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Preparatory Academies and Vanderbilt University
Principal
| 1921-1929 | Raymond Paty |
Notable Graduate
- Hollis Edens, Duke University president 1949-1960
Cumberland Mountain School
... Crossville, Tennessee
1921-1938
I hope that some day, the world will again see the need of that school and it will again be established.
—Jacqueline Swindell, History of the Cumberland Mountain School
Like many schools designed to prepare students for Vanderbilt and other colleges, Cumberland Mountain School was connected to the Methodist church. Robert Hall, a Methodist minister in the Cumberland mountains, lobbied the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Church to improve education conditions in the mountain area. In 1919, a committee formed to establish a school in Crossville. The first principal, Raymond Paty, was a Webb School graduate and instructor, and went on to become president of the University of Alabama and later Chancellor of the University of Georgia system.
Courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives
The school initially consisted of a farm building and the principal's house; later, two classroom buildings and a girls’ dormitory were added and students helped build the library. In 1938, the school merged with Martin College in Pulaski, and because the public school system had improved in the area during the last two decades, the school closed. Currently the buildings are owned by the Upper Cumberland Human Resources Agency and used as a vocational training facility for child care workers and the facilities are also available for private functions.