Capshaw School

The school's namesake belongs to the story of Cookeville's college. Robert Byrd Capshaw helped found Dixie College, established in 1909 by the Church of Christ. It lacked financial support and never reached college status, serving as a secondary academy. In 1915, after lobbying by Putnam County's legislators, the state chartered Tennessee Polytechnic Institute on its grounds, and the old Dixie building housed the new campus. The school that took Capshaw's name opened in 1939 with Works Progress Administration labor. Dixie's successor is now Tennessee Tech.

What the plaque says

Capshaw School Founded in 1939, Capshaw School was part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal Program. Named in honor of Cookeville attorney and co-founder of Dixie College Robert Byrd Capshaw, the land that the school sits on, was once part of the Capshaw farm. The original structure was built with labor from the Works Progress Administration, (WPA). Razed in 2002, following construction of a new building, the school once served students in grades one through eight.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cookeville Depot Museum — 0.9 mi
  The 1909 Tennessee Central Railroad depot in Cookeville's west side, now a museum with a model of the town in 1955 and a steam engine in the yard.
• Cummins Falls State Park — 7.7 mi
  A 75-foot waterfall and swimming hole on the Blackburn Fork, saved from a housing development in 2011 and opened as Tennessee's 54th state park.
• Burgess Falls State Park — 9.8 mi
  A day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.
• Muddy Pond Mennonite Community — 22 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.

More markers nearby

• Israel Putnam 1717 - 1790 — 0.4 mi
• Town Spring — 0.6 mi
• Putnam County's Only Public Execution — 0.7 mi
• Darwin School — 1.6 mi