cry and then there’s going to be some laughs.” Sneed sees the HOPE VI project as a type of rebirth for the Riverview community.
“Part of our life is going to die when that wrecking ball starts swinging. On the other hand, there’s going to be a rebirth of a new spirit that we used to have there in Riverview, that makes people want to bring the familytype atmosphere back again. “That’s going to be a welcome sight.”

Riverview’s Demolition First Step Toward Brighter Future

EDITORIAL FROM THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS
FEBRUARY 2, 2008

It’s with a certain sense of sadness that today marks the end of Riverview Apartments, a public housing complex that has been home to generations of Kingsport families. But in another important sense, the demolition of Riverview Apartments is a new beginning that makes possible a multimillion-dollar redevelopment project.
More than 60 years after its construction, Riverview Apartments — one of Kingsport’s oldest and most severely distressed public housing complexes — is being razed as the first phase of the city’s HOPE VI project.
In October 2006, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Kingsport Housing and Redevelopment Authority an $11.9 million HOPE VI Revitalization Grant. That money will go toward building new public housing in the Riverview community and single-family houses in the Sherwood/Hiwassee area. The total cost of the project is expected to exceed $30 million.
Kingsport plans to replace Riverview Apartments with 32 homes: 16 single-family houses and eight duplex units. Six other houses will also be built on scattered sites in the Riverview area.
Following today’s demolition, which begins at noon, New Vision Youth, Fresh Start/HOPE VI, Douglass Alumni Choir, South Central and the Kingsport Parks and Recreation Department will hold a community event featuring refreshments and a short program.
The program’s creatively tongue-in-cheek theme: “I’ll Huff and Puff and I’ll Blow your House Down” will be presented by New Vision Youth and the Douglass High School Alumni Choir. Following the program, refreshments and a chance for fellowship will be available at the V.O. Dobbins Gym for what organizers are calling “Tears & Laughter.”
Revitalizing a neighborhood can be an especially daunting enterprise. But there’s every reason to believe that the success Kingsport has experienced recently in reinvigorating old business properties can be replicated in Riverview.
Launched in 1992, HOPE (Homeownership Opportunities for People Everywhere) VI grants grew out of the work of the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing and are used to replace severely distressed public housing projects with redesigned mixed-income housing. The grants also provide housing vouchers to enable some of the original residents to rent apartments in the private market.
Once the Riverview project is completed, preference will be given to seniors, the disabled and those currently participating in the KHRA’s self-sufficiency program to locate in the new Riverview community. The goal of the self-sufficiency program, as the name suggests, is to provide access to services such as educational and job training so that program participants can eventually attain greater self-sufficiency and, it is hoped, make the move from renting to outright homeownership.
In a larger sense, of course, revitalizing the Riverview community is important not just to that neighborhood alone, but to residents of Kingsport generally. Cities must periodically reinvent and reinvigorate themselves if they are to survive.
In transforming the Riverview neighborhood, Kingsport will make its future brighter as well.

NEW VISION YOUTH KIDS PRESENT: 5th Annual Black History Program at the Kingsport Renaissance Center

THEME: "Mis-Education of the Negro"


The 5th Annual Black History Program featured lots of gospel music, lots of spiritual praise, and the inspirational message "What Must We Do To Reclaim Our Righteous Minds."

The message delivered by Kingsport-Riverview Native and D-B Graduate Jeff Faulkerson, whose Bachelor's Degree from UT is in Social Work, and whose Master's Degree from the same school, is in Social Work Management and Community Practice. Jeff, the founder, President and C.E.O of Practical Solutions, is the author of "Raising My V.O.I.C.E." (a collection of selected writings). He challeneged parents during this 2008 Black History Month, to be their Children's First Teachers.

"Many young people are spiraling down a path of destruction," Jeff told the packed theater in the Kingsport Renaissance Center, "and as a parent, my role to my son is to teach him to ATTACK life, to get what they achieve to get."

"(As African-Americans), we also have a unique history that we should embrace," Jeff also told the audience. "Many of the misconceptions about us, come from what we have been conditioned to believe, most of of our lifes, he said. Jeff said, as parents, we have to start early to guide our children through those misconceptions.


During a "Black History Moment," Dr. Ivy McWhirter who is employed by Blue Ridge Internal Medicine," shared with the group selected readings of Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. Her rousing interpretations of the works of our famous African-American writers, stirred many reverent feelings for many of the everyday ideas we all live, and routinely take for granted.



Several praise teams from various local ministries delivered soul-stirring dance interpretations from the Bible. The "For His Glory" Praise Dancers had the audience clapping to the beat, as the youthful dancers performed.




The Praise Dancers from the Hales Chapel Methodist Church took the audience back to the church of old, in their rendition of songs many in the crowd remember from their childhood. The colorful dress only added to the reverence of the moment, and prompted spontaneous applause.





The "Anointed" Praise team from the Power Plant Ministries, also inspired the audience with a Native American dance that usually prompted the skies to open up with the Rain from Heaven.





Our own New Vision Youth Praise Dancers also dazzled listeners, with the challenge that only the Youth of Tomorrow can inspire.




Other musical selections came from the New Beginning Gospel Quartet, taking the audience back to church with "Cooling Water" and "Holy City, New Jerusalem," both crowd favorites.





Honored at the event for their competition for Little Miss Vision, were New Vision Youth Haley Payne, Tytiania Williams, Ta-Tionna White, Shikirah Antela Long, Maleeka Carpenter, Jada Patrick, Makyiah Goodwin, Jasmyn Miller, Yehiela Watts, Second Place Willer Jayla Brooks, 1st Runner Up Lynn Miller, and Jazmyn Lillard, winner of the Little Miss Vision Pageant for 2007.



Christian comedian Tim Hall had the audience in stitches, as he related the PROPER way for black folk to treat the bereaved at funerals. ("Y'all stop starin' at them people when they walk in on their bereavement march!"). He also related the black perspective on love offerings ("y'all ever ask your sister-in-law loan to loan 10-15 dollars? You call to make sure, and she goes 'Johnny's (your brother's) in here right now' and then softly 'I got that under the mat in the bathroom. You get it, and to the side, start counting it, one, two, three, four, five.. GIRL, you know I said I needed more than this!).

The audience just howled.



At the end of the evening, all program participants received a special recognition from New Vision Youth Director Johnnie Mae Swaggerty and the New Vision Youth.

