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Washburn 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 rural northern
Grainger County, Tennessee Grainger County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,527. Its county seat is Rutledge. Grainger County is a part of both the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area and Morristown ...
, United States. It is part of both the
Knoxville metropolitan area The Knoxville metropolitan area, commonly known as Greater Knoxville, is a metropolitan statistical area centered on Knoxville, Tennessee, the third largest city in Tennessee and the largest city in East Tennessee. It is the third largest metro ...
and the
Morristown metropolitan area The Morristown Metropolitan Statistical Area, commonly known as the Lakeway Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties - Grainger, Hamblen, and Jefferson - in eastern Tennessee, anchored by the ...
. According to the 2020 United States census, the total population of Washburn was 3,289.


History

Forty-one days prior to the naming of the town on June 2, 1898, Knoxville-born Rear Admiral Washburn Maynard, son of local politician and
Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...
Horace Maynard, fired the first shot of the
Spanish–American War , partof = the Philippine Revolution, the decolonization of the Americas, and the Cuban War of Independence , image = Collage infobox for Spanish-American War.jpg , image_size = 300px , caption = (cloc ...
from the gunboat USS ''Nashville'' off the coast of Cienfuegoes, Cuba. Rear Admiral Washburn Maynard and the USS ''Nashville'' were instrumental in the capture of the Spanish steamer ''Buena Ventura'' and several other vessels. The crew of the USS ''Nashville'' also participated in the May 11, 1898 heroic mission of cutting underwater Spanish telegraph cables. It is proposed that partially in honor of former U.S. Postmaster General Horace Maynard, the post office and the town alike were named in honor of the then recent war hero Washburn Maynard. The town continued to grow well into the early twentieth century. In the 1950s, it was decided that northern Grainger County needed a secondary school of its own. Prior to this, any student who wished to go to school beyond the 8th grade had to find a way to get to Rutledge High School, across
Clinch Mountain Clinch Mountain is a mountain ridge in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Virginia, lying in the ridge-and-valley section of the Appalachian Mountains. From its southern terminus at Kitts Point, which lies at the intersection of Knox, Union and Gr ...
in the county seat of Rutledge. Washburn School was established to meet this need. Subsequently, as the idea of centralized schooling became popular, the smaller elementary schools, such as Thorn Hill Elementary, Liberty Hill School, and Powder Springs Elementary were closed and combined into the new Washburn Elementary School. At the time, buildings of both Rutledge and Washburn High Schools were built in a similar design. This design similarity is still evident in both schools to this day. In early 2004, the Grainger County Board of Education decided that a new comprehensive high school was needed in the county, residents of Washburn and surrounding areas became concerned that the county might decide to close Washburn High School and instead bus their children across Clinch Mountain every day. Rutledge High School was severely over capacity with more than 800 students, while Washburn High School had only some 200 students in grades 9 through 12. As of 2006, this situation was still unresolved. Construction on the new
Grainger High School Grainger High School (GHS) is a public high school in Rutledge, Tennessee, United States. It was established in 2008 and is part of the Grainger County Schools district. The school serves the communities of Rutledge, Bean Station, Blaine, and ...
, with a planned capacity of 1600 students, began in 2006 and was scheduled for completion in 2008. About 1,000 students currently attend Grainger High School. In July 2015, Washburn and Grainger County received international attention and social media backlash after a (now closed) hardware store owner in the community placed a ‘No gays allowed’ sign on the door of his business after the ruling of ''
Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...
'' by the Supreme Court of the United States.


Geography

While many smaller communities exist in the area, such as Joppa, Powder Springs, Tater Valley, Liberty Hill, and Thorn Hill, Washburn is considered to be the central town of northern Grainger County, due to its access to most county services.


Economy

Commercial and public services include a bank, post office, storage center, school, library, a Dollar General store and a medical clinic, as well as several private businesses.


Education

Washburn is home to the only operating public school in northern Grainger County. The Washburn School complex is a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade school.


References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Grainger County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee Morristown metropolitan area, Tennessee 1898 establishments in Tennessee Populated places established in 1898