FLORENCE SCHOOL 1919-c1951 was located on the old Nashville Turnpike at its intersection with Florence Road.
It opened after the close of LONE OAK SCHOOL farther north on the Turnpike.
N.M. Lewis and wife Estelle A. signed a deed for a school in 1919 but did not file the deed until September 26, 1951.
In it they sold one and one-half acres of land to Rutherford County Board of Education.
The four-room school building was of weatherboarding painted white and had a front porch. The windows were fitted with small glass panes for light and a potbellied stove furnished the heat. Inventory showed a total of forty-nine desks.
The school was at one time a three-teacher school.
Among the teachers were Miss Lamb, 1922, Lucille Elrod Caffey, 1922, Myrtle Ball Hall, Linnie Heath, Mr. Fletcher, Mrs. Davis, Mildred Bean, Wilma Jewell Brittain, Sara Murray, Elizabeth Blankenship, Lucile McDonald, Miss Morgan, Jewell Mullins, Mary Blankenship, Mary Frances Hooper Brandon, Mrs. J. S. Holmes, 1948-1950, and Mrs. DeWitt Bridges in 1951.
FLORENCE SCHOOL closed about 1951. On January 22, 1952, the Rutherford County School Commission sold to Clyde and Sarah Jernigan the school property which adjoined the Jernigan property. The building was torn down. The Florence Church of Christ now occupies a part of the school grounds.
SOURCES: Deed Book 109, p. 210; Book 110, P. 73. *Gene Sloan, “County’s Two Florence Schools Have Faded into Obscurity,” The Daily News Journal Access, July 10, 1977. Hoover, p. 264. Florence Vandeford Davis, “Florence,” a paper in the files of Rutherford County Historical Society. *Louise Hilliard. *Richie Wade Ferguson, b. Oct. 27, 1891.