Free tax help offered at Fresh Start Center

All tax help volunteers have been trained and have passed exams by the Internal Revenue Service.


Louetta Hall is one of the Fresh Start Center’s tax help volunteers.

THIS STORY COURTESTY THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS

By SHARON CASKEY HAYES
shayes@timesnews.net

KINGSPORT — Free tax preparation will be available beginning next week through the Weed & Seed program in South Central Kingsport.
The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program through Weed & Seed will begin offering free tax preparation Tuesday at the Fresh Start Center, 1140 Lincoln St.
The Rev. Kenneth Calvert, chairman of the board of South Central Kingsport Community Development, announced this year’s program at a news conference T h u r s d a y.
“It will allow citizens to come in and have their taxes prepared free,” Calvert said.
He said people have paid $50 up to $700 for help in preparing tax forms.
“This allows them to keep their money in the bank,” he said. “This process not only benefits South Central but all of Kingsport.”
Mary Alexander, director of the Weed & Seed program, said all tax help volunteers have been trained and have passed exams by the Internal Revenue Service.
“There is no point in you paying someone to do your taxes. It’s just that simple,” Alexander said.
Louetta Hall is one of the center’s tax help volunteers. She said she donates her time to help others.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing that we can help people who actually need all of their money, especially families with children,” Hall said.
The center is equipped with computers to help folks file electronic tax returns. Calvert said returns are processed quickly — and some refunds are received in 24 to 48 hours.
Joseph Durant, coordinator of the program, said tax preparation is available not only for South Central Kingsport residents, but for just about all taxpayers in the area. He said he’s already received calls about the program from folks in Bristol and Rogersville.
Taxpayers planning to use the service should bring with them a picture identification, voided check, all W-2 forms and other income documents, Social Security cards for themselves and their children, and day-care identification numbers and addresses. And if married filing jointly, both spouses must be present to sign the return.
The tax preparation service will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays and from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays.
This is the third year that Weed & Seed has offered the free tax help in Kingsport. Nearly 90 people took advantage of the service in the first year, while 34 people received help last year.
Calvert said he hopes to increase participation to more than 100 people this year.
“The important thing is to let people know we are here,” Calvert said.
Durant said taxpayers should call 384-6308 to find out if the program can help them. Those interested can also call 246-6809.

"What's Old Is New---Riverview!" Program for the Demolition of the Historic Riverview Apartments

(SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

"What's Old Is New---Riverview! Celebration
DEMOLITION BEGINS OF THE HISTORIC RIVERVIEW APARTMENTS



SATURDAY PROGRAM, 12 NOON, FEBRUARY 2, 2008
V.O. DOBBINS, SR. COMMUNITY CENTER
301 LOUIS STREET, KINGSPORT, TENNESSEE



WELCOME: Opening Remarks--Calvin Sneed, Sons and Daughters of Douglass, Riverview
Residents Association
MISTRESS OF CEREMONIES: Johnnie Mae Swaggerty


OPENING PRAYER: Rev. Kenneth Calvert, Shiloh Baptist Church

SONG: Douglass Alumni Chorus

REMARKS: Mrs. Mamie Gillenwater (one of the first families to move into the
Apartments in 1940, and one of the first families to move into the new
HOPE VI Redevelopment Homes)

REMARKS: Terry Cunningham, Executive Director, Kingsport Housing and Redevelopment
Authority

REMARKS: The Honorable Dennis Phillips, Mayor of Kingsport

REMARKS: Dean Reynolds, Field Representative, U.S. Congressman David Davis' Office
(1st District)

REMARKS: From Those Who Cannot Attend in Person, But in Spirit by Calvin Sneed

SKIT: New Vision Youth, Kingsport

SONG: Douglass Alumni Chorus

CLOSING REMARKS: Calvin Sneed, Sons and Daughters of Douglass, Riverview Residents
Association

SONG: "I Cried My Last Tear" by Dana Skaggs

BENEDICTION: Rev. Kenneth Calvert, Shiloh Baptist Church

ADJOURNMENT IN SONG TO THE HISTORIC RIVERVIEW APARTMENTS ("Amazing Grace," other songs)

DEMOLITION BEGINS

THEN, EVERYONE IS INVITED BACK TO THE V.O. DOBBINS, SR. COMMUNITY CENTER FOR REFRESHMENTS AND FELLOWSHIP



SPONSORED BY: Douglass Alumni Association, Douglass Releford, President
Riverview Residents Association, Mary Ellen Cox, President
City of Kingsport Parks and Recreation, James "Moose" Henry
New Vision Youth
South Central Kingsport Community Development, Inc.---Weed and Seed

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Van Dobbins, Jr.

Food City

Kingsport Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Terry Cunningham, Executive Director

D.H. Griffin Wrecking Company, Bristol, VA/TN

The People of Riverview, South Central Kingsport, and Kingsport

Tri-Cities News Media

"Going Out With Class"

Riverview demolition set to begin
Area police, fire departments conducting training exercises in empty apartments before demolition occurs.

Erica Yoon —eyoon@timesnews.net
Members of the Bristol, Va., SWAT team simulate a standoff situation at the empty Riverview Apartments complex earlier this week. With the apartments empty and slated for demolition beginning Saturday, area police and fire departments have been using the complex for training exercises.




