Bell’s history is history of Andersonville
The bell, which now hangs in a cradle on the campus of Andersonville Elementary School, came from the open bell tower atop a previous school occupying the same site.
The house, across Mountain Road from the school and facing Tennessee 61, once was a dormitory for male high school students at that school.
Andersonville was first settled in 1790 by a man named Scotch John Wallace. He owned land that extended from Buffalo Creek south to the top of Lone Mountain, and from west of Norris Freeway to just east of Andersonville. The area was originally know as Wallace’s Crossroads.
Wallace had 12 children, and in 1830 his descendants and other settlers established the first elementary school somewhere in the community now know as Andersonville.
Then Big Valley Academy was established in 1873 as an elementary school on the site of present day Andersonville Elementary School. It was a two-story wooden building topped by an open bell tower.
The original owners of the school site, John Wallace and Elijah Longmire, deeded the land to Masonic Lodge 83 and the school trustees. The Masonic Lodge occupied the second floor, and classes were held on the first floor. The school was a corporation financed by the sale of stock.
Sometime later the need arose for a high school in the area. In 1897, the Clinton Association of Baptist Churches appointed a board of trustees for a proposed high school.
That was the beginning of Andersonville Institute. The board was made up of Baptists and Methodists. The association bought all the stock of Big Valley Academy in 1897. The school then became a high school and was known as Andersonville Institute. Most of the high school students were boarding students. So a private home was purchased in 1898 for a boys’ dormitory and christened Clinton Hall.
That building still exists facing Highway 61 across Mountain Road from the present elementary school. Old photographs show that the pyramid-shaped roof originally sported chimneys and was topped with a large square cupola. In 1906, Midlands Hall, a girls’ dormitory, was built. It was a two-story wooden building with porches extending across the front of both floors. It has since been torn down. In 190, the trustees of Big Valley Academy deeded a portion of the school property to the association trustees. A portion of the property was retained by the Masonic Lodge.
In 1906, the Masons deeded the remaining portion of the original school property to the school.
The school had trouble meeting its financial obligations and often asked the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention for assistance.
After the school requested $500 in 1906 for operating expenses, the mission board granted that request with the condition that the school be deeded to the mission board. However, the same board of trustees was retained as the governing body.
In 1923, the trustees deeded the school property, but not the boys’ dormitory, to the Anderson County School Board. The wooden school building was torn down and a two-story brick high school was built on the site. In 1938, high school students in the area were sent to the new Norris High School, and Andersonville Institute once again became an elementary school. In 1958, the school building was torn down. Three years later, the current Andersonville Elementary School opened on the same site.
Material for this article came from Wikipedia, and the book A Bicentennial History of Anderson County 1796 to 1896 published by what is now the Anderson County Historical Society.