LA VERGNE ACADEMY 1893-Nov. 1, 1900 was just south of the railway overpass and across the road from the LA VERGNE PREPARATORY SCHOOL FOR BOYS. It was near the site of the Christian Church which is shown on the 1878 Beers Map. The property was bounded on the north by the Anderson tract, on the east by Valley Street, and on the south and
west by alleys. Presently the site is on the northwest side
of Waldron Road.
On May 29, 1893, W.N. Mason signed a deed for one lot in the town of Lavergne to Trustees W.H. Burt, W.J. Engle, W.A. Goodman, J.R. Park, E.W. Owen, Henry Owen, W.N. Austin, C.L. Brittain, and W.N. Mason. He received for his land one hundred dollars in the stock of the school.
The school was thought to have been an educational institution sponsored by the church. It was equivalent to a secondary school but was referred to as the WOMAN’S COLLEGE.
The school was a white frame building with a wide gabled front. The porch had posts on three sides. The long narrow windows of the side wings had moldings arched at the top. Bricks that were used were hand-made.
The school was blown away by a tornado on November 1, 1900. Ellen Baker, a cook for the school, was off work for the day.
SOURCES: Deed Book 34, p. 457. Hoover, pp. 277-280. Shirley Chaney, “Log Schools First Served La Vergne Area,” The Daily News Journal, Nov. 13, 1963, P. 6. Shirlie Chaney, “LaVergne” RCHS, Pub. no. 6, Winter 1976 Interviews, February 28, 1985, with John L. Buchanan, who now owns property next to where the school stood and has picked up some of the bricks; Oct. 10, 1985, with Mary Sutton Mason, whose sister, Jane Sutton Hindman, visited with Annie Castleman Brewer.