By MATTHEW LANE
mlane@timesnews.net

KINGSPORT — After housing Model City residents for more than 60 years, Riverview Apartments is being demolished on Saturday in order to make way for a multimillion-dollar redevelopment project within the South Central community.
The apartments — one of Kingsport’s public housing complexes — are coming down in connection with the city’s HOPE VI project. In October 2006, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Kingsport Housing and Redevelopment Authority an $11.9 million HOPE VI Revitalization Grant.
The money will go toward building new public housing homes in the Riverview community and single-family houses in the Sherwood/Hiwassee area of town. Total cost of the project is expected to exceed $30 million.
Kingsport plans to replace Riverview Apartments with 32 homes (16 single-family houses and eight duplex units). Six other houses will also be built on scattered sites in the Riverview area.
Demolition work will begin at noon on Saturday with the contractors having up to 120 days to complete the work. New home construction in the Riverview community will begin in early 2009.
Following the demolition, New Vision Youth, Fresh Start/ HOPE VI, Douglass Alumni Choir, South Central and the Kingsport Parks and Recreation Department will hold a community event featuring refreshments and a short program.
The program, called “I’ll Huff and Puff and I’ll Blow your House Down,” will be presented by New Vision Youth and the Douglass High School Alumni Choir.
There will be refreshments and fellowship in the V.O. Dobbins Gym for what organizers are calling “Tears & Laughter.”
Several former residents were recently interviewed about growing up in Riverview and how they would feel about the demolition of their onetime homes. All of them agreed it would be a bittersweet time, with some crying and a lot of good memories.
The last of the residents were relocated from the apartments within the past week. Since the relocations began last year, the Kingsport Police Department has performed several SWAT exercises in the area, and the Kingsport Fire Department has conducted training at the apartment complex.
“(SWAT) does building entry and searches. There’s a lot to that. There are right ways to do it and wrong ways, and that complex and those apartments give the team a variety of things to work on,” Deputy Police Chief David Quillin said. “This gives them new places to work on because many times the apartments over there are the same as apartments in Cloud or wherever.
“They can take that knowledge they gain from training over there to other areas of town when they’re on a real call or a real incident.”
Barry Brickey, KFD public education officer, said firefighters have conducted ventilation and structure training, practicing the cutting of concrete and block walls. No fires have been set during the training exercises, Brickey said.
“It’s been hands-on training and close to a regular scenario,” Brickey said.
The second phase of the HOPE VI project calls for the construction of 24 affordable home ownership units in the Sherwood/ Hiwassee area. In September, the city demolished 29 homes along the two streets where the new houses will be built.
A groundbreaking for this phase of the project is scheduled for Feb. 12, with all of the houses expected to be built by Septemb e r.

Riverview Roundtable at the Kingsport Times-News

WELCOME TO THE RIVERVIEW ROUNDTABLE
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2008
News Conference Room
The Kingsport Times-News

TIMES-NEWS REPORTER: Matthew Lane
PHOTOGRAPHER: Erica Yoon


FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, AROUND TABLE:
Calvin Sneed (not seen in photo)
Johnnie Mae Swaggerty
Mary Beatty
Beulah Banner
Mamie Gillenwater
Louetta Hall
Ozine Bly
Matthew Lane

MATTHEW: FIRST OF ALL, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH, WITH THE WEBSITE WWW.SONSANDDAUGHTERSOFDOUGLASS.ORG?

CALVIN: We want to keep the legacy of Riverview alive,not just for us, but for the children that will come after us. Riverview has a very storied and proud
history and it should be preserved, as part of their heritage. Our history is important to the history of Kingsport, and the purpose of the website is to
present that history for all of Kingsport to consider, when they consider their own history.

MATTHEW: WHEN DID YOU COME TO KINGSPORT?

CALVIN: I came to Kingsport around 1959, my mother came here to teach third grade at Douglass Elementary, V.O Dobbins hired her, and when Douglass closed, she taught physical education in the Kingsport School system, at Washington, Dickson, and Jefferson Schools. My father's people were already here, the Stafford family moved here from New Canton, my grandfather was Tennessee Eastman's General Foreman, and my father owned Sneed's Cleaning Service for many years. He was also on the Kingsport Planning Commission, and one of his pet projects was getting the soundproof walls along U-S 23 from Stone Drive north to Virginia.. another was the four-laning of Wilcox Drive from Industry Drive to Sullivan Gardens at John B. Dennis.

MATTHEW: TELL US ABOUT THE WEBSITE.

CALVIN: A year ago, we started the website www.sonsanddaughtersofdouglass.org originally as a means for Douglass High School alumni to stay in touch with each other and keep up with things going on in Riverview and South Central, but it quickly grew into this big information source for the entire community. I've heard it called "the EBONY MAGAZINE of Riverview," because everybody uses it for information and entertainment as well.

LOUETTA: I feel the people away from home, enjoy the website more than the people here, because it keeps them in touch with relatives and events that are going
on in the community.



JOHNNIE MAE: I was born and raised in Apt. 79 in 1959, and we stayed there until '66, because we got our first house on Dale Street, and I enjoyed it, I loved it, I met a lot of friends, my family grew up there, Alfred and Vinnie Smith and my grandparents, and I just had a good time. Schooling there was good, just met a lot of friends, like family, everybody knew everybody and if somebody disciplined me, it was all right, wasn't any child abuse back then, everybody was treated with respect.
(chorus of amen's to that). For me to let the legacy keep going, we had that picture-taking in front of all the apartments, we had a fellowship dinner at the Elks
Lodge and it was packed in there. And then we're talking about getting bricks, making a list of people's names to get bricks to give out as a memory, to use as a door-stopper or something, and we just want every year to have a reunion, to come back in the field or whereever we can plan it, just to keep it going, every year, every two years when Douglass has its Alumni Reunion, just keep it going.
And the kids, too.. I want everybody to participate, the churches, organizations, outside and inside, come together, welcome to come in and help out.

MARY: I've lived in the Riverview Apartments since 1942, I was born and raised in Apt. 11, delivered by a midwife, Dr. Foust, and I've been living there until
2007, when they decided to take me to another place to look at the apartments there, and I said 'why do you have to tear them down.'

MATTHEW: SO YOU'VE BEEN PRETTY MUCH WITNESS TO THE WHOLE HISTORY.. The whole history.. HOW HAS THAT CHANGED?


MARY: It's gonna change, I asked them not to change Riverview, leave it as Riverview, as in the name, that's important, because the lady Mama Bessie
(Hipps)was the one that named Riverview.

MATTHEW: HOW WAS IT LIKE, GROWING UP THERE?


MARY: Good, all was good. I knew if I did anything wrong, there was one woman walked
just like my mama, and I'd be doing something I had no business doing, and she'd whip me, but it was good. Didn't have to go no where to buy nothing to eat, we
had Reverend Edge, the Dairy Mart, we had a dry cleaners, had the Midway Grocery, a barbershop, the Confectionary, and we had a place to get your hair done, you didn't have to leave out of Riverview for nothing.. nothing.

MARY: I've lived in Riverview since '53, before that I lived in Alabama. I've seen quite a few changes as well. My son graduated, he went to Douglass School,
and then he went to Dobyns-Bennett, and then he went to Morristown College where he graduated.

MATTHEW: DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT MOVING?

MARY: No, I never did think about moving out of Riverview. It broke my heart when they said they were going to do this, and I asked the man, why were they
gonna tear 'em down, and he said, well they're outdated, and I said well you knew that a long time ago that they didn't do it right the first time (chuckles all around), you should have done it right. It's hard to see them torn down. I know they brought a trash thing to pick up the trash Wednesday. I saw it coming in and I said 'Oh Lord, they're fixing to tear 'em down.. I almost cried when I saw them put the truck, the bin in there. I knew then, they were fixing to tear 'em down.

