McClure’s School, c1880-1891

McCLURE’S SCHOOL f1. 1880’s-before 1891 was on the northeast side of the Old Nashville Turnpike and west of the Florence Road. It was just west of Sky Harbor which was built on Crosthwait land.

The large one-room frame building was both a school and a Presbyterian Church.

Eliza Crosthwait was a teacher. She was a sister of Dr. G.W. Crosthwait whose name is on the 1878 Beers Map.

Haskell Burleson Talley, b. 1877, was a student.

The school closed before Richie Wade was born in 1891. The church, however, whose site is shown on the Dixie Highway Map, continued to have services. Ervin Wade later bought the building and moved it to a lot between its original site and Sky Harbor. The large room was converted
into a living room and a bedroom, and a store was built on the front. Later a kitchen was added.

In 1942, Richie Wade Ferguson and her husband bought the building from her brother. Richie operated the store for sixteen years but sold the property when her husband died. The present owner has remodeled the structure and it is still standing as a residence in 1986.

SOURCES: Interview, Oct. 14, 1985, with Fannie Batey Talley, wife of Haskell Burleson Talley. *Richie Wade Ferguson, b. Oct. 27, 1891.

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