Crossville is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Crossville Micropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 12,071 at the 2020 census.

History

Crossville developed at the intersection of a branch of the Great Stage Road, which connected the Knoxville area with the Nashville area, and the Kentucky Stock Road, a cattle drovers' path connecting Middle Tennessee with Kentucky and later extending south to Chattanooga. These two roads are roughly paralleled by modern US-70 and US-127, respectively.

left|thumb|220px|1939 photo of Crossville's [[Piggly Wiggly, which at the time was located at the corner of Main and 2nd]]

Around 1800, an early American settler, Samuel Lambeth, opened a store at this junction, and the small community that developed around it became known as Lambeth's Crossroads. The store was at what has become the intersection of Main and Stanley Streets, just south of the courthouse. By the time a post office was established in the 1830s, the community had taken the name "Crossville". In the early 1850s, James Scott, a merchant from nearby Sparta, purchased Lambeth's store and renamed it Scott's Tavern.

When Cumberland County was formed in 1856, Crossville, being nearest to the center of the county, was chosen as county seat. Scott donated the initial for the erection of a courthouse and town square. The county was divided throughout the conflict, sending a roughly equal number of troops to both sides.

After World War I, U.S. 70 helped connect the town and area to markets for its produce and goods. Additional highways built after World War II improved transportation in the region.

Geography

right|210px|thumb|Crossville has long been a great crossroads of East and Middle Tennessee.

Crossville is located at the center of Cumberland County at (35.954221, -85.031267). The city is situated atop the Cumberland Plateau amid the headwaters of the Obed River, which slices a gorge north of Crossville en route to its confluence with the Emory River to the northeast. Crossville is roughly halfway between the plateau's eastern escarpment along Walden Ridge and its western escarpment along the Highland Rim. Several small lakes are on Crossville's outskirts, including Lake Tansi to the south, Lake Holiday to the west, and Byrd Lake at nearby Cumberland Mountain State Park. The average elevation of Crossville is about above sea level.

Crossville developed at the intersection of two major stage roads by which settlers moved through the area. The roads were gradually widened, improved and turned into paved roads. Two major federal highways—U.S. Route 70, which traverses Tennessee from east to west, and U.S. Route 127, which traverses Tennessee from north to south—now roughly follow the old routes. Interstate 40, which runs roughly parallel to U.S. 70, passes through the northern part of Crossville. Crossville is about east of Cookeville, north of Chattanooga, and west of Knoxville.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Crossville has an area of , of which is land and , or 1.95%, is water.

|date=November 2014

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Crossville had a population of 12,071, 5,193 households, and 2,777 families residing in the city. Of those households, 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them; 37.6% were married-couple households, 20.2% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 34.9% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 36.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

The median age was 40.8 years; 22.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 23.3% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 91.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 87.3 males age 18 and over.

There were 5,816 housing units, of which 10.7% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 8.7%.

! Race !! Number !! Percent

|-

| White || 10,785 || 89.3%

|-

| Black or African American || 113 || 0.9%

|-

| American Indian and Alaska Native || 50 || 0.4%

|-

| Asian || 193 || 1.6%

|-

| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 2 || 0.0%

|-

| Some other race || 331 || 2.7%

|-

| Two or more races || 597 || 4.9%

|-

| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 765 || 6.3%

|}

2000 census

As of the census

  • The United States Chess Federation moved its corporate offices to Crossville from New Windsor, New York, in 2005. In 2022 the USCF announced that it would leave Crossville for St. Louis.
  • The Highway 127 Corridor Sale, promoted as the world's largest yard sale, is held annually in August.
  • The Cumberland County Playhouse is rural Tennessee's only major nonprofit professional performing arts resource, and one of rural America's 10 largest professional theaters. It serves more than 165,000 visitors annually with two indoor and two outdoor stages, young audience productions, a comprehensive dance program, a concert series and touring shows.
  • Crossville calls itself "the golf capital of Tennessee" and features 12 courses: Stonehenge, Heatherhurst Crag, Heatherhurst Brae, Deer Creek, River Run, Four Seasons, The Bear Trace, Dorchester, Mountain Ridge, Renegade, Druid Hills, and Lake Tansi.
  • The Cumberland County Fair is held every August.
  • Art Circle Public Library
  • Horace Burgess's Treehouse, a treehouse and church, closed in 2012.
  • A free-speech zone on the Cumberland County Courthouse lawn was the site of several unofficial displays, including a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, an Iraq and Afghanistan Soldier's Memorial, a miniature Statue of Liberty, chainsaw carvings of a nativity scene, Jesus carrying the cross, and monkeys and bears. As of April 30, 2008, the lawn is no longer a free-speech zone due largely to the controversy caused by the Flying Spaghetti Monster statue.

Notable people

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  • Mandy Barnett, country music singer and actress born in Crossville
  • Julie Ann Emery, actress born and raised here
  • Stormi Henley, Miss Tennessee Teen USA 2009, Miss Teen USA 2009
  • Milo Lemert, posthumous Medal of Honor recipient for action near Bellicourt, France, during World War I and buried in Crossville City Cemetery
  • Earl Lloyd, first African-American to play in an NBA basketball game
  • Thomas Shadden, politician, member of the Tennessee General Assembly and Crossville mayor
  • Michael Sims, acclaimed nonfiction writer
  • Charles Edward Snodgrass, U.S. representative
  • Michael Turner, comic book artist, born in Crossville; president of the entertainment company Aspen MLT
  • Marjorie Weaver, film actress

See also

  • List of sundown towns in the United States

Further reading

  • Crossville, Tennessee Pictorial History. Nashville: Turner Publishing Company (2001).

References

  • City of Crossville official website
  • Crossville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce
  • Cumberland County Playhouse
  • Speak Up Crossville
  • Crossville News First
  • Municipal Technical Advisory Service entry for Crossville — information on local government, elections, and link to charter