MATTHEW: DO YOU FEEL A SENSE OF SADNESS?

JOHNNIE MAE: It's almost like death, like we're getting ready for a funeral, and we're gonna cry.. then there's gonna be some laughter, but there's gonna
be more crying because of the memories that are gonna be there.

LOUETTA: It's where you romped and played as a kid and all types of events took place in the neighborhood, and that's not easily forgotten, because
it really is a part of your body, mind and spirit.

MARY: Plus you could sit on your porch and watch the movies..

MATTHEW: TELL ME ABOUT THAT.

MARY: The drive-in screen was through the woods behind Douglass School). You could sit on your porch.. you couldn't hear it, but you sure could watch it..


JOHNNIE MAE: My dad, Johnny Swaggerty.. used to take me and my sister, he'd pack baloney sandwiches and Kool-aid, and he had this old car, and we see.. my first movie was "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," Tony Curtis.. I'll never forget that.. you'd put a blanket on top of the car and we'd sit there and just watch it.. and when we didn't have no money, we'd sit BEHIND the fence and we could look, and nobody would bother us, police wouldn't come over and mess with you, we just enjoyed it..

LOUETTA: The screen was so big.

CALVIN: You'd pull in off Wilcox Drive and the screen would be facing back towards the back of Douglass School in Riverview..you could see it, but you just couldn't hear it. This was back in the 50's and 60's. I also remember this in my research.. 'Zine, do you remember the guy who used to come over and put the
movie picture screen up in the baseball field in the summertime?

OZINE: I remember him, but not his name. I remember right in the corner.

MATTHEW: MRS. GILLENWATER, HOW LONG WERE YOU THERE?

MAMIE: We were the first family to move into the Apartments back in 1940. There was nobody over there but us. We had one light, one big light over on the left of us.. we had one phone that people would go out and use, and when we first moved into the apartment, we paid nine dollars house rent, and I had my phone put in for a dollar and a half.

JOHNNIE MAE: DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR PHONE NUMBER?

MAMIE: 2-1-9-6-W. And we had a skeleton key.. one key fits all.

MATTHEW: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT WHAT THE CITY IS DOING, AND THE CHANGES THAT ARE GOING TO BE MADE TO RIVERVIEW?

MAMIE: Well, I really don't like it, because Riverview was just like home to me.. When I went to have my picture taken (at the Archives For Riverview), I
started crying, I lived in Apt. 12, there's where we moved to, Apartment 12.

MATTHEW: I IMAGINE YOU'VE SEEN QUITE A FEW PEOPLE COME AND GO, IN AND OUT.

MAMIE: Quite a few people.

MATTHEW: DO YOU REMEMBER SOME OF THE THINGS THAT USED TO BE IN THE COMMUNITY THAT NO LONGER THERE?

MARY: We used to have peddlers come through.. sell you greens, corn, stuff like that, then we had the Pet Milk lady come in, buy milk from her.. didn't have to
go to the store, didn't have to go nowhere. They would come to us.

JOHNNIE MAE: I remember, I have a picture of our family, a photographer would come through the apartments and take your picture one easter, a photographer.

OZINE: You didn't have to go downtown to the grocery store, had two grocery stores, Paul Taylor and his Midway Grocery, and Emmitt Collins Grocery. We were pretty well self-contained.

CALVIN: And then there was Clay Hill.. I called it on the website "Riverview's First Unofficial Playground. It's an area behind Dunbar Street, between Dunbar and
Industry Drive, and it's owned by the Brickyard (General Shale), but back then, you go up on Clay Hill and you couldn't go 50 feet without running into somebody else up there. People whose parents wouldn't let them keep dogs at home, they kept them on Clay Hill in doghouses and in their little pens up there, you camped up there..
JOHNNIE MAE: Roasted marshmellows..

CALVIN: You swung from the trees, you blazed paths..

MARY: Got your first kiss there (rousing laughter).

LOUETTA: Our classes would use it for picnics, and then Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts would utilize it for camping, things like that.

OZINE: Field trips..

CALVIN: Unbeknownst to us.. that's the place where General Shale dumped all of their industrial waste from making bricks. You'd be walking around and all of a sudden, there'd be a big puddle of white stuff over here.. some of us would take sticks and poke into it, and we'd walk around it and go somewheres else. There were like old machines, loads of bricks that they couldn't use, we would take the bricks and build
houses.. we had everything except a jungle gym, but with the vines, you could swing from one tree to the other.

MATTHEW: FROM WHAT YOU'VE TOLD ME, RIVERVIEW HAD A STRONG SENSE OF COMMUNITY BACK IN THE 50'S, 60'S AND 70'S, BUT IN RECENT YEARS IT'S HAD A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION..HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? YOU MENTIONED DRUGS, DO YOU THINK IT'S FAIR FOR THE WHOLE
COMMUNITY TO BE LABELED LIKE THAT?

CALVIN: No.. because drugs are so prevalent, that I kinda have an idea why Riverview kind of got that.. television.. newspapers.. people would see pictures.. they would hear about things going on in apartment complexes in Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, and people would automatically assume.. sometimes it wasn't just Riverview, sometimes it was Cloud Apartments, sometimes it was Lee, everybody just put the negative connotation to "apartments" and because we were so proud of where we lived.. I'm not saying it was a conspiracy, but everybody kind of looked at Riverview
and said 'well that's the problem right there, is those apartments, those "projects" over there. It was true to a certain extent, but not as much as everybody
thought.

JOHNNIE MAE: It was over-exaggerated.

CALVIN: Because we still had that sense of family, regardless.


LOUETTA: And we never really accepted that into the community, A lot of the time, it was people who infiltrated in from other places, that came in and sold their wares, and then influenced the young people in the neighborhood to sell it. Over a period of time, you had accidents, killings.. of course, that always breeds that sort of thing, but as a whole, some of the best people in the whole wide world lived in Riverview, who really wanted to live decent lives..

CALVIN: Had nice homes, they had flowers, trees, we used to have Christmas carols, we had everything that every other neighborhood in Kingsport had.. we also had that negative connotation.

