The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Spencer is named after Thomas Sharp Spencer (d. 1794), a long hunter who passed through the Van Buren County area in the mid-18th century. The town was established in 1850 and incorporated in 1909.
Burritt College was located in Spencer from 1848 until its closure in 1939.
In 1937, the U.S. government began purchasing the badly eroded land around Fall Creek Falls. The following year, the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps began the work of restoring the forest and constructing park facilities. The National Park Service transferred ownership of the park to the State of Tennessee in 1944.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Spencer’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Spencer’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people close to Spencer
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Spencer, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in Spencer is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Spencer has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Crain Hill School and Church in Spencer, 7.6 miles away.
Spencer and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.
Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.