Beechgrove, also known as Beech Grove, is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Coffee County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, United States. Beechgrove is located in northwestern Coffee County at the junction of

Interstate 24 Interstate 24 (I-24) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It runs diagonally from I-57, south of Marion, Illinois, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, at I-75. It travels through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, ...

U.S. Route 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part in southern Florida, from Naples to Miami, ...

, and State Route 64. Beechgrove has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

with ZIP code 37018. Beechgrove, Tennessee, was named "Beech Grove," until zip codes were assigned to U.S. Post Offices. At that time the post office named "Beech Grove" in another county was given its zip code before the Coffee County location received its code; thus to avoid confusion among postal users, and the Postal system itself, Beech Grove (Coffee County), Tennessee was changed, officially, to "Beechgrove." Locals living there protested to postal authorities, but to no avail. The name "stuck," so to speak.

History

The community was named from the presence of

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

trees near the town site. A post office has been in operation at Beechgrove since 1836. Between June 24–26, 1863, the

Battle of Hoover's Gap The Battle of Hoover's Gap (24 June 1863) was the principal battle in the Tullahoma Campaign of the American Civil War, in which Union General William S. Rosecrans drove General Braxton Bragg’s Confederates out of Central Tennessee. Rosecrans� ...

was fought around Beechgrove. The Beechgrove Confederate Cemetery now occupies a portion of the battlefield, on top of a hill overlooking present-day I-24. It contains 56 graves; 52 are of unknown soldiers.

References

Unincorporated communities in Coffee County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee {{CoffeeCountyTN-geo-stub