MATTHEW: OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS HAD IT TOO, BORDEN HAD IT, HIGHLAND HAD IT TO A CERTAIN EXTENT.. BUT RIVERVIEW SEEM TO GET THE BRUNT OF IT. WILL THIS HOPE VI PROJECT HELP CHANGE THAT?

CALVIN: For myself, I'm kinda looking at it as a re-birth.. part of our life going to die when that wrecking ball starts swinging.. on the other hand, there's going to be a rebirth of a new spirit that we used to have there in Riverview, that makes people want to bring that family-type atmosphere back again, and that's going to be a welcome site.

OZINE: This HOPE VI concept is going to be a different type of people with mixed incomes that's going to move into these homes, and I'm like Calvin, it's going to be a bittersweet situation.. you're going to be sad that they're gone, the housing is gone and you're going to lose a lot of memories, but looking to the future and the young people with incomes moving in and with the possibility of buying a home, homeowners, it's going to be different. I'm sad to see them go.. I drove through the other night, it looked like a ghost town, I didn't see anybody, no kids..

MARY: I walked up through that way, I walked around and I said, look at my back door, why is my back door on the porch?.. and then all this scrap is just laying
out there, like you're in a war zone.

CALVIN: The way I understand it, when they tear 'em down, that field is going to be open for probably a year, and I'll tell you, that's going to be like an open wound.

LOUETTA: I lived in Riverview, I was born in 1941.. I lived with my grandmother, of course, my mother and father lived in that apartment at the same time because at that time, you had a couple of families living together, so I lived there until 1977 when I built my home on Maple Street, and being an homeowner, I know the wonderful feeling that that is.. We can look back and reflect on where we've been, but we can
also look forward to where we're going. I think it's a grand thing that people will have the possibility of owning their home and what it will mean to have that
responsibility of having your own "everything."

MATTHEW: LET'S TALK ABOUT THE SCHOOL FOR A MINUTE.. A LOT OF PEOPLE IN TOWN DON'T KNOW THAT WAS ONCE A HIGH SCHOOL.. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT, SHOULD MORE BE
DONE?

CALVIN: I think the school is, probably than the churches, I think the school is probably more of an institution in that neighborhood and in the African-American community, because THAT'S WHERE YOURKIDS LEARNED THE BASICS.. they learned from good
teachers, we had the best teachers at Douglass.. we had the best equipment at Douglass.. that auditorium over there is completely soundproof, it's one of the
most soundproof rooms in the City of Kingsport.. unfortunately with that comes asbestos, because asbestos is basically a soundproofing material.. but the school itself is an icon.. you can't say "Douglass School" or "Douglass High School" or "Douglass Kingsport" without some sense of reverence, and people tend to hold it that way. Of course, they're going to renovate it as soon as the city appropriates the money, and some of the changes for money's sake may be upsetting to a lot of people.. the (proposed new) gym is not going to be where it was first thought, it's
actually going to be beside the old gym in the parking lot. They don't know if they're going to be able to save the auditorium..

MARY: Oh..

JOHNNIE MAE: I wish they would.

CALVIN: ..because the way I understand it, you could pour a million dollars into cleaning up that auditorium, it needs a new roof, the asbestos has got to be cleaned out and properly disposed of, it needs heating and cooling.. the architect told me, you could pour a million dollars into that auditorium and not see anything physically changed about it.. and the whole idea of a renovation, is to make it look better. But you'll be pouring money into that money pit. She says, it's a question of whether we want to pour money into that to make it useful, or just gut it and let it go.

MATTHEW: WHEN I WALK INTO MY OLD SCHOOLS, MEMORIES START COMING BACK TO ME.. OBVIOUSLY I'M SURE THAT HAPPENS WITH DOUGLASS AS WELL..

CALVIN: Plays.. plays.. every class was responsible for a play, they had to put on every year.. and (the Times-News) has some of the pictures from the plays that were put on back in the 60's that we used to do..

MATTHEW: ANY AMATEUR ACTORS IN THIS GROUP?

MARY: Not me.. CHUCKLES..

JOHNNIE MAE: I remember they used to have talent shows there back in the 70's, which I've got pictures of.. just had a good time, and New Vision still uses it to hold our meetings, and some girls from Girls Inc, and Girls Circle that comes in and meetings, so that auditorium has been a blessing to everyone.

MARY: And the (Carver) library has, too.

CALVIN: In the tearing down of the Riverview Apartments, one of the things Dineen West, the architect says, that's going to be saved is, is the steeple from the Carver Library and it's going to have a prominent place in the new development.

EVERYBODY: Oh good, that will be a good thing for the community.

MATTHEW: WILL EVERYBODY BE RETURNING TO RIVERVIEW?

MARY: I'm going back.. I'm elderly, and I've already put my name down for it.

MAMIE: I'm also going back, because it's just home to me over there. It's the only place I ever moved into in Kingsport that I ever cared about. It was a great
thing when I lived there.

MARY: Now, since I moved out, don't have anybody to run to.. if I run out of coffee, don't have nobody to run up to, knock on the door and ask if you have any
coffee.. 'cause in Riverview you can go anywhere, and somebody could give you coffee, sugar, eggs, those that smoke 'got a cigarette.'

MAMIE: Didn't have to go no where to get vegetables, because we had gardens.. all kinds of gardens.

LOUETTA: My grandparents lived in the older set, and in the back where the library is now was an open field, and the families that lived in that row, they were the larger families that had five bedrooms, and there were barns and gardens.. there was a family (the Ross's) that had a cow, and goats and chickens and hogs as well, you had your hog pens back there. Everybody mostly raised their food and put up hams in
the smokehouses, and then the older ladies would can their foods.. There were pantries in the apartments, and I remember my grandmother's pantry was so colorful, she'd have tomatoes canned and they would be red, and green beans and they would be green and beets, and as a little kid, it would be a joy just to go in there and stand and see all these colorful vegetables that were there to make soup during the
winter.

CALVIN: Mary, you're right about the borrowing, if you needed milk, somebody had it, if you needed corn or something, somebody had it. And it wasn't just the
apartments.. ALL of Riverview was like that, you could go from house to house to house, and borrow whatever you needed for a MEAL.

OZINE: One of the main things I remember was the community parenting.. anybody would jerk you up and "give you an adjustment" and that was one of the great
things about the neighborhood. I can remember when we first moved into Riverview and my mother was saying how it was like a Godsend, those apartments, we left some row houses on Maple Street with water spickets and the bathroom on the outside, and when we moved to Riverview, we had warm houses and everybody had bathrooms there, running water. You remember those things like that in your first REAL housing. It's
hard to think about tearing it down, and that's the bitter part of it. But the sweet part of it, is the future for the young people.. home ownership.

