Hermitage Springs

The community sits just east of Clay County's western boundary with Macon County, along State Route 52, about 15.5 miles west of Celina and 5.1 miles east-northeast of Red Boiling Springs. It lies four miles south of the Kentucky line. Its school began as Spivey School, set up in 1919 as part of the county school system, and the building later served as the high school for all grades. Since 2007 it has housed kindergarten through eighth grade as Hermitage Springs Elementary.

What the plaque says

Hermitage Springs Hermitage Springs was first called Trace because of its location in Big Trace Creek valley. The community existed of only a few scattered residences and a small log church that became known as the Hermitage Springs Church of Christ. Established in August 1840, the church's first elders were Meredith York, Jesse Vinson and Robert Pedigo. Originally a part of Jackson County, Hermitage Springs was merged into Clay County in 1870. As the community grew, Camelia Griffeth taught a "subscription school" in the small log church. Later Hermitage Springs became known as Sugar Orchard because the valley was covered with sugar maple trees. When Ham Spivey helped establish a post office circa 1889, the name was changed to Spivey. In the early 1900s the area became a summer resort with hotels and sulphuric wells. The Hermitage Springs Church of Christ, one of the community's first churches located east across Trace Creek, celebrated 180 years in 2020.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Red Boiling Springs — 5.1 mi
  A Macon County spa town built around red sulphur springs, with five kinds of mineral water, red-painted pumps and the surviving hotels of a resort that once held more than a dozen.
• Standing Stone State Park — 22 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.
• Cummins Falls State Park — 25 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.

More markers nearby

• Abraham Hananiah — 12 mi
• Butler's Landing / Bailey Butler — 13 mi
• World War II Maneuvers — 16 mi
• The Austin Peay Bridge — 16 mi