The Alpine Institute was a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

mission school located in

Overton County, Tennessee Overton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 22,511. Its county seat is Livingston. Overton County is part of the Cookeville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area. History On May 10, ...

, United States. Operating in one form or another from 1821 until 1947, the school provided badly needed educational services to children living in the remote hill country of the Upper Cumberland region.Ora Mai Vaughn Grace, "Alpine Institute." ''History of Overton County, Tennessee'' (Dallas, Tex.: Curtis Media Corp., 1992), pp. 105-106. In 2002, several of the school's surviving structures were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as a historic district. John Dillard (1793–1884), a minister affiliated with the

Cumberland Presbyterian Church The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian denomination spawned by the Second Great Awakening.Matthew H. Gore, The History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Kentucky to 1988, (Memphis, Tennessee: Joint Heritage Committee, 2000). ...

of Southern

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

, established the Alpine School atop Alpine Mountain in 1821 and expanded the school in the 1840s. The school was burned by bushwhackers during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and again by the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

in the years after the war.Caroll Van West, ''Tennessee's Historic Landscapes: A Traveler's Guide'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1995), p. 285. The school was re-established in 1880 at its current location at the base of Alpine Mountain, and under the leadership of future Tennessee governor A. H. Roberts continued to thrive into the following decade. In 1917, the better-funded

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PC(USA), is a mainline Protestant denomination in the United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the US, and known for its liberal stance on doctrine and its ordaining of women and ...

assumed control of the school and helped it develop into one of the state's most competitive rural schools.

Location

The Alpine Institute was located along Highway 52 (Jamestown Highway) in the

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

community, just over east of

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. This community is situated in a valley carved by Nettlecarrier Creek (which empties into the

Obey River The Obey River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 tributary of the Cumberland River in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It joins the Cumberland River near the t ...

just east of Alpine), and is surrounded by high ridges on all sides, most notably the Alpine Mountain, which rises prominently to the south. A one-lane road, Campus Circle, accesses the church and adjacent buildings. The farm once operated by the school is accessible from Mountain Lane (which intersects Campus Circle near the church) and Pat Carr Lane.

History

Early history

John Dillard, a minister from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

who helped establish the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1810, is generally credited with the founding of "Alpine Academy" in 1821, although some sources argue his later partner Christopher Organ founded the school before 1821,Dale Hollow Larger Parish, ''Alpine Mountain History: the Old and the New'' (Overton and Pickett County, Tenn., c. 1962), pp. 3-10. while others suggest both men founded schools that were later merged.James Benton Cantrell, ''A General Educational Survey of Alpine Institute and Community: A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Study of the University of Tennessee in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science'' (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee, 1939), pp. 15-18. In any case, Dillard and Organ were working together by the 1840s, and had managed to build a relatively sizeable campus atop Alpine Mountain. The school's faculty during this period included Dillard's son, William, and future

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

governor John Beveridge. During the Civil War, law and order almost completely disappeared in the Upper Cumberland region, and the Alpine school was destroyed by bushwhackers. The school attempted to rebuild after the end of the war, but these efforts were thwarted when the Ku Klux Klan burned what remained of the school's campus. By 1866, Dillard had left the state, and efforts to re-establish the Alpine school were temporarily abandoned.

The Davis and Roberts years (1880s and 1890s)

In 1880, Alpine Academy was re-established at its current location in the Alpine community at the base of Alpine Mountain. The school initially had five faculty who pursued "no stereotyped or threadbare system of instruction,"Cantrell, p. 20. and the school's first catalog listed an enrollment of 94 males and 48 females. Led by its able principal, W. T. Davis, the school continued to grow throughout the decade.Cantrell, pp. 20-24. In 1891, Alpine native Albert H. Roberts (1868–1946)— who would later serve as

governor of Tennessee The governor of Tennessee is the head of government of the U.S. state of Tennessee. The governor is the only official in Tennessee state government who is directly elected by the voters of the entire state. The current governor is Bill Lee, a ...

— took over as the school's principal, and renamed the school "Alpine Institute." By this time, the school had six faculty members, of which three had college degrees. The school offered instruction in "primary," "intermediate," and "collegiate" courses. The intermediate curriculum included courses in geography, history, geology, and algebra. The collegiate curriculum included courses in geometry, trigonometry, botany, chemistry, and classical studies, namely Latin and Greek.

Presbyterian Church, USA (1917–1947)

After Roberts' departure, the Alpine Institute dropped its collegiate curriculum, and by the 1900s (decade) had devolved into an ordinary school. In 1913, the Presbyterian Church USA's National Missions superintendent for Middle Tennessee toured the Upper Cumberland, and noted that the Alpine school was meeting only three months out of the year. A subsequent survey found the region's rural areas to badly in need of basic educational facilities, and in 1917 the church's Board of Missions agreed to re-establish the Alpine Institute. The school's first class graduated in 1924.Cantrell, pp. 27-28. A teacherage was built shortly after the school opened, and a larger school building, known as "Miller Hall," was completed in 1922. By the 1930s, the school had its own

dispensary A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispen ...

with a full-time nurse, a woodshop building, a

manse A manse () is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other Christian traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin ''mansus'', "dwelling", from '' ...

, and two dormitories. The school's Christ Church Presbyterian, a Gothic Revival-style church, was completed in 1934. A gymnasium was built in 1939 with help from the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

. The school also operated a dairy farm where students could work rather than pay tuition. As Tennessee's roads improved in the 1930s, rural schools began to consolidate. Overton County's public school system took over the operations of Alpine's grade school in 1936. This grade school was merged with several other schools to form A. H. Roberts Elementary School in Livingston in 1987. Alpine Institute's high school was closed in 1947, and its students were transferred to Livingston Academy.

The Alpine Institute campus today

While Alpine Institute's main school building no longer stands, several important structures associated with the school have survived. The Christ Church Presbyterian is well-maintained and still used for religious services. The school's gymnasium is now used as a community center, and the manse is still in use as a residence. Other surviving structures include the shop building and a dairy barn. The gymnasium, church, and shop building were all built using the same type of native stone.

References

External links

Volunteer Voices - Bibliographic Records
— several 1930s-era photographs of Alpine Institute (Records 10-14) {{National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Overton County, Tennessee Defunct schools in Tennessee Works Progress Administration in Tennessee Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Overton County, Tennessee 1920 establishments in Tennessee