LaFollette City Hall is located at 207 South Tennessee Avenue. LaFollette, TN 37766.
Phone: 423-562-4961.
Neighborhoods
LaFollette City [1]
Prior to 1889, there was nothing but farm and woodland on the present site of LaFollette. In 1889 a group of people from Frankfort, Kentucky, bought the land from a farmer named John Douglas to start developing the area's iron and coal reserves. They founded a town and called it Big Creek. In 1892, Harvey M. LaFollette moved to Tennessee from Indiana and acquired the developers' land. In 1893 the town's name was changed to LaFollette. Harvey LaFollette correctly saw that in order to make LaFoUette prosper railroads were needed. In 1897 he completed eleven miles of track to Vespar, Tennessee, thus linking LaFollette to the Southern Railway line. By 1900 the LaFollette Coal and Iron Company's mines were starting to produce. Coke ovens and furnaces were built for the iron extractions. In 1903 Southern Railway bought Harvey LaFollette's North Tennessee Railroad. Harvey LaFollette was instrumental in bringing the Louisville and Nashville Railroad to LaFollette by giving them rights over his land to the Kentucky border.
In 1900 the town's population was 366. By 1920 it had risen to 3056. At one time the LaFollette Coal and Iron Company employed 1,500 people although when it was sold in 1928 to James Sterchi only 600 were employed since the ovens and blast furnaces were closed.
When his coal and iron operations began to fail, Harvey LaFollette left for New York. His brother, Grant LaFollette, then occupied the house.
† Jon Coddington, East Tennessee Development District, LaFollette House, nomination document, 1974, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.
Nearby Towns: Jacksboro Town •