The Alpine Institute was a Presbyterian mission school located in Overton County, Tennessee, USA. 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. In 2002, several of the school's surviving structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 as a historic district.

John Dillard (1793–1884), a minister affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Christian denomination spawned by the Second Great Awakening. In 2007, it had an active membership of less than 50,000 and about 800 congregations, the majority of which are concentrated in the United States...

 of Southern Appalachia

Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

, 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

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 and again by the Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan

Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...

 in the years after the war. 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

Albert H. Roberts

Albert Houston Roberts was Governor of Tennessee from 1919 to 1921.-Biography:A native of the Alpine community in Overton County, Tennessee, Roberts was a graduate of Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tennessee. He taught school at the Alpine Institute in the 1890s and later served as county...

 continued to thrive into the following decade. In 1917, the better-funded Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The Presbyterian Church , or PC, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. Part of the Reformed tradition, it is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S...

 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, Tennessee

Alpine is a small unincorporated community in Overton County, Tennessee, United States. It is served by the ZIP Code of 38543, for which the ZCTA had a population of 497 at the 2000 census....

 community, just over 10 miles (16.1 km) east of Livingston

Livingston, Tennessee

Livingston is a town in Overton County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,498 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Overton County...

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

Obey River

The Obey River is a tributary of the Cumberland River in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It joins the Cumberland River near the town of Celina, which is generally considered to be the Cumberland's head of navigation. Via the Cumberland and Ohio rivers, the Obey River is part of the Mississippi River...

 just east of Alpine), and is surrounded by high ridges on all sides, most notably the 1826 feet (556.6 m) 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.

Early history

John Dillard, a minister from Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 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, while others suggest both men founded schools that were later merged. 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

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 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," 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.

In 1891, Alpine native Albert H. Roberts (1868–1946)— who would later serve as governor of Tennessee— 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 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.
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

Dispensary

A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital or other organization that dispenses medications and medical supplies. In a traditional dispensary set-up a pharmacist dispenses medication as per prescription or order form....

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

Manse

A manse is a house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of a Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or United Church...

, and two dormitories. The school's Christ Church Presbyterian, a Gothic Revival-style

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 church, was completed in 1934. A gymnasium was built in 1939 with help from the Works Progress Administration

Works Progress Administration

The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

. The school also operated a 100 acres (40.5 ha) 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.

External links

• Volunteer Voices - Bibliographic Records — several 1930s-era photographs of Alpine Institute (Records 10-14)