Harpeth Academy

Gideon Blackburn came to Williamson County with a reputation he was still repairing. As a Presbyterian missionary he had opened two schools for Cherokee boys in southeast Tennessee, in 1804 and 1806, with the Cherokee leaders' permission; John Ross, later principal chief, was among the roughly 100 pupils. Blackburn closed both around 1809 after a scandal involving alcohol damaged his standing. He then preached as an itinerant, headed Harpeth Academy in 1811-13, and went on to found five congregations, including Nashville's First Presbyterian.

What the plaque says

Harpeth Academy 1.4 miles west, and north of the road, this boys' school commenced operations in 1811 under Rev. Gideon Blackburn, noted Presbyterian missionary. James Hervey Otey, later first Episcopal bishop of Tennessee, succeeded him in 1821. In 1825, the school moved into Franklin, closing in 1863 when Federal troops destroyed the buildings.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnton — 2.2 mi
  The McGavock farm in Franklin, worked by 44 enslaved people in 1860, that became the largest field hospital of the Battle of Franklin.
• Fort Negley — 16 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• National Museum of African American Music — 17 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 17 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.

More markers nearby

• Liberty and Justice for All, Denied — 0.2 mi
• Liberty and Justice for All, Denied — 0.4 mi
• St. Paul's Episcopal Church — 0.6 mi
• Chickasaw Treaty Council — 0.6 mi