Kingsport, Tennessee

Kingsport is a city in Hawkins and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Most of the city is in Sullivan County. Kingsport is the biggest city in each county but it is not the county seat of either. As of the 2020 census its population was 55,442.

The name is based on "King's Port" which referred to the area around Ross's Landing. It is part of what is known as the "Mountain Empire," which includes a portion of southwest Virginia and the mountainous counties in Tennessee to the east.

Pal's Sudden Service, a regional fast-food restaurant chain, opened its first location in 1956 and is headquartered in Kingsport. In 2001, Pal's Sudden Service, won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, becoming the first restaurant company to receive the award.

Geography

Kingsport is located at  (36.536851, -82.542123) where U.S. highways 11 and 23 meet. Kingsport is also the starting and ending point of Interstate 26.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 45.0 square miles (116.6 km²), of which, 44.1 square miles (114.1 km²) of it is land and 0.9 square miles (2.4 km²) of it (2.07%) is water.

Education
People who live in Kingsport use the Kingsport City Schools public school system.  The system has eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school.  Kingsport is also home to eight private academies.  The city is also part of Sullivan county which has 2 other high schools in Kingsport.

While no college or university houses its main campus within the city, Northeast State Community College, East Tennessee State University, and University of Tennessee have branch campuses in Kingsport.

Neighborhoods
There are several neighborhoods located within or just outside of Kingsport, offering different ways of living:
 Allandale
 Amersham
 Bloomingdale
 Borden Village
 Carter's Valley
 Cliffside
 Colonial Heights
 Cooks Valley
 Downtown
 Edinburgh
 Fairacres
 Fort Robinson
 Gibson Town
 Green Acres
 Highland Park
 Hillcrest
 Huntington Hills
 Indian Springs (Fall Creek & Airport)
 Litz Manor
 Lynn Garden
 Malabar Heights
 Meadowview
 Midtown
 Morrison City
 Orebank
 Preston Forest
 Preston Hills
 Ridgefields
 Riverfront
 Riverview
 Rock Springs
 Sevier Terrace
 Sullivan Gardens
 Tellico Hills
 White City

Notable people

Lisa Alther, author, born and grew up in Kingsport
 Edward L. Ayers, Bancroft Prize-winning historian and ninth president of the University of Richmond, raised in Kingsport
 Barry Bales, Grammy Award-winning musician with Alison Krauss and Union Station
 Fredrick 'Pal' Barger, founder of Pal's Sudden Service
 James F. Barker, president of Clemson University (1999–2013)
 Nick Castle, actor who played Michael Myers in the original Halloween, was born in Kingsport and makes appearances at the local haunted houses.
 Jeff Chapman-Crane, Appalachian artist
 Harry Coover, inventor of Super Glue
 Denny Crawford, professional football player
 Amy Dalley, country music artist
 Bobby Dodd, College Football Hall of Fame inductee as both a football player (University of Tennessee) and coach (Georgia Institute of Technology)
 Bobby Eaton, professional wrestler
 Elle and Blair Fowler, online beauty retailers who spent part of their childhoods in Kingsport
 Daniel Kilgore, professional football player, Kansas City Chiefs
 Cliff Kresge, Nationwide Tour golfer who splits his time between homes in Kingsport and Florida
 Hal Lawton, President & CEO of Tractor Supply, graduate of Sullivan South High School
 Blake Leeper, Paralympic silver medallist
 Cripple Clarence Lofton, noted boogie-woogie pianist and singer, born in Kingsport
 Matt Mahaffey, musician, frontman of pop/rock band Self
 Brownie and Stick McGhee, brothers and blues musicians, grew up in Kingsport and other East Tennessee towns
 Ken Mellons, country music artist
 John Palmer, former NBC News correspondent, born in Kingsport and a graduate of Dobyns-Bennett High School
 Jimmy Quillen, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 1st congressional district (1963–1997)
 John Shelton Reed, sociologist and essayist, author or editor of eighteen books, most of them dealing with the contemporary American South
 Selwa Showker "Lucky" Roosevelt, Chief of Protocol of the United States from 1982-1989 and former journalist for the Washington Post, married Archibald B. Roosevelt, grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt
 Coty Sensabaugh, cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers
 Gerald Sensabaugh, retired NFL cornerback, played for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Dallas Cowboys
 LeRoy Sprankle, high school multi-sport coach, author, and general manager of the Canton Independents
 Adam Steffey, bluegrass artist
 Bill Streever, biologist and author
 Cyrus Thomas, entomologist and ethnologist 
 Steven Williams, actor who starred in 21 Jump Street and The Blues Brothers
 Charles Wright, poet who spent part of his childhood and adult life in Kingsport

Sports
The Kingsport Axman of the Appalachian League, a rookie-level league, play in the city. The team has competed in the city since 1969, with the exception of 1983. The Mets play in Hunter Wright Stadium named after Mayor Hunter Wright. Previously the team was known as the Kingsport Mets. Their name changed in 2020.

References

Further reading
 Long, Howard. Kingsport: A Romance of Industry. Overmountain Press (October 1993) 
 Spoden, Muriel Millar Clark. The Long Island of the Holston: Sacred Island of the Cherokee Nation.  ASIN: B0006WOGAM
 Wolfe, Margaret Ripley. Kingsport Tennessee: A Planned American City.  University Press of Kentucky (November 1987)

Other websites
 
 DiscoverKingsport.com : Historical Research Kingsport TN
 Kingsport City Schools
 Kingsport Times-News
 Kingsport Daily News 
 Kingsport Chamber of Commerce

Cities in Tennessee
1822 establishments in the United States
19th-century establishments in Tennessee
Tri-Cities, Tennessee