Alpine School

Albert Roberts's family ties run through this school. After graduating from Hiwassee College in 1889 he married Nora Dean Bowden, the daughter of his Latin teacher, and joined his in-laws in operating Alpine Institute, a Presbyterian private school in Overton County. The school's other chapters were missionary: revived in 1917 by the Presbyterian Church's Board of National Missions, it turned its elementary grades over to the county in 1936 and its high school in 1946. Roberts, meanwhile, moved on from teaching to the bar, the bench and the governor's office.

What the plaque says

Alpine School Organized by Dr. John L. Dillard on top of Alpine Mountain in 1821, the school was moved off the mountain after the Civil War and named Alpine Institute. A.H. Roberts, later governor, taught there in early 1890s. The school was revived in 1917 by the Board of National Missions of the U.S.A. Presbyterian Church. The elementary school in 1936 and the high school in 1946 were turned over to Overton County.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Standing Stone State Park — 12 mi
  A New Deal park on Mill Creek named for a vanished stone that Native peoples revered and railroad builders blasted, with a lake, 1930s cabins and a marbles championship.
• Cordell Hull Birthplace and Museum State Park — 13 mi
  A replica of the log cabin where the secretary of state and Nobel laureate was born in 1871, with a museum of his belongings, in Pickett County's hills.
• Muddy Pond Mennonite Community — 14 mi
  A Mennonite farming community in Overton County near Monterey, known for sorghum syrup pressed and boiled each fall and for the farm stores along its roads.
• Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Park — 18 mi
  The Wolf River valley farm, gristmill and grave of Alvin York, the conscientious objector turned Medal of Honor soldier, now a National Historic Landmark district.

More markers nearby

• Albert Houston Roberts — 0.2 mi
• Gov. Albert H. Roberts 35th Governor of Tennessee - 1919-2921 — 5.6 mi
• Livingston Academy — 5.7 mi
• Birthplace of Lester Raymond Flatt — 5.8 mi