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Let’s wrap this series up for now with Tullahoma’s first hospital and four schools on two locations.

Though the town was 90 years old, up until 1941 Tullahoma did not have a hospital. In the book Coffee County: From Arrowheads to Rockets, the authors explain that Dr. James King and his wife had moved to Tullahoma in 1937 and rented five rooms above Taylor’s Drug Store at the corner of Lincoln and Atlantic Streets (current Veranda location) for Dr. King’s office, a small minor operating room, and an x-ray room. In 1941, Dr. King built the Queen City Infirmary at the NW corner of E. Grundy and N. Washington Streets. It was expanded several times, but burned down in 1989.

Tullahoma had several private schools, as did Manchester, but Tullahoma’s first public school was built in 1886 on the original Town Square property at S. Jackson and Decherd Streets. In 1922, it was expanded with classrooms and an auditorium, which is now the South Jackson Performing Arts Center.

In 1892, a private secondary school, named Jessie Mai Aydelott College after the daughter of former mayor James G. Aydelott, was built at the corner of E. Lincoln and College Streets. It carried several other names and purposes over the next thirty years, the longest tenure being that of the Fitzgerald & Clarke School. It burned in 1922 and was not rebuilt.

However, the growing city needed to expand its schools, and so Tullahoma’s first stand-alone high school was built on that same property in 1927. In the 1950s, after the new Tullahoma High School was built on N. Jackson St., the first high school was demolished and East Lincoln Elementary School was built on the Lincoln Street location. It opened in 1958.

As always, I appreciate the local people who have helped with my research by providing photos and information. I rely heavily on the historical research and photos by many over the decades who loved Tullahoma and preserved its history. I find it fascinating and wish I had known more of them personally. Most of the school information contained here was condensed into the book Historic Tullahoma by Paul Pyle, available at the Mitchell Museum.

Do you have some old Tullahoma photos and accompanying stories to share? You can contact me at alanmayes@lighttube.net.