Crossville, Tennessee

Crossville is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Crossville Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,071 at the 2020 census.

History of Crossville

Crossville developed at the intersection of a branch of the Great Stage Road, which connected the Knoxville area with the Nashville area, and the Kentucky Stock Road, a cattle drovers' path connecting Middle Tennessee with Kentucky and later extending south to Chattanooga. These two roads are roughly paralleled by modern US-40 and US-127, respectively.

Around 1800, an early American settler, Samuel Lambeth, opened a store at this junction, and the small community that developed around it became known as Lambeth's Crossroads. The store was at what has become the intersection of Main and Stanley Streets, just south of the courthouse. By the time a post office was established in the 1830s, the community had taken the name "Crossville". In the early 1850s, James Scott, a merchant from nearby Sparta, purchased Lambeth's store and renamed it Scott's Tavern.

When Cumberland County was formed in 1856, Crossville, being nearest to the center of the county, was chosen as county seat. Scott donated the initial 40 acres (16 ha) for the erection of a courthouse and town square.

Crossville and Cumberland County suffered rampant pillaging throughout the Civil War as the well-developed roads made the area accessible to both occupying Union and Confederate forces and bands of renegade guerrillas. With divided communities and families, there was vicious guerrilla warfare, and residents suffered as if there were major battles in the area. The county was divided throughout the conflict, sending a roughly equal number of troops to both sides.

After World War I, U.S. 70 helped connect the town and area to markets for its produce and goods. Additional highways built after World War II improved transportation in the region.

During the Great Depression, the federal government's Subsistence Homestead Division initiated a housing project south of Crossville known as the Cumberland Homesteads. The project's purpose was to provide small farms for several hundred impoverished families. The project's recreational area later became the nucleus for Cumberland Mountain State Park. In 1934, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Crossville and the Cumberland Homesteads Project.

Crossville was a sundown town as late as the 1950s, with a sign at the city limits warning African Americans not to stay after nightfall.

Geography

Crossville is located at the center of Cumberland County at 35°57′15″N 85°1′53″W (35.954221, -85.031267). The city is situated atop the Cumberland Plateau amid the headwaters of the Obed River, which slices a gorge north of Crossville en route to its confluence with the Emory River to the northeast. Crossville is roughly halfway between the plateau's eastern escarpment along Walden Ridge and its western escarpment along the Highland Rim. Several small lakes are on Crossville's outskirts, including Lake Tansi to the south, Lake Holiday to the west, and Byrd Lake at nearby Cumberland Mountain State Park. The average elevation of Crossville is about 1,890 feet (580 m) above sea level.

Crossville developed at the intersection of two major stage roads by which settlers moved through the area. The roads were gradually widened, improved and turned into paved roads. Two major federal highways—U.S. Route 70, which traverses Tennessee from east to west, and U.S. Route 127, which traverses Tennessee from north to south—now roughly follow the old routes. Interstate 40, which runs roughly parallel to U.S. 70, passes through the northern part of Crossville. Crossville is about 35 miles (56 km) east of Cookeville, 80 miles (130 km) north of Chattanooga, and 70 miles (110 km) west of Knoxville.

Notable people

Mandy Barnett, country music singer and actress born in Crossville

Julie Ann Emery, actress born and raised here

Stormi Henley, Miss Tennessee Teen USA 2009, Miss Teen USA 2009

Milo Lemert, posthumous Medal of Honor recipient for action near Bellicourt, France, during World War I and buried in Crossville City Cemetery

Earl Lloyd, first African-American to play in an NBA basketball game

Thomas Shadden, politician, member of the Tennessee General Assembly and Crossville mayor

Michael Sims, acclaimed nonfiction writer

Charles Edward Snodgrass, U.S. representative

Michael Turner, comic book artist, born in Crossville; president of the entertainment company Aspen MLT

Marjorie Weaver, film actress