Tennessee
Preparatory School
Anna Russell
Cole Auditorium
The auditorium was built using funds donated by Anna
Russell Cole, wife of the school’s founder, Edmund W. Cole, and
named in her honor. It was dedicated on Sunday, December 11, 1898,
almost
twelve years to the date after the school began operations, and five
months before Edmund Cole died. It underwent major renovations in 1940
and again in 1962. It was in full time use as theatre, church, and
conference center for the school from 1898 through May, 1982, when
the last high school graduation ceremony was held there. It was added
to the Davidson County National Register of Historic Places on April
17, 1980. Randal Cole, the son of Edmund Cole and his first wife, died
tragically as Mr. Cole was setting up the school, in 1885, and it was
initially named after him in his memory, then changed to Tennessee
Industrial School when it began operations in December, 1886, then
to Tennessee Preparatory School in January, 1955. The New Orleans Seafood
Manor, near the airport and three miles south of the school, occupies
the mansion built by the daughter of Edmund and Anna Cole, replacing
an original mansion called Colemere, built there in the 1800s by Edmund
Cole.
This information is from the manuscript for “Tennessee Industrial
School, A Legacy in Jeopardy”
- Bill Harris- TIS TPS Historical Society
