Alpine Institute
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Alpine Institute
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Christ Church Presbyterian at the old Alpine Institute campus
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| Location | State Route 52 |
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| Nearest city | Alpine, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 36°23′35″N 85°13′8″W / 36.39306°N 85.21889°WCoordinates: 36°23′35″N 85°13′8″W / 36.39306°N 85.21889°W |
| Area | 25 acres (10 ha) |
| Built | 1920 |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 02001339 |
| Added to NRHP | November 15, 2002 |
The Alpine Institute was a Presbyterian mission school located in Overton County, Tennessee, United States. 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 as a historic district.
John Dillard (1793–1884), a minister affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Southern Appalachia, 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 and again by the Ku Klux Klan 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 continued to thrive into the following decade. In 1917, the better-funded Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) assumed control of the school and helped it develop into one of the state's most competitive rural schools.
The Alpine Institute was located along Highway 52 (Jamestown Highway) in the Alpine community, just over 10 miles (16 km) east of Livingston. This community is situated in a valley carved by Nettlecarrier Creek (which empties into the Obey River just east of Alpine), and is surrounded by high ridges on all sides, most notably the 1,826-foot (557 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.
John Dillard, a minister from Virginia 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 governor John Beveridge.
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