Kingsport Archives to be closed for relocation
The Kingsport Archives will be closed to the public beginning Monday, April 25 in order to begin the month-long process of moving the collection to its new home in City Hall.
Established in 1994 to preserve the history and heritage of the City of Kingsport, the Kingsport Archives has been located on the lower level of the Kingsport Public Library. Once the move is complete, the archives will be housed on the fifth floor of city hall (415 Broad Street).
On Monday, crews will begin installing the shelving system for the collection and the equipment for the processing room. In the coming weeks, textile and art racks will be delivered and installed.
Then in May, a professional moving company will come and move the actual contents of the collection from the library to city hall. The entire project is estimated to take about a month to complete.
A reopening date for the Kingsport Archives will be announced at a late date. During the closure if you need something from the archives, you can contact the archivist by phone at 423-224-2559 or by email at briannewright@kingsporttn.gov.
City officials say the move to city hall is a good one because the archives will be in a larger, more accessible space for the public to use.
“It’s going to be a lot more accessible and our research room is going to be so much bigger and more spacious overall,” said Archivist Brianne Wright. “That’s the one thing I’m excited about for our patrons, to be able to come up here and have plenty of room for research. I think they’re going to love it.”
The archives is comprised of at least 800 collections of documents, photographs, books, maps and videos of individuals, organizations, industry, business, and non-current city records pertaining to the history of Kingsport for preservation and research purposes.
Once all of the collections get moved to city hall, the new archives will include a research/reading room for the public, employee space to process donations, and a storage room for the actual collections.
As soon as the collections move out of the Kingsport Public Library, that’s when the second phase of the project begins.
Library Director Chris Markley explained that once everything comes out of the old archives, demolition work will begin this fall in that space. Then, the space will be remodeled and ready for its new use.
“Most likely it’s going to become our computer training room and maker space,” Markley said. “Our maker space is in a little alcove upstairs and it’s not very useable, so we’re looking forward to being able to use that space again.”
Kingsport has budgeted just over $200,000 for both projects.
For more information about the Kingsport Public Library visit www.kingsportlibrary.org.