MATTHEW: SOME OF THE APARTMENT WERE NEGLECTED BY HUD OR WHOMEVER, THEY WERE IN PRETTY ROUGH SHAPE..

LOUETTA: At one point, we had what was called the Tenants Rights Organization. and through that, we learned about HUD and we worked with HUD and some of the first remodeling was done, once we were educated about what could be done. At that time, Mr. Poston was the overseer of the apartments, and he was kind of stern..

MARY: Kinda?

MAMIE: He was more than that.

LOUETTA: Better word for "MEAN." (rousing laughter) We had to set a fire under him to motivate him to do the things needed, because I remember we would only have one gallon of paint and you had a five-room apartment..


BEULAH: You used a lot of water..

LOUETTA: And through the Tenants Rights Organization, we were able to get more gallons of paint. If your shade tore up, you maybe couldn't get a shade until next year, but through the organization we could find out exactly what we could do, through HUD. We had new cabinets put in, in the older apartments, they put down tile, they put in washer-dryer connections, new sinks, new heaters, new gas stoves to replace the coal ones. Those were put in the newer apartments, but the older ones were late to catch up.

MAMIE: And if you didn't pay your rent, you'd have your lights cut off.. your gas.

MATTHEW: HAS THIS PROJECT ALLOWED YOU ALL TO RECONNECT WITH OLD FRIENDS?

MARY: Oh yes..

JOHNNIE MAE: Definitely.

CALVIN: And then.. a lot of the connection.. never left. It's always been there, there's always been a way and a need for all of us to stay in contact with
each other, we wave going down the street, I think the connection has always been there.

JOHNNIE MAE: And we're gonna keep it going, not let it die down, if we have to do something every other month, we're gonna keep it going.

CALVIN: I think the kids nowadays, they just don't have any idea of the fun we had growing up. They don't have any idea of the discipline that we all experienced "getting adjusted." (CHUCKLES AROUND THE GROUP)

MARY: I remember that cowhide strap my moma used to whip me with, and she put me between her legs one day, and she was whipping me and I made the TERRIBLE mistake of biting her.

JOHNNIE MAE: Whoooo!

MARY: She liked to wore me out (ROUSING LAUGHTER).. I'd never do that again!

JOHNNIE MAE: I'd like to mention one more thing.. we did have a Riverview Boys Club and we did have a Riverview Girls Club.. the girls club was in 70 and 71.

CALVIN: And the Riverview Boys Club sign is still down there, it is still hanging on the side of the building there on Lincoln Street.. the paint is kinda faded and
the sign is kinda crooked, but you can still see "Riverview Boys Club."

MATTHEW: ARE YOU PLEASED WITH THE RENAMING WITH THAT PORTION OF LINCOLN STREET? MARTIN LUTHER KING DRIVE?

GROUP: Oh yes!

JOHNNIE MAE: It was known as "Swingin' Lincoln."

CALVIN: That was our business district.


LOUETTA: Everything went on, on Lincoln Street. I remember when you could leave your house, go downtown, and didn't lock your doors, and you came home and you found everything as you left it. In the summertime, we would sleep with our windows and doors open, and never feared about anybody coming in and molesting your children or stealing anything from you. That shows you how the times have changed, not only
in our neighborhood, but everywhere. You slept all night and got up, realizing that you were O-K, You don't dare go to bed now, without making sure everything is secure.

JOHNNIE MAE: And I need to give a shout-out to Reverend Edge. I'll never forget Reverend (C.E.) Edge.. he would take all of us in this big black Cadillac, he'd say 'y'all go home, get your clothes on, make sure you take a bath (GROUP CHUCKLES), I'm taking y'all over to Bristol, we'd go over to the Bristol church over there and go to birthday parties.. he'd take about five or six of us from the projects, you know, it was all right with the parents, and take us to Bristol, I really enjoyed that.

CALVIN: He pastored two churches, or was it three?

JOHNNIE MAE: I know he did two in Bristol.

OZINE: He also had one in New Canton.

LOUETTA: He was a retired mailman, from Alabama I believe.

OZINE: And once a year, he would feed the entire neighborhood at the Masonic Hall.. the entire neighborhood. That should have cost him a fortune.

MARY: He owned a store-restaurant on Lincoln Street and he and Mrs. Edge lived upstairs. Edge's Place would be a place, if you didn't want to eat in the
(Douglass) cafeteria, when it was time for lunch, everybody would run, headed for Rev. Edge's Place.. the hamburgers, the hot dogs, the pork chop sandwiches, the cheese sandwiches.

LOUETTA: Not to mention the baloney.

CALVIN: His place was down, not quite across the street from the (Riverview Swim) pad, but you had to run down Louis Street to get to it, and I mean that bell would ring, and whoom! That Dianne Simpson was the first one down there.. the FIRST one down there. Boy, that used to make us mad!

JOHNNIE MAE: And let's not forget about Mrs. Gladys Bly. She was like Mom, Grandmom to everybody, you didn't have to be related to her, she was Mama Bly.. she was there for you, and I'll never forget, while she was living over on Louis Street, I would see kids go over there, and she would sit down with them and read to them with their homework, and I was grown then and I would see that.. she would cook the best fish
sandwich you ever had..

CALVIN: Is that where you got them fish sandwiches from?

JOHNNIE MAE: Oh yeah.. and then, I'll never forget when my parents were living in Riverview, she would sell chitlin' dinners, and when all of them were gone, me and my sister would go down there and take the corn bread and soak up the juice, she'd let us do that.

(A ROUSING EWEEEEE! FROM THE GROUP)

CALVIN: You bring chitlin's in the back door and I'm going out the front door.

MARY: But they were still good.

JOHNNIE MAE: And I can still hear her song "This Little Light of Mine."

BEULAH: She could sure sing it.


OZINE: What amazed me about my mother, she made everybody feel like they were special.. if I was there, I was the one, if you were there, you were the one, whoever was around her, she made them feel like they were the one that was special.

LOUETTA: It's a gift.

CALVIN: It is.

OZINE: I try to be like that with my children, and it's hard to do. It takes a special person to do that.

CALVIN: We are proud.. we are proud of our neighborhood.. pride is the thing that motivates us, yes, we're sad about the things are going to be happening, but sadness can spur upliftness, too.

