Castle Heights Military Academy was a private military academy in Lebanon, Tennessee, United States. It opened in 1902, became a military school in 1918, and closed in 1986.
The Academy was founded in 1902 as Castle Heights School by David Mitchell, President of Cumberland University, also in Lebanon, and Isaac W. P. Buchanan, a mathematics professor there, together with A. W. Hooker and Laban Rice, [1] [2] [3] [4] an English professor who served as the school's headmaster and was later also President of Cumberland University. It was initially coeducational; it became a military preparatory school for boys in 1918 as a result of World War I. [3]
In 1928, Castle Heights Military Academy was struggling financially and was bought for $100,000 by Bernarr Macfadden; the Bernarr Macfadden Foundation operated it until 1974. An auditorium and gymnasium were built and named for Macfadden, and Mitchell's house, purchased from his heirs in 1936 and used to house the junior school, was called Macfadden Hall. Macfadden required the students to eat salads every day, not to use condiments or pillows, to participate in sports, and to drink so much milk that the school acquired a dairy. Students' height and weight appeared on their monthly report cards. [5] In 1954 the school had grown to almost 500 students, had a 150-acre campus including a hospital, and operated a summer camp. [3] In 1963 Sanford Naval Academy was founded in Sanford, Florida, as a sister institution. [6]
Despite a return to coeducation in 1970, [3] the school ceased operations in 1986 in the face of declining enrollment and debt. [1] [7] Its buildings have been restored and now serve as the Lebanon City Hall, Lebanon Museum and History Center and other small businesses. Previously undeveloped areas of campus have been subdivided and now feature businesses such as banks and nursing homes. Records and other school memorabilia are maintained by Cumberland University. [1] The Mitchell House served as the headquarters of the holding company for Cracker Barrel Old Country Store from 1998 to 2013. It was purchased by Sigma Pi fraternity in 2013 and served as the fraternity's international headquarters until 2017. [8]
Wilson County is a county in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is in Middle Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 147,737. Its county seat is Lebanon. The largest city is Mt. Juliet. Wilson County is part of the Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Lebanon is the county seat of Wilson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 38,431 at the 2020 census. Lebanon is located in Middle Tennessee, approximately 25 miles (40 km) east of downtown Nashville. Lebanon is part of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Cumberland University is a private university in Lebanon, Tennessee. It was founded in 1842. The campus's current historic buildings were constructed between 1892 and 1896.
Cumberland School of Law is an ABA-accredited law school at Samford University in Homewood, Alabama, United States. It was founded in 1847 at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee and is the 11th oldest law school in the United States. The school has more than 11,000 graduates, and its alumni include two United States Supreme Court Justices, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Cordell Hull, "the father of the United Nations", over 50 U.S. representatives, and numerous senators, governors, and judges.
Robert Looney Caruthers was an American judge, politician, and professor. He helped establish Cumberland University in 1842, serving as the first president of its board of trustees, and was a cofounder of the Cumberland School of Law, one of the oldest law schools in the South. He served as a Tennessee state attorney general in the late 1820s and early 1830s, and was a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court in the 1850s and early 1860s. He also served one term in the United States House of Representatives (1841–1843). In 1863, he was elected Governor of Tennessee by the state's Confederates, but never took office.
Herbert Sanford Walters was a Democratic United States Senator from Tennessee from 1963 to 1964.
State Route 24 is an unsigned west–east state highway in Tennessee, as it coincides with U.S. Route 70 and U.S. Route 70N for its entire duration from Nashville to Crossville. The road begins in western Nashville and ends in Crossville. It runs alongside Interstate 40 for its entire length.
Bernarr Macfadden was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine publishing company Macfadden Publications.
William Voris Gregory was an attorney and politician, serving as a United States representative from Kentucky from 1927 to his death in office. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
University of Nashville was a private university in Nashville, Tennessee. It was established in 1806 as Cumberland College. It existed as a distinct entity until 1909; operating at various times a medical school, a four-year military college, a literary arts college, and a boys preparatory school. Educational institutions in operation today that can trace their roots to the University of Nashville include Montgomery Bell Academy, an all-male preparatory school; the Vanderbilt University Medical School; Peabody College at Vanderbilt University; and the University School of Nashville, a co-educational preparatory school.
Gilbert Stroud Merritt Jr. was an American lawyer and jurist. He served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1977 to 2022.
Dr. Laban Lacy Rice was an educator, author, and president of Cumberland University. He was an international authority on relativity.
Cumberland College in Princeton, Kentucky, was founded in 1826 and operated until 1861. It was the first college affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1842, the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination withdrew its support from Cumberland College in favor of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. In doing so, the denomination intended to simply relocate the school from Princeton to Lebanon, but Cumberland College remained open without denominational support until the Civil War.
Danny Wood Evins was an American entrepreneur and co-founder of Cracker Barrel, a Southern-themed restaurant chain.
John Emmett Edgerton was an industrialist who gained prominence as the president of the National Association of Manufacturers from 1921 to 1931. Edgerton was also an All-Southern college football fullback for the Vanderbilt Commodores of Vanderbilt University.
Willard Hugo Steele was a college football player and physician. He specialized in diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat. His wife was Kate Adelle Hinds.
Allison B. Humphreys was a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1967 to 1974.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., doing business as simply Cracker Barrel, is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme. The company was founded by Dan Evins in 1969. Its first store was in Lebanon, Tennessee; the corporate offices are located at a different facility in the same city. The chain's stores were at first positioned near Interstate Highway exits in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States, but expanded across the country during the 1990s and 2000s. As of August 10, 2023, the chain operates 660 stores in 45 states.
The I.W.P. Buchanan House is a historic house in Lebanon, Tennessee, United States. It was built circa 1894 for Isaac William Pleasant Buchanan, whose father, Dr. Andrew H. Buchanan, was the chair of the Department of Mathematics at Cumberland University. Buchanan himself taught Mathematics at Lincoln College in Illinois and co-founded the Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, where he also taught Mathematics. The house was designed by architect George Franklin Barber in the Queen Anne style. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since January 8, 1979.
The Mitchell House is a Neo-Classical Revival Style building in Lebanon, Tennessee, that was built as a home by Dr. David Mitchell and his wife, Elizabeth. It was designed by architects Thompson, Gibel & Asmus. Construction began in 1906 and was completed in 1910 with 10,600 square feet of living space. At the time, Dr. Mitchell was the president of Cumberland University and a co-founder of Castle Heights Military Academy. Craftsmen were brought in to work on the extensive millwork and wood panelings and floors. Chandeliers were imported from Italy and rugs were imported from Austria.
13. Roger Davis biography. https://www.dfwretroplex.com/rogerdavis2.html