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Briceville-community-church-tn4Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 3.0
–Not graded
History · Briceville

Briceville’s post office opened in 1888, and 2 of its places are on the National Register

Most of Briceville was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1956. Its Register listings are the Briceville Community Church and Cemetery and the Cross Mountain Miners' Circle. Below: 3 old photos and papers from 1880 on.

1888first post office
2on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
From Briceville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Briceville began

When was Briceville founded?

1888

The Briceville post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 334138 years
Founding year: the first Briceville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Briceville’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Briceville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Briceville’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The story

How Briceville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Briceville.

Read it all →

The Knoxville Iron Company, cofounded by Welsh immigrants in 1868, began mining coal in the Coal Creek Valley in the late 1860s, initially hauling the coal from the mines via wagon, and later by railroad after the completion of a Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad line between Knoxville and Coal Creek (now Rocky Top) in 1869. In subsequent years, Knoxville Iron and other companies gradually worked their way up the Coal Creek Valley, opening mines in The Wye, Fraterville, and Slatestone Hollow. In 1888, at Senator Calvin Brice's behest, a railroad spur was built connecting Coal Creek with Slatestone Hollow. After this line's completion, the Slatestone Hollow community was renamed "Briceville."

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Briceville, 1880 to 1911

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Tennessee - Anderson County - Briceville-Slatesto…
  3. 1888Post officeThe Briceville post office opens
  4. 1891In the archiveBriceville-tn-1891
  5. 20th century
  6. 1911BuiltCross Mountain Miners' Circle is built
  7. 1911In the archiveCross-mountain-mine-entrance-tn1
By decade

Briceville, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Tennessee - Anderson County - Briceville-Slatestone - ED 1-20
Retake this view1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Tennessee - Anderson County - Briceville-Slatestone - ED 1-20, 1880

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Briceville’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Briceville

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
2003
Briceville Community Church and Cemetery

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Briceville

Nobody well known was born in Briceville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →

Questions about Briceville’s history

What year was Briceville founded?

The Briceville post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Briceville?

Two places: the Briceville Community Church and Cemetery (listed 2003) and the Cross Mountain Miners' Circle (2006).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.