Mercer 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 Madison County, Tennessee, United States. It is located along State Route 138 halfway between

Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Southeastern United States, southeastern and Southwestern United States, southwestern portions of the United States. At a leng ...

and Toone, just east of the

Hatchie River The Hatchie River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 3, 2011 river in northern Mississippi and southwestern Tennessee. It is of considerable geographic, culture, cu ...

. Mercer has a post office; its zip code is 38392.

Demographics

History

Mercer was founded in 1888 by T. B. Mercer, for whom the community is named, at an intersection of a

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

road and the Tennessee Midland Railroad. Mercer erected a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

at the intersection, and it was followed in 1894 by a railroad station officially named Mercer. By the turn of the century, a lumber company and several churches had been established in the area. The community eventually had a bank and an

opera house An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...

, but the former failed in 1933 and the latter burned down in the late 20th century.

Notes

Unincorporated communities in Madison County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee {{MadisonCountyTN-geo-stub