About Russellville Elementary School

"Russellville has played a significant role in the development of Hamblen County. The Russellville area developed first as an Indian trail, then as a stagecoach road connecting Knoxville with Abingdon, Virginia, and later as a federal highway known as 11-E.

In 1785, Captain George Russell, a revolutionary war soldier, was granted land that would later be his home and be named Russellville. At this time, only wildlife inhabited this wilderness area. Soon other pioneers made their way to Russellville or, as some called the area, Russelltown where business began to thrive around the turn of the century.

The first Russellville School was held in church. In 1859, Russellville School began as an elementary school in the basement of the Methodist Church in Russellville. The school was held there for sixteen years with the seventeenth being in the auditorium upstairs.

Russellville School presently serves an area from two to six miles in radius. The Russellville area was predominately rural until the Hamblen County industrial park was developed in east Hamblen County in 1962. This industrial park is located within a mile of the school. Since the development of the industrial park the student population has changed from a rural background in farming to a more industrialized environment. The community is now comprised of more subdivisions, apartments, and mobile homes located on farms that were once single family dwellings.