Lea Springs is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in southwestern

Grainger County, Tennessee Grainger County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 23,527. Its county seat is Rutledge, Tennessee, Rutledge. Grainger County is a part ...

. It is located two miles northeast of the city of Blaine. It is also located partially inside Blaine's

city limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary (real estate), boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. ...

and

urban growth boundary An urban growth boundary (UGB) is a regional boundary, set in an attempt to control urban sprawl by, in its simplest form, mandating that the area inside the boundary be used for urban development and the area outside be preserved in its natural s ...

History

Lea Springs was the site of a historic mansion of the same name. It was built by slaves in 1819 for Pryor Lea, who grew up in nearby Richland. With Lea became a politician in Tennessee and Texas, and he was a founding trustee of the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi (Epithet, byname Ole Miss) is a Public university, public research university in University, near Oxford, Mississippi, United States, with a University of Mississippi Medical Center, medical center in Jackson, Miss ...

. He died in 1879, and the house was remodeled as a resort in the 1880s. The mansion was designed in the Federal architectural style, and was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. It was demolished in 2008 and the property was de-listed in 2023.

References

Unincorporated communities in Grainger County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee {{GraingerCountyTN-geo-stub