LOUETTA: It's like the Scripture says.. 'tears may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning, so we're looking for joyful things to happen in the
future.

CALVIN: Matt, let me say one thing before we break up.. Our heritage in Riverview, is not just about us.. our heritage is everybody's heritage, the heritage of
Kingsport. It's not just "Black" History, it's EVERYBODY'S history, of which we are a part of. I don't think that anybody would disagree that we want to encourage everybody in Kingsport to learn about our history, learn about the history of Riverview, because it's a very historic community. I don't even refer to
the Riverview Apartments as the Riverview Apartments.. they are the "HISTORIC" Riverview Apartments. We've always been here, it was separate but equal for a long
time, but this is a good opportunity for everybody to learn more about OUR culture and what makes US part of Kingsport, and I think it's important that they know
that, they and everybody else in the Tri-Cities to know that.

URGENT! RIVERVIEW APARTMENTS DEMOLITION START DATE!

The demolition of the Historic Riverview Apartments In Kingsport will begin this Saturday, February 2nd at 12 Noon, as originally planned.



In association with the Douglass High School Alumni Association, the Riverview Residents Association, and Kingsport Parks and Recreation, the program we have planned, begins at 12 Noon at the Douglass Ballfield (if the weather is nice), or in the V.O. Dobbins Center (if the weather is bad or too cold). There will be speeches, songs and entertainment to commemorate the history and legacy of the apartments, then we will adjourn to the beginning site, where the construction crew will begin the work, of tearing down part of our history. Afterwards, we will go back to the V.O. Dobbins Center, for refreshments and fellowship.

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR. This will no doubt be a traumatic and dramatic experience for many of our seniors and former apartment residents, and we need to stand together with them as a community, as we face the future together.

If you have any questions, or wish to contribute a speech or song to the event, please call either Calvin at 423-421-7784 (csneed@newschannel9.com), or Johnnie Mae at 423-246-6623 (newvision_kpt@yahoo.com).

Orders are still coming in for bricks from the apartments. Obviously, all of the apartments will not be coming down this Saturday.. they will be torn down as the demolition crew gets to them, so get your name to Johnnie Mae ASAP.

SEE YOU SATURDAY AT HIGH NOON AT DOUGLASS!

The Douglass High School Renovation Plans--They Are A-Changin'

NEW PLANS WILL CHANGE THE FORMER SCHOOL'S APPEARANCE, BUT ARCHITECT SAYS THE CHANGES WILL IMPROVE THE SCHOOL BUILDING ITSELF





FIRST OF TWO PARTS

The Douglass School renovations are going forward, but changes are afoot, according to architect and designer Dineen West of Cain, Rash and West Architects of Kingsport.

CALVIN SNEED AND ARCHITECT DINEEN WEST OF CAIN, RASH AND WEST ARCHITECTS







I sat down with Mrs. West for an exclusive, in-depth look at the changes, which are mandated by the City of Kingsport's goal of putting all of its non-profit agencies under one roof, yet preserve the historical significance of the largest African-American school in upper East Tennessee.

The renovations are still projected to cost around $7 million dollars, "and those are very fluid dollars," Mrs. West says. "Ultimately, there may be more or less dollars allocated to any one item we want to do. Don't get attached to any one idea, because it may change," she warns.

JUST INSIDE THE DOUGLASS FRONT DOOR, AND TO THE RIGHT TOWARDS THE AUDITORIUM.. THE WALL ON THE LEFT WOULD BE GONE, OPENED UP INTO AN ATRIUM THAT WOULD STRETCH TO THE SECOND FLOOR, DOWN TO THE AUDITORIUM

The first big change would be right at the entrance to the school building from the Louis Street side. "Whenever you come into the front door right now, it's claustrophobic," she says. "I want to try and punch out the walls to the right of the entrance, lose the four headstart classrooms between the old school office and the auditorium, and make that one big open lobby area. That would create a big, grand effect once you enter the building. That was an unusual design for a school building anyway, based on where the auditorium was located, and it never provided for much people flow. We would like to make it more people-friendly."


DOUGLASS TROPHY DISPLAYS WILL BE THE FOCAL POINT OF THE OPEN LOBBY

"Once the open-ness is created there," Mrs. West says, "it creates more of a community-oriented theme. The first person you will meet will be the receptionist for the Upper East Tennessee Human Development Agency. That agency insisted on having its receptionist at the entrance, because of security concerns. Once you go past her, there will be some Riverview Community displays, church items from the neighborhood, and also the Carver Resource Center, which will have computers, dividers and some out-sourcing space.

THE DOUGLASS TROPHIES WOULD BE DISPLAYED IN MODERN, LIGHTED, CUSTOM-MADE CASES, SIMILIAR TO THESE DOBYNS-BENNETT TROPHY CASES, BUT UPDATED

"We have big plans for the Douglass High School trophies.. they will be displayed prominently in several see-through glass cases in the open lobby, similar to the way the trophies at Dobyns-Bennett are displayed right now," she says. One of the entrances that will open up into the lobby will be the offices for the Douglass Alumni Association.

With the loss of the historic Carver Library, plans are to have an area called the Carver Resource Center within the open lobby area, with computers, books, magazines, and lots of self-help facilities for people looking to find a job, access a city or community program, in a comfortable, quiet environment.

"We're also looking at building a small addition to the back of the school, to make up for the classrooms that we would lose on the front side of the building," says Mrs. West. That will make that whole wing, including the cafeteria, just for Headstart. We thought about a separate entrance for parent drop-offs, but the agency felt another entrance would require a second staff member to man it, and Headstart-UETHDA wanted to have control of parent drop-offs for security reasons. The entrance for Headstart will continue to be at the front of the building where it is now."


NEW GYMNASIUM WILL BE IN NEW LOCATION

The Headstart classroom addition in the rear, will also require another change. The new gymnasium planned for the back side of the school where the tennis courts are now, will have to be moved.

THE PARKING LOT BETWEEN THE OLD DOUGLASS GYM AND LOUIS STREET. NEW RENOVATION PLANS CALL FOR THE NEW GYM TO BE BUILT HERE BETWEEN THE STREET AND THE OLD GYM

"With the new design, it doesn't make sense to keep it where we'd planned. We are kind of land-locked right now, with the baseball field coming right up to the building on that side. After talking to Parks and Recreation, it didn't seem wise to separate the old gymnasium from the planned new one, so the feeling is now, the new one needs to adjoin the old one. Because of the land-lock, the new gym would have to be build in the parking lot, between the old building and Louis Street. It just makes more sense to build them side by side. We could punch through, interconnect the two for tournaments, without having spectators walking from one side of the building to the other."

