The historic Homestead Hotel
Kingsport, Tennessee
This postcard features a graphic image of the historic Homestead in 1925. Once a fixture in Kingsport, Tennessee, it was located at 217 W. Sullivan Street, just a couple blocks off the semi-circle of downtown.
In 1919, the Homestead was built by the Grant Leather Company. The founders of Grant Leather were Jesse Root Grant (Ulysses S. Grant’s father) and Samuel Grant (U.S. Grant’s brother). Grant Leather built the Homestead for their employees and executives as a clubhouse. It initially had 85 rooms and a café.
In 1850, Jesse and Hannah Grant lived in Tate Township in Clermont County, Ohio. Four of their children were still at home: Clara, Virginia, Orvil, and Mary. Then 56-year-old Jesse worked as a Tanner. He must have been doing rather well since the value of his property was significantly higher than that of his immediate neighbors. Jesse’s property was valued at $11,400 and his two neighbors’ were valued at $2,000 and $500.
Beginning around 1860, Ulysses Grant worked for his father in the family leather shop. At the time, Jesse was 66 and Samuel was 34; they were running the shop together in Covington, Kentucky. The 1860 census records them as Leather Dealers.
In 1865, an article in the Cleveland Leader printed a stylized version of a conversation Ulysses Grant had with Congressman Washburn prior to his service in the Civil War. Grant was said to have expressed his discomfort that he wasn’t serving the country and re-entered the military at Washburn’s request. The item notes Grant was a leather dealer at the time of the discussion.
In August of 1924, only five years after the Homestead was built, Grant Leather was leased/purchased by Ladew Jones Company of Boston. It must have reverted to Grant Leather after a few years, because R.Y. Grant of Kingsport was cited as the President of Grant Leather in 1931 in an article about a house fire at his residence.
After its time as a private club, The Homestead was remodeled into a hotel. It housed guests for several decades and was included in the Church Circle Historic District. It eventually was used as apartments for the elderly. Maintenance on the building was not kept up.
In 1987, it was declared an Unsafe Building. In 1989, the owners requested the City demolish the building. Because the hotel was in the Historic District, it could only be demolished with permission by the Historic Zoning Commission. The request was denied citing the building’s historic value.
The owners then requested the property be rezoned out of the Historic District so they could tear it down. The Board of Mayor and Alderman approved the request and carved the historic building out of the Historic District. A demolition permit was filed for immediately. Evidently, the historic value vanished when the burden of responsibility shifted.
In June of 1992, Hotel Homestead was demolished. Dr. Kenneth Carrico, a Kingsport native, provided a reprieve for the old sign, which was nearly as old as the building. This was the sign on a pole out front, not the later one on the roof. At one time it had contained neon tubes to light up the letters at night.
Dr. Carrico told a reporter he wished the entire property could have been saved since it was such a landmark for Kingsport. As it was being torn down, he took action when he saw workers attach a cable to the sign and prepare to pull it to the ground. He managed to quickly get a trailer to the site onto which the sign was lowered. He said he hoped it would be in a local museum one day.
Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. It was mostly a black blob. This is the best I was able to lighten it enough to be seen.
Cynthia,
That is really interesting.
A most interesting read