THE STAIRWELL LEADING DOWN TO THE OLD HALF-LEVEL DOUGLASS GYM LOCKERS UNDER THE BLEACHERS

"We are still struggling with locker room space, but one thing that will be the first to go, will be that half-level locker space underneath the bleachers in the old gym. It has always smelled bad, there are leaks down there, and it's always had a moisture problem. The only solution after the interconnect, would be to concrete that in, make it one level, and put in a small locker room area down along the wall between the inter-connected gyms. It doesn't need to be big like high school lockers, but just enough for tournaments."

IN WEDNESDAY'S REPORT.. WHERE WILL THE NON-PROFITS GO IN THE DOUGLASS RENOVATION? AND WHAT IS TO BECOME OF THE DOUGLASS AUDITORIUM, ONCE ONE OF THE MOST ACCOUSTICALLY PERFECT AUDITORIUMS OF ANY SCHOOL IN UPPER EAST TENNESSEE. THE ANSWER MAY SURPRISE YOU!

The Douglass High School Renovation Plans--All of Kingsport's Non-Profits Under One Douglass Roof

CALVIN SNEED AND ARCHITECT DINEEN WEST DISCUSSING RENOVATION PLANS FOR DOUGLASS HIGH SCHOOL, KINGSPORT

SECOND OF TWO PARTS



It's no secret that most people in Riverview and South Central Kingsport are eagerly anticipating the proposed $7 million dollar renovation of the former Douglass School building.

They are not the only ones.

Several of Kingsport's non-profit agencies are also anxiously waiting on the renovation, because they plan to move into the re-designed building. It's a proposal that City Manager John Campbell says, "will make the Model City one of the few (if not the first) municipality that will have all of its non-profit agencies under one roof."

RIGHT NOW, THE KINGSPORT UNITED WAY IS LOCATED ON EASTMAN ROAD

"Right now, I've got about 10 players that I am trying to find homes for," says architect Dineen West of Cain Rash West Architects, one of the designers of the Douglass School renovation. "Among the largest agencies are the American Red Cross and the United Way, then there are some smaller ones like the Adult Literacy Program, a seniors program, a volunteer program, Meals-on-Wheels. We are also looking for duplication among the programs, because maybe some activities can be combined into similar agencies. The Kingsport Police Department will also lose its small substation in the Riverview Apartments, and we are trying to plan for a small room with a restroom in the Douglass building for officers on duty."



RIGHT NOW, THE AMERICAN RED CROSS OFFICE IS AT THE CORNER OF WILCOX AND INDUSTRY DRIVES

"Right now if there is a disaster, the Red Cross has to sometimes call up local churches to set up relief programs and mobilize its contributors," she says. "In the new office space, we are trying to make sure they can do that in their own office space, perhaps with a small kitchen for emergency on-the-spot situations."

"The United Way is not only looking for office space, but also a large meeting room," says Mrs. West. "Frequently, they have a need for gathering the various agencies that are served by the agency, and office space with an adequate banquet room will serve that need."

Right now, all of Kingsport's non-profit organizations are scattered all around town, requiring people who need to access their services to travel to several locations. Mr. Campbell had said that takes time, gas, energy, and tries the patience of many people.



DOUGLASS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT DOUGLASS RELEFORD LEADING A BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

The Douglass High School Alumni Association is one of the non-profit agencies that Mrs. West says, will have a prominent presence in the renovated building. "The city realizes that the Alumni Association is a very important agency in the community, and that the building holds a sense of reverence to former students and residents of the neighborhood. Along with the Douglass athletic trophy displays we feel are important to remember the heritage of this historic school, the Alumni Association will be easily accessible in the renovated building, not only to its members, but to the community it serves."


RIP UP THE ASPHALT

"I would really like to tear up all that asphalt in the courtyard between the auditorium and the cafeteria," says Mrs. West, "and return it to grass, the way it used to be when the Douglass High School Marching Band used to practice there. This time, there would be landscaping done, and that ugly chain-link fence would be gone. That's a green space that would benefit the new look of the building. The parking that is there now, would be shifted to the other side of the building into a new parking lot that would be where James Street is now. Eastman has already promised that they will let us park in their parking lot across Wheatley Street, and remove part of their chainlink fence there. That will help us handle any overflow of parking in our lot."


TWO- OR THREE-STORY NON-PROFIT TOWER

"To keep the non-profit agencies separate from the community-oriented side of the renovated building," says Mrs. West, "we would propose building a new addition where the bandroom is right now, perhaps a two-story, even a three-story, depending on how many dollars are available. That will essentially give the front of the school building a community-oriented look, with the backside having a corporate-office type look. We're also considering having the one big banquet room, and having all of the non-profit agencies open up into it, and they would all share the room for meetings and other events."



AUDITORIUM FUTURE UNCERTAIN

Although plans for most of the Douglass School building seem certain, Mrs. West says the future of the former auditorium is much LESS certain.

"Over the last few months, we have gone through the auditorium with structural engineers and electrical experts," Mrs. West says. "We even brought in a state codes person from Nashville, and looked at sprinkler, air conditioning, roofing and fire code issues. The ceiling in the auditorium is totally asbestos, which helped make the room soundproof, but now that asbestos will have to be removed to meet the state code. Also, the auditorium has serious roof leaks that will require new roofing, a new sprinkler system, an air conditioning system, sewer system makeover and asbestos removal."

"With just so many dollars available, you have to stand back and look at the room carefully..we could drop a million dollars into the auditorium JUST to bring it up to code," she says, "and it not change the overall appearance of the room at all. There are some renovations to the auditorium that may not be able to be made, but the decision on that is far from being made."


A BIG CHALLENGE TO BRING EVERYTHING TOGETHER


"As I've said before, any proposals we are looking at, are subject to change.. nothing is set in stone, says Mrs. West. "We want to spend money economically to renovate the building, but the biggest challenge is, what can we do to make it LOOK like a renovation, and still put in enough infrastructure to make it work. What can we do to get the most BANG for the city's BUCK?"




"That," she says, "is what will shape one of Kingsport's most historic buildings, into one of Tennessee's most innovative facilities."